>> good evening. catholics in morning. the pope is dead at the edge of -- age of 85. >> choice to not make tolerance a universareality. it left priests in ministry. >> remembering barbara walters. we look at the life of the trailblazing journalist whose interviews and legacy made her a cultural icon. the highs and lows of the rollercoaster that was 2022.

all of that on tonight's pbs news weekend. >> major funding for pbs news weekend is provided by. >> consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service to help people communicate and connect. our custome service team can help you find one that fits you. >> individuals and institutions. and, friends of the newshour.

for the corporaon of publicble broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station by group -- viewers like you. thank you. john: good evening. on this final day of the year, we begin with the deaths of significant but different figures. first, benedict the 16th. he died in a monastery. pope francis for member his predecessor is noble and kind. he w marked by a conservative church doctrine and struggles over dealing with the clergy sex abuse scandal. reporter: when pope benedict stepped down in 26, he made history. he told a stunned world he did

it for the good of the church. heed c decning health and afr closing the door, he largely disappeared from public life. he was born seph ratzinger in 1927 in southeast germany. ordained a priest in 1951, he quickly earned a reputation as an intellectual and a theologian, teaching at german universities. he gained notice as an expert advisor during vatican ii which ushered in major church reforms and for his prific writing. in 1977, pope paul vi appointed ratzinger archbishop of munich and subsequently made him a cardinal. a few years later, pope john paul ii appointed him head of the vatican office for church doctrine, where he served for almost 25 years. when pope john paul ii died in 2005, ratzinger was elected his successor, taking the name benedict xvi. >> my true plan to govern is not

to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole church, to the word and the will of the reporter: father thomas reese is >> pope benedict was really a rorschach test for people in the church. progressives saw him as very controlling, as limiting theological discussion and debate. conservatives loved him because he was firm in his teaching and imposed that on and what they considered dissident theologians. reporter: benedict reinforced the church's stance against birth control and that neither married men or women could be ordained as priests. but much of his papacy was marked by the ongoing, unresolved clergy sex abuse scandal. he often spoke about it during his visits abroad, including during mass on a trip to washington, d.c. in 2008. >> i acknowledge the pain that

the church in america is experiencing as a result of th sexual abuse of minors. no words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse. reporter: benedict defrocked hundreds of priests for sexual more lax policies -- many after new revelations in 2010 of abuse cases worldwide. >> he does indeed seem to have laicized many priests, but not nearly enough. :re and barrett doyle is director of a site that tracks abuse in the church. >> i.t is a fact that when pope benedict left the papacy, he left in place hundreds, if not thousands of complicit bishops. he left due to his choice to not make zero tolerance a universal reality.

he left thousands, if not tens of thousands of abusive priests in ministry. reporter: in early 2022, an independent report commissioned by the munich archdiocese found that then-archbishop ratzinger failed ttake any action in four instances of alleged sexual abuse during his tenure. in a letter, benedict acknowledged the abuses and apologized, but never admitted wrongdoing. >> i think victims realize that though pope benedict said the right words, he absolutely failed to follow up with steps that he was perfectly capable of tang if he was really determined to end the childlest. reporter: in his final years, benedict seldom appeared in public. in august, he and pope francis met with newly appointed cardinals at the vatican. pope benedict xvi was 95-years-old. for pbs news weekend, i'm laura

barron-lopez. john: barbara walters died last night that her home in new york. she was a trail blazer of women in news. >> i have a new colleague to welcome. reporter: she was the first woman to anchor and news show. in 1977, her voice joint interview with the leaders of israel and egypt. she moderated two presidential debates while at the same time becoming synonymous with celebrity tv interviews. >> are you worried you will lose some fans? reporter: a pop-culture hike herself. the subject of saturday night live.

in 1997, she created and hosted the view. a format that has been much common sense. walters started behind the scenes as a writer and producer, notably on today in the 1960s. she regularly peared on-camera as what was called a today girl, but was not officially made a cohost until 1974, the first woman to hold that title. she jumped to abc in 1976, lured by a big salary and a seat at the evening news anchor desk. >> barbara walters. reporter: while cohosting 2020, her interviews became a venue for public figures dealing with unwelcome notoriety. in 1999, monica lewinsky broke her silence by sitting down with walters after the political storm over her affair with president bill clinton. it remains one of the most watched television news interviews ever, with some 74 million viewers.

