A federal judge has handed Microsoft a major victory by declining to block its looming $69 billion takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard. Regulators sought to ax the deal saying it will hurt competition.

NEW YORK (AP) — Bank of America will reimburse customers more than $100 million and pay $150 million in fines for “double-dipping” on overdraft fees, withholding reward bonuses on credit cards and opening accounts without customer consent.

NEW YORK (AP) — An influencer-backed energy drink that has earned viral popularity among children is facing scrutiny from lawmakers and health experts over its potentially dangerous levels of caffeine.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Would-be homebuyers are taking on sharply higher mortgage payments, even as home prices have begun to pull back this year. The median monthly payment listed on applications for home purchase loans jumped 14.1% in May from a year earlier to an all-time high $2,165, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The May figure also represents a 2.5% increase from April.

WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers pulled back on hiring but still delivered another month of solid gains in June, adding 209,000 jobs, a sign that the economy’s resilience is confounding the Federal Reserve’s drive to slow growth and inflation. The latest evidence of economic strength makes it all but certain that the Fed will resume its interest rate hikes later this month after having ended a streak of 10 rate increases intended to slow inflation.

NEW YORK (AP) — Threads, a text-based app built by Meta to rival Twitter, is live. The app, billed as the text version of Meta's photo-sharing platform Instagram, became available Wednesday night to users in more than 100 countries — including the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan. Despite some early glitches, 30 million people had signed up before noon on Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Threads.

Meta has unveiled an app called Threads to rival Twitter, targeting users looking for an alternative to the social media platform owned — and frequently changed — by Elon Musk. Threads is billed as a text-based version of Meta's photo-sharing app Instagram that the company says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has arrived in Beijing for meetings with Chinese leaders as part of efforts to revive relations that are strained by disputes about security, technology and other …

Contract negotiations between UPS and the union representing 340,000 of the company's workers broke down early Wednesday with each side blaming the other for walking away from talks. The Teamsters have imposed several deadlines for United Parcel Service negotiators to make their “last, best and final” offer to its unionized workers in recent days. Union officials said Wednesday that UPS “walked away from the bargaining table after presenting an unacceptable offer," specifically with regard to the economic package.

LONDON (AP) — Meta is poised to unveil a new app that appears to mimic Twitter in a direct challenge to the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. A listing for the app, called Threads, appeared on Apple's App Store, indicating it would debut as early as Thursday. It is billed as a “text-based conversation app" that is linked to Instagram, according to the listing, which teased a Twitter-like microblogging experience.

Air travelers could breathe a little easier Monday, as a break in stormy weather — and lighter schedules a day before the July 4 holiday — helped airlines keep more flights moving on time. By late afternoon on the East Coast, about 125 U.S. flights had been canceled and 2,800 were late, according to FlightAware. Those numbers were down from more than 600 cancellations and 7,700 delays on Sunday.

Airline passengers dealing with weather delays could face a new source of disruptions this weekend. Wireless providers plan to power up new 5G systems near major airports on Saturday. Most U.S. …

WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation index that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve fell last month to 3.8%, its lowest level since April 2021, though still nearly twice the 2% level desired by the Fed. At the same time, consumers barely increased their spending last month, boosting it just 0.1%, after a solid 0.6% gain in April.

ATLANTA (AP) — Norfolk Southern's CEO has spoken often of safety and better service since he took the job over a year ago, but it's safety that has dominated discussions after one of his trains derailed and caught fire in February in Ohio, creating towering black smoke, forcing evacuations and raising environmental worries.

Travelers are getting hit with delays at U.S. airports again early Wednesday, an ominous sign heading into the long July 4 holiday weekend, which is shaping up as the biggest test yet for airlines struggling to keep up with surging numbers of passengers. As of early morning, nearly 1,300 flights have been delayed in the U.S., according to FlightAware. Cancellations neared 700 flights.

BEIJING (AP) — Threatened by possible shortages of lithium for electric car batteries, automakers are racing to lock in supplies of the once-obscure “white gold” in a politically and environmentally fraught competition from China to Nevada to Chile. General Motors Co. and the parent company of China’s BYD Auto Ltd. went straight to the source and bought stakes in lithium miners, a rare step in an industry that relies on outside vendors for copper and other raw materials. Others are investing in lithium refining or ventures to recycle the silvery-white metal from used batteries.

Instagram and Facebook's parent company Meta is adding some new parental supervision tools and privacy features to its platforms as social media companies face increasing scrutiny over their effects on teen mental health. But many of the features require minors — and their parents — to opt in, raising questions about how effective the measures are.

LONDON (AP) — France might not know too much about baseball. Fashion is another story. As Major League Baseball tries to solve Europe, it's looking for ways to connect with the locals and grow its fan base.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Chemical manufacturer 3M Co. will pay at least $10.3 billion to settle lawsuits over contamination of many U.S. public drinking water systems with potentially harmful compounds used in firefighting foam and a host of consumer products, the company said Thursday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes edged higher in May and the national median sale price posted its biggest annual drop in more than a decade, even as the supply of available properties sank to an all-time low. Existing home sales rose 0.2% last month from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.3 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft on Thursday will try to gain clearance to complete a $69 billion takeover of video game maker Activision Blizzard in a legal showdown with U.S. regulators that will reshape a pastime that's bigger than the movie and music industries combined.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon was sued Wednesday by Federal Trade Commission for what it called a years-long effort to enroll consumers without consent into its Prime program and make it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the agency accused Amazon of using deceptive designs, known as “dark patterns,” to deceive consumers into enrolling in the program.

DETROIT (AP) — Electric vehicle maker Rivian says it will follow General Motors and Ford and join Tesla's charging network next year. The startup truck, SUV and delivery van maker says Tuesday that like GM and Ford, it will include ports with Tesla’s connector on future Rivian vehicles starting in 2025. It also will offer an adapter for owners of current Rivian EVs.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The union for thousands of West Coast dockworkers has reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, it was announced Wednesday, after more than a year of negotiations and several work disruptions that snarled shipping traffic at some of the largest ports.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate unchanged Wednesday after having raised it 10 straight times to combat high inflation. But in a surprise move, the Fed signaled that it may raise rates twice more this year, beginning as soon as next month. The Fed’s move to leave its benchmark rate at about 5.1%, its highest level in 16 years, suggests that it believes the much higher borrowing rates it’s engineered have made some progress in taming inflation.