News of the World

[DerVVulfman]

POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI
DIED AT AGE 95

Borne in 1927, he was the first Pope to resign in over five-hundred years.

Bavarian borne Joseph Ratzinger came of age in Germany after WWI when the Nazi movement was growing in power, and was forced by law to join the hitler youth at 14 alongside all other German children his age. His family, for their Catholic upbringing was tormented by the Nazis, and he was horrified when his cousin who suffered Down's syndrome was killed as part of Germany's Aktion T4 campaign.

He worked to join the Catholic church, but was drafted into the anti-aircraft corps in '43 and the regular army during WWII until he deserted in April 1945. He claimed his decision to desert was after seeing Jewish citizens in Hungary sent to death camps.

Eventually, he and his brother were ordained in 1951, and he did extensive work in theology which saw him promoted to Archbishop of Munich and Freising in May 1977. And only months later, he was promoted to Cardinal.

Under Pope St. John Paul II, he worked in tackling the issues of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and convinced Pope John Paul II to withdraw authority from those involved in abuse cases, and peronally pushed for investigations in multiple prelates later prosecuted or forced to resign.

Known as the "The Pope of Aesthetics," he regularly donned ornate vestments for mass, and returned to use some garments that had fallen out of fashion for the age. He worked to bring back old traditions, but was not totally restrictive as his approval of the theories of Evolution and the Creational theory of the Big Bang demonstrated.

In February 2013, at 85, Benedict became the first pope since 1415 to have retired. And he spent his last years at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City.

PIONEER JOURNALIST BARBARA WALTERS
DIED AT AGE 93

Confirmed by ABC News, the Emmy Award Winning news anchor has passed away.

Borne in 1929 Boston, she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and quickly took a job as a writer for CBS. It was in 1974 that she joined NBC's 'Today' show as the first female host, then became the first female anchor of ABC news two years later as the first female anchor of an evening news program.

She made her largest mark on journalism being a co-host on ABC's popular "20/20" news program, and then creating "The View" in 1997. Though she left the TV show in 2014, she remained on with "The View" as an executive producer.

Turing her tenure in the news, Walters had numerous high-profile interviews, including Monica Lewinsky in 1999, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, President Richard Nixon, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and comically the Muppet's own Kermit and Miss Piggy.

NEW TWITTER REVEAL
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION PUSHED BANS
UNDER COVID DISINFORMATION

This included "Censoring info that was true but inconvenient" to policy makers.

Though it began with the Trump administration asking Twitter to crack down on stories about panic buying, attacks on content increased under the Biden administration who was focused  on the removal of so-labeled 'anti-vaxxer' accounts.

Just hours after Biden complained that social media companies were "Killing People" under claims of vaccine misinformation, former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson was suspended and then banned from Twitter. After suing Twitter, Berenson forced the release of internal communications showing it was indeed the White House that pressured Twitter.  The tweet that was the spark of the controversy was "It doesn't stop infection. Or transmission. Don't think of it as a vaccine."

* I should note that it was eventually confirmed here that Phizer never tested the vaccine against transmission. (Video here)

Among other users were Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical who noted that those with prior natural infection did not need the vaccine, nor do children. This was confirmed time and time again, both in the States and numerous other countries. And Dr. Andrew Bostorm of Rhode Island sas suspended after highlighting the negative studies about the vaccines.