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On Thursday night, North Korea test-fired another one of its intermediate range missiles over Japan.

The rogue state has conducted other launches before, but CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that this test marks a big advance: until now, North Korea had tested its intermediate and intercontinental range missiles from fixed launch pads.

This time, for the first time, an intermediate range missile was launched from a mobile transporter, a significant development since it enables Kim Jong Un to fire a long-range weapon with little or no warning.

In this case, though, spy satellites had seen the missile being rolled into position at an airfield near Pyongyang well before the actual launch, as if Kim was deliberately trying to avoid catching the U.S. off guard.

The missile flew more than 2,000 miles over northern Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. A Pentagon official said it was « no coincidence » the missile flew far enough to reach the U.S. air base on Guam had it been fired in that direction.

The launch came three days after the U.N. Security Council enacted new economic sanctions against North Korea. But it is becoming increasingly clear sanctions will not work fast enough to prevent North Korea from acquiring a nuclear arsenal.

Earlier this week, a Treasury Department official showed Congress how easily North Korea evades the ban on coal exports. 

In June, a ship left port in China. Halfway to North Korea it turned off the transponder which allows it to be tracked. It pulled into North Korea, where it was seen by a satellite as it loaded coal.

The ship returned to the point where it had turned off the transponder, switched it back on and proceeded to a port in Russia, leaving a track which looked like it had gone straight from China to Russia.

Those new sanctions aim to cut North Korea’s oil imports, but CBS News Asia correspondent Ben Tracy reports that they will not have much bite.

China supplies 90 percent of North Korea’s oil, and it has already cut some supplies. But the new sanctions cap supply at current levels, about 4 million barrels a year. That is likely enough to supply the North Korean military with what it needs.

The idea that China can call up Kim Jong Un and tell him to cut it out is not realistic. China and North Korea do not have a good relationship right now, Tracy reports.

As worried as it may be about a nuclearized Korean Peninsula, China does not want to see the North Korean regime collapse. Nor does it want a united Korea aligned with the West, which could mean the U.S. military on its border.

Bottom line, Tracy says: China wants to do enough to bring North Korea to the negotiating table but not enough to bring it to its knees.

U.S. and U.N. officials say the only step that will make sanctions work is to give navies the power to stop and search vessels suspected of carrying banned goods to and from North Korea.

A manhunt is under way to find the person behind Friday’s rush hour Tube bombing in south-west London.

Police said they were « chasing down suspects » and had hundreds of officers trawling through CCTV following the District Line attack, which injured 29.

The UK terror threat has been raised to critical – the highest level – meaning an attack may be imminent.

The Islamic State group has said it was behind the bomb, which was detonated at 08:20 BST at Parsons Green station.

• Latest updates: Incident at Parsons Green
• What do we know about the bomb?
• Witnesses describe what happened

The station reopened in the early hours of Saturday.

The Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said it was « very routine » for IS to claim the attack « whether or not they’ve had any previous engagement with the individuals involved ».

He asked the public to remain « vigilant », but said people should « not be alarmed ».

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said it was notable that the police had use the word « suspects » in their statements, indicating that they may be looking for more than one attacker.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: « The working assumption at Scotland Yard and MI5 must be that there is not just one person behind this, but at least one, and that there are others that assisted or encouraged the person to plant this device. »

Announcing the change in the UK threat level, Prime Minister Theresa May said the military would be providing support to police and would replace officers on guard duty at national infrastructure sites that are not accessible to the public.

The use of the military to assist police is part of the first phase of Operation Temperer, a government plan to deploy troops to help police following major terrorist attacks, which was activated for the first time on 23 May following the Manchester Arena attack.

• May rebukes Trump for terror tweets
• What powers do police have to deal with terrorism?
• In pictures: Parsons Green blast
• Armed patrols stepped up over terror alert

Mrs May said: « The public will see more armed police on the transport network and on our streets, providing extra protection.

« This is a proportionate and sensible step which will provide extra reassurance and protection while the investigation progresses. »

Analysis: A ‘critical’ change

By BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner

This is the fourth time the UK national terror threat level has been raised to « critical » since the system was made public in 2006.

The last time was in May this year following the Manchester Arena bombing, when it was wrongly thought that the bomb-maker was still at large and could strike again.

In the case of Parsons Green it is perhaps surprising that it took the Government so long – over 12 hours – to raise the threat level to critical, under advice from the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, when it was obvious the perpetrator had neither died nor been caught.

Each time the level has gone to critical, it has only stayed at this highest level of alertness for three to four days – this is partly as it involves an unsustainably high tempo for the police, intelligence and security services.

