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Secretary General thanks Greece for its important contributions to NATO – NATO HQ

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Visiting Athens on Tuesday (6 October 2020), Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos. In his meetings, the Secretary General addressed the security situation in the region. He praised Greeces role as a valued Ally and its contributions to NATO missions, from Afghanistan to Kosovo.

Mr. Stoltenberg stressed that NATO is an important platform for dialogue, where Allies from Europe and North America come together every day to discuss issues that affect our security.

The Secretary General commended the constructive engagement of Greece and Turkey at NATO Headquarters, which enabled the establishment of a bilateral military de-confliction mechanism to reduce the risks of incidents and accidents in the eastern Mediterranean. He stressed that the de-confliction mechanism can help to create the space for diplomatic efforts to address the underlying issues. Mr. Stoltenberg expressed his firm hope that the underlying dispute between two Allies can now be addressed purely through negotiations and in the spirit of Allied solidarity and international law.

For several years, Greece has been on the front line of the refugee and migrant crisis. Mr. Stoltenberg reassured Greece of NATOs solidarity and thanked Athens for its efforts to cut the lines of human smuggling. The Secretary General also commended Greece for investing 2% of GDP in defence and its commitment in collective security.

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Secretary General thanks Greece for its important contributions to NATO - NATO HQ

NATO Chiefs of Defence elect next Chairman of the Military Committee – Admiral Rob Bauer of the Netherlands Armed Forces – NATO HQ

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Allied Chiefs of Defence today, 9 October 2020, elected Admiral Rob Bauer, Chief of Defence of the Netherlands Armed Forces to be the next Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, the senior military adviser to the Secretary General. Admiral Bauer will take up the position following the end of Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peachs tenure in June 2021.

Air Chief Marshal Peach welcomed the election of Admiral Bauer. He said Congratulations to Admiral Bauer, Rob. He will be an excellent Chairman of the NATO Military Committee. His strong leadership of the Netherlands Armed Forces and his clear advice and guidance during our Military Committee meetings are demonstrations of his commitment and capabilities. I could not be handing over the Chair to a more suitable candidate.

Speaking following his election, Admiral Bauer said, I consider it an immense honour that I have been chosen to be the next Chairman of the Military Committee. I am excited to take on this challenge at such an important time for NATO. In this time of increasingly complex security threats and challenges, we need to preserve cohesion within the alliance. We need to ensure NATOs responsiveness, readiness and reinforcement.

He went on to stress, As Chairman of the Military Committee, I will strive to keep together north, south, east and west, large and small; while following a 360-degree approach to deter all potential threats and defend allies against any adversary.

The Chair of the NATO Military Committee is traditionally a former Chief of Defence of a NATO allied member. The position of Chairman is normally held for a period of three years. The Chiefs of Defence, in a closed meeting, elect their Chairman from the candidates put forward by Allies.

The position of Chairman of the Military Committee has been held so far by 19 officers (counting from 1963) from the following Nations: Germany (five times); the United Kingdom (four times); Canada, Italy and Norway (twice); Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark and the Netherlands (once).

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NATO Chiefs of Defence elect next Chairman of the Military Committee - Admiral Rob Bauer of the Netherlands Armed Forces - NATO HQ

NATO CEO John Fithian On End Of COVID-19 Relief Negotiations: This Cant Wait Until After The Election; We Need Help Now – Deadline

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Donald Trumps decision to end negotiations over another round of COVID-19 relief until after the election came as a surprise to many lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and is only adding to the worries among theater owners hoping for a lifeline.

This is not a matter that can get kicked down the road, John Fithian, the president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners, told Deadline. This cant wait until after the election. We need help now.

Trump announced on Twitter on Tuesday that he decided to stop negotiating until after the election, blaming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for demanding that another relief package include money for state and local governments.

Fithian said that their thoughts remain with the president, his wife and their team as they recover from their COVID-19 infections, and we are happy to see him back at the White House.

Related StoryDonald Trump Gives First In-Person Speech Since Coronavirus Diagnosis; White House South Lawn Transformed Into Campaign-Like Rally

But he said that the announcement was disappointing. We strongly urge the president, Secretary [Steven] Mnuchin and Speaker Pelosi and all those involved to stick at it.

Movie theaters have seen revenue plunge with the mass closures and, even as a number reopened, studios pushed major releases well into next year. Cineworld and Regal Cinemas announced plans to close their UK and US venues, respectively.

Fithian said that as recently as this morning, it had seemed as if progress was being made in the relief talks. He said that their last conversation was with Mnuchin on Thursday morning, and they also have talked directly with Pelosi and many other members of Congress.

We went from real optimism that we were making significant progress on our piece [of the relief bill] to this now, Fithian said. I am hoping this will jar the talks back soon.

He identified four different types of relief that have been on the table: the RESTART Act, a forgivable loan program aimed at the hardest hit businesses; an expansion of the small business Paycheck Protection Program; industry specific relief for sectors like live stages, theaters and restaurants; and a plan to redirect unused money from previous relief bills to the most distressed industries.

Theater owners also have been advocating an expansion of enhanced unemployment benefits, which expired on July 31, given the number of workers who have been sidelined.

Our industry is a microcosm of many, many industries in the country right now, Fithian said.

NATO has joined with other groups, including the Motion Picture Association and the Directors Guild of America, to lobby lawmakers, with 92 directors signing a plea for help to Congress.

Fithian said that in a survey of their smaller-sized theater members showed that 26% said that they would go under by Oct. 31 if they did not get help. And 69% of smaller and medium sized members said that they would file for bankruptcy or go out of business by Dec. 31 if there wasnt some kind of relief, including help from Congress, more releases in the pipeline, and the state of New York allowing cinemas to reopen.

NATO has been pressing Governor Andrew Cuomo to approve a reopening plan, as the industry argues that a reason that studios have been pushing back their release dates is because of the lack of such an important market. New York represents not just a chunk of box office revenue, but a big part of pre-release publicity and opinion.

Fithian said that state officials have reviewed theaters safety protocols and toured venues, but Cuomo has not agreed to give his OK. Fithian argued that casinos and restaurants have been given the greenlight, yet they have not. He said that it would help even if theaters in some areas of the state were allowed to reopen and others did not because of ongoing concerns, a policy similar to that of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

A month ago he said movie theaters are next [to reopen], and we are still waiting, he said.

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NATO CEO John Fithian On End Of COVID-19 Relief Negotiations: This Cant Wait Until After The Election; We Need Help Now - Deadline

World Food Programme’s Nobel: Why the UN, NATO and alliances matter in this election | TheHill – The Hill

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The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded this years peace prize to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its "efforts to combat hunger" and its "contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas." The Committee described WFP as "a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict." WFP, a United Nations agency, represents the best of the international community and its collective action to create a more hopeful world. For generations, the United States was WFPs largest donor, providing funding and food from the heartland. This Nobel Prize is a distinct nod to America as well.

In contrast, President TrumpDonald John TrumpFederal judge shoots down Texas proclamation allowing one ballot drop-off location per county Nine people who attended Trump rally in Minnesota contracted coronavirus Schiff: If Trump wanted more infections 'would he be doing anything different?' MORE remains isolated at the White House with COVID-19. Under Donald Trumps leadership, 213,000 Americans have died of the virus; the economy has collapsed; and the nation is now besieged by militias, protests, riots, and a rising murder rate.

In the disastrous first presidential debate, former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenFederal judge shoots down Texas proclamation allowing one ballot drop-off location per county Sanders endorses more than 150 down-ballot Democrats Debate commission cancels Oct. 15 Trump-Biden debate MORE summed it up best: under this president, weve become weaker, sicker, poorer, more divided, and more violent.

A quarantined, isolated, and angry president is emblematic of Americas place in the world today. We are not America first, we are America alone.

And the situation can worsen.

America faces real cyber threats and military competition from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The coronavirus pandemic has shaken our nation. Yet, there will be more public health crises. Climate change is a real and growing threat to the homeland fires in the West, hurricanes in the South, and floods in the Midwest. The range of threats facing America are complex, multifaceted, and indefinite. This is not the time for our country to stand alone, isolated from our neighbors, friends, and allies.

Simply stated, President Trumps go-it-alone strategy makes us less safe.

Seventy-five years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt envisioned a United Nations committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. For generations, the United States was the first among nations at the United Nations. Decades after its founding, the United Nations is in need of serious reform. The Security Council is broken, and the General Assembly irrelevant.

Despite WFPs Nobel Prize for peace, many of the United Nations specialized agencies are political, bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to innovate. President Trump is correct that the United Nations needs change, but he is wrong to walk away from the institution, its founding principles, and its ongoing relevance to global challenges.

Why is President Trumps vision for America wrong?

