VATICAN CITY (Reuters)—Former Pope Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pontiff in 600 years to resign, died on Saturday aged 95 in a secluded monastery in the Vatican where he had lived since stepping down.

Bells tolled across the Vatican City as news of his death, which followed a rapid decline in his health over Christmas, spread to the faithful on an unusually warm winter’s day.

The Vatican said his body would lie in state from Monday in St.Peter’s Basilica and his funeral will be held on the morning of Jan. 5. Pope Francis will preside over the ceremony, which will take place in the huge square in front of the basilica.

“With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

The Vatican has painstakingly elaborate rituals for what happens after a reigning pope dies but no publicly known ones for a former pope – one of the many complications thrown up by Benedict’s shock resignation in 2013.

Earlier this week, Pope Francis disclosed that his predecessor was “very sick”. Bruni said Benedict had received his last rites, called “the anointing of the sick”, on Wednesday.

Leaders were swift in sending their condolences for Benedict, who was the first German pope in 1,000 years.

“We mourn the death of our Bavarian Pope,” said Markus Soeder, premier of Benedict’s home state. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Twitter that the world had lost “a formative figure of the Catholic Church”.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed Benedict as “a great man who history will not forget”, while Polish President Andrzej Duda called him “one of the greatest theologians of the 20th and 21st centuries”.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Benedict had “worked with all his soul and intelligence for a more fraternal world”.

SCANDALS

For nearly 25 years, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict was the powerful head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, then known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

He was elected pope on April 19, 2005 to succeed the widely popular Pope John Paul II, who reigned for 27 years. Cardinals chose him from among their number seeking continuity and what one called “a safe pair of hands”.

Child abuse scandals hounded most of his papacy but he is credited with jump-starting the process to discipline or defrock predator priests after a more lax attitude under his predecessor.

But Benedict himself acknowledged that he was a weak administrator, saying he showed a “lack of resolve in governing and decision taking” during his eight-year papacy which was marked by missteps and a leaks scandal.

He announced he was resigning in Latin at a routine meeting of cardinals. Many had no idea what he had said and it took time before the news sank in. He himself said he was no longer strong enough to lead the Church due to his “advanced age”.

After his resignation he installed himself in a converted convent on the Vatican grounds and chose the title “pope emeritus”.

Although he rarely appeared in public, Catholic conservatives looked to the former pope as their standard bearer and some ultra-traditionalists even refused to acknowledge Francis as a legitimate pontiff.

They have criticised Francis for his more welcoming approach to members of the LGBTQ+ community and to Catholics who divorced and remarried outside the Church, saying both were undermining traditional values.

Despite the difficulties that emerged from having two men wearing white in the Vatican, Francis developed a warm relationship with Benedict, and said it was like having a grandfather living in the house.

(Writing by Crispian Balmer, Additional reporting by Angelo Amante;Editing by Alison Williams, Frances Kerry and Andrew Heavens)

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We don’t know much about Steven Sweeney, whose daughter, Sydney, stars in HBO’s psychedelic teen sexcapade Euphoria. The actress has described her dear old dad as being “in the medical field,” and says he raised his children to be “religious.” He hasn’t shared a photo on Instagram since September 2018, but his now-dormant profile is a menagerie of cute dogs and posts about weed.

The Spokane native may seem like your average Joe. But as a wise man once said: “Fathers be good to your daughters/Daughters will love like you do.” In other words, if you want to judge a father, you need only look at his daughter. Well, we here at the Washington Free Beacon have spent plenty of time looking at Sydney Sweeney, and it’s clear that she makes her father look almost as good as her.

Let’s set aside her titillating turn as the carousel-riding Cassie in Euphoria or the full-frontal ferocity of her performance in the Amazon Prime film The Voyeurs. Sure, Sweeney may have what even her grandparents called “the best tits in Hollywood.” But you know what’s hotter than that? The courage of her convictions.

When Hollywood feminist scolds tried to shame the shapely starlet out of doing nude scenes, she was firm in her resolve to keep on keeping on while taking it all off. And when the libs tried to cancel her over photos that showed her yee-hawing it up at her mother’s MAGA-themed 60th birthday party, she politely but firmly told them where they could stick their opinions.

Many of the triggered trolls claimed to pick Mr. Sweeney out of the photos from his wife’s “Make Sixty Great Again” party. But let’s set the record straight.

Steven Sweeney is not the dapper dan rocking a “Blue Lives Matter” t-shirt and matching cowboy hat.

Nor is he the faux-MAGA-hat-wearing fella gripping a beer and grinning alongside Sweeney’s brother, Trent.

