More than a dozen laws passed during a special legislative session earlier this year take effect on Dec. 4, governing things like the STAAR Test and access to medications.

We break down a handful of them. Here’s what to know.

Texas Congressional Redistricting

Texas’ new congressional map (House Bill 4) officially takes effect on Dec. 4, ...Read more

Vladimir Putin began talks at the Kremlin with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the latest plans aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Russian president, who was joined by his foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov and Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, said in comments shown on state television that he was pleased to see the ...Read more

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was expected to sit down with Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday, marking their first meeting since Mamdani won last month’s race for City Hall.

“It’s so funny that you ask that,” Adams, who’s leaving office Dec. 31, said at an unrelated Tuesday press conference in Harlem when asked if he had any plans to meet ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filed another petition for postconviction relief in Hennepin County District Court seeking to overturn his conviction of second-degree murder in the killing of George Floyd.

Chauvin argues his conviction should be vacated and he should either be given a new trial or an ...Read more

CHICAGO — Northwestern University’s $75-million deal with the White House has brought a mix of relief and concern to campus — concluding months of research cuts, while also marking a significant advance in the president’s push to reshape higher education.

The agreement, announced Friday, restores nearly $800 million in research funding ...Read more

NEW YORK — The first major winter storm of the season struck upstate New York on Tuesday, with much of the region forecast to receive some significant snowfall by day’s end.

Precipitation from a “strengthening coastal storm” started falling overnight, first as a wintry mix, then as tendrils of snow Tuesday morning, at times falling at a...Read more

President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to expand its current travel ban to around 30 countries, according to multiple reports.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posted an anti-immigrant screed on social media Monday, threatening a ban on “every damn country” that was “flooding” the U.S. with immigrants.

Noem then spoke with ...Read more

The young mother who rented Willie Colins’ event space for her 2-year-old’s birthday party on Saturday just stopped by the business on Lucile Avenue in Stockton, California, to see if it was available, a simple request that turned into tragedy when shots rang out during the celebration, killing three children and an adult, and wounding 11 ...Read more

As the Trump White House weighs its next steps in an expanding military offensive against Venezuela’s main drug-trafficking network, strongman Nicolás Maduro is taking to the streets to project an image of national unity — insisting that Venezuelans stand ready to take up arms to defend his regime.

Maduro, indicted in the United States for...Read more

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin, who claimed a key Ukrainian city had fallen to Russia on the eve of Tuesday’s talks about a potential peace plan to end his war.

Putin said Russian troops had taken the city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region in a video announcement posted late ...Read more

MIAMI – Nearly three years after a fire shut down Miami-Dade County’s garbage incinerator, a fight over who caused the blaze is rattling a bidding war over how and where to build a modern replacement.

In a Nov. 20 letter, a top deputy to Mayor Daniella Levine Cava demanded the Doral facility’s former operator, Reworld, put up $7.8 million...Read more

Two weeks after an 11-year-old Haitian girl and honor student died during a school outing in northern Dominican Republic, her mother says she still does not know how or why it happened.

Stephora Anne-Mircie Joseph, a student at the Leonardo Da Vinci Institute in Santiago, died on Nov. 14 during a field trip to a private ranch that included a ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Hopes are fading for a year-end bipartisan deal to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits after a potential compromise proposal floated by President Donald Trump’s White House has fizzled with congressional Republicans.

GOP leaders in the House and Senate have poured cold water on the putative plan put forward by the ...Read more

Hong Kong’s leader John Lee pledged to launch an independent committee over the city’s deadliest fire in nearly eight decades, while vowing to crackdown on forces that “sabotage” social unity.

“We have to expose the truth, do everyone justice and make sure the deceased can rest in peace,” said Lee at a Tuesday briefing, standing ...Read more

BOSTON — On the first day of the Brian Walshe murder trial, three investigators who were involved in the Karen Read case have already been mentioned, including former Massachusetts State trooper Michael Proctor.

Walshe is on trial for allegedly killing his wife Ana in January of 2023. He pleaded guilty last month to lying to police and ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s political risk has crept up to levels seen in Peru, as Mexicans voice mounting frustration over cartel-fueled crime, corruption and a stagnant economy.

The nation’s political risk surpassed that of Argentina and Colombia in November to reach a score of 55 — the same as Peru’s, where political instability has ...Read more