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SAN DIEGO, Dec. 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Robbins LLP reminds investors that a class action was filed on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) securities between November 16, 2023 and September 23, 2024. Visa operates one the largest digital payment platforms in the world. For more information, submit a form , email attorney Aaron Dumas, Jr., or give us a call at (800) 350-6003. The Allegations: Robbins LLP is Investigating Allegations that Visa Inc. (V) Misled Investors Regarding its Monopolization of the Debt Market According to the complaint, during the class period, defendants materially misled investors as to the risk of damaging antitrust investigations being conducted by federal regulators, choosing to downplay the risk despite its high likelihood of manifesting. On September 24, 2024, these risks came to fruition, as the United States Department of Justice sued Visa in federal court for monopolizing the debit card payment processing market. On this news, Visa’s stock price fell $1.48, or 5.38%, to close at $26.03 per share on September 24, 2024. What Now: You may be eligible to participate in the class action against Visa Inc. Shareholders who want to serve as lead plaintiff for the class must submit their application to the court by January 20, 2025. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. You do not have to participate in the case to be eligible for a recovery. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. For more information, click here . All representation is on a contingency fee basis. Shareholders pay no fees or expenses. About Robbins LLP: Some law firms issuing releases about this matter do not actually litigate securities class actions; Robbins LLP does. A recognized leader in shareholder rights litigation, the attorneys and staff of Robbins LLP have been dedicated to helping shareholders recover losses, improve corporate governance structures, and hold company executives accountable for their wrongdoing since 2002. Since our inception, we have obtained over $1 billion for shareholders. To be notified if a class action against Visa Inc. settles or to receive free alerts when corporate executives engage in wrongdoing, sign up for Stock Watch today. Attorney Advertising. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/72ab9093-8695-4684-b894-67f423f3ed3cSEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The president of South Korea early Wednesday lifted the martial law he imposed on the country hours earlier, bending to political pressure after a tense night in which troops surrounded parliament and lawmakers voted to reject military rule. President Yoon Suk Yeol, who appeared likely to be impeached over his actions, imposed martial law late Tuesday out of frustration with the opposition, vowing to eliminate “anti-state” forces as he struggles against opponents who control parliament and that he accuses of sympathizing with communist North Korea. Police and military personnel were seen leaving the grounds of parliament following the bipartisan vote to overrule the president, and the declaration was formally lifted around 4:30 a.m. during a Cabinet meeting. Parliament acted swiftly after martial law was imposed, with National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik declaring that the law was “invalid” and that lawmakers would “protect democracy with the people.” In all, martial law was in effect for about six hours. The president’s surprising move harkened back to an era of authoritarian leaders that the country has not seen since the 1980s, and it was immediately denounced by the opposition and the leader of Yoon’s own conservative party. Lee Jae-myung , leader of the liberal Democratic Party, which holds the majority in the 300-seat parliament, said the party’s lawmakers would remain in the Assembly’s main hall until Yoon formally lifted his order. Woo applauded how troops quickly left the Assembly after the vote. “Even with our unfortunate memories of military coups, our citizens have surely observed the events of today and saw the maturity of our military,” Woo said. While announcing his plan to lift martial law, Yoon continued to criticize parliament’s attempts to impeach key government officials and senior prosecutors. He said lawmakers had engaged in “unscrupulous acts of legislative and budgetary manipulation that are paralyzing the functions of the state.” Jo Seung-lae, a Democratic lawmaker, claimed that security camera footage following Yoon’s declaration showed that troops moved in a way that suggested they were trying to arrest Lee, Woo and even Han Dong-hoon, the leader of Yoon’s People Power Party. Officials from Yoon’s office and the Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment early Wednesday. Seemingly hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Assembly, waving banners and calling for Yoon’s impeachment. Some protesters scuffled with troops ahead of the lawmakers’ vote, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or major property damage. At least one window was broken as troops attempted to enter the Assembly building. One woman tried unsuccessfully to pull a rifle away from one of the soldiers, while shouting “Aren’t you embarrassed?” Under South Korea’s constitution, the president can declare