DALLAS (AP) — A federal judge is siding with the Biden administration and blocking JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit Airlines, saying the $3.8 billion deal would reduce competition. The Justice Department sued to block the merger, saying it would drive up fares by eliminating Spirit, the nation’s biggest low-cost airline.

Delta Air Lines earned $2 billion in the fourth quarter, posted record full-year revenue, and says it's buying more planes to boost its international flying. The airline said Friday that it will buy 20 Airbus A350s and take options to buy 20 more of the long-range jetliners. Delta expects to get the first ones in 2026.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Higher energy and housing prices boosted overall U.S. inflation in December, a sign that the Federal Reserve's drive to slow inflation to its 2% target will likely remain a bumpy one.

The Department of Justice released new details of a settlement with engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. Wednesday that includes a mandatory recall of 600,000 Ram trucks, and that Cummins remedy environmental damage it caused when it illegally installed emissions control software in several thousand vehicles, skirting emissions testing.

UNION, N.J. (AP) — Federal investigators began several days of hearings Wednesday into a dockside cargo ship fire that killed two New Jersey firefighters last summer at one of the busiest U.S. seaports.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A business to be spun off by General Electric will build hundreds of turbines for what will be the largest wind project in the Western Hemisphere, part of a massive equipment order and long-term service agreement with the global renewable-energy giant Pattern Energy.

BEIJING (AP) — China announced sanctions Sunday on five American defense-related companies in response to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and U.S sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals. The sanctions will freeze any property the companies have in China and prohibit organizations and individuals in China from doing business with them, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted online.

An Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Oregon on Friday after a window and a chunk of its fuselage blew out in mid-air shortly after takeoff.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s employers added a robust 216,000 jobs last month, the latest sign that the American job market remains resilient even in the face of sharply higher interest rates. Friday’s report from the Labor Department showed that December’s job gain exceeded the 173,000 that were added in November.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate edged higher this week, ending a nine-week slide that gave prospective homebuyers some breathing room after home loan borrowing soared to the highest level in more than two decades. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage inched up to 6.62% from 6.61% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.48%.

Pressing a button will be one way to summon an artificial intelligence agent as Microsoft wields its computer industry influence to reshape the next generation of keyboards. Starting this month, some new personal computers that run Microsoft's Windows operating system will have a special “Copilot key” that launches the software giant's AI chatbot.

M-I-C-K-E-Y will soon belong to you and me. With several asterisks, qualification and caveats, Mickey Mouse in his earliest form will be the leader of the band of characters, films and books that will become public domain as the year turns to 2024.

A cargo vessel carrying lithium-ion batteries has been ordered to continue to Alaska after a fire was reported in its cargo hold.

The New Year is almost upon us. And as the world prepares to ring in 2024, many are winding down from the holidays and getting back into their regular routines — give or take some fresh resolutions.

More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but not enough to raise concern about the labor market or broader economy. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims rose …

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania recorded a steep increase in the deaths of older adults following an abuse or neglect complaint the last few years, as COVID-19 ravaged the nation, complaints grew and agencies struggled to keep caseworkers on staff.

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times is striking back against the threat that artificial intelligence poses to the news industry, filing a federal lawsuit Wednesday against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking to end the practice of using its stories to train chatbots.

BERLIN (AP) — Wolfgang Schaeuble, who helped negotiate German reunification in 1990 and as finance minister was a central figure in the austerity-heavy effort to drag Europe out of its debt crisis more than two decades later, has died. He was 81.

Stocks notched more gains Tuesday as Wall Street kicked off what's expected to be a quiet, holiday-shortened week of trading. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, finishing less than 0.5% below its all-time high set nearly two years ago. The benchmark index is coming off eight straight weekly gains, its longest winning streak since 2017.

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll following the explosion of a smelting furnace at a Chinese-owned nickel plant on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island rose to 18 on Tuesday, as police ordered the plant to stop operations until an investigation into the incident is completed.

We lost Twitter and got X. We tried out Bluesky and Mastodon (well, some of us did). We fretted about AI bots and teen mental health. We cocooned in private chats and scrolled endlessly as we did in years past. For social media users, 2023 was a year of beginnings and endings, with some soul-searching in between.

Gift cards make great stocking stuffers — just as long as you don't stuff them in a drawer and forget about them after the holidays. Americans are expected to spend nearly $30 billion on gift cards this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation. Restaurant gift cards are the most popular, making up one-third of those sales.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — It was the dog, stuck atop skyscraping grain silos on Springfield's northeast side in 2019, that forced Chris Richmond's hand. The stray had found its way to the top of the behemoth Pillsbury Mills, for decades a flour-churning engine of the central Illinois city's economy but now vacant more than 20 years. Rescue was too risky amid such decay, officials said.

The journey from nowhere to an Olympic gold medal is a tale as old as time. Just as well-worn, but far less explored, are the stories about great athletes who realize they can't make it anywhere unless they have a way to bankroll the trip.

NEW YORK (AP) — Retailers are stepping up sales and other enticements in the final days before Christmas to lure shoppers who've been waiting for the best deals, or who didn’t have the time or the urge to wrap up gift-buying early. Incentives to spend last minute are an extension of ongoing efforts by stores to keep shoppers engaged, an effort that began as early as October this year.