By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate barely budged this week, staying close to 6% as the spring homebuying season nears.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate edged up to 6.11%, essentially flat compared to last week when it was 6.1%, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the rate averaged 6.89%.

This is the latest increase since the average rate eased three weeks ago to 6.06%, its lowest level in more than three years.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also ticked up this week. That average rate inched up to 5.5% from 5.49% last week. A year ago, it was at 6.05%, 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 Treasury yield was at 4.21% at midday Thursday, down from 4.23% a week ago.

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By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — During the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts worried that disruptions to cancer diagnosis and treatment would cost lives. A new study suggests they were right.

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The federally funded study published Thursday by the medical journal JAMA Oncology is being called the first to assess the effects of pandemic-related disruptions on the short-term survival of cancer patients.

Researchers found that people diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and 2021 had worse short-term survival than those diagnosed between 2015 and 2019. That was true across a range of cancers, and whether they were diagnosed at a late or early stage.

Of course, COVID-19 itself was especially dangerous to patients already weakened by cancer, but the researchers worked to filter out deaths mainly attributed to the coronavirus, so they could see if other factors played a role.

The researchers were not able to definitively show what drove worse survival, said Todd Burus of the University of Kentucky, the study’s lead author.

“But disruptions to the health care system were probably a key contributor,” said Burus, who specializes in medical data analysis.

COVID-19 forced many people to postpone cancer screenings — colonoscopies, mammograms and lung scans — as the coronavirus overwhelmed doctors and hospitals, especially in 2020.

Earlier research had shown that overall cancer death rates in the U.S. continued to decline throughout the pandemic, and there weren’t huge shifts in late diagnoses.

Recinda Sherman, a researcher on that earlier paper, applauded the new work.

“As this study is the first to document pandemic-related, cause-specific survival, I think it is important,” said Sherman, of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries. “The more we understand about the impact of COVID-19, the better we will be able to prepare for the next one.”

How could overall cancer death rates decline in 2020 and 2021, while short-term survival worsen for newly diagnosed patients?

Cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment measures that for years had been pushing cancer death rates down did not suddenly disappear during the pandemic, Burus noted.

“We didn’t forget how to do those things,” he said. “But disruptions could have changed access, could have changed how quickly people were getting treated.”

Further research will show if any impact was lasting, said Hyuna Sung, senior principal scientist and cancer epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society.

“Transient declines in survival that quickly recover may have little impact on long-term mortality trends,” she said.

The new study tapped national cancer registry data to focus more specifically on patients who had a first diagnosis of a malignant cancer in 2020 and 2021. More than 1 million people were diagnosed with cancer in those two years, and about 144,000 died within one year, according to the researchers’ data.

The researchers looked at one-year survival rates for those patients, checking for what stage they were at the time of diagnosis.

They calculated that one-year survival was lower for both early- and late-stage diagnoses, for all cancer sites combined. Most worrisome were large differences seen in colorectal, prostate and pancreatic cancers, they said.

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 NOHA ELHENNAWY

CAIRO (AP) — Famine is threatening more areas in war-torn Sudan’s western Darfur region, a global hunger monitoring group said Thursday as an attack by paramilitary forces on a military hospital in the country’s south killed 22 people, including the hospital’s director and three members of its medical staff.

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Since April 2023, Sudan has been in the throes of war after a power struggle erupted between the military and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. The conflict has triggered what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, released a new report saying that acute malnutrition has reached famine levels in two more towns in Darfur. It stopped short of confirming a full famine in the towns.

Last year, the group said that people in Darfur’s major city of el-Fasher, overrun by the paramilitary forces after an 18-month siege, were enduring famine.

The attack Thursday in the town of Kouik in South Kordofan province, also left eight people wounded, the Sudan Doctors’ Network, a group of medical professionals tracking the war said. It was not immediately clear how many of the casualties were civilians.

The attack was “not an isolated incident, but rather part of a series of attacks that have plagued South Kordofan,” the network said, adding that the assaults have left “several hospitals inoperable.”

The U.N. estimates that over 40,000 people have been killed in the war in Sudan, but aid agencies consider that the true number could be many times higher. Over 14 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

This is a locator map for Sudan with its capital, Khartoum. (AP Photo)

A harrowing report

The IPC report said famine-level malnutrition has been registered in the towns of Umm Baru and Kernoi in North Darfur province. In November, the group said that along with el-Fasher, the city of Kadugli in South Kordofan was also enduring famine. At the time, it also said 20 other areas across Sudan were at risk of famine.

In Umm Baru, nearly 53% of children between aged between 6 months and nearly 5 years suffered from acute malnutrition, the IPC said — almost double the famine threshold, which stands at 30%. In Kernoi, 32% of children are suffering from malnutrition, the group said.

“These alarming rates suggest an increased risk of excess mortality and raise concern that nearby areas may be experiencing similar catastrophic conditions,” the report said.

Since the eruption of Sudan’s civil war, the IPC has confirmed famine in a total of seven areas. The group said it could not confirm a full famine in Umm Baru and Kernoi as access and lack of data makes it difficult to confirm the other two thresholds — access to food and mortality — that need to be reached for a famine to be confirmed.

The fall of el-Fasher in October 2025 to the RSF set off an exodus of people to nearby towns, straining the resources of neighboring communities and driving up food insecurity rates, the report said.

The IPC has confirmed famine only a few times, most recently in 2025 in northern Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war. It also confirmed famine in Somalia in 2011, and in South Sudan in 2017 and 2020.

