and healthy new years eve. we are continuing to follow the breaking news out of the vatican. pope benedict the 16th has died at the age of 95. the vatican says the retired pope passed away early this morning. his funeral will be held on january 5th in st. peters square. presided over by pope francis. that is the man who became leader of the catholic church after benedict resigned from the role in 2013. msnbc looks back on his life and legacy. it was a resignation that shocked the catholic church. pope benedict, less than eight years after his election, he became the first pope and seven centuries to voluntarily retire. he said that he lacked the strength of mind and body to do the job. he felt like he was being prevented from being the pope in a way that he felt the pope should be present for the people of god. he was born joseph rat singer in wartime germany. in the deeply catholic weijia bavaria. he and his brother george people became priests. both eventually landed
now, an interesting fact is that the prefect of rome today, italian media expects during those days between that and the future, tearing the, fifth next thursday, he expects about 60,000 people to come down for that occasion. compare that to the more than 4 million pilgrims who came down for the funeral of the last pope who died, who was, of course, john paul the second. then on thursday, the vatican said that the funeral wouldn t be held in the morning, in st. peters square. you will be presided by pope francis, again, the first time in modern times we know that a pope has presided over another. then, the body will be buried in the vatican grotto, which is a tumult near st. peters to me, below st. peters basilica, and an interesting fact about that is that is where john paul the second was buried before he was moved to the final resting place inside st. peters basilica. claudio, i want to ask you here. have you been able to chat with anybody? what is the lasting legacy you
world. i m laila harrak. ahead on cnn newsroom, we re in the closing stretch of an extremely consequent midterm election. it s a dead heat for senate races in pennsylvania, arizona, and georgia. we have a preview of what s at stake for both parties. plus, some spanish-speaking communities are being inundated with election disinformation and conspiracy theories. ahead, a look at how it s spreading so easily. and ukraine is bracing for a bitter winter as russian strikes pound the power grid, leaving millions in the cold and dark. announcer: live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with laila harrak. we re now just one day away from the critical midterm elections in the u.s., and the stakes couldn t be higher. the candidates are now making their final pitch ahead of election day. up for grabs, all 435 house seats and 35 of the 100 senate seats. the outcome of this election will determine who controls congress. and while democrats currently hold a slim majority, it
teachers at the end of may. and new details about what the 77 minutes of school hallway surveillance video shows. plus, a new covid variant spreading at an alarming rate throughout the united states, and this one is not deterred even by recent infections. so how do the vaccines hold up against it? welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start with our politics lead and members of the january 6th select house committee now publicly suggesting they will use tomorrow s hearing to draw direct links between the extremist groups who stormed the u.s. capitol and have been charged with seditious conspiracy and people inside donald trump s orbit. we are going to be connecting the dots during these hearings between these groups and those who were trying in government circles to overturn the election. what we heard cassidy hutchinson testify along the lines of trump telling mark meadows, the chief of staff, to talk to roger stone and others, mike flynn, and stone and flynn ha
if you, don t, you lose. now that may sound unfair, but we did not make the rules nature did. ignore t we can choose to ignore them,he but those rules will never change. sorry wil. thankfully for americans, we live in a country that is remarkably abundant in all three of those things. the u.s. has the most fertile farmland in the world. we ve got more potable freshwater than virtually any other place and critically, first of all, america has the largest recoverable oil reserves on the planet. we are no one in that category and that matters maybe more than anything. now, let me be telling you on cnn that so-called renewable energy windmills and solar panels are about to power the world s. but that s absurd and no one corrects them and somebody should because a lot is at stake.e.at if your nine year old sta startt telling you i m like superman, you have to correct him before he jumps off the garage.ect the the stakesbe are high. so it is incumbent on the rest of us to point out