WASHINGTON — GlaxoSmithKline says its COVID-19 antibody drug appears to be effective against the omicron variant based on initial laboratory testing.
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LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democrats vowed Wednesday to push new gun-control legislation and to try to revive stalled bills in Michigan's Republican-led Legislature following a mass shooting that left four high school students dead and others with serious injuries.
Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 three days before his first presidential debate in September 2020 with Joe Biden, according to a new book by Trump's former chief of staff.
CHICAGO (AP) — The city of Chicago dropped its lawsuit Wednesday against the police union in its fight over city employee COVID-19 vaccine orders, saying the complaint became unnecessary as more officers complied.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday may have seen slight declines this year, but GivingTuesday generated a new record for giving.
DALLAS (AP) — Marcus Lamb, CEO and founder of the conservative Christian Daystar Television Network who was outspoken against COVID-19 vaccines, has died at age 64 after contracting the virus.
Federal health officials are requiring airlines to gather contact-tracing information on passengers heading to the U.S. who have been in southern Africa in the previous two weeks.
BOSTON (AP) — Republican Gov. Charlie Baker announced Wednesday he won't seek a third term as governor of Massachusetts, where his party is bitterly split between supporters and foes of former President Donald Trump.
DRAPER, Utah (AP) — When her 10-year-old daughter tried spraying air freshener on herself before school one morning, Brittany Tichenor-Cox suspected something was wrong with the sweet little girl whose beaming smile had gone dormant after she started the fifth grade.
ATHENS, Greece -- Greek lawmakers have approved legislation making vaccination for COVID-19 mandatory for all people aged over 60 living in the country on pain of a monthly fine, to deal with an infection surge and the emergence of the omicron variant.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of the omicron variant Wednesday — in a vaccinated traveler who returned to California after a trip to South Africa — as scientists around the world race to establish whether the new, mutant version of the coronavirus is more da…
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s troubled jail system is facing more turmoil: the suspension of hundreds of corrections officers for failing to meet a Tuesday night deadline to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
What’s the status of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the US? (AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)
San Francisco Mayor London Breed talks about the first confirmed case of the omicron variant during a COVID-19 briefing outside City Hall in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. The U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of the omicron variant Wednesday — a person in California who had been to South Africa. Genomic sequencing on the patient's virus was conducted at the University of California, San Francisco. At right is San Francisco health director Dr. Grant Colfax. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
San Francisco health director Dr. Grant Colfax talks about the first confirmed case of the omicron variant as Mayor London Breed listens during a COVID-19 briefing outside City Hall in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. The U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of the omicron variant Wednesday — a person in California who had been to South Africa. Genomic sequencing on the patient's virus was conducted at the University of California, San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
San Francisco Mayor London Breed listens during a COVID-19 briefing about the first confirmed case of the omicron variant outside City Hall in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. The U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of the omicron variant Wednesday — a person in California who had been to South Africa. Genomic sequencing on the patient's virus was conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed it as consistent with the omicron variant. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan discusses state plans to prepare for the omicron variant of the coronavirus during a news conference on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021 in Annapolis, Md. Maryland Health Secretary Dennis Schrader is standing right. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Al Kelly believes there has been a permanent shift in how consumers worldwide pay for goods and services. His 91-year-old parents are a prime example.
A pandemic-weary world faces weeks of confusing uncertainty as countries restrict travel and take other steps to halt the newest potentially risky coronavirus mutant before anyone knows just how dangerous omicron really is.
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:
Tourism businesses that were just finding their footing after nearly two years of devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic are being rattled again as countries throw up new barriers to travel in an effort to contain the omicron variant.
In this photo created with an in-camera multiple exposure, registered nurse Lisa Lampkin, part of the first group of nurses who had been treating coronavirus patients in an intensive care unit, stands for a photo in the empty COVID-19 ICU at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif., on April 6, 2021. "I would go home, try to sleep," she says. Then she would "wake up to the reality of this pandemic again." (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Travelers wearing protective face masks wait for a shuttle to arrive at the Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. Brazil and Japan joined the rapidly widening circle of countries to report cases of the omicron variant Tuesday, while new findings indicate the mutant coronavirus was already in Europe close to a week before South Africa sounded the alarm. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A traveler wearing a hazmat suit walks through the arrivals area at the Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mixed Wednesday amid nervous trading due to worries over the newest coronavirus variant.
