World
Doomsday Clock is now 89 seconds to midnight, what does that mean?
The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic timepiece showing how close we are to ‘destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making’.
For the first time in three years, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) moved the Doomsday Clock forward by one second to 89 seconds before midnight, signalling a heightened risk of global catastrophe.
“It is the determination of the science and security board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that the world has not made sufficient progress on existential risks threatening all of humanity. We thus move the clock forward,” Daniel Holz, chair of the organisation’s science and security board, said during a livestreamed event on Tuesday.
Ongoing threats from nuclear weapons, climate change, bioweapons, infectious disease, and disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) have brought the clock to its latest time in 78 years.
What is the Doomsday Clock?
The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic timepiece showing how close we are to “destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making”, according to BAS, a Chicago-based nonprofit organisation that controls the clock.
It describes it as “many things all at once: It’s a metaphor, it’s a logo, it’s a brand, and it’s one of the most recognisable symbols in the past 100 years.”
The closer it moves to midnight, the closer humanity is to the end of the world.
Apocalyptic threats could arise from political tensions, weapons, technology, climate change or pandemics.
How is the clock set?
The hands of the clock are moved closer to or farther away from midnight based on the scientists’ reading of existential threats at a particular time.
BAS updates the time annually. A board of scientists and other experts in nuclear technology and climate science, including 10 Nobel laureates, discuss world events and determine where to place the hands of the clock each year.
“The Bulletin is a bit like a doctor making a diagnosis,” the BAS website says.
“We look at data, as physicians look at lab tests and x-rays, and also take harder-to-quantify factors into account, as physicians do when talking with patients and family members. We consider as many symptoms, measurements, and circumstances as we can. Then we come to a judgment that sums up what could happen if leaders and citizens don’t take action to treat the conditions,” it adds.
Has the clock ever turned back?
Yes, the most notable event was in 1991 when US President George HW Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to reduce the number of their countries’ nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
This brought the clock back by seven seconds. The furthest the clock has been from midnight was 17 minutes.
When was the Doomsday Clock created?
The clock was created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was founded two years earlier by scientists Albert Einstein, J Robert Oppenheimer and Eugene Rabinowitch along with University of Chicago scholars.
During that time, the clock was set at seven minutes to midnight. But after the Soviet Union successfully tested its first atomic bomb in 1949, Rabinowitch, who was then the bulletin’s editor, moved the clock to three minutes to midnight.
According to the University of Chicago, until recently, the closest it had ever been set was at two minutes to midnight: in 1953 when the US and the Soviet Union tested thermonuclear weapons and in 2018 because of “a breakdown in the international order, of nuclear actors, as well as the continuing lack of action on climate change”.
The Doomsday Clock is placed in the BAS offices at the University of Chicago.
World
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World
Armed man shot and killed after entering secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, Secret Service says
WASHINGTON (AP) — An armed man drove into the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, as another vehicle was exiting before being shot and killed early Sunday morning, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service.
The man, who was in his early 20s and from North Carolina, had a gas can and a shotgun, according to Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman. He had been reported missing by his family a few days ago, and investigators believe he headed south and picked up the shotgun along the way.
Guglielmi said a box for the weapon was discovered in the man’s vehicle after the incident, which took place around 1:30 a.m.
The man killed was identified by investigators as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation.
Trump has faced threats to his life before, including two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign. Although the president often spends weekends at his resort, he and first lady Melania Trump were at the White House when the breach at Mar-a-Lago occurred.
After entering near the north gate of the property, the man was confronted by two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
“He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with them. At which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” Bradshaw said at a brief press conference. The two agents and the deputy “fired their weapons to neutralize the threat.”
The FBI asked residents who live near Mar-a-Lago to check any security cameras they may have for footage that could help investigators.
Investigators are working to compile a psychological profile and a motive is still under investigation. Asked whether the individual was known to law enforcement, Bradshaw said “not right now.”
The incident comes as the United States has been rocked by spasms political violence.