Just watch China. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that as the Trump administration stepped back from many parts of the multilateral order established after World War II, China has emerged a chief beneficiary, intensifying a methodical, decades-long campaign. At the United Nations, China is actively elevating its civil servants to the helm of various UN agencies. Beijing sees the United Nations as a platform to advance its national interests and shape policies that will govern global trade, commerce, and transport in the decades ahead.

The United States has walked away from the United Nations Human Rights Council, giving China a free pass to shield itself from international scrutiny after imprisoning Uyghur citizens in concentration camps.

The Trump Administration also quit the World Health Organization in the middle of a global pandemic. The ensuing vacuum will benefit our competitors, as the United States will no longer have influence to shape the priorities and budget of the worlds only global public health agency.

The same is true for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, an obsolete behemoth of an agency that nevertheless provides life-saving assistance and a moderating influence to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. When America left UNRWA, it lost its historic right to nominate the agencys leadership and to drive needed reforms.

Roosevelt established the United Nations under U.S. leadership because he understood that American values, leadership and influence was good for the world and for our country.

The free world also faces rising Russian authoritarianism and Chinese military expansionism.

Despite these threats, President Trump has actively undermined our European allies, calling into question the very value and purpose of the transatlantic alliance. It is, obviously, legitimate that Donald Trump, like Barack ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaTrump calls into Rush Limbaugh's show for two hours World Food Programme's Nobel: Why the UN, NATO and alliances matter in this election Poll shows Biden leading Trump, tight House race in key Nebraska district MORE before him, demands that our European allies meet the 2 percent GDP defense spending threshold for appropriate burden sharing. But it is also important to acknowledge that NATO only ever invoked Article 5, the mutual defense provision, to aid the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks. NATO has kept the peace in Europe since 1949, through the challenges of the Cold War and the break-up of the Soviet Union. With an adversarial Russia today, NATO is an unparalleled force multiplier of American power that aligns the United States with Europe.

America not only needs a strong NATO, it also must invigorate its Indo-Pacific alliances to confront a rising China. The Xi Jinping government continues to provoke skirmishes with the Indian military along a land border high in the Himalayas. The Beijing government has suppressed freedoms in Hong Kong in an unrelenting crackdown against pro-democracy activists. An unfettered China will likely make a play for Taiwan.

In addition to our European allies, the United States shares democratic values with India, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. A substantial deepening of alliances in Asia would strengthen America and highlight the weakness of the Chinese authoritarian state. American partners democratic, free, technologically advanced, and increasingly strong provide a necessary check against Chinas expansionist ambitions.

Finally, the world faces the known, predictable, and massive threat of climate change, which will catalyze adversaries, re-organize global power structures, and propel a new set of economic winners and losers. In the homeland, the economic cost and human toll of more frequent and catastrophic hurricanes, wildfires, floods and drought is immense and will only increase.

Climate change by definition requires collective action. Barack Obama built a global consensus to keep the rise of global temperature below the 2 degree Celsius from pre-industrial levels through the Paris Climate Agreement. The Paris Accord was not the answer to climate change, but it was a platform to assert American leadership, technology, and influence in the development of a more robust pathway to mitigate climate effects. In pulling back American global leadership, Trump has ceded market and scientific opportunity to China while the world seeks to solve an existential threat.

The risks ahead, from great power competition to pandemics and climate change, have deeply stressed the international order. Our competitors, Russia and China, do not have alliances, instead they have transactional, short-term, and valueless national relationships.

But America is historically unique.

For decades, the United States has built values-based global alliances precisely because we championed democracy, freedom, liberty, human rights, and open markets.

WFP was founded and championed by the United States for nearly six decades and reflects the values of a pre-Trump America. Todays Nobel Prize reflects generations of American leadership.

American multilateralism cemented military and diplomatic power, benefited our nation, and drove sustained peace and prosperity across the world. This international order is structurally distinct from the pre-World War II era which was marked by adversarial state competition, vast inequality, slow economic growth, and uncontrolled wars. If the United States breaks its multilateral alliances in a second Trump administration, our country will irreparably lose its unique competitive advantages, risk our security and prosperity, and harm our next generation.

R.David Hardenis managing director of theGeorgetown Strategy Groupand former assistant administrator at USAIDs Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, where he oversaw U.S. assistance to all global crises. Follow him on Twitter at@Dave_Harden.

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World Food Programme's Nobel: Why the UN, NATO and alliances matter in this election | TheHill - The Hill

NATO Looks to the Future of Medium Rotorcraft Development – Aviation Today

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The AW101 is one of the aircraft set to retire before 2045. (Leonardo)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is looking to medium vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) technology to replace its fleet of aging helicopters in the future, according to a presentation given by Col. Paul Morris assistant head of air maneuvers for the British Army, during an Oct. 6 presentation as part of the Vertical Flight Society's 76th Annual Forum & Technology Display.

By 2045, the majority of NATO rotorcraft will be out of service creating a need for the new rotorcraft developments to begin now so that they can be deployed when the current rotorcraft retire. NATO's Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) project is establishing a path toward the adoption of new VTOL technology to replace their older helicopters.

The majority of medium-sized helicopters in NATO service have been flying between 40-60 years. Between the 1960s and 1980s the Puma, UH-60, AW101, and V-22 were put into service. The newest of the NATO medium-sized helicopters, NH90, took its first flight in 1995. There have been few design changes since these rotorcraft were put into service and because of their age, most of these aircraft will retire in the next two decades, Morris said.

The analysis suggests that's about 1,000 airframes, and that's not including those from the United States, that will be retired in and around that period, Morris said. Operational analysis, not only says that clearly there is a requirement to replace, but there is an enduring requirement for that capability in the medium space carriage, and high proficiency profiles.

The helicopters in Morriss analysis include 100 Mil 8/17s, 191 Pumas, 167 S-70/UH-60s, 143 AW 101s, and 331 NH90s.

Morris said NATO is looking at medium range aircraft because of the cost savings that will be accomplished by an optimized balance of medium and heavy compared to a single heavy-lift fleet. Medium rotorcraft are also task efficient, have a global reach, and can complete complex insertions in urban environments.

In terms of our sister services in the UK, Royal Navy, the medium rotorcraft offers significant flexibility as a multi-role platform capable of enduring operations, Morris said. Our own CH-47 fleet was not designed to go to sea. Although it can be taken on to the new Queen Elizabeth Class carriers down the lift spread and can go into the hangar spread it cannot fold, and we look enviously at the U.S. Marine Corps and the CH-53K Super Stallion and its capabilities in that respect. A whole series of future trend analysis and operational experience and trends point to the utility of a medium platform on the future battlefield.

NATOs NGRC is in the early stages of development but they are looking at key technology drivers when developing new rotorcraft like flight control and performance, avionics and mission equipment, materials and manufacturing, cost of ownership reduction, teaming, and lethality.

We're looking at advancing sectors, fly by wire technology, active control avionics and mission equipment, and the modular consistent architectures, Morris said. The trailblazing work that [Future Vertical Lift] FVL is doing, we watch with keen interest. We see this as the way forward.

NGRC is also looking at human factors like sensory cueing, augmented reality, and assisting flight crews with artificial intelligence and machine learning.

This aircraft will certainly not be armed all the time but there is a case for lethality, Morris said. We're particularly interested in directed energy weapons.

This process was started in 2015 with a workshop on future rotorcraft requirements and in 2016 advanced to the formation of the NGRC Team of Experts (TOE). The NGCR TOE then released a 2018 report on the need to update rotorcraft between 2035-2045. The report stated the need for modular designs and investment in enabling technology.

I was charged with writing the project, and in 2018, their final report was published, Morris said. It looked at the existing rotorcraft needing to be replaced, and the timelines...that the next generation rotorcraft should be designed as a modular airframe, modularity reducing through-life cost enhancing interoperability and sustainability.

Project NGRC had its inaugural meeting in 2019 where the UK agreed to lead the initiative through the pre-concept phase. By the fourth quarter of 2020, a letter of intent is set to be signed by defense ministries of interested nations, and Project NGRC industry day is expected in 2021.

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NATO Looks to the Future of Medium Rotorcraft Development - Aviation Today

Dont let EU weaken Nato and leave West at Russias mercy Alec Shelbrooke – Yorkshire Post

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NewsOpinionColumnistsDURING the pandemic the work of the Nato allies, especially across Europe, has been key in helping to deliver vital logistical and practical support to help tackle Covid-19.

Friday, 9th October 2020, 11:36 am

However, the Nato Alliance is now facing its biggest threat to its existence than at any time in its 71 year history due to a federalist approach by the EU to defence that could ultimately destroy its key principle of ally security.

Article 42 is the Permanent Security and Co-operation (Pesco) articles of the Lisbon Treaty. I believe it to be a confused, ill thought through and dangerous policy.