martial law during “wartime, war-like situations or other comparable national emergency states” that require the use of military force to maintain peace and order. It was questionable whether South Korea is currently in such a state. When martial law is declared, “special measures” can be employed to restrict freedom of press, freedom of assembly and other rights, as well as the power of courts. The constitution also states that the president must oblige when the National Assembly demands the lifting of martial law with a majority vote. Following Yoon’s announcement of martial law, South Korea’s military proclaimed that parliament and other political gatherings that could cause “social confusion” would be suspended, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said. The military said anyone who violated the decree could be arrested without a warrant. In Washington, the White House said the U.S. was “seriously concerned” by the events in Seoul. A spokesperson for the National Security Council said President Joe Biden’s administration was not notified in advance of the martial law announcement and was in contact with the South Korean government. Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said there was no effect on the more than 27,000 U.S. service members based in South Korea. The South Korean military also said that the country’s striking doctors should return to work within 48 hours, Yonhap said. Thousands of doctors have been striking for months over government plans to expand the number of students at medical schools. Soon after martial law was declared, the parliament speaker called on his YouTube channel for all lawmakers to gather at the National Assembly. He urged military and law enforcement personnel to “remain calm and hold their positions. All 190 lawmakers who participated in the vote supported the lifting of martial law. At one point, television footage showed police officers blocking the entrance of the National Assembly and helmeted soldiers carrying rifles in front of the building. An Associated Press photographer saw at least three helicopters, likely from the military, that landed inside the Assembly grounds, while two or three helicopters circled above the site. The leader of Yoon’s conservative party called the decision to impose martial law “wrong.” Lee, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election, said Yoon’s announcement was “illegal and unconstitutional.” Yoon said during a televised speech that martial law would help “rebuild and protect” the country from “falling into the depths of national ruin.” He said he would “eradicate pro-North Korean forces and protect the constitutional democratic order.” “I will eliminate anti-state forces as quickly as possible and normalize the country,” he said, while asking the people to believe in him and tolerate “some inconveniences.” Yoon — whose approval rating dipped in recent months — has struggled to push his agenda against an opposition-controlled parliament since taking office in 2022. His party has been locked in an impasse with the liberal opposition over next year’s budget bill. The opposition has also attempted to impeach three top prosecutors, including the chief of the central Seoul prosecutors’ office, in what the conservatives have called a vendetta against their criminal investigations of Lee, who has been seen as the favorite for the next presidential election in 2027 in opinion polls. During his televised announcement, Yoon also described the opposition as “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces who are plundering the freedom and happiness of our citizens.” He did not elaborate. Yoon has taken a hard line on North Korea over its nuclear ambitions, departing from the policies of his liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in, who pursued inter-Korean engagement. Yoon has also dismissed calls for independent investigations into scandals involving his wife and top officials, drawing quick, strong rebukes from his political rivals. Yoon’s move was the first declaration of martial law since the country’s democratization in 1987. The country’s last previous martial law was in October 1979, following the assassination of former military dictator Park Chung-hee. Sydney Seiler, Korean chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, argued that the move was symbolic for Yoon to express his frustration with the opposition-controlled parliament. “He has nothing to lose,” said Seiler, comparing Yoon’s move to the Hail Mary pass in American football, with a slim chance of success. Now Yoon faces likely impeachment, a scenario that was also possible before he made the bold move, Seiler said. Natalia Slavney, research analyst at the Stimson Center’s 38 North website that focuses on Korean affairs, said Yoon’s imposition of martial law was “a serious backslide of democracy" that followed a “worrying trend of abuse” since he took office in 2022. South Korea “has a robust history of political pluralism and is no stranger to mass protests and swift impeachments,” Slavney said, citing the example of former President Park Geun-hye, the country’s first female president, who was ousted from office and imprisoned for bribery and other crimes in 2017 . Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Matt Lee, Didi Tang and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.