In fact, Steven Sweeney doesn’t seem to appear in any of the photos from his wife’s birthday party. Why could that be? Perhaps he was mixing drinks at the bar or attending to the grill. Maybe he was playing the dutiful dad and snapping pictures of his adoring family. Or maybe he was off having some fun with his buddies, cracking beers behind the barn or lighting up by the mechanical bull.

We may never know what Steven Sweeney was up to that day, but it doesn’t matter. He’s worked hard to provide for his family and raised a hot daughter who is proud to party with her Republican relatives. Siring America’s sweetheart more than earns you a pat on the back and some time out of the spotlight. And in Steven Sweeney’s case, it also makes you a Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year.

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Climbers walk past the Hillary Step while pushing for the summit of Everest.

STR/AFP via Getty Images

• Climbers who ascend higher than 26,000 feet on Mount Everest enter the “death zone.” 
• In this area, oxygen is so limited that the body’s cells start to die, and judgement becomes impaired.
• Climbers can also experience heart attacks, strokes, or severe altitude sickness.

Human bodies work best at sea level. Down here, oxygen levels are adequate for our brains and lungs. At much higher altitudes, our bodies cannot function properly.

But if climbers want to summit Mount Everest, the tallest peak in the world at 29,029 feet (8,848 meters or 5.5 miles) above sea level, they have to brave what’s known as the “death zone.” This is the area with an altitude above 8,000 meters, where there is so little oxygen that the body starts to die, minute by minute and cell by cell.

In the death zone, climbers’ brains and lungs are starved for oxygen, their risk of heart attack and stroke is increased, and their judgment quickly becomes impaired.

“Your body is breaking down and essentially dying,” Shaunna Burke, a climber who summited Everest in 2005, told Business Insider. “It becomes a race against the clock.”

In 2019, at least 11 people died on Everest, almost all of whom spent time in the death zone. It became one of the deadliest seasons on Everest in recent memory. 

Some expedition companies blamed these deaths on crowding, noting that the peak became so choked with climbers during a rare period of good weather that people were stuck in the death zone for too long. On May 22, 2019, 250 climbers attempted to reach the summit, The Kathmandu Post reported, and many climbers had to wait in line to go up and down.

These extra, unplanned hours in the death zone might have put the 11 people who perished at higher risk, though it’s hard to determine the specific causes of each death.

One mountaineer said climbing Everest feels like ‘running on a treadmill and breathing through a straw’

There is a deadly traffic jam on Mount Everest as climbers are forced to wait in the “death zone.”

Twitter/@nimsdai

At sea level, the air contains about 21% oxygen. But at altitudes above 12,000 feet, oxygen levels are 40% lower.

Jeremy Windsor, a doctor who climbed Everest in 2007 as part of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition, told Everest blogger Mark Horrell that blood samples taken from four mountaineers in the death zone revealed that the climbers were surviving on just one-quarter of the oxygen they needed at sea level.

“These were comparable to figures found in patients on the verge of death,” Windsor said.

Five miles above sea level, the air has so little oxygen that even with supplementary air tanks, it can feel like “running on a treadmill and breathing through a straw,” according to mountaineer and filmmaker David Breashears.

Climbers need to acclimate to the lack of oxygen

A lack of oxygen results in myriad health risks. When the amount of oxygen in your blood falls below a certain level, your heart rate soars to up to 140 beats per minute, increasing your risk of a heart attack.

Climbers have to give their bodies time to acclimate to the lung-crushing conditions in the Himalayas before attempting to summit Everest. Expeditions generally make at least three trips up the mountain from Everest Base Camp (which is higher than nearly every mountain in Europe at 17,600 feet), going a few thousand feet higher with each successive trip before making a push for the top.

Over the course of those weeks at high altitudes, the body starts to make more hemoglobin (the protein in red blood cells that helps carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body) in order to compensate. But too much hemoglobin can thicken your blood, making it harder for the heart to pump blood around the body. That can lead to a stroke or the accumulation of fluid in your lungs.

On Everest, a condition called high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) is common — a quick stethoscope check can reveal a clicking sound as fluid that’s leaked into the lungs rattles around. Other symptoms include fatigue, a feeling of impending suffocation at night, weakness, and a persistent cough that brings up white, watery, or frothy fluid. Sometimes the coughing is so severe it can crack or separate ribs.

Climbers with HAPE are always short of breath, even when resting.

In the death zone, your brain can start to swell, which can lead to nausea and a form of psychosis

Acclimatization to death-zone altitudes simply isn’t possible, high-altitude expert and doctor Peter Hackett told PBS.

One of the biggest risk factors at 26,000 feet is hypoxia, a lack of adequate oxygen circulation to organs like your brain. If the brain doesn’t get enough oxygen, it can start to swell, causing a condition called high altitude cerebral edema (HACE). Essentially, it’s HAPE for the brain.