walters was slowed in 2010 by heart surgery. and 4 years later, retired from the view. but she continued to do big interviews. >> did you just wake up one day si? say, i'd like to rt o be her final subjects in 2015 was then-presidential candidate donald trump. after spending decades in front of the camera, walters largely stayed out of public view in her final years. when she died, she was 93-years-old. there is other news this evening. a fresh wave of russian missile strikes in ukraine. shredded homes and cars, craters. it came as vladimir putin made his new year's address to accuse the west of provoking moscow.

ukrainian soldiers were welcome home in latest prisoner swap's and a moment of cooperation leading into the new year. and arizona state appeals court -- still to god. at e ups and of 2022. >> this is pbs news weekend from washington. home of the pbs newshour. john: with only a few hours left in 2022 in north america, we take a look back at some of the moments that shaped the past year and how we cover them. our collection of the highs and lows of the roller coasters that

was 2022. at t start of the year, a new word emerged in the vocabulary. omicron. the covid variant helped push worldwide cases past 300 million. as the pandemic wore on, more milestones. by the end of juary, 10 billion vaccinations globally. in march, the global death toll passed 6 million and in may, u.s. debts reached one million. >> the highest reported death toll of any country. and this terrible, largely preventable milestone comes as cases are once again on the rise. john: along with the human toll, new research foundor the first time that humans had passed covid to wild animals. >> if you look back there, you can simply see them interacting. there are quite a lot. they're all all very packed together.

given what we know about the amount of virus that these deer had, it's very easy to see why they were so susceptible and it spread explosively in herds. john: in novemberscientist announced they'd found evidence of white tailed deer passing covid back to humans, a development with wide implications for the future course of the pandemic. in february, the world's geopolitical order was thrown into turmoil witrussian president vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine. millions of ukranians fled their homes. >> we packed our stuff in 15 minutes and we left our house locked. i don't know when we will come back. >> have you think one pson here can help ukraine? >> if one person starts ing something extraordina and something that can help if we

deliver a message to society, it will respond. ordinary people has stymied putin and set backs. with the war in its 10th month, the u.s. military estimes 100,000 ukrainian soldiers and 100,000 russian soldiers have been kill or wounded. an estimatedas temperatures cli, no corner of the globe was untouched by the effects of climate change and the extreme weather accompan iyit. glacier melt continued unabated, the worst year on record for melting in the alps, where glaciers lost 6% of their remaining volume. cyclones pummeled the african island nation of madagascar.

in a season that normally sees one cyclone, there were six. floods ravaged pakistan, killing more than 1700 people and leaving hundreds of thousands more without shelter. a humanitarian crisis triggered by heavy monsoon rains and above normal glacier melt. >> our homes were destroyed with our belongings inside. even some thatched huts fell down upon children. john: in this hemispher there were 14 named tropical storms. two late-season storms proved catastrophic for puerto rico and florida. fiona slammed into puerto rico in september and caused extensive flooding. fast on its feet -- heels came hurricane ian. the path was widespread and devastating. wind and walls of water pounded the gulf coast of florida.

some communities were flattened. >> how deep is this? >> 2.5 feet. it gets deeper. john: by some estimates, ian was one of the 10 costliest storms in u.s. history. from too much water to not enough. wildfires raged around the world. in the wheatfields of spain to the forest of california. the lack of rain in the western united states caused a mega drought. the great salt lake is at its lowest level in history. >> we a ireen dlthid me tofhei. john: as climate disasters continued to affect communities across the globe, international negotiators meeting in egypt made little headway on agreeing on measures to avoid the gravest consequences of climate chge. there was agreement to establish

a fund to compensate poorer countries for the ravages of climate disters caused by pollution from richer, industrialized nations. >> we begin tonight in buffalo, new york. john: back at home, the list of communities synonymous with mass shootings continue to grow. the alleged shooter has been charged with federal hate crimes. just 10 days later, uvalde, texas. a gunman killed 19 children and two teache in an elementary school. more than 375 law enforcement than ane subdue the shooter. >> my sister texted me, i love you. i texted her, are you ok?