When Pesco was signed into effect, it wasnt the dream of the founding fathers being realised, it was President Putin finding it hard to believe that he wasnt dreaming. Although not the European Army in name it prescribes a common security an defence policy.

There has been a pitiful investment in defence across many European nations for years, with the vast majority not even getting close to the two per cent of GDP demanded by Nato membership, let alone the 20 per cent of that sum being spent on capital equipment.

With Pesco now in place, the member states will be contributing billions of pounds towards the European Defence Fund but hidden under the guise of contributions to the European Union to satisfy their home audience.

The obvious concern for longstanding Nato allies outside of Pesco, including the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Norway, Iceland and Turkey, is that the EU allies will no longer have a transparent need to invest in national defence capabilities; rather hide them in the complexities of a new EU framework.

With an ambition for a half a trillion Euro budget, many EU nations will want to count this towards their two per cent Nato investment, despite the fact it will be difficult to see where this money goes.

Often in Nato Parliamentary Annual Assembly meetings, delegates from some European nations try to include their infrastructure spending as part of their contribution, arguing that the money they spend in heavier engineering of bridges and roads for tank movements should be counted towards their two per cent contribution.

What is even more disturbing is that Pesco will only procure its hardware from inside its own club, and the world leading defence industry in the UK will be shut out in the European Unions creation of this closed shop for defence.

The EU wants to procure as one body across the bloc in a similar way to the US, but because it could never operate constitutionally as one federalised block, it would rely on the goodwill of member states to allow their assets to be used in a Nato-led operation.

An efficiently spread, and EU-centred procurement of assets, will inevitably lead to some countries having the lions share of key capital assets.

But countries such as Germany have a constitutional restriction on taking part in aggressive military acts.

Therefore, if under the Pesco arrangements, Germany had a range of key assets that were needed for a Nato operation, it could be constitutionally obliged to say no and thus render the European allies of Nato to be of little or inconsequential support.

The consequences of these decisions lead me to believe that within a procurement generation, it could be impossible to mount a Nato operation in relation to an attack on one of the allies, known as the triggering of Article 5.

President Trump may have articulated his frustration at Nato partners in not pulling their weight, but this is no different to President Obamas criticisms and is supported by the US Congress.

The European Union is in grave danger of rendering the European allies of Nato worthless and, in those circumstances, the stability and deterrent of the most successful military alliance in history will crumble before our eyes.

I strongly believe that Pesco could bring about the collapse of the Nato alliance as we know ittoday, leaving the European continent (including ourselves) at the mercy of Russias strategic whims. The UK must ensure that our upcoming strategic defence review focuses its modelling in a world where the Nato alliance may no longer be able to count solidly on its traditional European allies.

Despite the horrific economic consequences of Covid-19 on our economy, the actions of the European Union mean that it is imperative that we do not cut our investment in our defence capabilities.

Alec Shelbrooke is Conservative MP for Elmet and Rothwell, and leader of the UK delegation to the Nato Parliamentary Assembly.

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Dont let EU weaken Nato and leave West at Russias mercy Alec Shelbrooke - Yorkshire Post

Jewish leaders alarmed by Trump’s support of ‘racehorse theory’ – Los Angeles Times

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President Trump has alarmed Jewish leaders and others with remarks that appeared to endorse racehorse theory the idea that selective breeding can improve a countrys performance, which American eugenicists and German Nazis used in the last century to buttress their goals of racial purity.

You have good genes, you know that, right? Trump told a mostly white crowd of supporters in Bemidji, Minn., on Sept. 18. You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isnt it? Dont you believe? The racehorse theory. You think were so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.

Rabbi Mark Diamond, a senior lecturer on Jewish studies at Loyola Marymount University, was stunned.

To hear these remarks said at a rally in an election campaign for the presidency is beyond reprehensible, said Diamond, the former executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.

This is at the heart of Nazi ideology This has brought so much tragedy and destruction to the Jewish people and to others. Its actually hard to believe in 2020 we have to revisit these very dangerous theories.

The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Trumps remark was not the first time that he has spoken favorably about the racehorse analogy, which has been embraced by white supremacists for decades. But these latest comments come as the country has been roiled over racial injustice and the protests against it. Trump has continued to make inflammatory remarks and his campaign has made blatantly racist appeals.

During the presidential debate Tuesday, he touched upon the genetic theory, returning to a frequent sentiment that ones skills are innate.

You could never have done the job we did, Trump said to former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee. You dont have it in your blood.

Trump has long spoken about his beliefs in the superiority of his genes, dating back to his days as a Manhattan developer; hes talked less frequently of his belief in the racehorse theory, which basically calls for using breeding to encourage desirable traits and eliminate undesirable traits.

Initially used for horses, the theory was ultimately used to justify selective breeding of people, including forced sterilization laws that were on the books in 32 states and used in some of them up through the 1970s.

Scientists who study human intelligence and accomplishment generally agree that while genetics may play some role, the success of individuals is heavily shaped by their environment, including their families and neighborhoods, as well as other factors including mentoring some people receive and simple chance.

Trump views the issue differently.

You can absolutely be taught things. Absolutely. You can get a lot better. But there is something. You know, the racehorse theory, there is something to the genes, Trump told Larry King on CNN in 2007. And I mean, when I say something, I mean a lot.

Three years later, he told CNN that his father was successful and it naturally followed that he would be too: I have a certain gene. Im a gene believer. Hey, when you connect two racehorses, you usually end up with a fast horse. And I really was you know, I had a a good gene pool from the standpoint of that.

He used the phrase again at a 2016 campaign rally in Iowa, and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., told his fathers biographer that the family believed in the theory.

Like him, Im a big believer in racehorse theory. Hes an incredibly accomplished guy, my mothers incredibly accomplished, shes an Olympian, so Id like to believe genetically Im predisposed to better-than-average, Trump Jr. told Michael DAntonio in a 2014 interview, according to a transcript provided by the author.

DAntonio, now a Trump critic whose scathing biography Never Enough was published in 2015, vividly recalled the interview.

I happened to have done a book on eugenics so I knew exactly what he was talking about, I knew where it came from, said DAntonio, who had written a nonfiction book about the confinement of learning-disabled orphans in Massachusetts. This was something American pseudo-scientists taught the Nazis. It sent a chill through me.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, some mainstream scientists and elected officials in the United States, particularly in California, urged the improvement of the citizenry through eugenics. The concept was often used against people of color, Jewish people and Native Americans, but it was also used against white people who were deemed feeble-minded, delinquent or otherwise damaged.

Eugenics arose in the U.S. as the gains Black people had made during the Reconstruction era came under attack by white people aiming to maintain power, often by murder and mob violence. It was also used to argue against immigration by Italians and others.

Across the U.S., there were two avenues that eugenicists used to exploit what they thought of as the racehorse theory of human development, DAntonio said.

The first was to encourage people deemed to have superior traits to have large families. These efforts were partly encouraged by fitter family competitions at state fairs, where well-nourished white families would be judged on their height, weight, size of their heads and symmetry of their faces alongside the competitions for the heartiest livestock and largest crops. Winners would frequently be recognized in newspapers.

(Nazi Germany ran the Lebensborn program to cultivate Aryan traits. The state provided support to pregnant women mostly unmarried deemed racially pure; many of the babies were given to German couples, often SS officers and their families.)

The second avenue in the U.S. was institutionalization and sterilization. Children, often minorities, who were deemed troubled or labeled with the term imbeciles were confined to institutions. More than 65,000 people were officially sterilized against their will, said Paul Lombardo, a Georgia State University law professor who specializes in bioethics, though he suspects the actual number is far larger.

He said eugenics theory was used to justify forced sterilization laws, as well as immigration restrictions and miscegenation prohibitions. American eugenicists conversed with German leaders in the 1920s and 1930s, and their policies became part of the Nazi playbook. In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote approvingly about the United States immigration restrictions, Lombardo said.

At the Nuremberg trials, after World War II, Nazi defenders noted that Americans had also forcibly sterilized people and quoted a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from the 1920s that said state laws allowing such procedures did not violate the Constitution, said Lombardo, who has written two books on the history of eugenics in the U.S.

When Trump says at a rally in Minnesota, You have good genes, I believe in the racehorse theory of heredity, he has all of the earmarks of a classic eugenicist, Lombardo said. It has been astounding to me as somebody who has studied this stuff for 40 years that any public figure would be willing to use that kind of language that so clearly echoes the kinds of things we heard from the people who were running the eugenics movement back in the 20s and 30s.

Rob Eshman, the former editor of the Jewish Journal who is now the national editor of the influential Jewish American online newspaper the Forward, said Trumps language was a clear signal to his supporters who harbor racist or anti-Semitic views.

Racehorse theory is basically like a forerunner to eugenics theory, which led to the Nazis final solution, Eshman said after Trumps Minnesota comments. Its one of the least coded messages he has sent.

