The Federal Reserve is opening the door to possible interest rate hikes earlier next year than had been expected, as it wrestles with the highest inflation in nearly four decades.

The police conducted raids in the city of Dresden and the nearby town of Heidenau come after a group allegedly organized online to kill Saxony's state premier, Michael Kretschmer.

Scientists are watching how Portugal and other highly vaccinated countries are faring against the coronavirus' new omicron variant.

The campus reported nearly 500 new cases of COVID-19 among the student body. The new omicron variant was detected "in a significant number" of positive tests, the university said.

The research finds that the medicine, called Paxlovid, was effective in preventing hospitalization and death when taken by people with mild to moderate illness within a few days of symptoms.

Businesses across the country, from restaurants to retail, must decide when, not if, to raises prices and by how much.

Omicron has many more mutations than previous variants of concern, a fact that raises questions about how effective existing vaccines will be against the new form of the coronavirus.

Wesleyan University is among a small group of colleges requiring COVID-19 boosters for spring semester. Will other institutions follow?

Hiring slowed sharply last month, even as the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%. Data from the Labor Department suggest the economy was losing steam even before the appearance of a new COVID-19 variant.

Officials in Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota and New York reported their first cases of the variant on Thursday, one day after the first U.S. case was identified in California.

Among his new steps to fight COVID surges this winter: requiring private health insurers to reimburse people for at-home tests. It also calls for more people to get vaccines and boosters.

The individual returned from South Africa on Nov. 22 and had mild symptoms. Cases have been found in more than 20 countries, less than a week after the worrying new variant was first identified.

More should be known about the transmissibility and severity of the new variant in "days, not necessarily weeks," a senior World Health Organization scientist says.

What's the U.S. doing to watch out for the omicron variant? Here's the work underway and the challenges that experts say may slow down the country's efforts.

The coronavirus outbreak exposed flaws in the global health system but also showed a willingness among countries to work together, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director-general, says.