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North America
United States
23/04/2025 President Trump lashed out at Zelenskyy saying that leader is prolonging the 'killing field' after he pushed back on ceding Crimea to Russia as part of a potential peace plan. During talks last week in Paris, US officials presented a proposal that included allowing Russia to keep control of occupied territory as part of a deal. “This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Obama, and is not even a point of discussion,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social today. “Nobody is asking Zelensky to recognise Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it 11 years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?” Mr Trump added that 'inflammatory statements like Zelensky’s' is making “it so difficult to settle this War”. “He has nothing to boast about!” Mr Trump said. “The situation for Ukraine is dire, he can have peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country”. We are very close to a Deal, but the man with “no cards to play” should now, finally, Get it done.” (Source: MSN - U.S. / PA Media - United Kingdom / Associated Press - U.S.)
(Wednesday), April 23, 2025 A London-hosted Ukraine summit was thrown into disarray today after top U.S. representatives pulled out at the eleventh hour and Ukraine pushed back at proposals from Trump's administration to recognize Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. U.S. Secretary of State Rubio and Witkoff, a key American player in negotiations with Moscow, withdrew from talks, citing a scheduling conflict. Trump’s peace proposal involves a potential lifting of sanctions and U.S. informal recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea. ’The Ukrainians were heading to London ready to talk about a 30-day interim ceasefire proposal that France and the U.K. appeared willing to support’. U.S. Vice President Vance told reporters in India today that the U.S. had issued a “very explicit proposal” to Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict by freezing it on its existing lines - and threatened to walk away if progress is not forthcoming. Trump's Ukraine envoy, Kellogg, is now headlining the London talks from the U.S. side instead, but it is Witkoff who has been a crucial go-between in talks with Russia over the conflict. The ditching of talks leaves the high-level European delegations traveling to London - from France, Germany, the U.K. and Ukraine - in a bind. The U.K. Foreign Office decided that the meeting of the U.K., U.S., France and Germany with Ukraine would now be conducted by officials instead of Foreign Secretary Lammy hosting. Lammy still hold a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha, who arrived in London today morning alongside Ukrainian Defense Minister Umerov and Zelenskyy's top aide Yermak. In London, No.10 Downing Street insisted today lunchtime that the U.S. and U.K. remained on the same page. (Source: Politico - U.S.)
April 23, 2025 U.S. Secretary of State Rubio has declined to participate in Ukraine ceasefire talks scheduled for April 23 in London. Rubio’s decision came shortly after Zelensky said that Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. The stance runs counter to one of U.S. President Trump’s key proposals for a peace deal. Several Western media outlets have reported that the United States is prepared to consider recognizing Crimea as Russian as part of a broader peace agreement. U.S. officials reportedly conveyed this to Ukrainian representatives during talks in Paris on April 17. The American proposal is also said to include Ukraine abandoning its bid to join NATO and transferring control of the area near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to the United States. Axios reported on April 22 that this is Washington’s “final offer.” Trump has said he hopes Russia and Ukraine will “make a deal this week.” Trump has also suggested the United States could exit the talks if no progress is made. (Source: Meduza - based in Latvia / The New York Times - U.S.)