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Jewish leaders alarmed by Trump's support of 'racehorse theory' - Los Angeles Times

Stanford President David Starr Jordans Name To Be Removed From Campus Spaces Over Role In Eugenics Movement – CBS San Francisco

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STANFORD (CBS SF) Stanford University announced this week that it will remove the name of David Starr Jordan, the schools first president, from several campus landmarks over his role promoting the eugenics movement.

The university said Jordans name would be removed from Jordan Hall, which is home to the schools psychology department, along with the Jordan Quad and Jordan Modulars, along with Jordan Way near the Stanford Medical Center.

University president Marc Tessier-Levigne and the schools board of trustees approved the changes following a review of Jordans legacy that was summed up in a report completed last month. In his writings, Jordan denigrated numerous races and cultures and believed the efficacy of education was limited by genetic potential. He also advocated for eugenics policies that ultimately led to forced sterilizations and was instrumental in the creation of the American Breeders Association Eugenics Committee, which has been dubbed the first eugenics body in the United States.

Jordan was school president from 1891 through 1913, leading the institution through a financial crisis following the death of university founder Leland Stanford and through the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

David Starr Jordan made monumental contributions to the founding and development of Stanford, which are rightly celebrated, Tessier-Lavigne said. But, as the committee reported, Jordan was an equally powerful and vigorous driving force for beliefs and actions that are antithetical to the values of our campus community, and he leveraged his position as president to advance them.

ALSO READ: Sierra Club: Founder John Muirs Legacy Complicated By Racism

The school will also remove a statue of Jordans mentor, Louis Agassiz from Jordan Hall. University officials said Agassiz had no significant connection to the university and promoted polygenism, which asserted that races have different ancestral origins and are unequal.

Stanford also plans to place an informational plaque in Jordan Hall and create historical displays and educational programming to fully articulate Jordans history, which the school described as complex. Replacement names for Jordan Hall and the other landmarks have not been determined.

The decision to rename campus spaces honoring Jordan follows a similar review process led in 2018 over the legacy of Fr. Junipero Serra, founder of the California mission system, which led to renaming of several campus features.

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Stanford President David Starr Jordans Name To Be Removed From Campus Spaces Over Role In Eugenics Movement - CBS San Francisco

Goes around, comes around | Letters To The Editor | osceolasun.com – Osceola Sun

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A recentSunletter recommends closing the ICE Detention Centers due to an allegation that aliens are forcibly sterilized there. Thankfully, the Department of Homeland Security is investigating this charge. In this current China Virus pandemic, the USA can wait to replace these Obama-ordered cage-like holding areas until we know for sure.

That writer transitioned to the Eugenics Movement noting its dreadful impact on minorities. She omitted its modern-day legacies. For example, Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood and promoted the evolution-basedEugenics Movement. She wrote about the Negro Project and her plans forthe gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extinction, of defective stocks those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization.https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/07/23/racism-eugenics-margaret-sanger-deserves-no-honors-column/5480192002/.

Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame player, Reverend Reggie White, was invited to the Legislature for a speech after a Super Bowl win. The Minister of Defense surprised them and called abortion Black Genocide. Others less famous had said the same --http://www.newworldorderinfo.com/eugenics/2262/genocide-against-blacks/. Most all Planned Parenthood clinics were established and remain in minority neighborhoods. Of course, the numbers of aborted Black children are disproportionately greater than for others.

C.S. Forester said: There is no purpose in studying history, unless the lessons of the past are to influence policy in the present, and present policy can only have a basis in the lessons of the past. Howard Zinns history textbooks for public schools, the NYT 1619 Project, and so much of modern media might look at the past but choose to disregard today.

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Goes around, comes around | Letters To The Editor | osceolasun.com - Osceola Sun

Critics Accuse Trump Of Using Race To Divide Americans – NPR

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During the Sept. 29 presidential debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Cleveland, President Trump declined to denounce white supremacists. Days later he told Fox News that he condemned right-wing hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boys. Win McNamee/Getty Images hide caption

During the Sept. 29 presidential debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Cleveland, President Trump declined to denounce white supremacists. Days later he told Fox News that he condemned right-wing hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boys.

Soon after being discharged from the hospital for treatment for COVID-19, President Trump tweeted the slur "Chinese virus" to refer to the coronavirus, something he's often repeated during the pandemic.

It's the latest example of Trump's alarming language that critics charge is xenophobic, discriminatory and even white supremacist. While Trump denies those labels, he has increasingly returned to the issue of race in the runup to the November election.

Last month he barred racial sensitivity training for federal workers and then expanded it to contractors in an executive order. At the first debate last month, to an international audience, he called the trainings aimed at creating an inclusive work environment "racist."

He's also attacked The New York Times' 1619 Project which some schools are adopting into their curriculum to center the consequences of slavery in U.S. history as anti-American propaganda. Then he formed the "1776 Commission" for what he called a "patriotic" education.

And Trump paints the largely peaceful protests for racial justice across the country as violent riots and tries to portray himself as the "law and order" candidate.

Courtney Parella, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said in a statement that labeling the president racist is a "pathetic attempt to negate his incredible accomplishments for Black America."

"Democrats, with the help of the mainstream media, try to label this President as something he's not," she said.

She points to Trump's record on criminal justice reform, support for funding of HBCUs and unemployment numbers and accused Joe Biden of failing "minority communities." Trump has attacked Biden for his role in the 1994 crime bill and accused him of hurting the economy for Black Americans with his trade policies.

The White House has repeatedly pointed to the record low Black unemployment rate before the coronavirus pandemic. But it shot up during the pandemic to 13 percent, above the national unemployment rate of about 8 percent.

And the president's language and policy changes over the last month are less blips and more features of his reelection campaign, said Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, a professor of political science and gender studies at the University of Southern California.

"Part of the strategy is to create enough chaos and confusion and to create enough anger, frankly, in his base that they will make sure that they continue to kind of agitate during the electoral process," Alfaro said.

"Based on what happened in 2016, he and his campaign see this as a successful strategy. I think what's different in 2020, though, is that you can't just do the same thing that you did four years ago. You actually have to amp it up."

Alfaro said Trump is stoking racial tensions and playing on fears among some white voters to portray himself as the one who can save them from chaos.

She pointed to a rally last month in Bemidji, Minn., where Trump falsely said former Vice President Joe Biden would flood the majority-white state with refugees from "Somalia and all over the planet."

Then to the almost exclusively white crowd, he invoked the "racehorse theory."

"You have good genes, you know that right? You have good genes. A lot of it's about the genes, isn't it? Don't you believe?" he told the crowd. "The racehorse theory you think was so different? You have good genes, Minnesota."

Trump tells an almost exclusively white crowd in Minnesota they have "good genes."

That theory is a discredited, discriminatory belief from the eugenics movement that some genes are superior to others. These are the theories that shaped Nazi Germany's policies. Eugenics was also behind the forced sterilization of women in the 1950s in North Carolina through the early 1970s in Puerto Rico. The pseudo-science led to the coerced sterilizations of Native American, Latina, African American and poor women.

"Then now, most recently, we started to hear reports of women in detention, in [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detention, who were being sterilized without informed consent and certainly against their will," she said.

Even if Trump loses to Biden in November, Alfaro said, his actions have normalized racist fringe ideologies and encouraged extremists.

"There's been this emboldening of violence, this emboldening of a certain kind of rhetoric that I think really could become a problem," she said. "So even if there is a peaceful transfer of power in January, we do have to be very concerned about the legacy of what we've seen over the past four years."

There already appears to be a chilling effect as a result of Trump's executive order to "combat offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating."

This week actor William Jackson Harper tweeted about his experience with a nonprofit he works with, Arts in the Armed Forces. He said the organization asked him to choose a film for cadets of all academies to screen virtually and discuss. They settled on the movie Malcolm X, but the executive order led some cadets to back out of the screening.

In addition to barring racial sensitivity training, the order instructed federal and military institutions not to use material that promotes a "pernicious and false belief that America is an irredeemably racist and sexist country; that some people, simply on account of their race or sex, are oppressors."

"This executive order denies the very real experiences of so many minorities in this country. This executive order is rooted in the fictitious idea that the scourges of racism and sexism are essentially over, and that the poisonous fallout from centuries [of] discrimination isn't real," Harper wrote on Twitter. "But all of these things are real, and they remain to this day some of the most salient malignancies in our society."

Harper called it "selective censorship."

"It's no accident that all of these kinds of flagrant comments, which feel really spontaneous, they all cohere around a narrative of elevating white Americans as the real Americans and around excluding those who don't fit into that as unworthy or unequal," said Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a New York-based historian of contemporary politics and culture.

She points to what she calls the whitewashing of America's history through attacking efforts to teach about systemic racism.