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A jury has found Andre Rebelo guilty of murdering his mother at her Bicton home for cash after taking out three insurance policies in her name just days earlier. Jurors cried as the verdict was announced on Thursday afternoon following nearly two days of deliberation and an eight-week trial where evidence revealed the 28-year-old’s financial woes. Prosecutors said while social media showed he enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, it was debt-driven and pushed him to form a murderous plan. Andre Rebelo killed his healthy and happy 58-year-old mother, Colleen, on May 25, 2020. She had dropped her youngest son Fabian off at work at 10am and planned to pick him up at 2pm. But he never saw her alive again. Colleen returned to her Bicton home when Andre, her second-born son, came to visit. He told the jury he stayed for a chat and a coffee, dropped off some clothes, and caught his mother up on the latest news about his Instagram influencer girlfriend Grace Piscopo and their young son. Then, Andre claimed, he left. However, prosecutors said Andre murdered his mother during that visit, possibly by smothering her face with a pillow. He stripped her naked and placed her body into the shower to make it look like she had collapsed from natural causes. There was no animosity between the pair. There had been no disagreements, no tension, no arguments. So why did he do it? Rebelo was a desperate man, the court was told. He had been studying at university when his girlfriend’s modelling career began taking off. Piscopo was a beautiful young woman who was in a relationship with Rebelo for about eight years. What started with photos of herself posted on social media turned into a business where clothing and accessories brands would pay her to wear their items. More than a million people followed Piscopo on Instagram. Rebelo often featured in her photos too, and soon the couple realised a lot of money could be made if they turned social media into a full-time gig. Rebelo deferred the last year of a management degree and agreed to become her assistant. He also agreed to be the primary carer of their son, who was born in 2019. From the outside it appeared to be the perfect arrangement, but with the job came the pressure of an image to uphold. Rebelo and Piscopo would often appear in photographs looking glamorous, posing in front of expensive homes or on luxurious holidays. It became a carefully curated marketing plan – they needed an expensive house, holidays, car, clothing and accessories to show a lifestyle that others would want to buy into, increasing Piscopo’s popularity and, subsequently, her income. But the plan only worked if they could afford to maintain the lie – and the truth was that Rebelo and Piscopo were not well-off. Before their ascent to fame and fortune, Piscopo had been a receptionist at a gym, and Rebelo had been driving delivery trucks for Coles. They took out a big car loan to buy a Range Rover, and it was a stretch to take on an $880 a week rented home in the Perth suburb of Beaconsfield. Whether Piscopo knew it was a stretch was unclear, but according to financial evidence presented to the jury, the couple could not afford any of it. While Piscopo was bringing in big contracts and, by 2020, making six figures, the couple’s outgoings were swallowing everything up. They were living on credit cards and personal loans and begging for rent reprieves, reduced loan repayments and government handouts meant for those in hardship during the COVID pandemic. Debt collectors were closing in. But both Piscopo and Rebelo told the jury they were not concerned about their financial predicament. Piscopo said Rebelo told her he was about to make a large amount of money – $500,000 – from cryptocurrency trading. But that was also a lie. He told her he had become very successful in the three years he had been trading in cryptocurrency, and convinced her this was a lucrative side-business and a secondary provider of income. None of it was true. Rebelo made absolutely nothing in the three years he spent crypto trading. He used credit cards and personal loans to pump money into the business and, at times, made some profit. But overall, his efforts by