i did not know what was going to happen. john: highland park, illinois. a gunman opened fire, killing seven people. colorado springs, colorado. a nightclub was the scene of a shooting that left five people dead. the gunman has been charged with fedel hate crimes. chesapeake, virginia. a walmart manager killed six people in the employee break room. all told, there have been more than 600 shootings in the united states in which at least four people were killed or wounded. congress passed its first major gun reform legislation in nearly three decades. enhancing background checks for gun buyers der the age of 21

by allowing time for authorities to review juvenile records. inflation was the major economic headline of 2022 as prices climbed at their fastest rate in nely 40 years. at the guest -- gas pump. the federal reserve used its primary tool to fight inflation, aggressively raising the key interest rate seven times, spurring fears of an economic slowdown in 2023. in june, a tectonic shift in constitutional rights. the supreme court overturned roe v. wade. erasing a woman's right to an abortion. >>hers the voiceless finally have a voice. john: the legality of abortion is in the hands of the state and the procedure is now illegal in

13 of them. when the supreme court began its session in october, for the first time there was a black female justice. ketanji brown jackson. in june, the committee watched hearings on the january 6 attack. as the historic hearings unfolded, some in primetime, interviews and testimony from those closest to donald trump revealed how he helped incite the violence. >> this is a mountain of republican conservative voices saying the election was not stolen. john: in october, the committee voted to subpoena the former president. >> our duty is to our country, children and constitution. we are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. every american is entitled to those answers.

we can act now to protect our republic. john: his presence was felt in the midterm elections. in wyoming, where liz cheney was up for reelection, his influence was evident. >> it's over time. -- it is a witch hunts. liz has made it very apparent. >> there have been audits and all of those other states. they found no election fraud. >> that is not right. >> that is with those republicans said. >> they are covering up stuff with it.they don't want to deal john: in the end,emocratse of tm nepeonrfor hmances i arly 90 years. not losing a single senate seat

and losing 10 in the house. that was sti enough to give the republicans a house majority. there were shifting political winds overseas. >> i want to thank everybody here. forrest johnson stepped down amid a swirling scandal. his successor was not long for the job a holds the distinction of being the shortest serving prime minister in british history. in brazil, a former president is set to return to power. jrsonahe. in israel, the return of another familiar face. benjamin netanyahu is back as prime minister. this time, he has the right wing

governing coalition ever. 2022, the world said farewell to queen elizabeth the second at the age of 96. the longest-serving monarch in british history, ruling for more than 70 years. in rusa, mikael gorbachev, the last leader of the soviet union died at age 91. he oversaw a series of revolutionary changes that ended the cold war. in japan, the former prime minister was assassinated while campaigning. he was the longest-serving leader in modern japan. he was 67 years old. in the world of stage and screen, there will several final exits. sidney poitier. angela lansbury. william hurt, michelle nichols. james caan. olivia newton-john. kearsley allie. singers loretta lynn, loretta

judd, coolio. there were triumphs of the human mind, spirit and body. discoveries and achievements on earth and in theeavens. in an article, marine archaeologist found the endurance more than one century after the ship was crossed by an ice pack and sank during an expedition. in space, the james webb space telescope captured the first ever images of never before seen stars, galaxies and nebula in the more mundane, dances that went viral on tiktok. it seemed everyone was game to try a few steps. athletes gathered in beijing for the winter olympics even in the midst of the pandemic, with few spectators and strict quarantines.

chloe kim, nathan chen and erin jackson were among the americans to win gold. two of the most dominant tennis rates, serena williamand roger federer retired. in a trnament mired in controversy over the human rights record, jubilation for argentina after their team won the world cup. 2023 has already arrived in some parts of the world. now, we see what awaits us in the new year. now online, from student at the leaf -- relief, we follow up on six stories we reported on this year. all that and more on our website.

pbs.org. that is pbs news weekend for this saturday and this year. starting tonight, we will be seeing something later faces in unfamiliar places. geoff bennett begins a new assignment on monday, co-anchoring the pbs newshour. for now, i look forward to spending saturdays and sundays to come. one thing that is not changing is our commitment to independent, fact-based journalism. as we say goodbye, we want to share some spectacular photos of the northe lights, taken from around the world. these are some of the winning images. thanks. have a good, safe new year's eve and see you next year. >> major funding for pbs news

weekend has been provided by. and, with the ongoing support od institutions. this program was madorpotion foc broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >>

- [narrator] tastemakers is brought to you with support from: missouri pork association and midwest dairy. (upbeat music) - in this special hour long episode, were heading to missouri wine country and exploring its roots as one of the most storied wine making regions in the united states. i'm cat neville and this is tastemakers. (exciting music) i'm cat neville and for the past two decades i've been telling the story of local food. in that time american food culture has exploded in tiny towns and big cities from coast to coast. in tastemakers i explore the maker movement and take you along for the journey to meet the makers who define the flavor of american cuisine.