DOOMSDAY CLOCK REMAINS AT FIVE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ famed Doomsday Clock remains at five minutes until midnight, the group said yesterday as it chose to keep the hands of the clock still for the second year in a row. The group’s Science and Security Board and its Board of Sponsors hasn’t moved the hands of the clock since 2012, when it inched the hands of the clock a minute closer to midnight. In a statement yesterday, the group said promising developments around the world, like the interim nuclear deal with Iran and progress in getting countries to reduce their stocks of fissile material, were overshadowed by a “business-as-usual” posture among the international community. “Outsized nuclear arsenals remain in the United States and Russia, and the nuclear arsenals of some countries—notably India, Pakistan, and China—appear to be growing,” the group said. “The interim Iranian deal notwithstanding, the international community has not come to grips with an unfortunate reality: The spread of civilian nuclear power around the world—which continues apace, despite the disaster at Fukushima—also spreads the potential for new nuclear weapons states.”