"It's about dismissing the idea that racism is real," Petrzela said, calling it a strategic attack "on the idea that we must take seriously the experiences of people of color and the exclusion and racism that they have faced as a defining aspect of American society."

Trump's not the first president to be accused of using dog whistles and race in his campaign. One example is Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. During his campaign in 1976, he warned about low-income housing in the suburbs and used terms such as "ethnic purity," and "Black intrusion," when discussing all-white neighborhoods.

M.E. Hart is an attorney who's conducted hundreds of racial-sensitivity trainings for the federal government and American businesses. He said maligning efforts to create inclusive environments feels dangerous.

"The trainings are designed to help people understand and work better across cultures, to help people to create a culture of psychological safety and belonging so people can bring their best to work," he said. "They're not anti-American; they're pro-American, pro-business."

Hart was diplomatic before the presidential debate last week. But after watching Trump choose not to condemn white supremacy and then again attack mail-in voting as fraudulent with zero evidence, he no longer uses that diplomatic tone.

"The president laid down the gauntlet, and I'm concerned for the safety of American citizens, regardless of race, of gender, ethnicity," Hart said. "Every American should be concerned when our president is using race to divide us."

Days after the debate, Trump said on Fox News that he did, in fact, condemn white supremacy. "Let me be clear again: I condemn the KKK. I condemn all white supremacists," he said.

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Critics Accuse Trump Of Using Race To Divide Americans - NPR

Indiana University Removes Name of Former President From Campus Sites – Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

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October 5, 2020 | :

Indiana University is removing the name of former President David Starr Jordan from places on its Bloomington campus because of his support for eugenics, the Kokomo Tribune reported.

David Starr Jordan

IUs Board of Trustees voted 8-1 Friday to strip Jordans name from a classroom building, a garage and a creek. The Jordan River will be Campus River temporarily; Jordan Hall will be Biology Building and Jordan Parking Garage will be East Parking Garage.

The move came as a recommendation from IU President Dr. Michael McRobbie.

Jordan was an IU zoology professor before becoming president from 1885 to 1891.

Eugenics is the practice of controlled selective breeding of humans often carried out through forced sterilization, and Jordan wrote about his belief that humanity would thrive only if the fittest were promoted, reportedThe Tribune.

Jordan promoted a branch of eugenic thought known as negative eugenics, which later sought, through marriage laws, forced sterilization practices, and immigration controls, to prevent breeding among those deemed to be of unfit stock, McRobbie told the board.

Jordan later became president of Stanford University.

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Indiana University Removes Name of Former President From Campus Sites - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

An issue that has resurfaced – Laurinburg Exchange

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You didnt see it in the movie about her, or in most of the innumerable tributes (all well-deserved) recently, but Ruth Bader Ginsburg also fought an injustice in North Carolina.

In 1973, the Supreme Court justice-to-be took on the sordid legacy of eugenics in this state. As director of the ACLU Womens Rights Project, Ginsburg and Womens Rights Project co-founder Brenda Feigen filed a federal lawsuit in North Carolina on behalf of Nial Ruth Cox, a Black woman who had been forcibly sterilized by the state in 1965.

When Cox became pregnant at age 18, county officials gave her mother a choice: to have Cox sterilized, or to lose welfare benefits for her children. Cox and her mother also were told by a doctor that the process was reversible when it wasnt. Those officials saw the pregnancy as proof of Coxs immorality.

The case brought national attention to the states heinous program but a judge sided with the state, which had argued that Cox didnt sue within three years of the operation (which was impossible, since Cox didnt realize that the operation had rendered her permanently unable to have children until later).

A panel of judges reversed the decision in 1975, Ria Tabacco Mar, the current director of the ACLUs Womens Rights Project, wrote last week in a Washington Post op-ed.

But by that point it didnt matter, the three-judge panel ruled. The sterilization program had been ended and so whether it was unconstitutional became moot.

In the end, the state did compensate forced-sterilization victims. And Ginsburgs memories of it were vivid and her opinions obviously strong.

When Mar hosted a discussion with Ginsburg about her career in February, she wrote on her op-ed, she didnt get to a planned question about the North Carolina eugenics case for lack of time.

Ginsburg said to her afterward, You didnt ask me about forced sterilization!

Now Mar writes that she wishes she had.

Sad to say, the issue has resurfaced. Some immigrant women in a privately operated detention center in Georgia allege that they underwent hysterectomies without their consent.

The more things change ?

Greensboro News & Record

The case brought national attention to the states heinous program but a judge sided with the state, which had argued that Cox didnt sue within three years of the operation (which was impossible, since Cox didnt realize that the operation had rendered her permanently unable to have children until later).

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An issue that has resurfaced - Laurinburg Exchange

Tor Browser 10.0 Download – TechSpot

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Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.

Note: You can also download the latest beta version, Tor Browser 10 Alpha 7 here.

Individuals use Tor to keep websites from tracking them and their family members, or to connect to news sites, instant messaging services, or the like when these are blocked by their local Internet providers. Tor's hidden services let users publish web sites and other services without needing to reveal the location of the site. Individuals also use Tor for socially sensitive communication: chat rooms and web forums for rape and abuse survivors, or people with illnesses.

Journalists use Tor to communicate more safely with whistleblowers and dissidents. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) use Tor to allow their workers to connect to their home website while they're in a foreign country, without notifying everybody nearby that they're working with that organization.

Groups such as Indymedia recommend Tor for safeguarding their members' online privacy and security. Activist groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recommend Tor as a mechanism for maintaining civil liberties online. Corporations use Tor as a safe way to conduct competitive analysis, and to protect sensitive procurement patterns from eavesdroppers. They also use it to replace traditional VPNs, which reveal the exact amount and timing of communication. Which locations have employees working late? Which locations have employees consulting job-hunting websites? Which research divisions are communicating with the company's patent lawyers?

A branch of the U.S. Navy uses Tor for open source intelligence gathering, and one of its teams used Tor while deployed in the Middle East recently. Law enforcement uses Tor for visiting or surveilling web sites without leaving government IP addresses in their web logs, and for security during sting operations.

Welcome Screen

Our old screen had way too much information for the users, leading many of them to spend great time confused about what to do. Some users at the paper experiment spent up to 40min confused about what they needed to be doing here. Besides simplifying the screen and the message, to make it easier for the user to know if they need to configure anything or not, we also did a 'brand refresh' bringing our logo to the launcher.

Censorship circumvention configuration

This is one of the most important steps for a user who is trying to connect to Tor while their network is censoring Tor. We also worked really hard to make sure the UI text would make it easy for the user to understand what a bridge is for and how to configure to use one. Another update was a little tip we added at the drop-down menu (as you can see below) for which bridge to use in countries that have very sophisticated censorship methods.

Proxy help information

The proxy settings at our Tor Launcher configuration wizard is an important feature for users who are under a network that demands such configuration. But it can also lead to a lot of confusion if the user has no idea what a proxy is. Since it is a very important feature for users, we decided to keep it in the main configuration screen and introduced a help prompt with an explanation of when someone would need such configuration.

As part of our work with the UX team, we will also be coordinating user testing of this new UI to continue iterating and make sure we are always improving our users' experience. We are also planning a series of improvements not only for the Tor Launcher flow but for the whole browser experience (once you are connected to Tor) including a new user onboarding flow. And last but not least we are streamlining both our mobile and desktop experience: Tor Browser 7.5 adapted the security slider design we did for mobile bringing the improved user experience to the desktop as well.

Other

What's New:

Tor Browser 9.5.3 is now available from the Tor Browser download page and also from our distribution directory. This release updates Firefox to 68.11.0esr, NoScript to 11.0.34, and Tor to 0.4.3.6.

Also, this release features important security updates to Firefox.

The full changelog since Tor Browser 9.5.1 is:

All Platforms

Note: We are aware of a bug that allows javascript execution on the Safest security level (in some situations). We are working on a fix for this. If you require that javascript is blocked, then you may completely disable it by:

The full changelog since Tor Browser 9.0.5 is:

All Platforms

Build System Windows

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Tor Browser 10.0 Download - TechSpot

How To Use Tor Browser: Everything You MUST Know (2020)

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If youre curious about Tor browser, then you already know how important your privacy and anonymity online can be. And yes, Tor browser is a great tool that can help keep you safe. But theres a lot of confusion about its pros and cons, and especially, about how it relates to VPNs.

Were going to explain how this powerful tool works and what to consider when deciding if its right for you.

Tor browser is similar to a normal web browser in many ways. Its no more difficult to use than Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. The difference is that Tor browser connects you to the internet through the Tor network.

Tor is free, open-source software that helps you stay anonymous online. When you browse the internet using Tor browser, your traffic is randomly directed through a network of servers before you reach your final destination, in order to protect your location and identity.

The name Tor is short for The Onion Router. This refers to the way that Tor protects your data by wrapping it in multiple layers of encryption like an onion.

