Saturday's world stories
UN finalizes treaty to ban nuclear weapons
The UN finalized a treaty today that would ban all nuclear weapons, destroy existing weapons, and prohibit their use forever, per NYT. Its negotiation stems in part from some nations' disappointment that the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty has not led to disarmament.
Although 130 countries' negotiators participated, none were from the world's nine nuclear-armed countries (U.S., Russia, North Korea, China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, Israel.)
The U.S. has called it misguided and reckless, and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley noted: "We have to be realistic…Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?"
What's next: Countries will be able to start signing on to the ban September 20 at the annual General Assembly. Disarmament hopefuls want to use evidence of public acceptance to pressure the nine nuclear-armed countries to eventually sign on.
China's Xiaomi reverses slide, posts record quarter for phone sales
After two years of slumping sales, China's Xiaomi said Friday that it shipped a record 23 million smartphones last quarter. That's up 70 percent from the prior quarter.
"This is a truly significant milestone for Xiaomi," CEO Lei Jun said in a statement. He also said that he is confident the company can reach its revenue goal of 100 billion Chinese yuan ($14.7 billion) for the year and said Xiaomi is aiming to ship 100 million phones in 2017.
Why it matters: As Lei Jun pointed out in his letter, the smartphone business tends to be unforgiving. Companies that see a slump tend not to recover. (Think BlackBerry, Nokia, HTC, etc.)
North Korea breaking point
Charles Krauthammer's column in WashPost — "North Korea: The Rubicon is crossed" — details the U.S.' breaking point with N. Korea: "Across 25 years and five administrations, we have kicked the North Korean can down the road. We are now out of road."
The meat: "How many times must we be taught that Beijing does not share our view of denuclearizing North Korea? It prefers a divided peninsula, i.e., sustaining its client state as a guarantee against a unified Korea (possibly nuclear) allied with the West and sitting on its border."
The kicker: "Alas, there will be none. Because, while this is indeed a global threat, there is no such thing as global interests. ... [T]he most likely ultimate outcome, by far, is acquiescence."
Go deeper: Axios Expert Voices charts five courses of action for the U.S. confrontation with North Korea