By GIADA ZAMPANO, Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Thursday denounced the use of hunger as a weapon of war as he urged world leaders to act responsibly and focus on the multitudes across the globe who face hunger, wars and misery.

During an address on World Food Day at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, Leo urged the international community to not look the other way, at a time of dwindling foreign aid budgets.

The pope named the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, along with Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Yemen and South Sudan. He cited U.N. data showing that around 673 million people do not eat enough each day.

“We can no longer delude ourselves by thinking that the consequences of our failures impact only those who are hidden out of sight,” he said. “The hungry faces of so many who still suffer challenge us and invite us to reexamine our lifestyles, our priorities and our overall way of living in today’s world.”

“We must make their suffering our own,” he concluded in English, after delivering most of his speech in Spanish to world leaders, ministers and ambassadors gathered at FAO’s Rome headquarters for an event commemorating the U.N. agency’s 80th anniversary.

Leo condemned the use of hunger as a weapon of war, but didn’t name any specific conflict or region. Humanitarian groups have long denounced the practice, in which food or aid is restricted or diverted during a conflict, leaving innocent civilians to go hungry. Most recently, even some Jewish groups have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, a claim Israel strongly denies.

“In a time when science has lengthened life expectancy, allowing millions of human beings to live, and die, struck by hunger is a collective failure, an ethical derailment, a historic offense,” he said.

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Leo’s warning comes as U.N. food aid agencies face severe funding cuts from their top donors that risk hurting their operations in key countries and forcing millions of people into emergency levels of hunger.

The World Food Program, traditionally the U.N.’s most-funded agency, said in a new report on Wednesday that its funding this year “has never been more challenged” — largely due to slashed outlays from the U.S. under the Trump administration and other leading Western donors.

It warned that 13.7 million of its food aid recipients could be forced into emergency levels of hunger as funding is cut. The countries facing “major disruptions” are Afghanistan, Congo, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.

By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN

NEW YORK (AP) — Two bright green comets are streaming through the skies and are visible to skygazers in the Northern Hemisphere.

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Both hail from the outer edges of our solar system — possibly what’s known as the Oort Cloud, well beyond Pluto. Comet Lemmon will have its closest brush with Earth on or around Tuesday. The other cosmic snowball, Comet SWAN, should have its flyby with Earth on Monday, but it’s headed away from the sun and will likely grow dimmer as the days pass.

Spotting two comets simultaneously without special equipment is “rare, but not unprecedented,” said Carson Fuls, director of the University of Arizona-based sky survey that spotted Comet Lemmon.

To see the pair, go outside just after sunset and look to the northern sky for Comet Lemmon close to the horizon. Comet SWAN will also be near the horizon, but to the southwest.

The double comets could be visible with binoculars through the end of the month, but experts aren’t yet sure how bright they’ll remain, said astronomer Valerie Rapson of the State University of New York at Oneonta.

Comets are frozen leftovers from the solar system’s formation billions of years ago. They heat up as they swing toward the sun, releasing their characteristic streaming tails.

Comet Lemmon, also designated C/2025 A6, was discovered in January by a telescope scouring the night sky for near-Earth asteroids. Comet SWAN, also known as C/2025 R2, was spotted in September by an amateur astronomer using photos from a spacecraft operated by NASA and the European Space Agency.

The comets are green because of gases streaming off their surfaces. From Earth, they’ll look like gray, fuzzy patches.

Earlier this year, a green comet broke up as it swung by the sun, dashing hopes of a naked-eye spectacle. A bright comet called Tsuchinshan-Atlas zoomed by Earth in 2024, and other notable flybys included Neowise in 2020 and Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake in the 1990s.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage declined again this week, easing to just above its lowest level this year.

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Average long-term US mortgage rate ticks up for second straight week, to 6.34%

The average long-term mortgage rate slipped to 6.27% from 6.3% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.44%.

The latest dip brings the average rate to just above 6.26%, where it was four weeks ago after a string of declines brought down home loan borrowing costs to their lowest level since early October 2024.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also eased this week. The average rate dropped to 5.52% from 5.53% last week. A year ago, it was 5.63%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The 10-year yield was at 4.02% at midday Thursday, down from around 4.14% the same time last week.

Mortgage rates started declining in July in the lead-up to the Federal Reserve’s decision last month to cut its main interest rate for the first time in a year amid growing concern over the U.S. job market.

At their September policy meeting, Fed officials forecast that the central bank would reduce its rate twice more this year and once in 2026. Still, the Fed could change course if inflation jumps amid the Trump administration’s expanding use of tariffs and the recent trade war escalation with China.

Even if the Fed opts to cut its short-term rate further that doesn’t necessarily mean mortgage rates will keep declining. Last fall, after the Fed cut its rate for the first time in more than four years, mortgage rates marched higher, eventually reaching just above 7% in January this year.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has remained above 6% since September 2022, the year mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. The housing market has been in a slump ever since.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes sank last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. So far this year, sales are running below where they were at this time in 2024.