The new pope has been expected to run the Vatican in a different way from his predecessor. And Pope Leo XIV is now meeting that expectation with the Catholic Church’s finances, as he rolls back some of the reforms made by Pope Francis.

What’s Leo doing?
The pope is working to change some of the rules that have caused financial stress in the church. He has started “correcting some of Pope Francis’ more questionable financial reforms and decisions,” said The Associated Press. The most notable of these is the repealing of a 2022 law that had “concentrated financial power in the Vatican bank.”

This law stated that the Catholic Church’s assets were to be managed by the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), the Vatican’s official bank. But Leo’s decree now says the church should “use the IOR but can turn to non-Vatican banks in other countries” if the church deems it “more efficient or convenient,” said the AP. This marks the “clearest sign yet that Leo is starting to fix some of Francis’ more problematic decisions and is recalibrating the Vatican’s centers of power.”

How could this affect the Church?
Leo is trying to shore up some of the Vatican’s “infamously troubled finances,” said Fortune. The Catholic Church’s “financial reputation has been tarnished in past decades by its opaque finances and cases of corruption, embezzlement and other crimes,” said Reuters. While Francis wanted to counter this reputation, some officials in the Vatican thought his law had “given the bank too much power over other Vatican departments, which could not even have investments in banks in nearby Italy.” Even Francis “realized the problem and had intended to fix it” but died in April “before he could,” according to Vatican officials, said the AP. 

Leo’s decision may signify a significant turning point for the Vatican. His choice to undo Francis’ law “restores a measure of flexibility, allowing the Vatican Bank to play a more active role and permitting the use of external financial intermediaries when deemed appropriate,” said the Herald. This “marks the first real step in Vatican finances” under Leo, said The Pillar, but it’s “unclear which direction things are headed.”

Great Britain’s film and TV industries have been enjoying a golden age as American studios flock to its shores. But after President Donald Trump threw in a plot twist last week, threatening to impose 100% tariffs on films made outside the U.S., the U.K.’s “Brollywood” boom may be in for an unhappy ending. 

‘More Hollywood than Hollywood’ 
London has become “more Hollywood than Hollywood,” with “state-of-the-art shooting facilities” in and around the capital “running at full capacity,” said The Hollywood Reporter. Marvel has relocated its operations from Atlanta, Georgia, to Buckinghamshire’s Pinewood Studios, which is under a long-term lease to Disney. And the forthcoming “Spider-Man” movie, as well as the next two “Avengers” movies, are being filmed there. 

A “competitive and well-developed tax-incentive system” has been crucial to this success, said City A.M. The U.K.’s Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit provides tax relief of up to 25.5% on qualifying expenditure, which has “translated into significant cost savings” on large-scale productions for major U.S. studios and streamers. The U.K. also has an established and experienced workforce, and crucially, it’s cheaper for U.S. production companies, partly because studios aren’t required to “subsidize workers’ medical expenses,” said Screen Rant. 

Sending shivers 
As Brollywood booms, Tinseltown has “lost much of its luster,” said The Hollywood Reporter. Once the “global hub of film, wealth and glamour,” Los Angeles has become a “casualty of the worldwide production plunge.” The number of U.S. shoots was down by about 40% in the second quarter of 2024 compared with the same period in 2022.

Trump has warned that Hollywood is facing a “very fast death” due to competition from international movie-making hubs, including Canada. But his threat to wield his “preferred economic weapon,” tariffs, is sending a "shiver” through the U.K.’s film industry, said The New York Times. The uncertainty of how Trump would implement tariffs on international products could “wipe out” the U.K. gains made since the pandemic and the U.S. screenwriters’ strike.

The worry about hefty tariffs is “really disempowering” and “destabilizing,” Marcus Ryder, the chief executive of the Film and TV Charity, said to the Times. “Even a short-term tariff could have a long-term devastating effect on the workforce.”

Gazans celebrate in the city of Khan Yunis after Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of the 20-point peace deal proposed by the U.S. A ceasefire went into effect in Gaza today as part of the agreement, under which the remaining Israeli hostages will be released within days.
Abdallah F.S. Alattar / Anadolu / Getty Images

The books published this month do not shy away from reality. If you are wondering about Taylor Swift’s meteoric rise to fame, for example, a Harvard professor explains it. There’s also a new novel about the unique pressures on Black artists. It’s finally soup season; curl up with a bowl and a good book.

‘Taylor’s Version: The Poetic and Musical Genius of Taylor Swift’
Swifties might appreciate Stephanie Burt’s exhaustive insights into the pop star’s career in the Harvard scholar’s new book, “Taylor’s Version.” Burt analyzes Swift’s ascent to the top of pop culture amid her chronic “ambition,” “wish to be loved,” and “perilous, and occasionally ridiculous, desire to please everyone,” she said to The New York Times. (out now, $30, Amazon, Basic Books)

‘Enshittification’
Technology critic and novelist Cory Doctorow coined this book’s titular phrase to “describe how all the digital services that increasingly dominated our daily lives seemed to be getting worse at the same time,” said Kyle Chayka at The New Yorker. Doctorow’s book “shows us the specific decisions that led us here, who made them, and, most important, how they can be undone,” said the official book description. (Oct. 14, $30, Amazon, MCD)

‘Minor Black Figures’
Booker Prize finalist Brandon Taylor, the author of 2020’s “Real Life,” is back with a new story set in the New York City art world and one centered around Wyeth, a young painter who also happens to be both Black and gay. “Minor Black Figures” ultimately explores what it means to be Black, gay and a professional creative in the modern world. (Oct. 14, $29, Amazon, Riverhead Books)