ICE charter flights carrying minors landed at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport four times this month –Three charter companies — KaiserAir, iAero and World Atlantic Airlines — handled the flights, which were designated as “ICE flights,” Gallagher said. | 26 Dec 2021 | Charter flights carrying minors in the care of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency landed at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport four times this month, including twice on Christmas Day, an airport official confirmed Sunday. The confirmation came after a week of rumor and speculation on social media, and after U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-9, Dallas, and former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta asked officials to release information about the flights, including whether the passengers were in the country illegally. The flights originated in Texas and some of them stopped in Cincinnati en route to Pittston Twp., said Jim Gallagher, president of Aviation Technologies Inc., the airport’s fixed-base operator. The first charter flight landed Dec. 11 after it was diverted from a New York airport, Gallagher said. The second flight landed Dec. 17 and two flights landed Saturday, Gallagher said. Gallagher said he personally observed young people, most or all of them minors who did not appear to speak English, disembark from the charter planes and get on buses that were parked near hangars at the airport. 
‘Door-To-Door’ COVID Vaccine Teams to Target Unvaccinated ‘Stragglers’ in UK | 27 Dec 2021 | Medical personnel with covid vaccination distribution experience may begin forming teams that will advocate for vaccinations in particular areas of the UK with low vaccination rates. On Sunday, a Cabinet Minister told the Daily Mail that this plan was recently being discussed between the Department of Health and Social Care, officials from 10 Downing Street, and the National Health Service of England (NHS). This plan seeks to convince as many people as possible to get the vaccine and will especially target citizens in rural areas.
Fully Vaccinated Holland America Cruise Ship Turned Away After COVID-19 Positive Tests Reported | 26 Dec 2021 | A Holland America Line cruise ship was denied entry to a Mexican port over the weekend after health officials discovered positive COVID-19 cases on board. The Mexican state of Jalisco’s health department confirmed in a statement to media outlets that 21 crew members on the Koningsdam cruise line tested positive for COVID-19 when it arrived in the tourist resort city of Puerto Vallarta. “Through onboard testing, we have confirmed that a small number of fully vaccinated crew on Koningsdam tested positive for COVID-19,” Holland America wrote in a statement on Saturday to news outlets. “All are showing mild or no symptoms and are in isolation. Close contacts have been quarantined out of an abundance of caution.”
Investigation Launched After Three-Year-Old Girl Dies From Cardiac Arrest One Day After Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine in Argentina | 26 Dec 2021 | The Ministry of Public Health of Tucuman, Argentina released a report that a three-year-old girl died last December 16 and the justice system has intervened and will investigate the cause of her death. “On Thursday, December 16, 2021, at 12:00 hours, a three-year-old patient, in cardiorespiratory arrest, enters the Emergency Service of the Hospital of the Child Jesus. Advanced resuscitation maneuvers are carried out and, when [she] does not respond, [her] death is declared,” the Tucuman Ministry of Health said in a statement. The three-year-old child, Ambar Suarez, received one dose of the Sinopharm, China’s COVID-19 vaccine. The police and justice system will investigate the cause of her death and an autopsy will be performed.
49-Year-Old New York Times Editor Dies of Heart Attack One Day After Boasting About Getting Covid Booster Shot | 27 Dec 2021 | 49-year-old Carlos Tejada, a New York Times Deputy Asia Editor, died of a heart attack last week mere hours after getting a Covid booster shot. Mr. Tejada received a Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine in July, per his Instagram account. Tejada received a Moderna booster shot on December 16 and died of a heart attack less than one day later. “Double-vaxxed. Janssen-fueled, Moderna-boosted. Hey Omicron: Hit me with your wet snot,” Tejada boasted on Instagram on December 16.
Polar Bear swimmers forced to mask during New Year’s Day dip in Pacific Ocean –Order goes against CDC guidelines which say swim venues should ‘discourage staff and visitors from wearing masks in the water’ | 27 Dec 2021 | The annual Alki Beach Polar Bear swim in West Seattle is a go for New Year’s Day 2022 with some new regulations which include participants must wear a mask. According to organizer and community activist Mark Ufkes and Lois Schipper: Adults must be vaccinated and boostered against Covid 19. Everyone must wear a mask. You and your group must be Covid-free, be in good health, and distance yourselves 6 feet from others while on the beach… According to the CDC, “Encourage people who are not fully vaccinated to use masks indoors, except in the water.” The website even adds that swim venues should “discourage staff and visitors from wearing masks in the water.”
NJ to pay $52.9M to families of vets who died of COVID in state-run homes | 23 Dec 2021 | The state of New Jersey has agreed to pay a nearly 53 million settlement to the families of 119 residents of the state’s military veteran facilities who died during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to reports. Each of the families will receive an average of 445,000, to be determined in future arbitration proceedings, according to an administrative official who confirmed the p-yout to NJ dot com. The total amount of the settlement is 52,955,000. Nearly 200 veterans died at two of the state’s veterans homes in Paramus and Menlo Park after the pandemic erupted in 2020. The striking number of deaths prompted a federal civil rights investigation by the Department of Justice, which wrote in a letter to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in Oct. 2020 that there was “cause for concern that the quality of medical care at these nursing homes has been deficient.” That investigation is ongoing. [Yes, but why do New Jersey taxpayers have to foot the bill to provide cover for Murphy’s murders?]
CDC Shortens COVID-19 Quarantine Guidelines for General Population | 27 Dec 2021 | The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a reversal of a previous recommendation, cut the number of days of isolation for Americans who contract COVID-19 from 10 days to five days regardless of vaccination status. The agency similarly shortened the time that close contacts of COVID-19 need to quarantine. Authorities with the CDC said that its latest guidance is in line with more and more evidence suggesting that those who contract the coronavirus are the most infectious two days before and three days after symptoms emerge. Meanwhile, the CDC said that a surge in the Omicron variant across the United States propelled the latest guidance change.
Ukraine may strike Russia first at West’s behest – MP –Opposition politician Mikhail Delyagin claims that Kiev is preparing to attack Russia. | 27 Dec 2021 | At the behest of the West, Ukraine may strike at Russia in February 2022 and launch an offensive in several directions, including in Crimea, an opposition MP in the Russian State Duma claimed on Sunday. According to RIA Novosti, the unlikely claim from Mikhail Delyagin suggested that, contrary to what has been reported by many Western publications, Russia could actually be the target of a military assault early next year. “There is a real threat of an attack on Russia. They are being prepared for it,” Delyagin claimed. “Things are hard enough for them [in Ukraine] to keep people in line. The only way is war.” According to the MP, the risk zone for invasion will be somewhere from early February to the end of March, and the Ukrainian troops could attack Crimea, as well as Rostov-on-Don, Belgorod, or Bryansk, three cities near the frontier.