Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - November 27, 2025 - The pomp, circumstance, benefits, and costs of the trillion-dollar US-Saudi Investment Summit and more ...

 

November 27, 2025 As the United States pauses to celebrate Thanksgiving, I’d like to take a moment to thank you for being a part of the Bulletin community.  It’s been a busy and productive year for our organization, and it wouldn’t have been possible without our supporters, readers, and followers. The Bulletin hosted ten virtual events reaching audiences around the globe, kicked off a year-long reporting series, “The AI Power Trip,” and launched our first-ever creative writing contest, “Write Before Midnight,” with winners to be announced this January. We published original investigations like “How Fukushima’s radioactive fallout in Tokyo was concealed from the public,” “A perfect firestorm: The social, political, and climate forces that keep Athens burning,” and “How Holtec International became an expanding (and controversial) nuclear power.” Hundreds of Bulletin articles were published, including this year’s magazines covering topics spanning global tipping points, how to stop the next pandemic, and “the new, new world order.” Our December magazine edition will celebrate the Bulletin’s 80th anniversary with a look towards the future. Over the course of the year, the Bulletin expanded its programming with monthly online events, as well as breaking news primers. Bulletin speakers addressed audiences at conferences around the world, including at the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference, the Outrider Nuclear Reporting Summit, and on the margins of the United Nations First Committee meeting, as well as the 2025 NPT and TPNW meetings. We were also proud partners in organizing the Nobel Laureate Assembly for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Chicago, with 129 Nobel Laureates signing onto the resulting declaration. And of course, the year began with the 2025 Doomsday Clock Announcement. With the Clock at 89 seconds to midnight, it has never been more important to understand and reduce human-made threats to our existence.   We are grateful that you’ve chosen to join us in that pursuit. Together we can turn back the hands of the Clock and create a safer world. Alexandra Bell  President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists  The pomp, circumstance, benefits, and costs of the trillion-dollar US-Saudi Investment Summit After the recent US-Saudi Investment Summit, the White House heralded $1 trillion in business deals that give the US tech sector a central role. But the deals also carry an array of potential risks. Rachel Bronson looks at the questions raised about protection of sensitive data, control of technology, and Saudi Arabia’s desire for a domestic uranium enrichment program. Read more. COP30 derided as ‘the deadliest talk show ever’  This year’s United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was billed as the “COP of Truth” by host country Brazil, but the final conference documents failed to mention the need to stop using fossil fuels. Bob Berwyn writes about the disappointment in the expert and activist community. Read more. No, Germany is not getting the Bomb. Why should it? Germany hasn’t had an indigenous nuclear weapons program since 1945, and nobody in Berlin is asking for a German bomb. Author Philipp Rombach asks why so many in the United States suggest otherwise. Read more.

Recent articles Black swans from the Red Planet—Could NASA bring back “mirror life” from Mars? How ‘Big Car’ poses an existential threat to humanity How Holtec International became an expanding (and controversial) nuclear power Post-truth disasters: We're not ready for nuclear war on social media Trump's new radiation exposure limits could be 'catastrophic' for women and girls QUOTE OF THE DAY "If food waste were its own country, then it would be the third largest greenhouse gas-emitter in the world." —Ted Jaenicke, "The U.S. produces a lot of food waste. This place wants to address it," NPR

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