Tor browser and VPNs are both tools for protecting your privacy online. Theyare not the same thing, however.They are two very different technologies that protect you in different ways.

When you use a VPN, all of your data is secured with end-to-end encryption. Its then directed through a safe channel to a remote server that connects you to the website you are trying to visit.

Tor browser protects your privacy in a different way, which we explain below.

The important thing is that Tor browser is not a VPN, but you can use the two tools together to maximize your security and privacy.

Despite the browsers complex system behind the scenes, it is actually very easy to use. You simply download and install Tor browser, then connect to the internet just like you would with any other browser.

Tor usesa unique system that was developed by the US Navy to protect government intelligence communications.

Your data is bundled into layers of encrypted packets before it enters the Tor network. It is then routedthrough a series of volunteer-operated servers called nodes or relays.

Each time your data passes through one of these relays, a layer of encryption is removed to reveal the location of the next relay. When you reach the final relay on your path, known as the exit node, the last layer of encryption is removed and your data is sent to its final destination.

Each relay only decrypts enough data to know the location of the previous and next relays. Since each path is randomly generated and none of the relays keep records, its nearly impossible for your activity to be traced back to you through Tors complex network.

Tor browser is very effective at hiding your location and preventing your traffic from being tracked. Its almost impossible for your online activity to be traced through Tors network back to you.

However, Tor browser is not entirely secure. The system has a few weaknesses. Since each server in the Tor network is volunteer-operated, you never know whos behind the relays your data travels through.

Generally, this isnt an issue because each relay can only access the location of the previous and next relaysexcept for the exit node.

The exit node removes the final layer of encryption on your data. It cant access your original location or IP address, but it is possible for an exit node to spy on your activity if you visit an unsecured HTTP website.

Torbrowser is also vulnerable to the same attacks that other browsers are. Its a good idea to turn off the browsers plugins and scripts if you are trying to stay anonymous, because these can be exploited to reveal information like your IP address.

The biggest drawback to using Tor browser is speed. Because your data has to travel through multiple relays before reaching your final destination, browsing can be very slow.

Tor browser is not the best choice for streaming and downloading, and its creatorsstrongly discourage torrenting as well. Not only is torrenting painfully slow, but your torrent traffic will not be protected and can expose your IP address.

If youre looking for a way to stream or torrent, a VPN is much better protection.

Another disadvantage of using Torbrowser is that it can draw attention to you. Your ISP cant see what youre doing, but it can see that youre connected to Tor. This by itself can be enough to raise suspicion about what youre doing.

Even if youre only using Tor browserto legally browse the internet, the fact that you are connected to Tor can potentially turn you into a target for government surveillance. US government agencies like the NSA and FBI are very invested in trying to find ways to track Tor users activity.

Tor browser is an effective tool, but it doesnt offer the same level of security and safety that a VPN does. Luckily, you dont have to choose between the two. You can use Tor browser and a VPN together to combine their powers and maximize your privacy.

There are two main ways to combine Tor browser and a VPN. Were going to walk you through both methods and explain the pros and cons of each.

With this method, you connect to your VPN first and then access the Tor network. There are a few advantages to this method, starting with the fact that its very easy. Yousimply connect to your VPN and then open Tor browser.

In most cases, this configuration provides more than enough security and privacy to protect you.

Some VPNs make it even easier by offering a built-in Tor service. One great example is NordVPNs Onion over VPN service, which allows you to connect to Tor without Tor browser.

Instead, NordVPN can route your traffic through one of its secure VPN servers and then directly to the Tor network. The NordVPN service can protect all of the traffic on your device, not just your browser activity.

Another benefit of Tor over VPN is that all of your data is securely encrypted by your VPN before entering the Tor network. This means that Tors volunteer-operated servers cannot access your real IP address.

Since VPNs hide your activity from your ISP, connecting to a VPN before accessing Tor also prevents your ISP from detecting your use of Tor.

Tor over VPN also gives you a measure of privacy from your VPN provider, since they are unable to see what you are doing within the Tor network. On the other hand, if your VPN provider keeps logs of your activity, Tor over VPN doesnt hide your real IP address or the fact that youre using Tor.

The other downside of this method is that it doesnt protect you from malicious exit nodes, since your traffic is unencrypted by the time it reaches your final destination.

With this method, you connect to the Tor network first and then go through your VPN. This method is more complicated than Tor over VPN because in most cases,you have to manually configure your VPN to work with Tor in this way.

The biggest benefit of VPN over Tor is that you areprotected from the Tor exit nodes. Your traffic doesnt go directly from an exit node to your final destination, but rather is routed from the exit node to a secure VPN server.

Thats why this configuration is ideal for communicating sensitive information.

The downside is that your ISPand therefore government agencies as wellwill be able to see that you are using Tor, although your activity will be hidden.

This method also keeps your true IP address hidden from your VPN provider. But with a transparent, no-logs VPN, you shouldnt have to.

The Bottom Line

Despite its flaws, Tor browser is a powerful, effective tool for protecting your privacy online. Combining Tors anonymity with a VPNs security and safety gives you the best of both worlds.

We strongly recommend that you use a VPN, if you are planning on giving Tor browser a try.

Its also good to keep in mind that a VPN by itself can provide excellent security and anonymity, without the significant speed decrease that you will notice with Tor browser.

If youre looking for a trustworthy, reliable VPN to protect your online privacy, check out our list of the best VPN deals and coupon codes.

Privacy Alert!

You are exposing yourself to the websites you visit!

The information above can be used to track you, target you for ads, and monitor what you do online.

VPNs can help you hide this information from websites so that you are protected at all times. We recommend NordVPN the #1 VPN out of over 350 providers we've tested. It has military-grade encryption and privacy features that will ensure your digital security, plus it's currently offering 68% off.

Visit NordVPN

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How To Use Tor Browser: Everything You MUST Know (2020)

Anonymous Greece Hacks Into Turkish Parliament Website And Leaves Message In Support Of Armenia – GreekCityTimes.com

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Hacking group Anonymous Greece found a new target today in the form of The Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

In a Facebook message, the hacking group wrote Turkish Assembly Parliament subdomain Pwned, with pwned deriving from the word owned, due to o and p being close to each other on the keyboard and finds its origins in internet culture, particularly gaming.

URL: https://apps.tbmm.gov.tr/heyet_karsilama2/login.phpUser: [emailprotected] []javadoq[].com ( remove all [] because facebook doesnt allow to paste the email )Pass: anonymousgreece10NOTE: Login to the system with VPN or Tor Browser and watch the defaced message, the rest of the post would say.

Accompanying the post was an image of the hack Anonymous Greece did against The Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Turkish Accemly Pwned by (Greek Armenia), Armenia will win this war against evil Turkey and Azerbaijan,and Killing innocent people and kids makes you terrorist, Anonymous Greece wrote on the webpage of the Turkish Parliament.

Turkish Assembly Parliament subdomain Pwned #Greece #ArmeniaURL:

Posted by Anonymous Greece onWednesday, 7 October 2020

In a post made yesterday, Anonymous Greece paid tribute to the Armenian soldiers died fighting against the Turkish-backed Azerbaijani Army and Al-Qaeda terrorists from Syria.

A GREAT PRAYER FOR ALL THE HEROS ARMENIA SOLDERS WHO SACRECTED FOR THEIR COUNTRY IN THIS WARRORRORRORISTS OF TURKIA AND AZERBAITZAN. Stay strong Armenia! Anonymous Greece wrote.

Posted by Anonymous Greece onTuesday, 6 October 2020

These actions come as the hacking group last Thursday brought down over 150 websites belonging to the Azerbaijani government, as reported by Greek City Times.

As a little support to the Armenians we brought down 83 Azerbaijan government websites, Anonymous Greece announced on Facebook.

83 #Armenia #Greece .

Posted by Anonymous Greece onThursday, 1 October 2020

In a follow up post on the same day, Anonymous Greece wrote Another 76 government (the most important) of Azerbaijan were hit along with the central domain https://www.gov.az/.

76 ( ) domain https://www.gov.az/. #Armenia #Greece

Posted by Anonymous Greece onThursday, 1 October 2020

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Anonymous Greece Hacks Into Turkish Parliament Website And Leaves Message In Support Of Armenia - GreekCityTimes.com

Brave Browser enters dark web with its own Tor Onion service – HackRead

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Brave, an exclusive crypto-friendly web browser, has announced its integration with the Dark Web. Now Brave browsers pages will be accessible on the Dark Web via the Tor gateway.

Tor browser lets users access .onion links. It helps people use the internet anonymously by bouncing search requests across relays dispersed across the globe.

Ben Kero,DevOps engineer at Brave has developed a handy guide to explain how to access Brave pages on the dark web. Kero writes that he first minded an address already accessible on the onion network to generate a private key by expending computational resources.

