AMMAN, Jordan — When Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire earlier this year, it brought into question the fate of militias Israel cultivated during the devastating two-year war as an alternative ruling force in Gaza. Many expected that Hamas — still the dominant force in the Strip — would hunt them down.

Instead, Israel has shifted the ...Read more

ATLANTA — The planned execution of a Georgia inmate convicted of murdering two women in Cobb County has been halted by a Fulton County judge.

Stacey Ian Humphreys, found guilty of shooting real estate agents Lori Brown and Cynthia Williams in 2003, was due to be executed before Christmas.

But the state’s warrant for his execution expired ...Read more

A call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, coming after fresh U.S. talks with Ukraine, raised new questions over the prospects for a peace deal as the Kremlin signaled new complications.

Putin told Trump that Moscow would revise its negotiating position on Ukraine as he claimed a drone attack on one of his residences, according to the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Nearly half of the people who died in domestic violence incidents in Minnesota last year were bystanders or those who were trying to intervene.

Even as the state’s total domestic violence-related homicides in 2024 dropped from a record number set the year before, the number of bystanders and interveners who were killed ...Read more

From bans on declawing cats and plastic grocery bags to new anti-discrimination protections for students and cheaper insulin, a raft of new California laws takes effect Jan. 1, with others rolling out through 2026.

The measures survived months of negotiations in the state Legislature and scrutiny from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has shown a ...Read more

President Donald Trump held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, according to the White House, a day after the U.S. leader met with his Ukrainian counterpart to discuss efforts to bring a halt to the Kremlin’s war.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday on X that the two leaders had “concluded a positive...Read more

MIAMI — Florida nearly doubled the national average of executions in 2025, with a record-breaking 19 death warrants carried out, according to an annual report released by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Experts say Florida’s “extreme” outlier status — namely, the ramping up of executions — comes at a time when public support ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — A dozen swans have died at Lake Eola in the past week, leaving Orlando officials fearing another outbreak of bird flu at the city’s signature park.

City Commissioner Patty Sheehan posted on Facebook that two dead swans were found on Dec. 23, with the number growing to 12 by Sunday. Due to the holidays the city’s ...Read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he asked Donald Trump for U.S. security guarantees lasting as long as half a century to help deter any future Russian invasion.

Current proposals under discussion as part of a peace plan set out a 15-year term with the possibility for an extension, though “I would like the guarantee to be much ...Read more

The man accused of placing pipe bombs outside the DNC and RNC headquarters on the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol said he targeted both parties because “they were in charge,” federal investigators said Sunday.

Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old Virginia man, told the FBI he was inspired by President Donald Trump’s ...Read more

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation staged over two weeks earlier this month yielded more than 1,030 arrests of unauthorized immigrants with criminal backgrounds across the country, the Trump administration announced Dec. 22.

The crackdown was dubbed “Operation Angel’s Honor” in reference to Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing ...Read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he asked Donald Trump for U.S. security guarantees lasting as long as half a century to help deter any future Russian invasion.

Current proposals under discussion as part of a peace plan set out a 15-year term with the possibility for an extension, though “I would like the guarantee to be much ...Read more

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Monday to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza, whose troubled opening months are stoking concern that regional fighting could resume in the new year.

Trump is to host Netanyahu, his most frequent foreign guest, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after hearing ...Read more

China kicked off military maneuvers around Taiwan that it said included live-fire drills, in a dramatic show of force after the U.S. announced one of its biggest arms packages ever for the self-run democracy.

The “Justice Mission-2025” exercises, the first major drills off Taiwan since April, began on Monday and served as a “stern warning...Read more

Clashes broke out between Syrian security forces and demonstrators led by the Alawite religious minority as pressure mounts on President Ahmed Al Sharaa to reconcile long-standing sectarian disputes.

People took to the streets in coastal cities of Latakia, Tartus and other areas on Sunday to protest the bombing of an Alawite mosque in Homs last...Read more

BALTIMORE — David Fitzgerald knows how tough it is to prevent gun violence. In 15 years working in some of Baltimore’s deadliest neighborhoods for a program called Safe Streets, he said, he’s defused hundreds of fights that could have led to a shooting.

The effort, part of Baltimore’s more than $100 million gun violence prevention plan,...Read more

As Illinois turns the calendar to 2026, it will bring more than fresh resolutions. It will also usher in hundreds of new state laws, statutes that will quietly reshape daily life from grocery store checkout lines and police departments to college classrooms, hospital exam rooms and workplaces.

Beginning Jan. 1, roughly 300 new laws will take ...Read more