The incursion at Mar-a-Lago took place a few miles from Trump’s West Palm Beach club where a man tried to assassinate him while he played golf during the 2024 campaign.
A Secret Service agent spotted that man, Ryan Routh, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire and caused Routh to drop his weapon.
Routh was found guilty last year and sentenced this month to life in prison.
Trump also survived an assassination attempt at a Butler, Pennsylvania campaign rally. That gunman fired eight shots before being killed by a Secret Service counter sniper.
The White House referred all questions to the Secret Service and FBI.
There have been other recent incidents of political violence as well.
In the last year, there was the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk; the assassination of the Democratic leader in the Minnesota state House and her husband and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife; and an arson attack at the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Five days ago, a Georgia man armed with a shotgun was arrested as he sprinted towards the west side of the U.S. Capitol.
———
AP reporter Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this story.
World
Hungary threatens to block EU loan to Ukraine unless Russian oil shipments resume
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Hungary is threatening to block a proposed 90 billion-euro European Union loan to Ukraine — worth roughly $106 billion — unless oil shipments through the Druzhba pipeline are restored.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó wrote Friday on X that Hungary would oppose the EU funding package until oil transit via the Russian-linked Druzhba pipeline resumes.
“Ukraine is blackmailing Hungary by halting oil transit in coordination with Brussels and the Hungarian opposition to create supply disruptions in Hungary and push fuel prices higher before the elections,” Szijjártó said.
He further claimed that blocking oil transit violates the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and breaches Kyiv’s commitments to the European Union.
‘ONLY TRUMP CAN STOP RUSSIA’: MILLIONS FACE FREEZING WINTER, UKRAINE ENERGY EXECUTIVE WARNS
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto speaks during a session of Russian Energy Week in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 15, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Reuters)
The Druzhba pipeline has long been a key route for Russian oil deliveries to parts of Central Europe, including Hungary, even as much of the EU has moved to curb reliance on Russian energy following Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The European Commission in January adopted a legislative package to implement a previously agreed 90 billion-euro loan to Ukraine for 2026 and 2027, aimed at supporting the country’s budgetary and military needs, according to a press release.
The financial commitment, known as the “Ukraine Support Loan,” would be structured as a limited recourse loan, with roughly 60 billion euros allocated for military assistance and 30 billion designated for general budget support.
RUSSIA LAUNCHES RECORD MISSILE BARRAGE AGAINST UKRAINE ONE DAY BEFORE PEACE TALKS SET TO RESUME IN ABU DHABI
A general view of Hungarian oil company MOL’s Duna Refinery near Szazhalombatta, about 30 kilometers south of Budapest, on May 5, 2022. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images)
The Commission said the funding is intended to help Ukraine maintain essential state functions, bolster its defense capabilities and strengthen resilience as the war with Russia continues.
The loan would be financed through common EU borrowing on capital markets and guaranteed by the EU budget. The Commission also noted that the EU reserves the right to use immobilized Russian assets within the bloc, in accordance with EU and international law, to repay the loan.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday rejected what it called “ultimatums and blackmail” from the governments of Hungary and Slovakia over energy supplies, accusing both countries of taking actions that are “provocative, irresponsible, and threaten the energy security of the entire region.”
The Druzhba oil pipeline between Hungary and Russia at the MOL Group’s Danube Refinery in Szazhalombatta, Hungary, on May 18, 2022. (Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)
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“Ukraine is in constant contact with representatives of the European Commission regarding the damage to Ukrainian energy infrastructure caused by daily Russian strikes. We have also provided information about the consequences of these Russian attacks on the Druzhba oil pipeline infrastructure to the governments of Hungary and Slovakia,” the ministry said in a statement. “Security and stabilization repair work continues amid daily threats of new missile attacks. Ukraine has also proposed alternative ways to resolve the issue of supplying non-Russian oil to these countries.”
It added that Ukraine remains a “reliable energy partner” to the European Union and argued that “ultimatums should be sent to the Kremlin, and certainly not to Kyiv.”
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