Furthermore, by using GTX1080, a mid-range graphics card, the team received a .onion address and a private key within just 15 minutes.

That allows us to advertise we are ready and able to receive traffic sent to this address, wrote Kero in a blog post.

Once the addresss mining was complete, the Brave browser booted the Enterprise Onion Toolkit to let users proxy traffic to their regular .com domain. Afterward, the team set up an SSL certificate to certify that domains are safe, and all the information they send across will be encrypted.

If the GIF doesnt work please open it in the new tab.

Contrary to popular perception, Dark Web isnt all about illegal activities. It is also used by researchers, journalists, and activists to surf the web freely [PDF]. It is particularly useful in areas where the government has imposed strict internet policies.

Nevertheless, the Tor browser not only helps people use the internet anonymously but also helps bypass censorship.

Considering that Brave browser has its own Tor address Brave.onion, users can now easily access Braves websites straight from the dark web. Using Tors address to access Brave web pages will protect the users metadata, including their geolocation.

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Brave Browser enters dark web with its own Tor Onion service - HackRead

Talks with China will not help says USA NSA on situation on Ladakh – Oneindia

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India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

| Published: Saturday, October 10, 2020, 14:01 [IST]

New Delhi, Oct 10: China has "attempted to seize" control of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India "by force" as part of its territorial aggression, US' National Security Adviser has said, underlining that time has come to accept that dialogue and agreements will not persuade Beijing to change.

India and China are locked in a five-month-long tense standoff in eastern Ladakh that has significantly strained relations between New Delhi and Beijing. Both sides have held a series of high-level diplomatic and military talks to resolve the border row. However, no breakthrough has been achieved to end the standoff.

China has deployed 60k soldiers on Indias northern border: Mike Pompeo

"Chinese Communist Party's territorial aggression is also apparent on its Indian border where China has attempted to seize control of the Line of Actual Control by force," US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said in a remark on China early this week in Utah.

China's territorial aggression is also true in the Taiwan Strait where the PLA (People's Liberation Army) Navy and Air Force continue to conduct threatening military drills, O'Brien said.

"Beijing's signature international development programme, One Belt One Road (OBOR), involves impoverished companies taking on opaque and unsustainable Chinese loans to pay Chinese firms employing Chinese labourers to build their infrastructure," he said.

Many of these projects are unnecessary, shoddily built and are "white elephants", the US National Security Adviser said.

"And now these countries' dependence on the Chinese debt leaves their sovereignty eroded and with no choice but to hue to the party's line on UN votes or any other issue that the Chinese Communist Party considers a red line," he said.

O'Brien also noted that China's other international aid efforts include selling surveillance systems and similar tools of repression to "pariah regimes" around the world, including Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro.

Amidst face-off with China, the importance of Rustom-2 in Indias arsenal

"The time has come to accept that dialogue and agreements will not persuade or compel the People's Republic of China to change. There's nothing to be gained from looking the other way or turning the other cheek. We've been doing that for far too long," he said.

O'Brien said the US must stand up to the Chinese and protect the American people.

"We must promote American prosperity, practice peace through strength and advance American influence in the world," he said, adding that under President Donald Trump's leadership that is exactly what the US has done.

O'Brien said the Trump administration has adopted a competitive approach to China.

That approach, he said, has two primary objectives. First, improve the resiliency of US institutions, alliances and partnerships to prevail against the challenges that China presents; and the second is to impose tangible cost in order to compel Beijing to cease or reduce actions harmful to America's vital national interest and those of its allied and partner nations.

"President Trump has taken decisive action to meet these objectives. He is working to prevent companies that answer to the Chinese Communist Party's intelligence and security apparatus," O'Brien said.

Citing examples, he said Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei and ZTE have been prevented from accessing Americans' personal and private data and national secrets. The Trump administration, he said, has also imposed import and export restrictions on US semiconductor technology and other exports going to Huawei and similar Chinese telecommunications corporations.

Our democratic partners are starting to follow. Just last month, the UK joined democracies such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Sweden in committing to using trusted suppliers to build their future 5G networks, O'Brien said.

"Carriers like Jio in India, Telstra in Australia, SK and KT in South Korea, NTT in Japan, and others have prohibited the use of Huawei equipment in their networks. The Trump administration is investigating and prosecuting the economic espionage aggressively," he said.

O'Brien said the Trump administration has strengthened its military relationships in the Indo-Pacific region.

"One important partnership which will be one of the most key partnerships for the United States in the 21st century, India, is thriving," he said.

He also noted that the US has signed extended US military access to Singapore's air and naval bases. The country is also working closely with Japan, Australia and New Zealand to strengthen relationships with the Pacific Islands, especially Timor. It is also working closely with Mongolia.

However, O'Brien said even as the US competes with China, it does welcome cooperation where America's interests align.

"The US has a deep and abiding respect for the Chinese people and enjoys longstanding ties to that country, including our alliance in World War II," O'Brien said.

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Talks with China will not help says USA NSA on situation on Ladakh - Oneindia

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How to choose the right multifactor authentication program – Federal News Network

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Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drives daily audio interviews onApple PodcastsorPodcastOne.

With a huge chunk of the federal workforce still working remotely, the PIV cards employees normally use to authenticate themselves on federal networks arent always an option. So, many agencies have turned to commercial multifactor authentication solutions as an alternative. But some of those solutions are more secure than others. To help agencies sort the good from the not-so-good, the National Security Agency has just released a guide to commercial multifactor authentication. Dr. Alan Laing is Senior Subject Matter Expert for Vulnerabilities and Mitigations at NSA, and he joined the Federal Drive to talk more about the information paper.

Jared Serbu: I think for starters, maybe you can just spend a minute here talking about why NSA decided to release this publication at this particular time. I mean, is have you been getting a lot of inquiries from federal agencies and other organizations about multifactor authentication in these interesting last few months?

Alan Laing: So interesting last months is probably a good term to use. The NSA put out a number of cybersecurity information reports related to our customers, trying to continue working. A lot of them were pushed to do telework and things like that. So the multifactor authentication cybersecurity report was part of that.

Jared Serbu: And I guess the main takeaway for me here is that in a pinch, almost anything is better than just a username and password. But not all multifactor authentication schemes are created equal. And just working backwards here a little bit, you specifically call out techniques like text messages, out-of-band SMS messages to your phone, and some of the commercial biometric solutions that are out there, as not being the best ideas. Talk a bit about some of the weaknesses there and why you wouldnt necessarily use those as your first go-tos.

Alan Laing: Yeah, so the SMS and biometrics have have a history of being ineffective at binding the user that is making a request to their digital identity. The NIST report on digital identity guidance describes the the rationale for that. Basically, youre leaving your fingerprints and biometrics all over the place, and its its fairly easy to replicate. And then for the SMS, theres, theres a ton of ways to impersonate or to capture the SMS messages. So that was considered not the best way of moving forward.

Jared Serbu: And the publication, we should tell listeners, does include a list of all the various FIPS-approved solutions that are out there. We certainly cant get into them all in this venue. But can you take us through some of the characteristics that you want to be looking for when youre actually selecting a strong solution?

Alan Laing: Given the need to get this out quickly? We have some expertise here. But we wanted to be fair, so we used the criteria in the NIST digital guidelines document, the recent update, and we used those criteria for our search of public websites that vendors were advertising solutions that met these criteria. So the NIST webpage that has all the validated crypto modules was where we started. And then when we saw the vendors that were validating their products for advertising or indicating that they were compliant or trying to meet the criteria, then we went into those websites and validated those products against the criteria.

Jared Serbu: Can you take us through what you think the most or this is almost a NIST question. But what the most important criteria are for determining whether you really can trust a multifactor authentication scheme.

Alan Laing: So theres the cryptographic part of it. Every multifactor authentication involves some sort of cryptography, whether its a one-time password or a random number generator. So, the independent and standards-based validation thats provided by the FIPS 140-2 validation scheme is probably the most important piece of that. The validator, the verifier of the request also needs to be locked down so theyre not just accepting any claim. It has to be also be cryptographically, and from a network security perspective, it needs to be sound. Those two together and you see the FIPS validation indications in the report as well as things like FedRAMP, or the NIST 853, which is their security controls document.

Jared Serbu: And as you also point out in the document, well, you dont point this out but Ill point out, not every agencys going to have the option to send government-furnished equipment home with every single employee. But you do point out that that is a better option, if you can. Can you talk a bit about why thats the case?

Alan Laing: Yeah. So the phrase that I like to use is, if you have a perfectly good sound authenticator, and you put it into a perfectly compromised host, whoever is controlling that host has access to those credentials. And so making sure that the credentials are in the control of the user, all factors of the authentication solution should be under the exclusive control of the user thats representing it. So government-furnished equipment is managed with the understanding of the specific threats. And its more difficult to do that with your own home computer than if the information isnt there, or the work required to maintain that might not be being done regularly.