April 23, 2025, Wednesday The United States has put forward what it refers to as a “final” peace proposal for Ukraine, calling for the recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and an unofficial acceptance of Moscow’s control over nearly all the territories occupied since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. The one-page document, presented to Ukrainian officials in Paris, is said to reflect US President Trump’s last offer, with the White House reportedly prepared to withdraw from peace efforts if no agreement is reached soon. These include the de jure recognition of Crimea as Russian territory, de facto acceptance of Russian control over most of Luhansk Oblast and parts of Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, and a formal pledge that Ukraine will not join NATO, although EU accession would remain an option. In return, Russia would agree to halt military operations along the current front lines. Additionally, the proposal offers Russia the lifting of sanctions introduced since 2014 and promises increased economic cooperation with the US, particularly in the energy and industrial sectors. A separate clause in the proposal reportedly grants US oversight over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which would remain formally Ukrainian, with electricity to be distributed to both Ukraine and Russia. The document also references a mineral resources deal between the US and Ukraine, expected to be signed on April 24. The US State Department stated that what was shared in Paris was merely a list of potential options for discussion. The proposed framework requires substantial concessions from Ukraine. European and Ukrainian officials are acknowledging the improbability of Ukraine regaining occupied territories in the short term. Kyiv is currently more interested in pursuing a short-term ceasefire and intends to discuss such a possibility during a high-level meeting in London today. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)
Global
April 22, 2025 Which cardinals are seen as contenders to be the next pope? Cardinal Erdő, 72, the archbishop of Budapest and primate of Hungary was twice elected head of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences, in 2005 and 2011, suggesting he enjoys the esteem of European cardinals who make up the biggest voting bloc of electors. In that capacity, Erdő got to know many African cardinals because the council hosts regular sessions with African bishops’ conferences. Erdő had even more exposure when he helped organize Francis’ 2014 and 2015 Vatican meetings on the family and delivered key speeches, as well as during papal visits to Budapest in 2021 and 2023. Cardinal Marx, (71), the archbishop of Munich and Freising, was chosen by Francis as a key adviser in 2013. Marx later was named to head the council overseeing Vatican finances during reforms and belt-tightening. The former president of the German bishops’ conference was a strong proponent of the controversial synodal path process of dialogue in the German church that began in 2020 as a response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal there. As a result, he is viewed with skepticism by conservatives who considered the process a threat to church unity, given it involved debating issues such as celibacy, homosexuality and women’s ordination. Marx made headlines in 2021 when he dramatically offered to resign as archbishop to atone for the German church’s dreadful abuse record, but Francis quickly rejected the resignation and told him to stay. Cardinal Ouellet, 80, of Canada, led the Vatican’s influential bishops office for over a decade, overseeing the key clearinghouse for potential candidates to head dioceses around the world. Francis kept Ouellet in the job until 2023, even though he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, and thus helped select the more doctrinaire bishops preferred by the German pontiff. Considered more of a conservative than Francis, Ouellet still selected pastorally minded bishops to reflect Francis’ belief that bishops should smell like the sheep of their flock. Ouellet defended priestly celibacy for the Latin Rite church and upheld the ban on women’s ordination but called for women to have a greater role in church governance. He has good contacts with the Latin American church, having headed the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for Latin America for over a decade. Since 2019, his office has taken charge of investigating bishops accused of covering up for predator priests, a job that would have made him no friends among those sanctioned but also could have given him lots of otherwise confidential and possibly compromising information about fellow cardinals. Cardinal Parolin, 70, of Italy, has been Francis’ secretary of state since 2014 and is considered one of the main contenders to be pope, given his prominence in the Catholic hierarchy. The veteran diplomat oversaw the Holy See’s controversial deal with China over bishop nominations and was involved - but not charged - in the Vatican’s botched investment in a London real estate venture that led to a 2021 trial of another cardinal and nine others. A former ambassador to Venezuela, Parolin knows the Latin American church well. He would be seen as someone who would continue in Francis’ tradition but as a more sober and timid diplomatic insider, returning an Italian to the papacy after three successive outsiders: St. John Paul II (Poland); Benedict (Germany) and Francis (Argentina). But while Parolin has managed the Vatican bureaucracy, he has no real pastoral experience. His ties to the London scandal, in which his office lost tens of millions of dollars to bad deals and shady businessmen, could count against him. Cardinal Prevost, 69, of United States. The idea of an American pope has long been taboo, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the U.S. But the Chicago-born Prevost could be a first. He has extensive experience in Peru, first as a missionary and then an archbishop, and he is currently prefect of the Vatican’s powerful dicastery for bishops, in charge of vetting nominations for bishops around the world. Francis clearly had an eye on him for years and sent him to run the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014. He held that position until 2023, when Francis brought him to Rome for his current role. Prevost is also president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, a job that keeps him in regular contact with the Catholic hierarchy in the part of the world that still counts the most