Nine dead in China as remnants of super typhoon Nepartak strike

Road heavily damaged by Typhoon Nepartak

BEIJING (Reuters) – Nine people were killed and 18 are missing after wind and driving rain bought by the remains of super typhoon Nepartak swept into China over the weekend, the government said on Monday.

The deaths were all in the southeastern province of Fujian, where the typhoon made landfall, the civil affairs ministry said in a statement on its website.

Total economic damage has been put at 900 million yuan ($134.60 million), with 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres) of crops destroyed and more than 900 houses wrecked, the ministry said.

In Taiwan, the storm caused at least three deaths and more than 300 injuries.

The storm is expected to worsen already severe flooding in parts of central and eastern China as its remnants slowly make their way inland.

Typhoons are common at this time of year in the South China Sea, picking up strength over warm waters and dissipating over land.

Typhoons used to kill many people in China but the government now enforces evacuations and takes precautions well in advance, which has helped save many lives.

($1 = 6.6864 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Tribunal overwhelmingly rejects Beijing’s South China Sea claims

anti-China protest group over South China Sea

By Anthony Deutsch and Ben Blanchard

AMSTERDAM/BEIJING (Reuters) – An arbitration court ruled on Tuesday that China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea and has breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights with its actions, infuriating Beijing which dismissed the case as a farce.

A defiant China, which boycotted the hearings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, vowed again to ignore the ruling and said its armed forces would defend its sovereignty and maritime interests.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said shortly before the ruling was announced that a Chinese civilian aircraft had successfully tested two new airports in the disputed Spratly Islands.

And China’s Defence Ministry said a new guided missile destroyer was formally commissioned at a naval base on the southern island province of Hainan, which has responsibility for the South China Sea.

“This award represents a devastating legal blow to China’s jurisdictional claims in the South China Sea,” Ian Storey, of Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, told Reuters.

“China will respond with fury, certainly in terms of rhetoric and possibly through more aggressive actions at sea.”

The United States, which China has accused of fuelling tensions and militarizing the region with patrols and exercises, urged parties to comply with the legally binding ruling and avoid provocations.

“The decision today by the Tribunal in the Philippines-China arbitration is an important contribution to the shared goal of a peaceful resolution to disputes in the South China Sea,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

U.S. officials have previously said they feared China may respond to the ruling by declaring an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea, as it did in the East China Sea in 2013, or by stepping up its building and fortification of artificial islands.

China claims most of the energy-rich waters through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

Finding for the Philippines on a number of issues, the panel said there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within its so-called nine-dash line, which covers almost 90 percent of the South China Sea.

It said China had interfered with traditional Philippine fishing rights at Scarborough Shoal and had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights by exploring for oil and gas near the Reed Bank.

None of China’s reefs and holdings in the Spratly Islands entitled it to a 200-mile exclusive economic zone, it added.

“2,000 YEARS OF HISTORY”

China’s Foreign Ministry rejected the ruling, saying its people had more than 2,000 years of history in the South China Sea, that its islands did have exclusive economic zones and that it had announced to the world its “dotted line” map in 1948.

“China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall under no circumstances be affected by those awards,” it said.

However, the ministry also repeated that China respected and upheld the freedom of navigation and overflight and that China was ready to keep resolving the disputes peacefully through talks with states directly concerned.

In a statement shortly before the ruling, China’s Defence Ministry said its armed forces would “firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security and maritime interests and rights, firmly uphold regional peace and stability, and deal with all kinds of threats and challenges”

The judges acknowledged China’s refusal to participate, but said they sought to take account of China’s position from its statements and diplomatic correspondence.

“The award is a complete and total victory for the Philippines … a victory for international law and international relations,” said Paul Reichler, lead lawyer for the Philippines.

Vietnam said it welcomed the ruling.

Taiwan, which maintains that the island it occupies, Itu Aba, is legally the only island among hundreds of reefs, shoals and atolls scattered across the seas, said it did not accept the ruling, which seriously impaired Taiwan’s territorial rights.

“This is the worst scenario,” Taiwan Foreign Minister David Tawei Lee told reporters, promising unspecified “action” from Taipei.

GROUND-BREAKING RULING

The ruling is significant as it is the first time that a legal challenge has been brought in the dispute, which covers some of the world’s most promising oil and gas fields and vital fishing grounds. [http://bit.ly/29AlvXc]

It reflects the shifting balance of power in the 3.5 million sq km sea, where China has been expanding its presence by building artificial islands and dispatching patrol boats that keep Philippine fishing vessels away.