This swelling can trigger nausea, vomiting, and difficulty thinking and reasoning.

An oxygen-starved brain can cause climbers to forget where they are and enter a delirium that some experts consider a form of high-altitude psychosis. Hypoxic climbers’ judgment becomes impaired, and they’ve been known to do strange things like start shedding their clothes or talking to imaginary friends.

Other possible dangers include insomnia, snow blindness, and vomiting

When climbing in the “Death Zone,” your brain receives one-quarter of the oxygen it needs.

Lhakpa Sherpa

Burke said that while climbing, she suffered from a constant, relentless cough.

“Every second or third breath your body gasps for air, and you wake yourself up,” she said.

The air was so thin that she was unable to sleep properly. 

“Humans will start to deteriorate,” Hackett added. “Sleeping becomes a problem. Muscle wasting takes place. Weight loss takes place.”

Nausea and vomiting from altitude-related illnesses, including HAPE and HACE, also cause a decrease in appetite. The glare from the endless snow and ice can cause snow blindness — temporary vision loss, or burst blood vessels in your eyes.

Temperatures in the death zone never rise above zero degrees Fahrenheit. “Any exposed skin freezes instantly,” Burke said.

A loss of blood circulation to climbers’ fingers and toes can cause frostbite, and in severe cases — if the skin and underlying tissues die — gangrene. Gangrenous tissue often needs to be amputated.

All this physical weakening and impaired vision can lead to accidental falls. Fatigue is ever-present, according to Burke.

“It takes everything to put one foot in front of the other,” she said.

Poor decision-making can also lead climbers to forget to clip back into a safety rope, to stray from the route, or fail to properly prepare life-saving equipment like oxygen tanks.

Mountaineers climb through the death zone in a day, but they can wind up waiting in line for hours

Climbers can only spend 20 minutes on Everest’s summit before having to descend.

Lhakpa Sherpa

Climbing in the death zone is “a living hell,” as Everest climber and 1998 NOVA expedition member David Carter told PBS.

Typically, climbers attempting to bag the summit try and make it up and down in a single day, spending as little time as possible in the death zone before returning to safer altitudes. But this frenzied push to the finish line comes at the end of weeks of climbing.

Lhakpa Sherpa, who’s reached Everest’s summit nine times (more than any other woman on Earth) previously told Business Insider that the day a group attempts to summit Everest is by far the most difficult period of the trek.

In order to summit successfully, everything must go right. Around 10 p.m., climbers leave Camp Four at 26,000 feet. The first chunk of their climb is done in the dark, lit by starlight and headlamps.

About seven hours later climbers typically reach the summit. After a brief rest filled with celebrations and photographs, the expeditions turn around, making the 12-hour trek back to safety and arriving (ideally) before nightfall.

Ukraine’s military said Russia had pulled some troops from towns on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River from Kherson city, the first official Ukrainian report of a Russian withdrawal on what is now the main front line in the south..

* Spain has stepped up security at public and diplomatic buildings after a spate of letter bombs, including one sent to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and another to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, where an official suffered minor injuries.

* Air raid alerts were issued across all of Ukraine following warnings by Ukrainian officials that Russia was preparing a new wave of missile and drone strikes. “An overall air raid alert is in place in Ukraine. Go to shelters,” country’s border service wrote on Telegram messaging app.

* Ukraine’s military said it had found fragments of Russian-fired nuclear-capable missiles with dud warheads in west Ukraine, and that their apparent purpose was to distract air defences.

* The recently liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson has lost its power supply after heavy shelling by Russian forces, the regional governor said.

* European Union governments tentatively agreed on a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil, with an adjustment mechanism to keep the cap at 5% below the market price, an EU diplomat said.

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on that big problems had accumulated in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), accusing the West of spurning the chance to make it a real bridge with Russia after the Cold War.

* Lavrov said that discussions with Washington about potential prisoner exchanges were being conducted by the two countries’ intelligence services, and that he hoped they would be successful.

* The European Union needs patience as it sanctions Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as most measures will only have an impact in the medium and long term, Lithuania’s prime minister said in an interview at  the  Reuters NEXT conference.

* Switzerland has frozen financial assets worth 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($7.94 billion) as of Nov. 25 under sanctions against Russians to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said.

* Russia said the German parliament’s move to recognise the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine as a Soviet-imposed genocide was an anti-Russian provocation and an attempt by Germany to whitewash its Nazi past.

* Ukraine sacked a top engineer at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, accusing him of collaborating with Russian forces, and urged other Ukrainian staff at the plant to remain loyal to Kyiv.