Catholics. In addition to his nationality, Prevost’s comparative youth could count against him if his brother cardinals don’t want to commit to a pope who might reign for another two decades. Cardinal Sarah, 79, of Guinea, the retired head of the Vatican’s liturgy office, was long considered the best hope for an African pope. Beloved by conservatives, Sarah would signal a return to the doctrinaire and liturgically minded papacies of John Paul II and Benedict. Sarah, who had previously headed the Vatican’s charity office Cor Unum, clashed on several occasions with Francis, none more seriously than when he and Benedict co-authored a book advocating the necessity of continued celibacy for Latin Rite priests. The book came out as Francis was weighing whether to allow married priests in the Amazon to address a priest shortage there. The implication was that Sarah had manipulated Benedict into lending his name and moral authority to a book that had all the appearances of being a counterweight to Francis’ own teaching. Francis dismissed Benedict’s secretary and several months later retired Sarah after he turned 75. Even Sarah’s supporters lamented the episode hurt his papal chances. Cardinal Schoenborn 80, the archbishop of Vienna, Austria, was a student of Benedict’s, and thus on paper seems to have the doctrinaire academic chops to appeal to conservatives. However, he became associated with one of Francis’ most controversial moves by defending his outreach to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics as an organic development of doctrine, not the rupture that some conservatives contended. Schoenborn’s parents divorced when he was a teen, so the issue is personal. He also took heat from the Vatican when he criticized its past refusal to sanction high-ranking sexual abusers, including his predecessor as archbishop of Vienna. Schoenborn has expressed support for civil unions and women as deacons, and was instrumental in editing the 1992 update of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the handbook of the church’s teaching that Benedict had spearheaded when he headed the Vatican’s doctrine office. Cardinal Tagle 67, of the Philippines, would appear to be Francis’ pick for the first Asian pope. Francis brought the popular archbishop of Manila to Rome to head the Vatican’s missionary evangelization office, which serves the needs of the Catholic Church in much of Asia and Africa. His role took on greater weight when Francis reformed the Vatican bureaucracy and raised the importance of his evangelization office. Tagle often cites his Chinese lineage – his maternal grandmother was part of a Chinese family that moved to the Philippines - and he is known for becoming emotional when discussing his childhood. Though he has pastoral, Vatican and management experience - he headed the Vatican’s Caritas Internationalis federation of charity groups before coming to Rome permanently - Tagle would be on the young side to be elected pope for life, with cardinals perhaps preferring an older candidate whose papacy would be more limited. Cardinal Zuppi, 69, the archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian bishops conference, elected in 2022, is closely affiliated with the Sant’Egidio Community, a Rome-based Catholic charity that was influential under Francis, particularly in interfaith dialogue. Zuppi was part of Sant’Egidio’s team that helped negotiate the end of Mozambique’s civil war in the 1990s and was named Francis’ peace envoy for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Francis made him a cardinal in 2019 and later made clear he wanted him in charge of Italy’s bishops, a sign of his admiration for the prelate who, like Francis, is known as a street priest. In another sign of his progressive leanings and closeness to Francis, Zuppi wrote the introduction to the Italian edition of “Building a Bridge,” by the Rev. Martin, an American Jesuit, about the church’s need to improve its outreach to the LGBTQ+ community. Zuppi would be a candidate in Francis’ tradition of ministering to those on the margins, although his relative youth would count against him for cardinals seeking a short papacy. His family had strong institutional ties: Zuppi’s father worked for the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and his mother was the niece of Cardinal Confalonieri, dean of the College of Cardinals in the 1960s and 1970s. (Source: The Associated Press - U.S.)
22.04.2025 While Europe has long dominated the papacy, growing attention is being given to candidates from the Global South, reflecting shifting influence within the Church. Top contenders to lead the Catholic Church: Cardinal Turkson of Ghana is considered one of Africa’s most energetic and internationally respected church leaders. The 76-year-old former Archbishop of Cape Coast was appointed cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003 and played a key role under Pope Francis as the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Turkson is widely known in the church's social justice circles as an advocate for climate change, poverty, and economic justice, and was sent by Pope Francis as a peace envoy to South Sudan. If elected, Turkson would be the first Black pope in years, a historic move that could deepen the Church’s ties to Africa. Tagle, former Archbishop of Manila known as Asian Francis, is another strong contender. The 67-year-old is now Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples at the Vatican. Considered a liberal cardinal, he has emerged as a passionate advocate for social justice and inclusivity, emphasizing compassion for the poor and marginalized. Tagle's election would mark another significant milestone in Church history, as he would become the first Asian pope. Cardinal Parolin, an Italian Catholic prelate, has been the Vatican's Secretary of State since 2013. As one of the Vatican's most experienced officials, the 70-year-old has also served on the Council of Cardinals since 2014. He is widely regarded as an advocate for poverty, economic justice, and climate change and has played an important role in diplomatic negotiations with China and Middle Eastern governments. Erdő is a Hungarian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest since 2003, and if elected, he would be the second Pope to administer in the former Soviet bloc, following John Paul II. Other candidates include French Guinea's Sarah, Italy's Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna, and Malta's Grech. (Source: Anadolu Agency – Turkey)
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