'Doomsday' clock remains at three minutes to midnight

Nuclear threats and climate change pose strong threats to the planet and a symbolic "doomsday" clock will stay at three minutes to midnight, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said Tuesday. The clock serves as a metaphor for how close humanity is to destroying the planet, and was most recently moved closer to midnight in 2015.
"It remains the closest it has been over the past 20 years," said Rachel Bronson, executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, during a press conference in the US capital. Global warming, terrorism, nuclear tensions between the United States and Russia, concerns over North Korean weapons, tensions between Pakistan and India, and cyber threats remain destabilising influences, said Lawrence Krauss, a cosmologist and professor at Arizona State University. The decision not to change the clock since 2015 is "not good news," he told reporters. Despite some positive news last year, including the Iran nuclear agreement and the Paris climate talks, experts expressed concern that global nuclear arsenals are growing and anti-pollution pledges lack teeth.