Doomsday clock at two minutes to ‘midnight’

The Doomsday Clock will remain at two minutes to midnight for the second year running, scientists have announced.

The clock, which serves as a metaphor for global apocalypse, was moved forward by 30 seconds to two minutes before midnight by the clock’s keepers in January 2018.

Yesterday’s announcement means the clock remains the closest to midnight as it has ever been, with the last time it was set at two minutes being in 1953.

Rachel Bronson, president and chief executive of The Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists which sets the reading, said the world had now entered the “period of the new abnormal”.

She said “rhetoric” between the US and North Korea had eased but remained “extremely dangerous”, while Russian and US relations were “unacceptably strained”.

She added: “We have entered a period that we call the new abnormal. This is unsustainable and unsettling.

“We appear to be normalising a very dangerous world in terms of the risks of nuclear war and climate change.

“The 2019 time should not be taken as a sign of stability, but as a stark warning.

“This new abnormal is simply too volatile and too dangerous to accept.

“Recognising this grim reality we would like to announce it is still two minutes to midnight, remaining the closest to midnight the clock has ever been set.”

The countdown was established in 1947 by experts from The Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists who were working on the Manhattan Project to design and build the first atomic bomb.

The bulletin is an independent non-profit organisation run by some of the world’s most eminent scientists.

Originally intended to warn of the threat of nuclear Armageddon, the Doomsday Clock also takes into account the likelihood of other emerging threats such as climate change and advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

In a statement, the team said: “Humanity now faces two simultaneous existential threats, either of which would be cause for extreme concern and immediate attention.”