* Russia must withdraw its heavy weapons and military personnel from the Zaporizhzhia plant if the U.N. atomic watchdog’s efforts to create a protection zone are to succeed, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

* In a grim sign of the energy crisis caused by Russian attacks on Ukraine’s electricity grid, nine people have been killed in fires over the past 24 hours as Ukrainians resorted to emergency generators, candles and gas cylinders in violation of safety rules to try to heat their homes after power outages.

* “Remember one thing – the Russians are afraid. And they are very cold and no one will help them, because they do not have popular support,” – Andriy Yermak, chief of Ukrainian presidential staff.

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Australia celebrated its first restriction-free New Year’s Eve after two years of COVID disruptions, as the world began bidding farewell to a year marked for many by the war in Ukraine, economic stresses and the effects of global warming.

Sydney, one of the world’s first major cities to welcome in the New Year, did so with a typically dazzling fireworks display, which for the first time featured a rainbow waterfall off the famous Harbour Bridge.

“This New Year’s Eve we are saying Sydney is back as we kick off festivities around the world and bring in the New Year with a bang,” said Clover Moore, lord mayor of the city, ahead of the events.

Lockdowns at the end of 2020 and a surge in Omicron cases at the end of 2021 led to crowd restrictions and reduced festivities in Australia. However, curbs on celebrations were lifted this year after Australia, like many countries around the world, re-opened its borders and removed social distancing restrictions.

The display in Sydney featured thousands of fireworks launched from the four sails of the Sydney Opera House and from the Harbour Bridge.

In China, rigorous COVID restrictions were lifted only this month in the government’s reversal of its “zero-COVID” policy, a switch that has led to soaring infections and meant some people were in no mood to celebrate.

“This virus should just go and die, cannot believe this year I cannot even find a healthy friend that can go out with me and celebrate the passage into the New Year”, wrote one social media user based in eastern Shandong province.

Others expressed hope the New Year would herald China’s return to pre-pandemic life.

“I lived and worked under COVID throughout 2022… I hope 2023 is when everything can go back to what it was before 2020,” said one user based in the neighbouring province of Jiangsu.

In the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pandemic began three years ago, tens of thousands of people gathered to celebrate amid a heavy security presence.

Barricades were erected and hundreds of police officers and other security workers stood guard on the night of the first large scale spontaneous gathering in the city since nationwide protests in late November – soon after which Chinese authorities all but abandoned the zero-COVID policy.

Officers shuttled people away from at least one popular New Year’s Eve gathering point and used loudspeakers at various locations blasting out a short message on a loop advising people not to gather.

“In the interest of your health and safety do not gather or stop,” a voice called out from the recording on the speaker to the large crowds of revellers, who took no notice.

In Shanghai, many thronged the historic riverside walkway, the Bund.

“We’ve all travelled in from Chengdu to celebrate in Shanghai,” said Da Dai, a 28-year-old digital media executive who was travelling with two friends. “We’ve already had COVID, so now feel it’s safe to enjoy ourselves,” she added.

Malaysia’s government cancelled its New Year countdown and fireworks event at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur after flooding across the nation displaced tens of thousands of people and a landslide killed 31 people this month.

The country’s famous Petronas Twin Towers said it would pare down its celebration with no performances or fireworks.

Europe was bidding farewell to a year that saw a major war erupt after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, with no end in sight to the conflict.

Curfews ranging from 7 p.m. to midnight remained in place across Ukraine, making the celebration of the beginning of 2023 impossible in public spaces. Several regional governors posted messages on social media warning residents not to break restrictions on New Year’s Eve, with some even warning that police presence on city streets would be increased at night.

“I would really like this year to be over”, said Kyiv resident Oksana Mozorenko, 35, though she said her family had put up a Christmas tree and bought presents to make it “a real holiday”.

Russia carried out its second major round of missile attacks on Ukraine in three days on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said, with explosions reported throughout the country on New Year’s Eve.

“The terrorist country launched several waves of missiles. They are wishing us a happy New Year. But we will persevere,” the governor of Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, wrote on Telegram.

Russian President Vladimir Putin devoted his annual New Year’s address on Saturday to rallying the Russian people behind his troops fighting in Ukraine.

Paris was set to stage its first New Year fireworks since 2019, after the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled due to COVID. A 10-minute firework show was set to kick off at midnight, with 500,000 people expected to gather on the famous Champs-Elysees avenue to watch it.

In Croatia, dozens of cities, including the capital Zagreb, cancelled New Year fireworks after pet lovers warned about the damaging effects of noise and gases on animals and people, calling for more environmentally aware celebrations.

The Adriatic town of Rovinj planned to replace fireworks with laser shows and Zagreb was putting on confetti, visual effects and music. The port town of Rijeka aimed to re-direct funds allocated for fireworks to animal care associations, the authorities said.