The Philippines said it was studying the ruling.

“We call on all those concerned to exercise restraint and sobriety,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay told a news conference. “The Philippines strongly affirms its respect for this milestone decision as an important contribution to the ongoing efforts in addressing disputes in the South China Sea.”

Japan said the ruling was legally binding and final.

Oil prices jumped following the findings, with Brent crude futures <LCOc1> up almost 3 percent at $47.87 per barrel at 1130 GMT (7:30 a.m. ET).

The court has no power of enforcement, but a victory for the Philippines could spur Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei to file similar cases.

Ahead of the ruling, around 100 members of a Philippine nationalist group demonstrated outside the Chinese consulate in Manila, calling on Beijing to accept the decision and leave the Scarborough Shoal, a popular fishing zone off limits to Filipinos since 2012.

In China, social media users reacted with outrage at the ruling.

“It was ours in the past, is now and will remain so in the future,” wrote one user on microblogging site Weibo. “Those who encroach on our China’s territory will die no matter how far away they are.”

Spreading fast on social media in the Philippines was the use of the term “Chexit” – the public’s desire for Chinese vessels to leave the waters.

(Additional reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz and Martin Petty in Manila, Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing, Tim Kelly in Tokyo, John Walcott and David Brunnstrom in Washington, JR Wu in Taipei and Greg Torode in Hong Kong.; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Nick Macfie)

Super typhoon hits Taiwan, cutting power and transport

Damage from Typhoon Nepartak

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Super typhoon Nepartak hit Taiwan on Friday, driving thousands of people from their homes, disrupting power supplies and grounding more than 600 flights, authorities said.

Television showed toppled motorcycles and signboards being ripped from buildings and swept across roads in southeast Taiwan, where the year’s first typhoon made landfall.

By afternoon, the typhoon had moved into the Taiwan Strait, weakening as it headed towards China’s southeastern province of Fujian, but flooding and strong winds continued to lash the island’s central and southern areas.

More than 17,300 people were evacuated from their homes, and over 517,000 households suffered power outages, emergency officials said.

“The wind is very strong,” said a resident of Taitung, the eastern Taiwan city where the typhoon landed.

“Many hut roofs and signs have been blown off.”

Three deaths and 172 injuries were reported, bullet train services were suspended and over 340 international and 300 domestic flights canceled, an emergency services website showed.

The typhoon halted work in most of Taiwan. There were no reports of damage at semiconductor plants in the south.

Tropical Storm Risk had rated the typhoon as category 5, at the top of its ranking, but it was weakening and should be a tropical storm by the time it hits Fujian on Saturday morning.

More than 4,000 people working on coastal fish farms in Fujian were evacuated and fishing boats recalled to port, the official China News Service said.

The storm is expected to worsen already severe flooding in parts of central and eastern China, particularly in the major city of Wuhan.

Typhoons are common at this time of year in the South China Sea, picking up strength over warm waters and dissipating over land.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a swathe of destruction through southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing damage of up to $3 billion.

(Reporting by Faith Hung and J.R. Wu; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Andrew Roche)

South Korea, U.S. to deploy THAAD missile defense, drawing China rebuke

Missile Defense System in South Korea

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea and the United States said on Friday they would deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea to counter a threat from North Korea, drawing a sharp and swift protest from neighboring China.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, anti-missile system will be used only as protection against North Korea’s growing nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, the South’s Defence Ministry and the U.S. Defence Department said in a joint statement.

“This is an important … decision,” General Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, said in a statement. “North Korea’s continued development of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction require the alliance to take this prudent, protective measure to bolster our … missile defense.”

Beijing said on Friday it lodged complaints with the U.S. and South Korean ambassadors over the THAAD decision.

China said the system would destabilize the security balance in the region without achieving anything to end the North’s nuclear program. China is North Korea’s main ally but opposes its pursuit of nuclear weapons and backed the latest United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang in March.

“China strongly urges the United States and South Korea to stop the deployment process of the THAAD anti-missile system, not take any steps to complicate the regional situation and do nothing to harm China’s strategic security interests,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Selection of a site for the system could come “within weeks,” and the allies were working to have it operational by the end of 2017, a South Korean Defence Ministry official said.

The THAAD will be deployed to U.S. Forces Korea “to protect alliance military forces from North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile threats,” the joint statement said. The United States maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war.

“When the THAAD system is deployed to the Korean Peninsula, it will be focused solely on North Korean nuclear and missile threats and would not be directed towards any third-party nations,” the statement said.