early 2020 had yielded a deficit of $22. Rebelo was then almost 24 years old, a stay-at-home father whose involvement in his girlfriend’s burgeoning business was largely posting mail and answering emails. She was going places, prosecutors told the jury, becoming ever more successful and was in demand. He was not. Whether their relationship had always been unequal was not clear, but what came out of his trial was that by 2020, Piscopo had little respect for Rebelo. As 2020 dragged on, Rebelo was apparently feeling pressure. He had told Piscopo a big crypto windfall was coming and, by May, had formulated a plan to deliver on that promise. But to deliver, he had to kill his mother. State prosecutor Brett Tooker told the jury the cold plan could only have been born out of extreme desperation. “It was not just financial need or greed,” he said. “It’s more nuanced than that.” Over three days, Rebelo took out three life insurance policies in his mother’s name. He tried to argue that it was done at his mother’s behest, that she had wanted more than $1 million in cover in the event of her death. But the jury rejected that as a lie and accepted the prosecution’s argument that Rebelo consulted no one else about the policies. Using his mother’s details, he insured her life for $1.15 million and made himself the sole beneficiary of the majority of it. He was paying for those policies, but he couldn’t afford it for long. Five days later, he executed his plan to take her life. Fabian Rebelo, Colleen’s youngest son, found her dead in the shower about 2.30pm on May 25, 2020. He called paramedics, then his sister and older brother Julian. Andre Rebelo was called last. Three of the four siblings met at the house as the police arrived. At no point did Rebelo tell his siblings, the police or paramedics that he had seen his mum alive and well earlier that day. Three days later, he began trying to claim his mum’s life insurance policies. Two of the companies refused to take the claim any further because it was too soon after Colleen had died, but one left the door open by asking for documents including as a coroner’s report, will and medical information. Rebelo did not have that information. He was not the executor of his mother’s will – his older brother Julian was. And the coroner’s office had been communicating with younger brother Fabian, who was notified as Colleen’s next of kin. Rebelo made a fake will, a fake coroner’s report, and fake medical documents in a desperate attempt to get the insurance company to hand over the money. He even faked a voicemail from Colleen’s long-time psychologist after hassling her for weeks about calling the insurance company herself to tell them his mother was not suicidal. But the psychologist, Narina Sidhu, smelled a rat. She called police and told them what Rebelo had been up to. When police were alerted to the possibility that Rebelo was fraudulently trying to claim a life insurance policy worth $500,000, a coroner was months away from releasing official findings on Colleen’s cause of death, which ultimately came back inconclusive. But there were questions about why Rebelo took out three life insurance policies in Colleen’s name just days before her sudden and unexpected death. Police had little evidence to go on, so they placed a listening device in the bedroom he shared with Piscopo at their Beaconsfield rental and a camera with audio in the couple’s living room. They listened to conversations for weeks in the months after Colleen’s death, hoping for something that would lead to a conviction for murder. In one conversation, Piscopo told Rebelo she thought he was downstairs and at home on the day Colleen died. She told him she thought he was being framed for murder, and cried about being interrogated by the police. It was clear Piscopo knew nothing of her partner’s plan to kill his mother and cash in her life insurance policies. On the witness stand, she was asked about Rebelo’s promised $500,000 cryptocurrency windfall and said he told her there was a “hold up with the bank”. That money never came, and Rebelo was arrested for fraud. It took another two years for him to be charged with his mother’s murder, and two more for him to be convicted. Rebelo will be sentenced on April 4, 2025.
