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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 21 OctOber 2020
NATO to set up new space center amid China, Russia concerns

By LORNE COOK satellites owned by allies
Associated Press like the United States, Brit-
KESTER, Belgium (AP) — To ain, France and Italy orbit.
a few of the locals, the top- NATO itself doesn't own any
secret, fenced-off installa- satellites.
tion on the hill is known as Around the globe, com-
"the radar station." Some manders in ships, aircraft
folks claim to have seen and mobile or static head-
mysterious Russians in the quarters decrypt the data
area. Over the years, ru- to gather orders, pictures
mors have swirled that it and intelligence, prepare
might be a base for U.S. missions, or move troops
nuclear warheads. and military equipment.
It's easy to see how the ru- From Kester, new lines of
mors start. The site is visually communication can be set
striking. Four huge white up for NATO within a half-
Kevlar balls sit like giant hour.
spherical spacecraft in a Much of the facility is en-
compound in the middle cased in thick steel plates,
of open farm country 25 ki- including the ducts where
lometers (16 miles) west of Satellite dishes inside Kevlar domes at the Kester Satellite Ground Station in Kester, Belgium, cables run, to withstand
Belgium's capital, Brussels. Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. any attack by electromag-
But the Kester Satellite Associated Press netic pulses — high bursts
Ground Station is both saf- is set to fall under a new or- Secretary-General Jens coverage with a fifth of of energy that can knock
er and more sophisticated bit, when NATO announces Stoltenberg said before the that number. out electrical power grids
than local lore might sug- that it is creating a space meeting. At Kester, behind a dou- or destroy electronic circuit
gest. It's central to space center to help manage sat- It's part of the alliance's ef- ble security fence, mas- boards and components.
communications at NATO ellite communications and forts to keep ahead in a fast sive steel gates and bul- But NATO allies are increas-
— the biggest and most key parts of its military op- moving and hi-tech sector, letproof glass in a facility ingly concerned about
modern of four such sta- erations around the world. particularly amid concern that can withstand a terror other kinds of attacks using
tions the military alliance In December, NATO leaders about what member coun- attack or any attempt to anti-satellite weapons miles
runs. declared space to be the tries say is increasingly ag- jam communications, four above the earth which
Around 2,000 satellites orbit alliance's "fifth domain" of gressive behavior in space satellite dishes ensconced could wreak havoc below
the earth, over half oper- operations, after land, sea, by China and Russia. in Kevlar domes connect and leave dangerous de-
ated by NATO countries, air and cyberspace. Over Around 80 countries have NATO's civilian and military bris adrift in space.
ensuring everything from two days of talks starting satellites and private com- headquarters in Belgium to "Some nations – includ-
mobile phone and banking Thursday, NATO defense panies are moving in too. their operations around the ing Russia and China – are
services to weather fore- ministers will greenlight a In the 1980s, just a fraction world. developing anti-satellite
casts. NATO commanders new space center at the of NATO's communications From their elevated posi- systems which could blind,
in places like Afghanistan alliance's Air Command in was via satellite. Today, tion, the dishes — two of disable or shoot down sat-
or Kosovo rely on some of Ramstein, Germany. it's at least 40%. During the them 16 meters (52 feet) ellites and create danger-
them to navigate, commu- "This will be a focal point for Cold War, NATO had more in diameter — beam in- ous debris in orbit. We must
nicate, share intelligence ensuring space support to than 20 stations, but new formation and imagery increase our understanding
and detect missile launch- NATO operations, sharing technologies mean the down across Europe and of the challenges in space
es. information and coordinat- world's biggest security or- over Africa into space and our ability to address
This week, the site at Kester ing our activities," NATO ganization can double its above the equator where them," Stoltenberg said.q

French militant group, mosque to close after teacher slaying

By ELAINE GANLEY that other associations and class earlier this month. His
Associated Press individuals are on the radar civics course led to paren-
PARIS (AP) — France's presi- to be shut or silenced. tal complaints and threats.
dent on Tuesday named a Meanwhile, more than Sixteen people were de-
domestic militant Islamist 1,000 people gathered in tained, including members
group as "directly implicat- drizzly rain to honor Samu- of the killer's family and five
ed" in last week's gruesome el Paty where he was be- young adolescent students
street beheading in a Paris headed Friday as he left at Paty's school. Investiga-
suburb of a high school his- school in Conflans-Sainte- tors are trying to learn how
tory teacher who had dis- Honorine, northwest of Par- the killer, who lived in the
cussed caricatures of the is. Mounds of bouquets of Normandy town of Evreux,
Prophet Muhammad with flowers were piled in front set up his encounter with
his class. of the school. Paty, whether there was
Emmanuel Macron said A terror investigation is un- complicity and whether
the group will be ordered der way into the murder by the beheading was pre-
dissolved on Wednesday, an 18-year-old Moscow- meditated.
when a mosque that re- born Chechen refugee, Speaking in the Seine-St.- French President Emmanuel Macron, center, delivers a speech
layed a denunciation of who was later shot dead by Denis region, northeast of while Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, left, and Seine-Saint-
the teacher is also to shut. police. The killer has been Paris, Macron reiterated Denis prefect Georges-Francois Leclerc listen, after a visit on
Speaking after a meet- identified by authorities as Tuesday that he wants the fight against separatism at the Seine Saint Denis prefecture
ing with regional officials Abdoullakh Anzorov. Paty "tangible results" to combat headquarters in Bobigny, a northeastern suburbs of Paris,
working to counter radical had shown caricatures of "an ideology of destruction Tuesday Oct. 20, 2020.
Islamists, Macron added the prophet of Islam to his of the (French) Republic." Associated Press