By HOLLY MEYER, Associated Press

Speculation surrounding a conclave to elect a pope is a time-honored tradition. But for the impending conclave following the death of Pope Francis, the ranks of armchair Vatican experts have swelled thanks to Hollywood.

“Conclave” the film, a moody 2024 political thriller, introduced many laypeople to the ancient selection process with its arcane rules and grand ceremony, albeit with a silver screen twist packed full of palace intrigue and surprise.

Though it has its critics, the film treats the gravity of a papal election with respect and accurately portrays many rituals and contemporary problems facing today’s Catholic Church. But Vatican experts warn the movie doesn’t get everything right.

Here’s a look at what “Conclave” does get right — and wrong — about conclaves. (Spoilers ahead.)

FILE – Cardinals leave St. Peter’s Basilica after the funeral for late cardinal Angelo Amato in at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

Scenery and aesthetics

The movie excels at re-creating the look and feel of a conclave.

“The film gets a lot right. They tried to reproduce the mise-en-scene of the Vatican accurately,” William Cavanaugh, a Catholic studies professor at DePaul University in Chicago, said in an email. “They show that a lot of the drama is around the preconclave conversations among cardinals.”

It’s not a perfect re-creation, according to the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior analyst with the Religion News Service and a Vatican expert.

He called the movie’s production values “marvelous,” but noted slight discrepancies in the cardinals’ dress.

FILE – Cardinals walk in procession to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, at the beginning of the conclave, April 18, 2005. (Osservatore Romano via AP, File)

“The red in the cardinals’ garments was a deep red, while the reality is more orange. Frankly, I like the Hollywood version better,” Reese, a Jesuit priest who wrote “Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church,” said in an email.

Papal protocols

The movie aligns with real-life expectations for a quick conclave, said Massimo Faggioli, a historical theology professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

“A long conclave would send the message of a Church divided and possibly on the verge of a schism. The history of the conclaves in the last century is really a story of short conclaves,” he said via email.

Reese pointed out other discrepancies. While the voting process was depicted accurately, he said, the ballots are burned not after each vote, but after each session, which is typically two votes.

Holy plot holes

There are a few particularly egregious errors that, if corrected, would lead to a very different movie.

A key character in the film, the archbishop of Kabul, Afghanistan, arrives just before the conclave with paperwork declaring the late pope had made him a cardinal “in pectore” — “in secret” — allowing him to vote for the next pope.

“The biggest mistake in the movie was the admission of a cardinal in pectore into the conclave,” said Reese. “If the name is not announced publicly by the pope in the presence of the College of Cardinals, he has no right to attend a conclave.”

Cavanaugh agreed and noted that while the movie’s twist about the Kabul archbishop was far-fetched, it does point to a certain truth about conclaves.

“The cardinals do not always know who they’re getting when they elect a pope,” he said. “If the cardinals knew how (Jorge Mario) Bergoglio would be as Pope Francis, many of them wouldn’t have voted for him. Pius IX was elected as a liberal and turned into an archconservative. John XXIII was supposed to be a jolly caretaker pope, and he unleashed Vatican II,” a series of modernizing reforms.

Another of the movie’s more outlandish storylines involves the dean of the College of Cardinals breaking the seal of the confessional by revealing to another cardinal what a nun confessed to him, said Reese.

“He committed a mortal sin and would be automatically excommunicated. Such an action would be egregiously wrong,” Reese said.

In addition to that, a cardinal paying for votes, as shown in the film, is unheard of in modern times, said Cavanaugh, and the politicking is exaggerated.

And so are the politics.

The movie errs in making cardinals into either liberal or conservative champions, said Kurt Martens, professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America in Washington.

“Those labels don’t help us,” he said because cardinals are very cautious in expressing their opinions and “even someone we think is a liberal cardinal is pretty conservative by secular standards.”

And he added that even in an unusually large conclave like this year’s, the rule requiring the next pope wins at least a two-thirds majority of the vote ensures that “whatever we call extreme” likely won’t get enough votes.

Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell’Orto and Nicole Winfield contributed to this report.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

Over on Reddit, a user recently asked for budgeting advice. After itemizing their current budget, the user was hoping to make cuts to their monthly spending and find a way to save more money.

The user said they brought in just over $3,300 in a month and spent about $2,600 on fixed costs, such as rent and insurance, along with line items for groceries and entertainment. The rest was for debt payment, leaving nothing for savings.

Applying the 50/30/20 budget — which suggests that 50% of take-home pay should go toward needs, 30% toward wants and 20% toward savings and debt payments beyond the minimums — the user was right on track, except for the savings and debt payments category.

Reddit responders had some good money-saving ideas, including switching to a cheaper cell phone plan and cutting back on extras, like car washes, electronics and fitness classes.

We turned to financial experts for their thoughts on the topic.

