The health insurer Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit over whether its fertility treatment coverage discriminates against LGBTQ+ patients. The insurer will make coverage of artificial insemination standard for all customers nationally and work to ensure that patients have equal access to more-expensive in-vitro fertilization procedures. A CVS Health spokesman says the company was pleased to resolve the case and committed to providing care to all individuals. A federal judge still must approve the deal, which was announced Friday.

The nation’s employers pulled back on their hiring in April but still added a decent 175,000 jobs in a sign that persistently high interest rates may be starting to slow the robust U.S. job market. Last month’s hiring gain was down sharply from the blockbuster increase of 315,000 in March. Yet the moderation in the pace of hiring, along with a slowdown last month in wage growth, will likely be welcomed by the Federal Reserve, which has kept interest rates at a two-decade high to fight persistently elevated inflation. Hourly wages rose a less-than-expected 0.2% from March and 3.9% from a year earlier, the smallest annual gain since June 2021.

Nippon Steel says it has postponed the expected closing of its $14.1 billion takeover of U.S. Steel by three months after the U.S. Department of Justice requested more documentation related to the deal. In a release, Tokyo-based Nippon Steel said it was cooperating with the request and the deal, already approved by U.S. Steel's shareholders, is still expected to go through. President Joe Biden’s administration has balked at the deal on economic and national security grounds. So has former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential candidate in the November election. Nippon Steel denied reports that the delay was related to the presidential election.

The King’s Trust has celebrated its new name, an update of King Charles III’s long-running charity The Prince’s Trust. The organization marked the expansion of its work in the United States with a star-studded gala in New York City on Thursday night. The Prince’s Trust was founded in 1976 when then-Prince Charles used his severance pay from the Royal Navy to launch the nonprofit dedicated to helping unemployed young people in the United Kingdom get job training. Since then, the charity has expanded its education and employment initiatives into 25 countries, including the U.S., where it launched its first program in The Bronx last year.

Asian shares are mostly higher ahead of a report on the U.S. jobs market. Several markets, including Tokyo and Shanghai, were closed for holidays. Oil prices and U.S. futures were higher. The Japanese yen strengthened slightly against the U.S. dollar amid signs of heavy central bank intervention to tamp down the U.S. dollar's advance. On Thursday, U.S. stocks closed higher and trimmed their losses for the week. The S&P 500 climbed 0.9%, a day after swinging sharply when the Federal Reserve said it’s likely delaying cuts to interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite added 1.5%.

Comcast has blacked out 15 regional sports networks offered by Bally Sports, escalating a contract dispute with their distributor. The cutoff that began Wednesday affects games played by a dozen Major League Baseball teams based in nine states. Diamond Sports Group, which distributes the networks under the Bally name, called the blackout “disappointing” and blamed Comcast for refusing to “engage in substantive discussions.” Comcast, meanwhile, said that Diamond has declined several of its offers, such as allowing Diamond to unilaterally renew its existing agreement with Comcast for a year. As a result, Comcast said, it no longer has rights to the sports broadcasts and had no choice but to cut them off.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has unveiled an international framework for regulation and use of generative AI. It adds to global efforts on governance for the rapidly advancing technology. Kishida made the announcement in a speech at the Paris-based OECD on Thursday. He said generative AI has the potential to be a vital tool to further enrich the world, but its dark side must also be confronted. When Japan chaired the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations last year, it launched a Hiroshima AI process to draw up international guiding principles and a code of conduct for AI developers. The voluntary framework is aimed at helping to implement the principles and code of conduct to address the risks of generative AI.

Global Citizen NOW says it wants 2024 conference attendees to invest long-term in the African continent's fast-growing youth population and increase outreach to young changemakers. Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans says he finds that conflicts around the world have made it even more important for leaders to support education and health care in the least-developed nations. Appeals from the international antipoverty organization's two-day summit include $6 billion for economic development in Africa. Global Citizen also hopes to boost foreign aid to Sub-Saharan Africa through an upcoming economic summit in the Ivory Coast. Organizers say it's crucial considering that the working-age population in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double by 2050 but many lack access to electricity.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage climbed this week to its highest level in more than five months, pushing up borrowing costs for prospective homebuyers in what’s typically the housing market’s busiest stretch of the year. The rate rose to 7.22% from 7.17% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.39%. When mortgage rates rise, they can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers. That limits how much homebuyers can afford at a time when a relatively limited number of homes on the market coupled with heightened competition for the most affordable properties has kept prices marching higher.

Sony Pictures and Apollo Global Management have expressed interest in buying Paramount Global for $26 billion. That's according to a person familiar with the details. Sony would be the majority shareholder and Apollo would have a minority stake, according to the person, who requested anonymity because details of the offer have not been made public. The Sony-Apollo offer was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The judge overseeing a pivotal antitrust trial focused on whether Google is stifling competition and innovation has repeatedly indicated he believes it would be difficult for a formidable rival search engine to emerge. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta went back and forth Thursday with Google’s lead litigator, John Schmidtlein, during the first day of the trial’s closing arguments, questioning whether another company could amass the money and data needed to develop a search engine that could eventually compete against Google. Google reaped an operating profit of nearly $96 billion last year, mostly by selling digital ads — a market that it also dominates largely because it controls about 90% of the U.S. internet search market.

Apple has posted its steepest quarterly decline in iPhone sales since the pandemic’s outset. The results reflect a deepening slump that’s increasing the pressure on the trendsetting company to spruce up its products with more artificial intelligence. The 10% drop in year-over-year iPhone sales for the January-March period is latest sign of weakness in a product that generates most of Apple’s revenue. It marked the biggest drop in iPhone sales since July-September period in 2020 when production bottlenecks caused by factory closures during the pandemic resulted in a delayed release of the new model that year. Apple's revenue and profit still eclipsed analyst projections, and its stock rose in extended trading.