CHICAGO — Given the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that the United States and Russia are trading versions of I-dare-you over Ukraine, the announcement Thursday that the Doomsday Clock’s hands won’t move this year could be seen as a hopeful sign.
As it has since 1947, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced Thursday the position of the clock’s big hand. It remains where it has been: at 100 seconds to midnight.
“The doorstep of doom is no place to loiter,” the Bulletin wrote in explaining a decision announced virtually. By itself, that’s a telling sign of the times. Before COVID-19, the “reveal” was annually made at the National Press Club in Washington.
