President Trump’s Sept. 9 call with Ambassador to the European Union Gordon 
Sondland is now the core of his Ukraine defense. Republicans have argued that the
 conversation, in which Trump allegedly said he wanted “no quid pro quo,” is 
exonerating. Trump himself waltzed outside the White House last week with a notepad
 featuring the call and declared: “I would say that means it’s all over.”





Except the call might not have actually taken place — at least not like Sondland 
remembers it.
The Washington Post’s Elise Viebeck, Aaron C. Davis and Josh Dawsey are out with 
an intriguing piece that raises the possibility that Trump and Sondland
 did not actually speak on Sept. 9. Instead, Sondland may actually be remembering 
a phone call that other witnesses have pegged as taking place on Sept. 7.

And the evidence is compelling:
  • Trump has said he doesn’t remember the call.
  • Text messages that Sondland said surrounded the call (between him and top 
  • Ukraine diplomat William B. Taylor Jr.) indicate the call would have taken place between 12:31 a.m. Eastern time and 5:19 a.m. Eastern time on Sept. 9.
  • A colleague of Sondland’s in Brussels said Sondland was comfortable calling
  • Trump only after 7:30 a.m.
  • The White House has found no record of a Sept. 9 call between Trump and Sondland.
  • Sondland isn’t understood to have Trump’s personal cellphone number, meaning there should be a record of the call.
  • Sondland himself testified he was “pretty sure” the call was on Sept. 9, but that he wasn’t completely sure because the White House didn’t provide him records
  •  He also said he couldn’t “specifically recall if I had one or two phone calls” with Trump between Sept. 6 and Sept. 9.
  • Sondland’s testimony has been dodgy — to say the least — before.
According to Sondland’s version, he called Trump on Sept. 9 after Taylor texted him
 that it was “crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
 Sondland said he went directly to Trump to get clarity on exactly what he wanted.
“I recall it vividly, because it was keyed by the frantic emails from Ambassador Taylor,”

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Story 4 
 Man jailed for crossbow murder of pregnant ex-wife
Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo shot Sana Muhammad at her home in east London last year

Aamna Mohdin
A man has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 33 years for the crossbow murder of his heavily pregnant ex-wife.
Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, 51, killed Sana Muhammad, 35, at her home in east London on the morning of 12 November 2018. He burst in and fired an arrow into her stomach as she tried to flee upstairs. Muhammad, formerly known as Devi Unmathallegadoo, sustained catastrophic internal injuries and died while her unborn son - her sixth child – was delivered by caesarean section and survived.
A jury at the Old Bailey rejected the defendant’s claim it was an accident and found him guilty of murder after four hours of deliberations last week.
Passing sentence on Friday, the judge Mark Lucraft QC said it was a “brutal and evil attack” and were it not for the presence of Muhammad’s children, he would have shot her new husband too.
He told the defendant: “You have carefully planned this attack. You had two loaded crossbows and I’m entirely satisfied you intended an attack on Sana and then on Imtiaz. One can only assume that you were jealous of their life together and the fact that they had formed a loving bond between themselves and with your children.”
The judge said the crossbows and bolts the defendant acquired did not require a licence and could be bought online. “As is shown by events that followed, they can be used to devastating effect to kill,” he said. “Many, I am sure, will find the ease with which some items are available deeply concerning. It is for others to consider whether these items should be controlled and require a license for ownership.”
Unmathallegadoo took up position in the garden shed armed with two crossbows, bolts, a knife, duct tape, cable ties and a hammer. He was discovered by the victim’s husband who called for his wife to run as he was chased into the house.
Muhammad had an arranged marriage to the defendant, who was 30 at the time, in Mauritius on her 16th birthday, the court was told. Their relationship broke down in 2012 after an incident in which Muhammad jumped out of an upstairs window and broke her ankle. She told the police that Unmathallegadoo had stared at her as he sharpened knives in the garden.
Muhammad successfully filed for an emergency non-molestation order, which barred the defendant from coming within 100 metres of the family home in Ilford. The order was still in place at the time of killing.
Muhammad went on to marry Imtiaz Muhammad, a builder, and the couple had two children together and were awaiting the imminent arrival of their third.
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Story 5 

'The ducks have won': French court says they may keep on quacking

Reuters

The ducks on a small French smallholding may carry on quacking, a French court ruled on Tuesday, rejecting a neighbor's complaint that the birds' racket was making their life a misery.

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 (Note cite was posted Friday)


Black Friday shoppers flock to stores early for doorbusters, deals



Kelly Tyko and Charisse Jones