Extra patrols are mounted on the streets of London, covert surveillance is stepped up and troops are deployed to free up police officers to focus on the main effort: catching the bomber before he can plant another device.

But the very fact that yesterday’s attack took place with no warning shows this system is only a broad guide to the threat and simply reflects the latest assessment.

Passengers described the bomb, which was in a supermarket carrier bag, as a « fireball ».

Patients were taken to four London hospitals, including one with a specialist burns unit.

It is understood the device had a timer but the BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner said the bomb appeared not to have gone off properly.

Had it worked as intended, it would have killed everyone around it and maimed everyone in the train carriage for life, he said.

Police urged anyone who took pictures or videos at the scene to upload them to ukpoliceimageappeal.co.uk.

Speaking to Today, Security Minister Ben Wallace said more needed to be done by internet companies to tackle the spread of information online which inspires attacks – including manuals of how to build bombs like the one used in Parsons Green.

« We take a lot down, but sometimes, very quickly, these things reappear, so we go at them again, » he said.

« We are not going to be like some other countries in the world who switch off their internet or just tell companies they can’t operate.

« We have to find a way to build pressure on internet companies to get them to invest some of their vast profits into the technologies to make sure we take down content very quickly or don’t even let it surface. »

What does terror threat level mean?

By Dominic Casciani, home affairs correspondent

A word of caution about « imminence ».

The terror threat level was previously raised to critical in May after Manchester.

Then it was lowered again days later after it became clear to intelligence assessors in the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre that an attack wasn’t imminent.

Then we had two more incidents – Borough Market/London Bridge and Finsbury Park.

What does this tell us?

Intelligence is usually fragmentary.

Analysts sometimes only have glimpses or impressions of what they think is going on.

It’s an imperfect world.

‘I could see a fireball’

Anna Gorniak, who was in the same Tube carriage as the explosion, said: « I could see a fireball filling the carriage and coming our way. At that moment, I started to run.

« In my mind I was praying, I probably thought for a second, ‘That’s it, my life is over.' »

Peter Crowley was sitting in the carriage, travelling from Wimbledon, when the explosion happened.

He said his head was burned by a « really hot intense fireball above my head » and added: « There were people a lot worse than me. »

Chris Wildish told BBC Radio 5 live he saw a bucket in a supermarket bag with « low-level flames coming out of it » by the door of the rear carriage.

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SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – North Korea fired a second missile over Japan far out into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, deepening tension after Pyongyang’s recent test of its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb.

The U.N. Security Council was to meet later in the day to discuss the launch at the request of the United States and Japan, diplomats said.

The missile flew over Hokkaido in the north and landed in the Pacific about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) to the east, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

The missile reached an altitude of about 770 km (480 miles) and flew for about 19 minutes over about 3,700 km (2,300 miles), according to South Korea’s military – far enough to reach the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, which the North has threatened before.

On Aug 29, North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile, the Hwasong-12, which traveled 2,700 km (1,700 miles) over Japan.

“The range of this test was significant since North Korea demonstrated that it could reach Guam with this missile,” the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a statement.

But it said the accuracy of the missile, still at an early stage of development, was low.

Warning announcements about the missile blared around 7 a.m. (2200 GMT Thursday) in parts of northern Japan, while many residents received alerts on their mobile phones or saw warnings on TV telling them to seek refuge.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said the launch “put millions of Japanese into duck and cover”, although residents of northern Japan appeared calm and went about their business as normal after the second such launch in less than a month.

The U.S. military said soon after the launch it had detected a single intermediate range ballistic missile but the missile did not pose a threat to North America or Guam, which lies 3,400 km (2,110 miles) from North Korea.

U.S. officials repeated Washington’s “ironclad” commitments to the defense of its allies. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for “new measures” against North Korea and said the “continued provocations only deepen North Korea’s diplomatic and economic isolation”.

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A poll by Gallup Analytics suggested a majority of Americans appeared ready to support military action against North Korea, at least as a last resort. Some 58 percent said they would favor taking military action if economic and diplomatic efforts failed to achieve U.S. goals.

“This is significantly higher than the 47 percent in favor the last time Gallup asked this, in 2003,” the group said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said dialogue with the North was impossible at this point. He ordered officials to analyze and prepare for possible new North Korean threats, including electromagnetic pulse and biochemical attacks, a spokesman said.

Russia said the missile test was part of a series of unacceptable provocations and that the U.N. Security Council was united in believing such launches should not be taking place.

CLEAR MESSAGE

The council was to meet at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), diplomats said, just days after its 15 members unanimously stepped up sanctions against North Korea over its Sept. 3 nuclear test.

