Amid the political chaos in the United States and the escalating threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and North Korea, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has advanced the Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to midnight.

Rachel Bronson: “It is with considerable concern that we set the time of the 2018 Doomsday Clock and offer a plea to rewind the Doomsday Clock. As of today, it is two minutes to midnight.”

The clock is a symbolic timekeeper that tracks the likelihood of nuclear war and other existential threats. It now stands closer to midnight than at any time since 1953. The scientists directly cited President Trump’s nuclear policies as one of the reasons for advancing the clock. Scientist Lawrence Krauss also said the loss of trust in facts themselves contributes to the growing existential threat.

Lawrence Krauss: “The danger of nuclear conflagration is not the only reason the clock has been moved forward, as my colleagues have described. This danger looms at a time when there’s been a loss of trust in political institutions, in the media, in science and in facts themselves, all of which exacerbate the difficulty of dealing with the real problems the world faces and which threaten to undermine the ability of governments to effectively deal with these problems.”