Prioritize an emergency fund

The financial experts we interviewed agreed that a budgeter’s top priority should be building an emergency fund.

“It’s very risky to have such a tight budget if you don’t have an emergency fund saved up,” says Kristen Vernace, certified financial planner and founder of Pathways Financial Planning in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

“If you don’t have the cushion, one unexpected expense can throw everything off,” she adds.

Filip Telibasa, CFP and owner of Benzina Wealth in Sarasota, Florida, agrees. He suggests pausing extra debt payments beyond the minimum to focus on setting aside at least one month’s worth of emergency savings.

Then, if there is a rainy day event, it doesn’t put you into a deeper hole, he says.

Once one month’s worth of expenses is set aside, you can consider prioritizing high-interest debt before accumulating an even bigger savings cushion.

Putting those savings into a high-yield online savings account can provide additional motivation, because you see the interest payments accumulating, Telibasa says.

“You might be increasingly motivated to add more money to the account,” he says.

Spend less, even if just temporarily

To build up that emergency fund, we need to find a way to adjust spending to throw more into savings each month, Vernace says.

“It’s hard when almost all your income is earmarked for something and you don’t have any wiggle room,” she says.

To overcome that problem, she suggests combing through every single line item on your credit or debit card statements to find areas to trim.

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Ideas include asking your internet or cable provider for a better rate, cancelling some subscriptions and even switching to a lower-cost housing rental.

These measures don’t need to be permanent, but just until you achieve a more financially stable state, says Daniel Milks, CFP and founder of Woodmark Advisors in Greenville, South Carolina.

“My suggestions would be to really buckle down for a short period, maybe six to 12 months, and get aggressive about cleaning this up,” he says.

Canceling all non-essential subscriptions and memberships is a good place to start, he adds.

“This doesn’t have to be a forever lifestyle. It’s about making short-term sacrifices now to create long-term flexibility later,” Milks says.

Aggressively pay off high-interest debt

With a basic emergency fund taken care of, high-interest debt can be a higher priority, Telibasa says. He says if the interest rate is in the double digits — which is common with credit card debt — then you’ll want to prioritize paying it off as soon as possible.

“The whole idea is opportunity cost. Do we feel we could earn more than the interest rate if we put these funds elsewhere, like a 401(k) plan or a Roth IRA or a savings account?” he asks.

If the interest is in the double digits, then the answer is probably not.

Bring in more income

While the idea of  bringing in more income can be daunting, Vernace says it’s sometimes a relatively easy lift. One of her clients babysits dogs while she’s working at home, which is work she enjoys, and brings in extra cash.

Vernace suggests looking for side jobs that allow you to retain control of your schedule, such as those you can do from home.

“It can take you from a tight situation to one that’s comfortable and give you more breathing room,” she says.

Look ahead to new habits

Establishing new saving and spending patterns can be a “learning opportunity,” Milks says.

“You can take it as a wake-up call and make lasting changes to avoid falling into the same trap again,” he adds.

Reddit is an online forum where users share their thoughts in “threads” on various topics. The popular site includes plenty of discussion on financial subjects like saving and budgeting, so we sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check on how users feel about trimming spending. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article Asked on Reddit: How Should I Trim My Monthly Budget? originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By ROB GILLIES and JIM MORRIS, Associated Press

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Diana and Rick Bellamy initially planned to take a Caribbean cruise out of Houston before heading to Laurel, Mississippi, to visit the home of one of their favorite HGTV shows, “Home Town.”

The Calgary couple scrapped those plans and vacationed last month along Mexico’s Pacific coast instead, put off by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, the insults he’s hurled at their homeland, and stories about American border agents searching people’s phones and detaining foreigners for minor reasons.

She found it ironic that she felt more comfortable traveling to Mexico than the U.S.

“I never thought I would hear myself say that,” Diane Bellamy said.

Trump’s attacks on Canada’s economy and threats to make it the 51st state have infuriated Canadians, who are canceling trips to the U.S. in big numbers. They also seem to have also flipped the narrative heading into Canada’s parliamentary elections on Monday, with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party surging after trailing far behind in the polls just a few months ago.

A steep decline

The U.S. gets more visitors from Canada each year than from any other country, according to the U.S. Travel Association, an industry trade group, which said the 20.4 million visits from Canada last year generated $20.5 billion in spending.

But there has been a big drop in foreigners traveling to the U.S. since Trump took office, and Canadians are no exception. There were more than 910,000 fewer land border crossings from Canada into the U.S. last month than in March of 2024 — a more than 22% drop — according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. An Air Canada spokesman, meanwhile, said Canada-U.S. flight bookings for April through September are down about 10%.

Trump brushed aside the decline in tourism to the United States on Wednesday, saying, “There’s a little nationalism there I guess, perhaps. It’s not a big deal.”

Traveler worries

Since Trump started his second term, there have been well-publicized reports of tourists being stopped at U.S. border crossings and held for weeks at immigration detention facilities before being allowed to fly home at their own expense.