NoneHiking apps prompt warnings after separate rescues from B.C. backcountry
Pat King, one of the most prominent figures of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa, has been found guilty on five counts including mischief and disobeying a court order. A judge in an Ottawa courtroom Friday said the Crown proved beyond a reasonable doubt that King was guilty on one count each of mischief, counselling others to commit mischief and counselling others to obstruct police. He was also found guilty of two counts of disobeying a court order. The Alberta resident was found not guilty on three counts of intimidation and one count of obstructing police himself. King could be facing up to 10 years in prison. The sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin on Jan. 16. The Crown is seeking “significant” incarceration time in a penitentiary while the defence wants King to be sentenced to time served and a period of probation. King’s attorney Natasha Calvinho said right now she is focused on the sentencing hearing and will determine if any other action, such as an appeal, will be pursued at a later date. Calvinho said she and her client are disappointed with the ruling, but she said it was well reasoned. “I think what the more important takeaway here, and what we’ve been saying from the very beginning, Mr. King was acquitted of all charges related to inciting any form of violence, specifically intimidation of Ottawa residents,” Calvinho said outside the courthouse. “So yes, he was convicted, a couple counts of mischief for his social media posts, as the judge found, and will continue to fight another day.” The maximum sentence for mischief in this instance is 10 years. In January 2022 the convoy attracted thousands of demonstrators to Parliament Hill in protest against public-health restrictions, COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the federal government. The event gridlocked downtown streets around Parliament Hill, with area residents complaining about the fumes from diesel engines running non-stop, and unrelenting noise from constant honking of horns and music parties. The federal Liberal government ultimately invoked the Emergencies Act to try and bring an end to the protests, which had expanded to also block several border crossings into the United States. Ottawa Police brought in hundreds of officers from police forces across Canada to force the protest to an end. King’s defence argued that King was peacefully protesting during the three-week demonstration and was not a leader of it. But the Crown alleged he was a protest leader who was instrumental to the disruption the protest caused the city and people who lived and worked nearby. The Crown alleged King co-ordinated the honking, ordering protesters to lay on the horn every 30 minutes for 10 minutes at a time and told people to “hold the line” when he was aware police and the city had asked the protesters to leave. The Crown’s case relied mainly on King’s own videos, which he posted to social media throughout the protest to document the demonstration and communicate with protesters. The court proceedings paused for about 10 minutes when King requested a short “health break” after the first verdicts on the mischief charges were read. Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland described the honking as “malicious conduct” intended to disrupt residents, workers, businesses and others from lawfully enjoying downtown Ottawa. Hackland also said that the videos show King was seen as and accepted the leadership role. He pointed to a quote from King, finding it “hilarious” that residents could not sleep for 10 days as “gleefully” aiding and abetting mischief. This evidence also played a role in determining King’s guilt in disobeying a court order and counselling others to do the same. These charges relate to the original Feb. 7, 2022 injunction against using air and train horns in downtown Ottawa which was launched by residents. The city successfully filed a similar injunction days later. As for counselling others to obstruct police, Hackland found King’s call to “hold the line” was telling people not to move from the protest site despite police orders. The judge said that phrase can be seen as a greeting between supporters of the convoy protest, but said there was no other logical interpretation in the context of King’s videos. In the days before a multi-day police removal operation began, King called on people to link arms and sit down with their backs to police if officers tried to move them. On the intimidation charges, Hackland said that a consistent theme of King’s videos were calls to remain peaceful and non-violent. He said that the target was always the federal government and COVID-19 policies, and specific individuals were not targeted by or through King’s actions. As for an intimidation charge related to blocking highways, Hackland said that finding guilt in this instance would be an “overly broad” interpretation of the Criminal Code as the blockade was done as part of a political protest, which is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. His trial was heard over several weeks between May and July. King still has charges of perjury and obstruction of justice that need to be dealt with which is a separate matter stemming from an April 2022 bail review hearing. Details of the testimony that led to the charges are protected under a publication ban, which exists for all information that arises during a bail