SEVEN SUMMITS

The decision to deploy THAAD is the latest move to squeeze the increasingly isolated North, which also includes a series of bilateral sanctions by Seoul and Washington as well as layers of U.N. sanctions.

South Korea has been reluctant to discuss THAAD openly, given the opposition of China, its main trading partner and an increasingly close diplomatic ally. South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, have held seven summit meetings since both took office in 2013.

Russia is also opposed to basing a THAAD system in South Korea. Its foreign ministry will take the deployment into account in Moscow’s military planning, Interfax news agency quoted it as saying on Friday.

China worries the THAAD system’s radar will be able to track its own military capabilities.

China “knows full well that the THAAD being deployed to South Korea is not aimed at it at all,” said Yoo Dong-ryol, who heads the Korea Institute of Liberal Democracy in Seoul. “It just doesn’t like more American weapons system being brought in so close to it.”

Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said Tokyo “supports the deployment because it bolsters security in the region.”

Japan has said it is considering another layer of ballistic missile defense, such as THAAD, to complement ship-borne missiles aboard Aegis destroyers in the Sea of Japan and its ground-based Patriot missiles.

TRUMP’S ARGUMENT

Built by Lockheed Martin Corp <LMT.N>, THAAD is designed to defend against short and medium-range ballistic missiles by intercepting them high in the Earth’s atmosphere, or outside it. The United States already has a THAAD system in its territory of Guam.

Each system costs an estimated $800 million and is likely to add to the cost of maintaining the U.S. military presence in South Korea, an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. Republican candidate Donald Trump has argued that U.S. allies South Korea and Japan should pay more towards their own defense.

A joint South Korea-U.S. working group is determining the best location for deploying THAAD. It has been discussing the feasibility of deployment and potential locations for the THAAD unit since February, after a North Korean rocket launch put an object into space orbit.

The launch was condemned by the U.N. Security Council as a test of a long-range missile in disguise, which North Korea is prohibited from doing under several Security Council resolutions.

North Korea rejects the ban, saying it is an infringement on its sovereignty and its right to space exploration.

North Korea in late June launched an intermediate range ballistic missile off its east coast in a test that was believed to show some advancement in the weapon’s engine system.

On Thursday, Pyongyang said it was planning its toughest response to what it called a “declaration of war” by the United States after the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted leader Kim Jong Un for human rights abuses.

Also on Thursday, a U.S. official said the administration of President Barack Obama was asking other nations to cut the employment of North Korean workers as a way to reduce Pyongyang’s access to foreign currency.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Lisa Von Ahn)

U.S. Destroyers sail close to Chinese held South China Sea

A machine gun is mounted on U.S. Destroyer USS Momsen (DDG92) as it docks in the Indian Ocean in

By Greg Torode

HONG KONG (Reuters) – U.S. destroyers have sailed close to Chinese-held reefs and islands in the disputed South China Sea in recent weeks, U.S. naval officials said on Thursday, patrols likely to fuel tension ahead of landmark ruling over Beijing’s maritime claims.

The destroyers Stethem, Spruance and Momsen have been patrolling near Chinese-held features in the Spratlys archipelago and the Scarborough Shoal, which is near the Philippines, the officials said. The patrols were first reported by the Washington-based Navy Times newspaper.

Pressure has been rising in the region ahead of a July 12 ruling by an arbitration court hearing the dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea in the Dutch city of The Hague.

China has refused to participate in the case and vowed to ignore the rulings which the United States insists are binding and an important test of Beijing’s willingness to adhere to international law.

While not close enough to be within 12 nautical miles – a so-called freedom of navigation operation that would require high level approval – the destroyers operated within 14 to 20 nautical miles of the Chinese-occupied features, the Navy Times reported.

The USS Ronald Reagan and its escort ships have also been patrolling the South China Sea since last week.

Pacific Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Clint Ramsden said he could not go into operational or tactical details but that the patrols were part of a “routine presence”.

“All of these patrols are conducted in accordance with international law and all are consistent with routine Pacific Fleet presence throughout the Western Pacific.”

U.S. navy officials said Chinese naval ships, and sometimes fishing vessels, frequently track U.S. ships in the South China Sea but it is not yet known if the presence of the destroyers attracted particular attention.

Manila is challenging the legality of Beijing’s actions and claims in the South China Sea – the first legal case involving the South China Sea.

With legal experts expecting the ruling to go Manila’s way, at least in part, U.S. and other regional naval officials are bracing for tension in the weeks and months after the ruling.

(Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Taiwan, China batten down hatches as super typhoon approaches

Typhoon Nepartak

TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Taiwan and China began battening down the hatches on Thursday ahead of the arrival of super Typhoon Nepartak, the first of the year, with fears in China that storm could worsen already severe flooding in the east of the country.

The typhoon is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s mountainous but sparsely populated east coast in the early hours of Friday, where it will loose much of its strength, before crossing over the Taiwan Strait and hitting China on Saturday.

The typhoon has been labeled a category 5 storm on a scale of 1 to 5 by Tropical Storm Risk making it a super typhoon but it should weaken to a topical storm by the time it reaches China.

In Taiwan, authorities announced financial markets would be shut on Friday as cities across the island, including Taipei, announced work and school closures. Airlines began cancelling flights and the bullet train service was suspended.

The island’s weather authorities estimated wind speeds near Nepartak’s center were at least 200 kph (124 mph).

Widespread flooding across central and southern China over the past week has killed about 130 people, damaged more than 1.9 million hectares of crops and led to direct economic losses of more than 38 billion yuan ($5.70 billion).

The city of Wuhan on the Yangtze River, home to 10 million people, has been particularly badly affected, with flooded subway lines and power cuts.

The typhoon is expected to push more rain into already flooded areas in and around Wuhan, the Xinhua news agency said.

Wuhan is a hub for the auto industry, though automakers including Honda <7267.T>, Nissan <7201.T> and state-owned Dongfeng <0489.HK> reported no disruptions.

Peugeot’s <PEUP.PA> venture there said it launched emergency contingency plans, including deploying a sewage pump truck, but factory operations were uninterrupted and its vehicle warehouse unaffected.

Fujian province, opposite Taiwan, has canceled all ferries to Taiwan and Taiwan-controlled islands, and suspended some trains, while Guangdong province has told fishing boats to return to port, the central government said on its website.

Typhoons are common at this time of year in the South China Sea, picking up strength over warm waters and dissipating over land.

Typhoons used to kill many people in China but the government now enforces evacuations and makes preparations well in advance meaning death tolls in recent years have been much lower.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a wide path of destruction over southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing $3 billion worth of damage.

(Reporting by Taipei newsroom, Ben Blanchard and Jake Spring; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Super Typhoon Nepartak; Taiwan to take full brunt of storm

Typhoon Nepartak set to hit Taiwan and China

By Kami Klein

Until now the northwest Pacific has enjoyed the longest extended streak on record almost 200 days without a named storm.  But today, the first super typhoon of 2016 is set to hit Taiwan and China Thursday night into Friday, according to The Weather Channel.  

Considered a Category 5 equivalent tropical cyclone, with sustained winds at times of 175 mph, forecasters predict this to be the strongest Super Typhoon since Typhoon Soudelor in August of 2015. Soudelor  caused massive rains of up to 50 inches in the mountains, 3.6 million homes with no power, massive flooding, and mudslides. There were 40 confirmed deaths and hundreds injured.

According to local reports, Taiwan’s Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan was confident that Taiwan’s international airport would avoid flooding due to management having all water channels cleared of stones and dirt and water pumps ready.  Sandbags have also been placed.  Food prices have risen in anticipation of this dangerous storm.

USA Today reports that, Nepartak has seen gusts of up to 207 mph.  Taiwan’s military has mobilized thousands of troops and Premier Lin Chuan was briefed by emergency officials Wednesday morning.

A hurricane and typhoon are the same kinds of storms. West of the International Date Line these storms are called typhoons. A Super Typhoon is a storm where the sustained winds reach 150 mph.

For Taiwan, although the incredibly intense winds are dangerous, the concern for the public is mainly for flash flooding and mudslides which will threaten the most lives.

 

Wall St. declines as growth worries, oil weigh

Board showing different value of monies

By Marcus E. Howard

(Reuters) – Wall Street stocks fell in afternoon trading on Tuesday as investors faced continued uncertainty in Europe and tumbling oil prices weighed on energy shares.

The Bank of England said the outlook for Britain’s financial stability after its June 23 vote to leave the European Union, dubbed Brexit, was “challenging” and said it would lower the amount of capital that banks were required to hold in reserve in order to allow them to keep lending.

“After a surprisingly big bounce last week, I think we’re in a little bit of a risk-off trading today – the uncomfortable feeling that maybe all is not fully well given Brexit,” said Jeffrey Carbone, senior partner, Cornerstone Financial Partners, in Cornelius, North Carolina.

Seven of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower. The energy sector <.SPNY> fell 2.4 percent. The materials index <.SPLRCM> was down 2 percent.

