Mike Pompeo calls Taliban leader amid Russian bounty scandal

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called and spoken with the Taliban’s chief negotiator, a spokesman for the insurgents said Tuesday, amid a raging controversy in Washington over when President Donald Trump was told about US intelligence that Russia was paying the Taliban to kill US and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. However, there was apparently no mention during the call about allegations that some Taliban militants received money to kill US and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. Pompeo and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar held a video conference late on Monday in which Pompeo pressed the insurgents to reduce violence in Afghanistan and discussed ways of moving a peace deal signed between...