The US advocacy group founded by the creators of the atomic bomb moved their famed "Doomsday Clock" ahead two minutes on Thursday.
It said the world is now three minutes from a catastrophic midnight, instead of five minutes.
This is the second closest the world has been to midnight in the 68 years of the doomsday clock. The only closer time was two minutes till midnight in 1953 when the United States and the then-Soviet Union pursued the hydrogen bomb.