The Daily Populous

Tuesday June 30th, 2020 day edition

image for AP sources: White House aware of Russian bounties in 2019

Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported.

The White House did not respond to questions about Trump or other officials’ awareness of Russia’s provocations in 2019.

Bolton declined to comment Monday when asked by the AP if he had briefed Trump about the matter in 2019.

The intelligence in 2019 and 2020 surrounding Russian bounties was derived in part from debriefings of captured Taliban militants.

As of April 2019, the attack was under a separate investigation, unrelated to the Russian bounties, to determine how it unfolded.

The officials who spoke to the AP also said they were looking closely at insider attacks — sometimes called “green-on-blue” incidents — from 2019 to determine if they are also linked to Russian bounties. »

Reddit, Acting Against Hate Speech, Bans ‘The_Donald’ Subreddit

Authored by nytimes.com

People could simply sign up, browse the site anonymously and participate in any of the 130,000 active subreddits.

Yet that freewheeling position led to many issues of toxic speech and objectionable content across the site, for which Reddit has consistently faced criticism.

In the past, the company hosted forums that promoted racism against black people and openly sexualized underage children, all in the name of free speech. »

Trump and Putin spoke FIVE TIMES in just three weeks in an ‘unusual amount of communication’, report claims

Authored by the-sun.com

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the telephone five times in just over three weeks, a report has claimed.

3 Earlier this year, President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the telephone five times over three weeks Credit: Reuters.

3 The Kremlin said Putin and Trump both expressed concern of the scope of coronavirus Credit: AFP. »

NYC mayor de Blasio announces plan to slash police budget by $1 billion

Authored by globalnews.ca

A week after a “defund the police” protest became a full-blown occupation outside City Hall, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday he has a plan for the New York City police department budget to be slashed by US$1 billion.

Money would be deferred to the city’s chronically underfunded public housing system and to youth programs, de Blasio said.

“If they defund the police by US$1 billion then we have won — but that’s only our demand this week.”. »

Trump Got Written Briefing in February on Possible Russian Bounties, Officials Say

Authored by nytimes.com
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But despite being presented with options, including a diplomatic protest and sanctions, the White House authorized no response.

Officials said there was disagreement among intelligence officials about the strength of the evidence about the suspected Russian plot and the evidence linking the attack on the Marines to the suspected Russian plot, but they did not detail those disputes.

Notably, the National Security Agency, which specializes in hacking and electronic surveillance, has been more skeptical about interrogations and other human intelligence, officials said. »