On March 3, Canadian Jasmine Mooney, an actor and entrepreneur on a U.S. work visa, was detained by U.S. border agents in San Diego. She was released after 12 days detention.

Before Mooney’s release, British Columbia Premier David Eby expressed concern, saying: “It certainly reinforces anxiety that … many Canadians have about our relationship with the U.S. right now, and the unpredictability of this administration and its actions.”

The Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents faculty and staff at Canadian universities, warned its members against nonessential travel to the U.S. due to the “political landscape” under Trump and reports of Canadians encountering difficulties crossing the border.

Academics who have expressed negative views about the Trump administration should be particularly cautious about traveling to the U.S., said the group.

“People are scared to cross the border. I don’t know what Americans are thinking, quite frankly. Are they that oblivious?” said former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who has family in Florida.

Mike Sauer, who runs a community policing center in Vancouver, said he and his partner have no interest in traveling to the U.S. now because of Trump’s politics and border fears. One of Sauer’s concerns is that if a border guard were to check his cellphone, the guard might see his past purchases of marijuana, which is legal to buy in Canada and about half the 50 states but is still illegal under U.S. federal law.

“The States have a different view on drugs. They could certainly look at my phone and see I’m 420-friendly,” he said, meaning he’s marijuana-friendly. “I think it kind of depends on which border guard would have a problem with that and which ones wouldn’t.”

Dietra Wilson, 32, said when she was younger, she often visited Detroit, which is just across the border from Windsor, Ontario, where she and her husband, Ben, own a secondhand shop. She hasn’t visited much in recent years, though, and she said she’s heard of people’s worries about crossing the border since Trump moved back into the White House.

“It’s worrisome,” she said.

Ben Wilson, 37, also has qualms about trying to cross.

“Why would I want to?” he said. “Regardless of the tariffs, if I’m going to be stopped at the border for my phone or something somebody texted me, why go?”

Industry worries

The drop in Canadian tourism to the U.S. led California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frequent target of Trump, to announce an ad campaign this month meant to lure Canadians back to his state, citing a 12% year-on-year drop in February.

McKenzie McMillan, a consultant with a Vancouver-based travel agency, The Travel Group, said the company’s bookings to the U.S. have dried up. “We have seen a near-total collapse of U.S. business,” he said. “Probably about a 90% drop since February.”

Lesley Keyter, the CEO and founder of the Travel Lady agency in Calgary, said she’s seen people actually forfeit money to cancel their U.S. trips.

“Even if they’re going on a Caribbean cruise, they don’t want to go down to Fort Lauderdale to get on the cruise ship,” she said.

Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press reporter Corey Williams in Windsor, Ontario, contributed to this report.

By JIANG JUNZHE, Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — Global markets were higher Friday after Wall Street rallied for the third day, driven by hopes for the Federal Reserve to cut rates.

The future for the S&P 500 climbed 0.5% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.1%.

In European trading, the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.7% to 7,554.56 and Germany’s DAX was 0.4% higher to 22,154.72.

British FTSE 100 increased 0.2% to 8,422.52 after the country reported better-than-expectation retail sales in March.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 surged 1.9% to 35,705.74 and the Kospi in South Korea gained 0.9% to 2,546.15.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng picked up 0.3% to 21,980.74, while the Shanghai Composite Index inched down 0.1% to 3,295.06.

The rally was boosted by hopes that Trump was softening his approach on tariffs and his criticism of the Federal Reserve, but China denied Thursday it’s involved in active trade negotiations with the U.S.

Tech stocks rose in China after some semiconductor import companies told Caijing Magazine that some chips made in the U.S. had been quietly exempted from the country’s 125% retaliatory tariffs.

The Lenovo Group rose 3.4% while the Chinese search engine company Baidu added 3.9%.

However, the shares of China’s largest semiconductor foundry, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, lost 2.8%.

Taiwan’s Taiex added 2%. India’s Sensex sank 0.4% after tensions with Pakistan over the Pahalgam terror attack.

The market in Australia was closed because of Anzac Day.

Wall Street’s rally kept rolling Thursday as better-than-expected profits for U.S. companies piled up in reports mainly from tech companies like ServiceNow and Texas Instruments, offsetting the uncertainties in the retail sector.

Federal Reserve officials boosted expectations for interest rate cuts as they said that they would slash the rate as early as June if Trump’s tariffs hurt the U.S. economy and job market.

The S&P 500 charged 2% higher to 5,484.77 and pulled within 11% of its record set earlier this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2% to 40,093.40, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.7% to 17,166.04.

In other moves early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil shed 15 cents to $62.64 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, slid 13 cents to $66.42 per barrel.

The U.S dollar rose to 143.42 Japanese yen from 142.69 yen. The euro edged lower, to $1.1344 from $1.1391.