EU approves fresh sanctions on Russia
The EU on Wednesday approved a fresh package of sanctions clamping down on Russia's 'shadow' oil fleet, as Europe threatens further punishment if Moscow does not agree to a Ukraine truce.
The new measures against the Kremlin -- the 17th round of sanctions from the EU since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine -- were in the pipeline before European leaders issued their latest ultimatum to Moscow over US-led peace efforts.
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Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Pope Leo XIV faces funding challenges for cash-strapped Vatican
VATICAN CITY: The world's smallest country has a big budget problem. The Vatican doesn't tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio. The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected €770 million ($878 million), with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn't been able to cover costs. That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red. Withering donations Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms. Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion 'according to the resources of their dioceses.' US bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (€19.3 million) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the US gave an average $27 million (€23.7 million) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (€88.6 million) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (€66.8 million) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (€41.2 million) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. New donors The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around €55 million ($62.7 million) a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of €30 million ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the US, no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the US, donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. Untapped real estate The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70 percent generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10 percent are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated €35 million euros ($39.9) in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the US-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the US and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity.
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
Russia launches major overnight attack on Kharkiv, killing one
KYIV, Ukraine: Russia pummelled Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv before dawn on Saturday, launching its 'most powerful attack' there since the start of the war, the mayor said, announcing one person killed. In recent weeks, Russian troops have accelerated their advance while the latest negotiations in Istanbul failed to broker an end to the three-year war. 'Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the beginning of the full-scale war,' Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov posted on Telegram, describing a barrage of missiles, drones and guided bombs striking simultaneously. 'As of now, at least 40 explosions have been heard in the city over the past hour and a half,' he wrote at 4:40 am (0140 GMT), adding that drones were still buzzing overhead. 'The threat remains.' A strike on a residential building in Kyivsky district killed one person, the mayor said. Kharkiv regional Governor Oleg Synegubov posted that seven people were wounded in the aerial assault. 'Medical personnel are providing the necessary assistance,' he wrote. On Thursday, at least 18 people, including four children, were wounded in strikes on the northeastern city that set an apartment bloc on fire. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed that Moscow would respond to an audacious Ukrainian drone attack that destroyed several nuclear-capable military jets. Ukraine has been pushing for an unconditional and immediate 30-day truce, issuing its latest proposal to Moscow at peace talks in Istanbul on Monday. But Russia has repeatedly rejected calls for such a ceasefire. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed, and millions forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Zelenskyy slams Russia after three generations killed in drone strike
A Russian drone slammed into a residential house in central Ukraine overnight Thursday, killing three members of one family, including a one-year-old baby, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He accused Moscow of trying to 'buy time for itself to continue killing' and called for the West to put 'maximum sanctions' and 'pressure" on Moscow, after Russia has repeatedly rejected calls for a full and unconditional ceasefire. A total of five people were killed in Pryluky, a city in central Ukraine, including victims from three generations of the same family. A local firefighting chief was responding to an earlier attack when his own house was hit by a Russian drone, officials said. 'His wife, daughter and one-year-old grandson were killed,' Zelenskyy said. Photos showed houses on fire, billowing grey smoke into the pitch black sky as rescuers battled the blaze. A picture at dawn, published by the emergency services, showed a firefighter standing in the burned-out carcass of a residential home, the roof gone, surrounded by charred ashes and debris. 'Russia is constantly trying to buy time for itself to continue killing. When it does not feel strong enough condemnation and pressure from the world, it kills again,' Zelenskyy said. 'This is yet another reason to impose maximum sanctions and put pressure together. We expect action from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who can really help change these terrible circumstances,' he added. Fighting and aerial attacks have escalated in recent weeks, even as the sides have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul that they say are aimed at finding an end to the three-year war. But Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday told US President Donald Trump that Moscow would respond to an audacious Ukrainian drone attack that destroyed several Russian nuclear-capable military jets over the weekend, Trump said after a call between the pair. Another attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded 18 people, including four children, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said in a post on social media. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed, and millions forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded in February 2022.