Those sanctions imposed a ban on North Korea’s textile exports and capped its imports of crude oil.

North Korea has launched dozens of missiles under young leader Kim Jong Un as it accelerates a weapons program designed to give it the ability to target the United States with a powerful, nuclear-tipped missile. Two tests in July were for long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching at least parts of the U.S. mainland.

“This rocket has meaning in that North Korea is pushing toward technological completion of its missiles and that North Korea may be feeling some pressure that they need to show the international community something,” said Yang Uk, a senior research fellow at the Korea Defence and Security Forum.

Last month, North Korea fired an intermediate range missile from a similar area near the capital Pyongyang that also flew over Hokkaido into the ocean and said more would follow.

“The first time was unexpected, but I think people are getting used to this as the new normal,” said Andrew Kaz, who teaches English in Kushiro City in Hokkaido. “The most it seemed to disrupt was my coffee.”

South Korea said it had fired a missile test into the sea to coincide with North Korea’s launch and the presidential Blue House has called an urgent National Security Council meeting. Japan also convened a National Security Council meeting.

Pyongyang had threatened a day earlier to sink Japan and reduce the United States to “ashes and darkness” for supporting the U.N. Security Council’s latest resolution and sanctions.

The U.S. general overseeing America’s nuclear forces said on Thursday he assumed that North Korea’s latest nuclear test was in fact a hydrogen bomb, as Pyongyang had claimed, based on the size of the blast.

“DANGEROUS, RECKLESS”

The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.

The U.S. dollar fell sharply against the safe-haven yen and Swiss franc in early Asian hours in response to the launch, although losses were quickly pared in very jittery trade.

U.S. President Donald Trump had been briefed on the latest launch, the White House said.

Trump has vowed that North Korea will never be allowed to threaten the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile, but has also asked China to do more to rein in its neighbor. China in turn favors an international response to the problem.

“China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own,” Tillerson said.

China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, denied that China held the key to easing tension on the peninsula and said that duty lay with the parties directly involved.

“Any attempt to wash their hands of the issue is irresponsible and unhelpful for its resolution,” she said, reiterating China’s position that sanctions are only effective if paired with talks.

The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.

(For a graphic on North Korea’s missile and nuclear test, click: here)

Reporting by Jack Kim and Christine Kim in SEOUL and Hideyuki Sano in TOKYO; Additional reporting by William Mallard, Tim Kelly and Chehui Peh in TOKYO, Mohammad Zargham, Susan Heavey and David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON, and Phil Stewart in NEBRASKA; Masha Tsvetkova and Polina Devitt in MOSCOW; Christian Shepherd in BEIJING; Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Nick Macfie

PASADENA, Calif.—  And just like that, it was gone.

NASA received its last data transmission from the Cassini spacecraft at 4:55:46 a.m. PDT (7:55:46 a.m. EDT, 1146 GMT) today (Sept. 15), before losing contact with the probe as it hurtled into Saturn’s atmosphere. It was a fiery grand finale  for the probe, which spent 13 years orbiting the ringed planet. NASA officials expect that Cassini broke apart about 45 seconds after that final transmission, due to the intense friction and heat generated by the fall.

« I hope you’re all … deeply proud of this amazing accomplishment, » Earl Maize, the Cassini program manager, said to the mission team after the spacecraft signal was lost. « Congratulations to you all. This has been an incredible mission, an incredible spacecraft, and you’re all an incredible team. I’m going to call this the end of mission. » [Cassini’s Last-Ever Photos Come Down to Earth] 

The final stream of data from Cassini was received at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in southern California. The spacecraft communicated with Earth via the Deep Space Network, a series of telescopes around the world that keep contact with spacecraft that fly beyond the moon. The Deep Space Network is managed from JPL.

During Cassini’s final moments, mission scientists and team members watched anxiously as data continued to come in from the spacecraft as it hurtled through Saturn’s atmosphere. The signal was lost when Cassini could no longer keep its antenna pointed at Earth, due to the intense friction created by its fall through the atmosphere. Maize said he anticipated that the probe would completely break apart about 45 seconds later. The team members stood and applauded somberly when Maize announced end of mission. 

« This is a historic moment, and I think the mood reflects that, » Morgan Cable, a research scientist at JPL, said of the event. « This is a celebration of an amazing mission and incredible legacy. »

In Cassini’s final months and days, scientists and the public alike have voiced their affection for the space probe and the incredible discoveries it made. 

