Nuclear arms ban talks begin at UN, but US, others boycott

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. talks aimed at banning nuclear weapons began Monday, but the United States, Russia, China and other nuclear-armed nations are sitting out a discussion they see as impractical.
Supporters of the potential pact say it’s time to push harder toward eliminating atomic weapons than nations have been doing through the nearly 50-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
With international tensions rising while public awareness of the nuclear threat has waned, &ldq