90 Seconds to Midnight

Niall Ferguson on an escalating global conflagration

David Patrikarakos is joined by Niall Ferguson to discuss the latest events in the Middle East; why the US is irrelevant in the calculations of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu; and, how Israel is likely to retaliate against Iran. 

They also discuss the ‘Axis of Ill Will’ comprising China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea; why Ferguson believes that we are in the early stages of a second Cold War and the probability of this escalating into World War III; and whether the US will discover the true meaning of deterrence. 

Producer: Max Bower 
Editor: Chelsey Ranore 
Executive Producer: Bella Soames 
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 
Host: David Patrikarakos 

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The Doomsday Clock is the symbolic countdown to human extinction; a universally recognised, annual indicator of the world’s vulnerability to man-made global catastrophe. If the clock strikes midnight, the world will have ended. 
Today, the clock sits as close to midnight as it has ever been – just 90 seconds away. 
And is it any wonder?
Ongoing wars in the Ukraine and Middle East. The continued expansion of nuclear arsenals around the world. The advance of generative AI and its potential for disinformation. The climate crisis. The list of potentially world-ending dangers feels increasingly – and depressingly – long. 
The Doomsday Clock is set annually, but, given the scale of the challenges facing humanity on a daily basis, as of September 5, we will be setting our own version of the clock each week. 
Welcome to 90 Seconds to Midnight: the Daily Mail’s new weekly global news podcast, promising listeners informed analysis, discussion, and on-the-ground reporting about the week’s most influential geopolitical flashpoints. Hosted by the Mail’s Special Correspondent David Patrikarakos, every episode ends with one question: are we closer, or further away, from midnight?