« [I’m] feeling the love, if I may be so corny, » Maize said when asked about the public outpouring. « It’s just very heartening. Because it’s part of what we try to do — to extend everybody out to Saturn. It’s not [just for] scientists in the ivory tower; it’s for humanity. And so for everybody to get on the ride … it is just phenomenal. » [Cassini’s Greatest Discoveries at Saturn]

Cassini’s descent into Saturn was intentional. The spacecraft was rapidly running out of fuel, after spending nearly 20 years in space, and NASA scientists decided to make use of the mission’s inevitable conclusion. By crashing into Saturn, Cassini had the opportunity to see what the planet’s upper atmosphere is made of, and that’s the data that the probe sent back to Earth during its final few moments of life. The probe took its last images of the Saturn system yesterday (Sept. 14), and transmitted those images back to Earth the same day, ahead of its plunge.

During its 13-year tenure at Saturn, Cassini captured breathtaking images of the ringed planet, revealing swirling storms and a hexagonal jet stream swirling around Saturn’s north pole. The probe saw strange features in the planet’s ring system, found evidence of meteors crashing through the rings in the past, and watched as the planet’s many moons caused the rings to change and evolve.

The spacecraft discovered new moons around Saturn; the planet has 53 named moons and another nine unnamed moons, and there are many more small objects that might one day be confirmed as moons. Cassini found geysers erupting from the surface of the large, icy moon Enceladus. Further study of the geysers has since indicated that Enceladus’ subsurface water ocean might have conditions suitable for life. Cassini revealed new details about the strange surface of the moon Titan, which is dotted with liquid methane lakes, rivers and oceans. 

« We left the world informed but still wondering, » Maize said during a news conference Wednesday (Sept. 13). « I could not ask for more. »

The $3.26 billion Cassini-Huygens mission  — a joint effort by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency — launched in 1997 and arrived at the Saturn system in 2004. In 2005, the Huygens lander dropped onto the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, revealing the hidden world beneath its opaque, orange atmosphere. The Cassini orbiter’s initial mission was meant to last until 2008 but was extended twice, stretching the spacecraft’s life to 2017.

« One of the greatest legacies of the mission is not just the scientific discoveries it makes, and what you learn about, but the fact that you make discoveries that are so compelling that you have to go back, » said Mike Watkins, director of JPL. « We will go back and fly through the geysers of Enceladus, we will go back and look at Titan, because the Cassini findings are just groundbreaking. »

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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When Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan came out of the fall film festival circuit seven years ago, the pic was promptly teed up for Oscar season with many bewitched by Natalie Portman’s graceful turn as a tormented ballerina who notches the lead in Swan Lake. 

Fox Searchlight ensured that the movie was protected theatrically in what was a pretty fierce awards season that included competition like The Social Network and The King’s Speech. As such, the label platformed Black Swan during the December holidays before going wide around the time of the Golden Globes in January. Black Swan crossed over feasibly from specialty houses to multiplexes, appealing to horror fans, the LGBTQ community and sophisticated audiences who shelled out close to $107 million. The film remains one of three Searchlight titles to cross the century mark in the classic label’s history. Black Swan earned five Oscar noms, with Portman walking home with a Best Actress trophy.

This weekend, Paramount is taking a completely different, audacious approach with Aronofsky’s latest genre twist mother! starring Jennifer Lawrence. Having just finished earning great praise out of the Toronto and Venice film festivals with a 76% certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, mother! won’t be receiving a platform rollout. Instead, the studio is brazenly taking the Aronofsky pic wide in 2,368 theaters.

Typically when a distributor goes wide with what appears to be an art house film, it’s because they need to make their cash back fast, making a platform play risky. But that’s not exactly the case for Paramount with mother!, which per insiders cost around $30M before PA.

Sure, part of the wide-release strategy stems from having a star like Lawrence, who guarantees a female turnout between 50%-60% for her post-Hunger Games fare. Social media monitor RelishMix points out that Lawrence’s Facebook followers alone rep 25% of the film’s 81M social media universe. However, Paramount feels it has something wild in mother! and that the best way to pull the string open is to go big, hopefully triggering a huge conversation on social. Early audiences have expressed a wide array of emotions and reactions — the Google search phrase “what does mother movie mean” has generated 77 million results as of this afternoon. Some moviegoers interpret mother! as a Biblical allegory, or a jab at social media, while others believe it’s about climate change, or as Lawrence explains in her deconstruction of the film above, it’s all allegory, with Shel Silverstein’s children’s book The Giving Tree more of an inspiration than Roman Polanski horror pics.