Jared Serbu: Yeah, and you also point out that if you dont have the option of sending hardware home with people, virtual GFE is a pretty good second choice. Can you talk about how close we can get to a secure environment with that virtualized environment?

Alan Laing: So the 10s program that was referenced in the document is an Air Force program that basically takes your hardware and allows you to boot to a known good image. So that deals with a lot of the issues regarding you know, an intruder that might have persistence on the hard drive. It basically forces the adversary to start anew with an attack against your system. And these are refreshed periodically to maintain a fairly good protection against the current threats as well.

Jared Serbu: Thats Dr. Alan Laing, the senior subject matter expert for vulnerabilities and mitigations at NSA.

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How to choose the right multifactor authentication program - Federal News Network

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UofL to launch health care cybersecurity curriculum with $6.3 million from National Security Agency, pilot focused on veterans and first responders -…

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. The University of Louisville will develop a curriculum to increase cybersecurity talent specifically focused on health care thanks to a $6 million in funding from the National Security Agency (NSA). The pilot phase of the Healthcare Cybersecurity Workforce Certificate initially will provide the training for 200 first responders and military veterans in accordance with the request for proposal. The certificate incorporates technology industry badging from Microsoft, IBM, and Google, as well as hands-on, applied learning and gamification components.

UofL will lead the curriculum development and pilot the online program through itsCenter for Digital Transformation, working with a coalition of three other institutions. The project also includes $300,000 in funding for research into security biometrics.

We understand the need for cybersecurity talent in our health care workforce to protect the information systems that patients, providers, and payers rely on to deliver quality health care, said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. We are excited to provide this exceptional opportunity for students to enhance their future career opportunities with cutting-edge skills in a short six-month time frame while increasing security for health care data in Louisville and beyond.

Building on more than a decade of expertise in cybersecurity training, UofL will lead a coalition of schools to develop the curriculum including the University of Arkansas Little Rock, the University of North Florida, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System Bluegrass Community and Technical College and Owensboro Community and Technical College, and a coalition liaison from the City University of Seattle. Each of the schools in the coalition is an NSA-designated National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense and contributes interests, experience, and skills aligned with health care cybersecurity systems.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell authored a provision in the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act directing the NSA to partner with universities to develop the cybersecurity workforce. Senator McConnell, also a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, then secured the necessary federal funding to make this program possible. Later, the Senator wrote to NSA Director General Paul Nakasone to support UofLs application and encourage the universitys selection for this prestigious pilot program.

The University of Louisville is uniquely positioned to educate a new generation of cybersecurity professionals. I was proud to lead the Senate to create and fund this national security pilot program and to support the universitys proposal, McConnell said. Working with industry leaders through its Center for Digital Transformation, UofL and its coalition partners can improve our nations health care cyber defense. Im particularly pleased the university is tapping into the skills of our brave service members as they return to civilian life, including many from Kentuckys military installations. This project represents an intersection of UofLs many strengths and Im grateful for President Bendapudis enthusiasm to bring it to Louisville. I look forward to the collaborations benefits for our Commonwealth and the nation.

The UofL Center for Digital Transformation provides future-focused curricula and educational tools to help train the workforce in fast-growing technology areas by integrating the best features of industry and academic institution relationships. The center will coordinate, develop, manage, and monitor the Healthcare Cybersecurity Workforce Certificate program, a two-year project with an option for a third year. Following its development, the curriculum will be made available to other institutions at no charge, increasing the impact of this investment beyond Louisville and Kentucky.

In addition to the certificate program, the project will engage UofLs engineering research power to develop a new security authentication method using neural network models. Adel Elmaghraby, Ph.D., co-PI for the entire project and professor in the UofLSpeed School of Engineering, will lead a collaboration with Mississippi-based historically black institution Alcorn State University to conduct pioneering research into biometrics. The researchers will investigate whether a persons computer keystrokes and mouse movements can be used as a sort of digital signature which, along with their username and password, would provide an added layer of cybersecurity.

As technology continues to become more and more of an integral piece of our everyday lives, a strong cybersecurity industry and workforce are the most important protections we have in making our personal information, our financial transactions, and our health care systems secure, said U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth. I was proud to support this proposal and I am thrilled to see the University of Louisville receive this much sought-after federal investment. This project will help ensure that our city and the university are not only front and center in the future of cybersecurity and the protection of critical information, but also are creating the highly skilled workforce that drives economic growth for years to come.

Certificate program participants will complete the three-level certificate in only six months through online courses led by instructors from coalition institutions, gaining expertise in artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain, internet of things (IoT), machine learning, and other areas. The curriculum will employ innovative training tools including gamification and make use of anonymous datasets and use cases provided by industry partners, including the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council.

As our health care data environment becomes increasingly complex, it is absolutely critical that patient health information is secure and protected, said Tammy York Day, LHCC president and CEO. LHCC is committed to supporting UofLs efforts to arm the next generation of cybersecurity professionals with the skills they need to ensure that our health care data infrastructure is a tool not a barrier to empowering patients to be active participants in their own health care. This grant from the NSA is one of many LHCC-UofL collaborative efforts designed to support and broaden our health care innovation ecosystem, create a strong tech talent pipeline, strengthen and deepen the connections between our corporate and academic communities and invest in Louisvilles success together.

While the curriculum is focused on the health care industry, the skills learned are applicable to multiple industries. In the course of the certificate program, participants will earn industry badges from Google, IBM, Microsoft, and others, adding value to certificate completion and providing pathways to additional educational opportunities.

Since these skills are applicable in nearly every industry, the career credentials these students will acquire are highly valued not only in the health care industry but across the business spectrum, said Sharon Kerrick, Ph.D., assistant vice president and executive director of UofLs Center for Digital Transformation and the principal investigator on the grant.

Andrew Wright, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer information systems in the UofLCollege of Business, will assist in leading the development of the certificate program curriculum. Once developed, the curriculum will be available to other institutions free of charge for one year. The first cohort of 30-40 students is expected to be enrolled in spring 2021. Applicants do not need health care experience or to be enrolled in a degree program at UofL to complete the certificate, however, it can be applied as a credit toward some UofL degree programs.

In its pilot phase, 200 military veterans and first responders will participate in the certificate program free of charge.

The cybersecurity certificate pilot led by UofL for military veterans and first responders is another great example of the universitys strong support to national security. This program will provide participants the opportunity to receive a meaningful certificate leading to employment opportunities in rewarding careers in a growth industry and provide regional/national employers with a much-needed talent source, said retired Army Brig. Gen. Jim Iacocca, president, and CEO of Knox Regional Development Alliance.

Kyle Hurwitz, director of military initiatives at UofL, says this is another example of UofLs commitment to serving military-connected students.

This grant is a win-win for the national cybersecurity talent pool especially focusing on health care, Hurwitz said. Through it, we will be able to assist transitioning service members to gain employment in very high demand industry.

UofL has achieved Military Friendly School designation for 10 consecutive years.

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UofL to launch health care cybersecurity curriculum with $6.3 million from National Security Agency, pilot focused on veterans and first responders -...

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National Storage Affiliates Trust Announces Date of its Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Release and Conference Call – Business Wire

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GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--National Storage Affiliates Trust (NSA or the Company) (NYSE: NSA) today announced the Company will release financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2020 after market close on Thursday, November 5, 2020. NSA will host a conference call to discuss its financial results, current market conditions and future outlook at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, November 6, 2020. Following prepared remarks, management will accept questions from registered financial analysts. All other participants are encouraged to listen to the call via webcast using the link found on the Companys website.

Conference Call and Webcast:Date/Time: Friday, November 6, 2020 at 1:00 p.m. ETWebcast link available at: http://www.nationalstorageaffiliates.com Domestic (toll free): 877-407-9711International: 412-902-1014

Replay Information:Domestic (toll free): 877-660-6853International: 201-612-7415Conference ID: 13692161

A replay of the webcast will be available for 30 days on NSAs website at http://www.nationalstorageaffiliates.com. Any transcription, recording or retransmission of the Companys conference call and webcast in any way are strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of NSA.

Supplemental materials will be posted to the investor relations section of the companys website prior to the conference call.

About National Storage Affiliates Trust

National Storage Affiliates Trust is a real estate investment trust headquartered in Denver, Colorado, focused on the ownership, operation and acquisition of self storage properties located within the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas throughout the United States. As of June 30, 2020, the Company held ownership interests in and operated 784 self storage properties located in 35 states and Puerto Rico with approximately 49.2 million rentable square feet. NSA is one of the largest owners and operators of self storage properties among public and private companies in the United States.

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National Storage Affiliates Trust Announces Date of its Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Release and Conference Call - Business Wire

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