RENO, Nev. (AP) — Santos Brizuela spent more than two decades laboring outdoors, persisting despite a bout of heatstroke while cutting sugarcane in Mexico and chronic laryngitis from repeated exposure to the hot sun while on various other jobs. But last summer, while on a construction crew in Las Vegas, he reached his breaking point. Exposure to the sun made his head ache immediately. He lost much of his appetite.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (AP) — Rising trade barriers. Aging populations. A broad transition from carbon-spewing fossil fuels to renewable energy. The prevalence of such trends across the world could intensify global inflation pressures in the coming years and make it harder for the Federal Reserve and other central banks to meet their inflation targets.

IWAKI, Japan (AP) — Fish auction prices at a port south of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant fell Friday amid uncertainty over how seafood consumers will respond to the release of treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the ocean.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (AP) — The continued strength of the U.S. economy could require further interest rate increases, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday in a closely watched speech that also highlighted the uncertain nature of the economic outlook. Powell noted that the economy has been growing faster than expected and that consumers have kept spending briskly — trends that could keep inflation pressures high. He also reiterated the Fed's determination to keep its benchmark rate elevated until price increases are reduced to the central bank's 2% target.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed further above 7% this week to its highest level since 2001, another blow to would-be homebuyers grappling with rising home prices and a stubbornly low supply of properties on the market. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan climbed to 7.23% from 7.09% last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 5.55%.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The nation's largest railroad union wants federal regulators to do more to ensure conductors are properly trained in the wake of two recent trainee deaths. The Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union that represents conductors wants the Federal Railroad Administration to establish clear standards for how long new employees are trained and who mentors them to teach them the craft after they finish their formal training.

The union representing 340,000 UPS workers said Tuesday that its members voted to approve the tentative contract agreement reached last month, putting a final seal on contentious labor negotiations that threatened to disrupt package deliveries for millions of businesses and households nationwide.

DETROIT (AP) — Just five years ago, a price-conscious auto shopper in the United States could choose from among a dozen new small cars selling for under $20,000. Now, there’s just one: The Mitsubishi Mirage. And even the Mirage appears headed for the scrap yard.

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level in more than 20 years, pushing up borrowing costs for homebuyers already challenged by a housing market that remains competitive due to a dearth of homes for sale. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan rose to 7.09% from 6.96% last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 5.13%.

Discount grocer Aldi said Wednesday it plans to buy 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys supermarkets in the southern U.S. Under a proposed merger agreement, Aldi will acquire all outstanding shares of Jacksonville, Florida-based Southeastern Grocers Inc., the parent company of Winn-Dixie and Harveys. If the deal is approved by regulators, it's expected to close in the first half of 2024.

NEW YORK (AP) — Target reported its first quarterly sales drop in six years, dragged down by shoppers' inflation worries and a negative reaction by some customers, widely publicized on social media, to its Pride merchandise. The Minneapolis retailer expects high interest rates, which makes credit cards more expensive to use, and higher prices on food to continue to put a strain on customers and on Wednesday, the chain cut its profit outlook for the year.

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans increased their purchases at retailers last month – for clothing, dining out, online goods and other areas – in a sign that solid consumer spending is still powering a resilient U.S. economy. Retail sales rose a better-than-expected 0.7% in July from June, according to the Commerce Department's report Tuesday. The gain followed a revised 0.3% gain the previous month, the government said.

ATLANTA (AP) — Home Depot topped profit and sales expectations in its most recent quarter, but sales continued to decline as inflation and soaring interest rates play a larger role in the spending choices made by Americans. Second quarter revenue was $42.92 billion, edging out Wall Street expectations for $42.25 billion, according to a survey of industry analysts by Zacks Investment Research.

A federal judge has set off a debate among legal scholars by ordering lawyers for Southwest Airlines to undergo “religious-liberty training” by a conservative Christian legal group.

Eli Lilly’s diabetes treatment Mounjaro, which is widely used for weight loss, raked in nearly $1 billion in second-quarter sales, or more than $200 million above what Wall Street had expected. Shares of the drugmaker soared to an all-time high early Tuesday after Lilly said Mounjaro sales swelled more than 70% since the first quarter to $980 million. Almost all of that came from the U.S., and the company said significant demand was leading to delays in filling orders for some doses.

BEIJING (AP) — China's exports plunged by 14.5% in July compared with a year earlier, adding to pressure on the ruling Communist Party to reverse an economic slump. Imports tumbled 12.4%, customs data showed Tuesday, in a blow to global exporters that look to China as one of the biggest markets for industrial materials, food and consumer goods.

BEIJING (AP) — China's exports plunged by 14.5% in July compared with a year earlier, adding to pressure on the ruling Communist Party to reverse an economic slump.

Revenue declined at UPS in the second quarter and the package delivery company lowered its full-year revenue expectations by $4 billion as package volumes decline, and after reaching a tentative labor contract reached late last month with its 340,000 unionized workers.

Trucking company Yellow Corp. has declared bankruptcy after years of financial struggles and growing debt. It marks a significant shift for the U.S. transportation industry and shippers nationwide. …

Word spread through an Oregon hospital last month that a visitor was causing trouble in the maternity ward, and nurses were warned the man might try to abduct his partner's newborn. Hours later, the visitor opened fire, killing a security guard and sending patients, nurses and doctors scrambling for cover.

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk says his potential in-person fight with Mark Zuckerberg would be streamed on his social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. The two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to a “cage match” face-off in late June. Zuckerberg is actually trained in mixed martial arts, and the CEO of Facebook's parent company Meta posted about completing his first jiu jitsu tournament earlier this year.

DICKINSON, N.D. (AP) — Maksym Bunchukov remembers hearing rockets explode in Zaporizhzhia as the war in Ukraine began. “It was terrible,” he said. He and his wife sent their adult daughter west to Lviv for safety and joined her later with their pets.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added 187,000 last month, fewer than expected, as the higher interest rates continued to weigh on the economy. But the unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% in a sign that the job market remains resilient. Hiring was up from 185,000 in June, a figure that the Labor Department revised down from an originally reported 209,000. Economists had expected to see 200,000 new jobs in July.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. gas prices are continuing to rise — giving drivers across the country another headache at the pump. The national average for gas prices stood at about $3.82 a gallon on Thursday — about 29 cents higher than that seen one month ago, according to motor club AAA. While today’s prices at the pump remain far lower than they were last year, when energy costs soared worldwide in the months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, experts say such a jump is unusual.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia said Thursday it will extend its unilateral production cut of 1 million barrels of oil a day through the end of September in its effort to boost flagging energy prices. The Saudi reduction, which began in July, comes as the other OPEC+ producers have agreed to extend earlier production cuts through next year.