In 2024, famine had struck five other areas in North Darfur and also Sudan’s Nuba Mountains region.

The IPC report also warned that more people might face extreme hunger in Kordofan, where the conflict has disrupted food production and supply lines in besieged towns and isolated areas.

“An immediate and sustained ceasefire is critical to avert further destitution, starvation, and death in the affected parts of Sudan,” pled the Rome-based group.

According to experts, famine is determined in areas where deaths from malnutrition-related causes reach at least two people, or four children under 5 years of age, per 10,000 people; at least one in five people or households severely lack food and face starvation; and at least 30% of children under age 5 suffer from acute malnutrition based on a weight-to-height measurement — or 15% based on upper-arm circumference.

Fighting rages on

Since the RSF overran el-Fasher, which had been one of the army’s last strongholds in Darfur, fighting has recently concentrated in various areas of Kordofan. Lately, the Sudanese military began making gains in Kordofan after breaking a siege in Kadugli and the neighboring town of Dilling.

On Tuesday, the Sudanese military announced that it had opened a crucial road between Dilling and Kadugli, which had been under siege by the RSF since the start of the war. The RSF launched a drone attack Tuesday that hit a medical center in Kadugli, killing 15 people including seven children, according to Sudan Doctors Network.

Also this week, the United States and the U.N. said they are seeking to rally international support for humanitarian aid to Sudan, kicking off a new Sudan Humanitarian Fund with $700 million in contributions from the United Arab Emirates and the U.S.

The Trump administration said Tuesday it would contribute $200 million to the initiative from a basket of $2 billion it set aside late last year to fund humanitarian projects around the world. The UAE said it would contribute $500 million. Saudi Arabia and several other participants promised they would make pledges but did not specify amounts.

Associated Press writer Fay Abuelgasim in Cairo contributed to this report.

Inside the visitors locker room at Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday night, most Minnesota Wild players still had wet hair from their postgame showers after closing the pre-Olympics portion of their schedule with a 6-5 win over the Nashville Predators.

Outside the room, as he spoke to reporters in front of a backdrop festooned with the Wild’s logo, coach John Hynes reflected on the win, which gave his team a 8-1-1 mark in its last 10. But in his head, Hynes was already switching his mental focus from the Wild to Team USA.

“Now it actually flips,” said Hynes, an assistant coach for the U.S. team. “Now the Wild goes on to break for a little bit. It’s kind of all getting pumped up for (Olympics) the next couple of days before you travel, and it’s all-in on that. So, I’m excited. It should be a great opportunity and it’s something we’re looking forward to.”

Hynes and his family will arrive in Italy on Saturday. He will fill the same role he had in 2025 during the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, when the Americans earned a silver medal, and the IIHF World Championship in May, where Team USA won its first gold medal since 1934.

Minnesota will be well-represented next week when the men’s hockey games begin at the hastily-constructed rinks in Milan.

Wild general manager Bill Guerin serves the same role for Team USA and put together the team they hope will earn the nation’s first Olympic gold medal since the 1980 Miracle on Ice. Two Wild team trainers and one of the team’s doctors will head to Italy to work for the Americans. And on the ice, eight current Wild players and two from the minor leagues will represent five countries: Sweden, USA, Germany, Czechia and Slovakia.

While the players were clearly focused on the five consecutive NHL games they won before heading across the Atlantic, some international rivalries have been creeping into Wild practice for weeks.

After Joel Eriksson Ek returned from injury to score four goals in a five-game stretch before the break, Hynes openly speculated about the American defenders who will be needed to protect their net-front from the hulking Swede should they meet in the medal round. Wild forward Nico Sturm has been breaking in his Team Germany skates at a few Minnesota practices, and joked about hiding his on-ice moves from NHL teammates that may be foes in Italy.

“I don’t have any good stuff to hide. This is my best,” he said with a grin. “They get my best every day in games, in practice, so I’ve got nothing to hide. I guess I’ve got to come up with something.”

Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson has occasionally been wearing his blue-and-gold Team Sweden gloves and leg pads in practice to break them in. That is a process that takes a few hours of facing pucks in most cases, but he admitted that the pads he will wear at the Olympics have taken a little longer to soften up. He will be looking to backstop Sweden’s first men’s hockey gold medal since 2006, the last time the Games were in Italy.

Team Sweden, which features Wild players Eriksson Ek, Gustavsson, Marcus Johansson and Jesper Wallstedt, has its Olympic debut on Wednesday against Italy at 2:10 p.m. Minnesota time.

Team USA, which includes Hynes, forward Matt Boldy and defensemen Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber, opens the Olympics on Thursday with a game versus Latvia at 2:10 p.m. Minnesota time. Sturm and Team Germany take on Denmark at the same time that day.

Wild minor league defenseman David Spacek will represent Czechia, and Wild goalie prospect Samuel Halavaj will skate for Slovakia.

Gustavsson joked that if he faces the Americans or the Germans in Milan, they will have little idea of what to expect from him after a campaign of subterfuge over the past month or so.

“I’m doing different saves now, so they don’t know what my normal saves are. They think they can shoot where it’s open, and it’s not going to be open,” Gustavsson said with a grin. “They all think they can score on me, but it’s not gonna happen.”

When asked about his goalie practicing the art of deception in Wild practices, Hynes flashed a broad smile and snapped into his Team USA headspace quickly.

“Good,” Hynes said. “That means we’re in his head already.”

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