Hi there,
just out of interest – i assume you know theres a automatic Category Page for your News category ?
https://www.your-domain.net/category/news/
Would that be a better solution then the static page and the query loop ?
The Block Element – Content Template used on your Blog can be applied to the Category Archives too.
Then the snippet you used should work.
If not and you need a static page and query loop then try this:
add_action('pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category_posts');
function exclude_category_posts( $query ) {
if( $query->is_main_query() && !is_admin() && !is_singular() ) {
$query->set('cat', array( -22, -33 ));
}
}