The financial sector <.SPSY> was down 1.9 percent with JPMorgan <JPM.N>, Wells Fargo <WFC.N> and Citigroup <C.N> falling between 2.4 and 3.8 percent.

Oil prices <LCOc1> <CLc1> also slipped more than $2 per barrel as a potential economic slowdown weighed on prospects for demand.

Tepid U.S. data added to overall growth worries. Data showed new orders for U.S. factory goods fell in May on weak demand for transportation and defense capital goods.

New orders for manufactured goods declined 1.0 percent after two straight months of increases, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

At 2:20 p.m. (1820 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 130.39 points, or 0.73 percent, to 17,818.98, the S&P 500 <.SPX> had lost 17.28 points, or 0.82 percent, to 2,085.67 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> had dropped 50.52 points, or 1.04 percent, to 4,812.04.

Investors have been seeking safe-haven assets in an uncertain economic environment. Weak data from China added to the nervousness stemming from Britain’s vote to leave the EU.

Data from China showed services sector activity hit an 11-month high in June but a composite measure of activity including manufacturing fell to its lowest in four months.

Tesla’s <TSLA.O> shares fell 1.8 percent to $212.67 after the electric car maker missed vehicle delivery targets for the second consecutive quarter.

Netflix <NFLX.O> rose 0.8 percent to $97.45 after it reached an agreement with Comcast <CMCSA.O> for its services to be available on the cable company’s set-top box. Comcast was down 1 percent at $64.60.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 2,267 to 742, for a 3.06-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 2,075 issues fell and 717 advanced for a 2.89-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 66 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq recorded 61 new highs and 29 new lows.

(Additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian and James Dalgleish)

China floods kill 128 , 1.3 million evacuated, 40,000 buildings collapse

An aerial view shows that houses are flooded in villages in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, July 4, 2016.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Severe flooding across central and southern China over the past week has killed almost 130 people, damaged more than 1.9 million hectares of crops and led to direct economic losses of more than 38 billion yuan ($5.70 billion), state media said on Tuesday.

Premier Li Keqiang traveled on Tuesday to Anhui, one of the hardest-hit provinces, where he met residents and encouraged officials to do everything they could to protect lives and livelihoods. Li was also to visit Hunan province.

Heavy rainfall had killed 128 people across 11 provinces and regions and 42 people are missing, state news agency Xinhua reported.

More than 1.3 million people have been forced out of their homes, it said.

Weather forecasts predicted more downpours during what is traditionally China’s flood season.

Xinhua said more than 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) of cropland had been damaged and another 295,000 hectares had been destroyed, resulting in direct economic losses of 38.2 billion yuan.

More than 40,000 buildings have also collapsed, it added.

It was not clear how that would affect the summer grain harvest, which was expected to reach 140 million tonnes this year.

The stormy weather also took a toll on farm animals.

In Anhui, the flooding killed some 7,100 hogs, 215 bulls and 5.14 million fowl, the China News Service reported.

In the southern province of Hunan, torrential rain and flooding had forced more than 100 trains to stop or take detours since midnight on Sunday, Xinhua reported.

In one city, about 3 tonnes of gasoline and diesel leaked from a petrol station on Monday, contaminating floodwater that flowed into a river, it said.

Water in 43 rivers in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River had exceeded warning levels and patrols were monitoring dykes, Xinhua quoted Chen Guiya, an official with the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, as saying.

(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Addititional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)

China readying World’s Largest radio telescope to explore space

The last panel of China's world largest radio telescope named "FAST", is installed in Pingtang county

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Sunday hoisted the final piece into position on what will be the world’s largest radio telescope, which it will use to explore space and help in the hunt for extraterrestrial life, state media said.

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, is the size of 30 football fields and has been hewed out of a mountain in the poor southwestern province of Guizhou.

Scientists will now start debugging and trials of the telescope, Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which built the telescope, told the official Xinhua news agency.

“The project has the potential to search for more strange objects to better understand the origin of the universe and boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life,” the report paraphrased Zheng as saying.

The 1.2-billion yuan ($180 million) radio telescope would be a global leader for the next one to two decades, Zheng added.

The telescope, which has taken about five years to build, is expected to begin operations in September.

Advancing China’s space program is a priority for Beijing, with President Xi Jinping calling for the country to establish itself as a space power.

China’s ambitions include putting a man on the moon by 2036 and building a space station, work on which has already begun.

China insists its program is for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China’s increasing space capabilities, saying it is pursuing activities aimed to prevent adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)