hearing.After a thrilling double-overtime win over Fresno State, California Baptist makes the nearly 2,500-mile trip to Orlando to face Central Florida on Sunday. The Lancers (5-3) capped their time at the Acrisure Holiday Invitational in Palm Springs, Calif., with an 86-81 victory over the Bulldogs on Wednesday. That followed a last-second, 79-77 loss to SMU the day before. Dominique Daniels Jr. played 45 minutes against Fresno State and led California Baptist with 29 points. He paces the Lancers with 20.3 points per game, while Kendal Coleman averages 15.1 points and is shooting 59.7 percent form the floor. However, coach Rick Croy's team has struggled from 3-point range, shooting just 30.7 percent entering its first true road game this season. UCF (5-2) is coming off of an 84-76 win over Milwaukee last Wednesday despite being outrebounded 41-31. The Knights were helped by the heroics of senior guard Darius Johnson, who had 28 points as he shot a career-best 8-for-10 from beyond the arc. "Darius was terrific," UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. "He's so comfortable in his leadership role now, he's leading our team and running the show, and our new players are becoming more comfortable playing with him. He's been a rock for us this season, and you love to see it out of a senior point guard." "I had an extraordinary night shooting the ball from three," Johnson said. "I rarely think that would happen again, but it's great. I know my teammates are going to have nights like that as well." Johnson is among the nation's leaders in minutes per game (36.6) and is shooting a team-high 50 percent from 3-point range (23 of 46). He, along with his fellow guard Jordan Ivy-Curry, are each averaging 16.9 points to lead UCF. The Knights opened the season with an impressive win over Texas A&M, now No. 20 in the AP poll, but lost both games at last weekend's Greenbrier Tip-Off, including a triple-overtime defeat against LSU on Sunday. UCF has not reached the NCAA Tournament since 2018-19. This will be the first meeting between the Knights and the Lancers, who will each have time off afterwards. UCF won't play until Dec. 8 against Tarleton State, while California Baptist is idle until its Dec. 11 game at San Diego State. --Field Level Media
OTTAWA — Canada will beef up its border security in time for the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Tuesday as he appeared at a House of Commons committee. LeBlanc couldn't provide specifics on the number of extra "boots on the ground," but said the government is finalizing a plan based on advice received from the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency, and that he is now working with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to fund it. "We haven't made, as a government, those final decisions," LeBlanc told the committee, in response to questions from Conservative MP Raquel Dancho. "There will be additional resources. Human and equipment. We will be making announcements in terms of procurement and personnel before (Jan. 20)," he said, referencing Trump's inauguration date. Last week, Trump threatened Canada with 25 per cent tariffs on all imports if Canada didn't do more to stem the passage of migrants and illegal drugs across the border. If enacted the move could critically damage Canada's economy, with more than 70 per cent of Canadian exports bound for the United States. On Friday, LeBlanc and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Florida to dine with Trump and some of his cabinet nominees at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida where they informally discussed trade and border security among other topics. Trudeau met with opposition leaders in his office on Parliament Hill on Tuesday to brief them on the situation as it stands now. An official in Trudeau's office said during the meeting Trudeau stressed the importance of not negotiating against Canada in public, and asked party leaders to state repeatedly and publicly that tariffs will raise the cost of living on both sides of the border. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who attended the meeting, said at an afternoon news conference that unity is key among premiers and federal party leaders, because successfully beating back the tariffs is "not going to happen by accident." "All of us should be putting country before party," she said. Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet said the meeting was cordial, discussions rational and constructive, and said having more of those meetings would be helpful in having a consistent approach on U.S. policy — amid a looming Canadian election. "If that tone that was used in that type of meeting could show up in Parliament, people would have more confidence in us and take us more seriously," Blanchet told reporters, in French. In English he said he was willing to wait for the government's finalized plan for the border before commenting on it, adding he's trying not to turn the issue into a partisan fight. "The parts of (the plan) are exactly what we asked for a long time ago. We asked for more people at the border and ports of entry," Blanchet said. "This is what they seem to be doing with closer collaboration with U.S. authorities. We don't have the details, we don't have the numbers. But we know about the intention, which by itself is the beginning of a good thing." Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre emerged from the meeting appearing to heed Trudeau's call to stress the impact the tariffs could have on the U.S. economy. "It should be obvious and easy to make these arguments to the Americans, because they would be doing enormous damage to their own economy," Poilievre told reporters. But he was also highly critical of Trudeau for enacting policies that Poilievre said put Canada into the position it is in now. He said his demands are for Trudeau to fix the "disorder" at the border and the immigration system, as well as reverse economic damages he says were caused by the carbon price and an emissions cap on oil and gas production. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said Trudeau told the party leaders that it would be helpful if they "didn't amplify the kind of messaging and language that the Trump administration is using to attack Canada." "When you sit around a table, there's the sense that we're all here with a shared view and goals that we share as Canadians," May told reporters. "That said, there were differences in responses as we went around afterwards how much we were willing to say 'yes, we will do whatever we can as opposition party leaders to avoid giving the Trump administration any sound bites that sound like Canadians agree with Trump.'" In a post on Truth Social Nov. 30, Trump called his meeting with Trudeau productive particularly about the drug crisis, but made no mention of whether it had moved the needle for him on tariffs. On Tuesday he posted an illustration of him standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag and the caption "O Canada" without any further explanation. Earlier Tuesday at the public safety committee, RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme said the RCMP did not have intelligence about where people might try to cross the U.S. border, which would inform where to deploy additional officers and how many. He said the challenging part is it's only a crime once people or drugs actually cross into the U.S. "There's collaboration (with U.S. Customs and Border Protection). But I think it's really important to identify those hot areas based on the position that the U.S. will take." Speaking to reporters outside the committee, Duheme said protecting the border is a shared responsibility between both countries and there are problems going both ways. "You heard fentanyl, you heard firearms are coming up from the south. So it's a shared responsibility," he said. The flow of illegal firearms is a topic LeBlanc and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised with Trump at their dinner Friday night. "The prime minister did say, when they were talking about their concerns around fentanyl and precursor chemicals and drugs, that we have for a long time worried about illegal firearms smuggled into Canada," LeBlanc told the committee. "We made that point to (Trump) that that was something we wanted to do in partnership with them." LeBlanc also told reporters on Monday that his department is mulling over expanding the CBSA's mandate to include border patrol between ports of entry. Right now, that responsibility falls on the RCMP. But LeBlanc said such a move would require a legislative change that would take some time to enact. "We’re always looking at good ideas and we’re not dismissing this one, but it’s not a priority for us in terms of arriving at the conclusion we want," LeBlanc said. Speaking to reporters following the leaders meeting with Trudeau, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said it's a change he would support. "Let's protect our borders, keep us safe, and also help in the fight against these tariffs," Singh said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2024 . -with files from David Baxter. Nick Murray, The Canadian Press
[Source: Supplied] VB Holdings Ltd, a leading automotive leasing and fleet management company listed on the South Pacific Stock Exchange since 2001, is investing $10 million to expand its fleet. This move will help the company expand its portfolio of government and commercial contracts, including a major new deal with the Whole of Government (WoG) to supply 80 vehicles under a fully maintained lease program. The investment will enable VB Holdings’ leasing company, Pacific Fleet Management, to expand its fleet capacity and improve service performance. The new fleet will include Hino trucks, known for their safety, efficiency, and sustainability, meeting Euro 4 and 5 regulations. This expansion is also aimed at supporting the company’s growing commercial leasing business. VB Holdings Ltd CEO Bob Niranjan stated that the investment strengthens the company’s position as a trusted fleet management partner, helping to meet demand from both government and commercial clients while driving future growth. The expansion demonstrates the company’s dedication to sustainability since new trucks are designed to minimize emissions and improve safety. Director of VB Holdings Ltd, Jinita Prasad, said the Board fully supports the investment, which coincides with the company’s mission of sustainable growth and operational excellence, demonstrating confidence in the team’s ability to execute large-scale contracts and grab fleet management possibilities. It also prepares VB Holdings for long-term growth, which benefits shareholders and customers alike.'I bought an Amazon Echo Dot for an anti-tech family member and they love it'
Saving too much could be costing you over 80% of your potential retirement
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