The film’s storyline has largely been shrouded in secrecy with its initial theatrical trailer attached to Dunkirk two months ago literally comprised of words on the screen and chaotic audio. Throughout the last month we’ve come to learn that Lawrence plays the younger wife to Him (Javier Bardem), a famed writer. They’re restoring their country house, but have unexpected guests showing up portrayed by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Rival distribs have rubbed their chins over Paramount’s brave move to open what looks to be a horror film in the wake of New Line’s behemoth It, which will cross $200M at the domestic box office this frame take No. 1 in its second weekend with $50M-plus. But while mother! looks and smells like a horror film, it’s essentially something crazier, Lynchian, and completely Aronofsky-esque. After Blumhouse’s PG-13 horror pic Happy Death Day moved on to mother!‘s original release date of Friday, October 13, Paramount moved mother! up to September 15 as it saw both titles were competing for under-25 females.  

Tracking has mother! at $11M. If Paramount can get the movie to $15M, it would be considered a decent start, with anything higher being fantastic. CBS/Lionsgate’s American Assassin is also in the mix this weekend at 3,154 sites, with a projected debut of $15M-$17M, and while older men are that pic’s bread and butter, spots have been featuring more of Dylan O’Brien to attract, yup, young women.

In the final run-up to the mother!‘s opening, Paramount is hoping that its Europe-North America premiere tour of the film — including the Venice and Toronto film festivals, London, Paris and a Radio City Music Hall New York City premiere this week — has spurred a want-to-see. On the day of the London film premiere, #mothermovie hashtags spiked to 43,000 and have since settled and grown this week from 4K to 8K daily, and generic #mother from 1,500K to 3K hashtags on Twitter, per RelishMix.

Well, what about awards? Wouldn’t it be wiser for mother! to roll out slowly and be something akin to a Crying Game that specialty audiences discover? While there will certainly be an awards campaign for the movie, of utmost importance for Paramount was that a bold movie deserved a bold launch. By going wide, it’s a way to get everyone talking in the Stranger Things sense all at once, whether they enjoyed the movie or not. Not to mention, if an actress of lesser marquee value than Lawrence was toplining, a platform strategy would have been considered.

Last weekend, to goose interest among the It masses, Paramount released a custom in-theater trailer in the vein of a Screen Gems horror film that exclaimed to audiences, “In one week, in this theater, one movie will mess you up for life…You will never forget where you were the first time you saw mother! After the movie, visit the box office to get your tickets.” The question tomorrow is whether any leftover It moviegoers were so inclined. mother! is not the traditional horror pic by any means in the commercial sense of the term. A bulk of the marketing campaign was shrouded in symbolism and secrecy, which is certainly sincere to the movie’s gripping, maddening sensibility. From moment to moment, you’re unsure of the fate of Lawrence’s character as the camera follows her Hitchcock-style (over her shoulder, on her face, or her POV).

On Mother’s Day, Paramount dropped James Jean’s Catholic prayer card-like one sheet of Lawrence offering up her bleeding heart. There were clues embedded throughout, and props from the film (i.e. a jewelry box, a lighter. There was also a companion Jean poster dropped in early August of Javier Bardem with hell flames in the background and his hubby character holding a silver globe. On Instagram, the Bardem poster was embedded with audio, which when run through a pro audio tool revealed a spectogram of the Oscar winner’s face. Neither poster was permitted for use in theaters by the MPAA, but the early August one sheet showing a porcelain face of Lawrence was OK’d for in-theater use. During the first weekend of August, a second teaser showing Lawrence walking around the house amid chaotic noises was released in theaters. By the time Annabelle: Creation opened the next weekend, the full trailer was released showing the pic’s unwelcome guest premise as we know it with images of people storming the country house’s lawn at night, capped off Lawrence yelling “Get out of my house!”

By late August, the meat of the campaign kicked in with the Rosemary Baby homage posters and billboards (in orange and the original 1968’s hunter green) appearing in cities and online. This was a hint Lawrence’s character in the movie was indeed pregnant and in peril. There were also theories that the actress’ half-face image was an homage to the 1997 animatef film Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion. The exclusive look during the September 5 premiere of American Horror Story: Cult fully revealed that Lawrence’s Mother was in fact pregnant. Aronofsky and Paramount’s marketing team worked closely in crafting all aspects of the cool and clever in the campaign. Paramount is using such critic quotes as “The boldest studio movie since Kubrick died” and “Tear-down-the-screen inferno” in its TV spots.

Typically a studio will test their campaign materials, but Paramount decided to go with its gut. In addition, mother! wasn’t tested, rather screened to friends and families only. Aronofsky is known to get final cut.

Paramount’s mother! opens tonight at 7 PM.