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North Korean file photo showing a 28 July 2017 missile test. Photograph: KCNA/EPA

Tuesday briefing: 'Outrageous act' – North Korea fires missile over Japan

This article is more than 6 years old
North Korean file photo showing a 28 July 2017 missile test. Photograph: KCNA/EPA

Trump and Abe seeking urgent UN security council meeting … mental health crisis strains police resources … and the horror of Hong Kong’s ‘coffin homes’

Top story: ‘Unprecedented and grave threat’

Hello – it’s Warren Murray with the news to start your day.

North Korea has fired a missile over Japan’s Hokkaido island and into the sea – again violating UN resolutions and adding to tensions in the region. The missile took off from a site near Pyongyang just after 6am local time on Tuesday and flew across Hokkaido, one of Japan’s main islands before breaking up into three parts and coming down to the east.

The Japanese military’s early warning system detected the missile, triggering air-raid warnings in northern Japan including sirens and text messages saying “Missile passing. Missile passing … Please take cover in secure buildings or underground.” There was no attempt to shoot it down, though a government spokesman said such a launch posed a “serious, grave security threat” to Japan.

Kim Jong-un’s regime will have conducted the launch to show that Japan and other US allies or territories are in reach of its intermediate-range Hwasong-12 missile – the same type North Korea recently threatened to launch towards the US Pacific possession of Guam – and to reinforce its displeasure at joint US-South Korea defence exercises that are under way. The North has complained to the UN security council that the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian manoeuvres are “recklessly provocative” at a time of high tensions. The US counters that the exercises have been held for roughly the past 40 years.

Following this latest missile launch, Donald Trump and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, are calling for urgent action by the UN security council.


Pension gap – Experts have raised a red flag about the difference between large companies’ pension obligations and the amount they are putting aside to meet them. Among FTSE 350 companies this gap has risen to £62bn, accounting for 70% of their 2016 profits. In 2011 the deficit was 25%. Longer life expectancies and lower investment returns are among factors widening the gap. The consultancy behind the figures, Barnett Waddingham, says (somewhat grimly) that UK life expectancy increases look like grinding to a halt because of years of austerity policy, which could ease pressure on pension funds. Could reining in bosses’ pay help too? Well, at least by next June publicly listed companies will be forced to reveal how many multiples of a regular worker’s pay their CEOs receive.


‘Water came through the walls’ – Texans fleeing the impact of ex-Hurricane Harvey have told of their homes being swamped and, in one case, a snake swimming through the kitchen. As our live coverage continues, there have been at least eight deaths from the storm and the state has mobilised its entire national guard – the US equivalent of the territorial army – committing 12,000 of its members to the emergency response. It is expected 30,000 people will need emergency shelter due to the deluges in Texas and Louisiana. President Trump is due to begin visiting disaster-affected areas on Tuesday.


‘Picking up the pieces’ – Police phone lines are getting inundated with a record number of calls related to mental illness – and cutbacks to NHS services are being blamed. The London Met, Britain’s biggest police service, is now receiving one such call every five minutes. Inspector Michael Brown, mental health coordinator for the College of Policing, said: “The inability to access a mental health professional is the problem, and that generates a lot of work for the police.” Lincolnshire police have resorted to having a mental health nurse in the phone room to help deal with callers, and police are also coming under more pressure to detain people on the grounds of mental illness. Louise Haigh, the Labour shadow police minister, said: “Police are increasingly being asked to pick up the pieces of a scandalous lack of mental health provision.”


‘He’s a patriot’ – Donald Trump has defended his decision to pardon
Joe Arpaio, who, as Arizona sheriff, illegally targeted Latino people as part of a personal anti-immigration crusade. Trump’s decree sweeps aside Arpaio’s potential jailing for defying a court order to stop racially profiling Latin Americans. Separately, Trump has been summed up as an “asshole” by one of his earliest supporters in the presidential race. “But he’s our asshole,” added Congressman Duncan Hunter, according to people who heard him address a Young Republican meeting in Murrieta, California.


Not so lucky house – Prosperous Hong Kong has a forlorn secret: its many “coffin homes”, where the city’s poor and socially disenfranchised eke out their days in tiny cell-like rooms of barely a metre square. Our correspondent Benjamin Haas spent a week in one called Lucky House, where he met a cast of down-and-outers including the Fighter, the Janitor and the Carpenter.

No room to stretch out in Benjamin Haas’s temporary ‘coffin home’. Photograph: Rachel Suming

Some seem happy in their cramped surrounds, others grimly resigned to it until better times come along. They take our foreign correspondent into their meagre hospitality, one even offering a smoke of his meth pipe as a parting gift.

Lunchtime read: Rijeka moment

Visit Rijeka before it is overrun by the artsy leftist elites! The northern Croatian citadel has been named European Capital of Culture for 2020 – and has much to offer in the meantime.

Waterfront scene in ‘Red Rijeka’. Photograph: Alamy

Our travel desk has compiled a guide to this punk-loving, left-leaning port city, with contributions from local musicians, chefs, artists and conservationists. The seafood is apparently first-class, and Tito’s presidential yacht, the Galeb, bobs in the harbour.

Sport

Maria Sharapova made a winning return to Flushing Meadows for the first time since her drugs ban, registering a three-set US Open victory over the world No2, Simona Halep. Earlier on the opening day of play at the year’s final grand slam, Johanna Konta was shocked by Aleksandra Krunic, ranked 71 places below her, although Britain’s top women’s player was keen not to “catastrophise” the defeat.

Moeen Ali has said England “pounced” on the West Indies after seeing the tourists’ heads drop on day four of the second Test at Headingley.

Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is destined for Chelsea, Liverpool have agreed a club-record deal to sign Naby Keïta from RB Leipzig next summer and Frank de Boer is still clinging to his job at Crystal Palace after talks with the club’s chairman.

Business

Asian markets have taken fright at the North Korea missile launch this morning with shares and US stock futures tumbling. Japan’s Nikkei fell nearly 1% to a four-month low at one point while South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.6%. Meanwhile the yen and Swiss franc both rose on the back of the launch. Overnight the pound was buying US$1.29 and €1.08.

The papers

There is a general consensus in the tabloids that Strictly Come Dancing is back and it’s going to be great. The Sun is so excited about the new season that it uses most of its front page to promote it, while splashing with a story about the celebrity Katie Price. The Mirror also has Strictly over most of its front, but its main news story is: “Statins halve risk of breast cancer”.

Guardian front page, 29 August 2017.

The Mail follows up the Times’ story from Monday about the five-year-old Christian girl who was apparently placed with a Muslim foster family in London. The Mail is evidently angry about this, and so are MPs according to the paper.

The Times has Michel Barnier, the EU negotiator for Brexit, telling the UK that it is time to get serious and stop being ambiguous. The Telegraph sees the same EU story as “Britain’s fury at EU’s Barnier” and says Brexit talks have descended into a “slanging match”. The FT says that Theresa May will be disappointed with her upcoming visit to Japan as leaders there are unwilling to rush into free trade talks with the UK until they know what Brexit means.

The Guardian leads with news that police forces are fielding a record number of calls relating to mental health issues. The Metropolitan police received one every five minutes last year.

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