The field of wireless communications is witnessing significant advancements with the integration of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs). Recent research has focused on overcoming the limitations of traditional RISs, such as attenuation and channel aging, by employing active RISs with amplification capabilities. These active RISs have shown promise in compensating for the adverse effects of phase errors and channel aging, thereby enhancing system performance. Furthermore, innovative approaches such as joint active RIS configuration and user power control have been proposed for localization purposes, leveraging techniques like NeuroEvolution and supervised learning. The development of new RIS architectures, such as element-wise RIS, has also enabled distributed location-aided transmission schemes with low complexity, which can effectively enhance the reflected gain for channel state information (CSI)-limited RIS-assisted near-field communications. Additionally, RIS-enabled channel signature modulation schemes have been introduced, offering a lightweight index modulation approach with scalable spectral efficiency. Noteworthy papers include: Joint Active RIS Configuration and User Power Control for Localization, which presents a novel multi-agent algorithm for joint control of RIS phase configuration and user transmit power. Location-Aided Distributed Beamforming for Near-Field Communications with Element-Wise RIS, which proposes a new element-wise RIS architecture and a distributed location-aided transmission scheme with low complexity. Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-Enabled Channel Signature Modulation, which introduces a lightweight index modulation scheme with scalable spectral efficiency.