Washington (AP) — The Biden administration is moving to toughen testing requirements for international travelers to the U.S., including both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, amid the spread of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Brazil and Japan joined the rapidly widening circle of countries to report cases of the omicron variant Tuesday, while new findings indicate the mutant coronavirus was already in Europe close to a week before South Africa sounded the alarm.
WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, visited a children’s vaccination clinic in Washington Tuesday to encourage kids to get a COVID-19 shot.
Sitting in his car, Mesquite firefighter Jeffrey Dillon pulls up his shirt sleeve to get a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at the Dallas County Health and Human Services drive up vaccine site in Mesquite, Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Sitting in his car, Ivonne Fuentes lets out a slight grin just after getting her second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Dallas County Health and Human Services drive up vaccine site in Mesquite, Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Sitting in his car, social worker Jonathan De La Rosa gets a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at the Dallas County Health and Human Services drive up vaccine site in Mesquite, Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Sitting in his car, Mesquite firefighter Jeffrey Dillon gets a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at the Dallas County Health and Human Services drive up vaccine site in Mesquite, Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Sitting in his car, social worker Jonathan De La Rosa pulls up his sleeve to get a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at the Dallas County Health and Human Services drive up vaccine site in Mesquite, Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A new California policy could send dozens of quadriplegic, paraplegic or otherwise permanently incapacitated inmates from nursing homes back to state prisons.
After a slow start, the United States has improved its surveillance system for tracking new coronavirus variants such as omicron, boosting its capacity by tens of thousands of samples per week since early this year.
NEW YORK (AP) — Maggie Gyllenhaal's Elena Ferrante adaptation “The Lost Daughter" won four Gotham Awards including best feature film at the 31st Gotham Awards, the annual New York independent film celebration that serves as a boozy kickoff to Oscar season.
HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston man has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison after he was accused of using federal COVID-19 relief funding on a Lamborghini, a Rolex watch and trips to strip clubs, federal prosecutors said.
FILE - This undated file image provided by Merck & Co. shows their new antiviral medication molnupiravir. An experimental COVID-19 drug that could soon become the first U.S.-authorized pill to treat the coronavirus faces one final hurdle Tuesday: A panel of government experts will scrutinize data on the medication from drugmaker Merck. (Merck & Co. via AP, File)
Today in History
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Enforcement began Monday in Los Angeles for one of the strictest vaccine mandates in the country, a sweeping measure that requires proof of shots for everyone entering a wide variety of businesses from restaurants to theaters and gyms to nail and hair salons.
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are spending freely and going back to store shopping, knocking out some of the momentum in online sales from last year when Americans were making many of their purchases exclusively via the internet.
A new coronavirus variant revived old conspiracy theories this week as widely shared social media posts falsely claimed the omicron variant was nothing but a cover-up for darker agendas.
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
People, some wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, visit the Christmas Village at John F. Kennedy Plaza, commonly known as Love Park, in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk through the Christmas Village at John F. Kennedy Plaza, commonly known as Love Park, in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street steadied itself Monday after last week's stock market slide caused by the newest coronavirus variant, with investors now waiting for more clues about just how much damage it may do to the economy.
MIAMI BEACH (AP) — Cooped-up tourists eager for a taste of Florida's sandy beaches, swaying palm trees and warmer climates are visiting the Sunshine State in droves, topping pre-pandemic levels in recent months.
FILE — Shoppers walk through the aisles at Macy's, Nov. 26, 2021, in New York. New York City's health commissioner said Monday, Nov. 29, 2021, he is "strongly recommending" that everyone wear masks in indoor public settings as scientists work to learn more about the newly identified omicron variant of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File)
FILE — Staff at the Modern Museum of Art check visitors' proof of vaccination in New York, Sept. 13, 2021. New York City's health commissioner said Monday he is "strongly recommending" that everyone wear masks in indoor public settings as scientists work to learn more about the newly identified omicron variant of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)