WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — To underscore how much Iowa means to Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor was unwilling to put his campaigning there on hold even in the waning hours of 2023.

At a New Year’s Eve event in a Sheraton Hotel ballroom in West Des Moines, jeans and cowboy boots outnumbered tuxedos and cocktail dresses, and Miller Lite seemed more popular than champagne.

RIVERDALE, Utah (AP) — A foreign exchange student from China who was reported missing last week in Utah has been found in what authorities said was an apparent “cyber kidnapping” scheme to extort $80,000 from the student’s family.

The 17-year-old student was reported missing Friday, a day after he was last seen at the home where he had been staying in Riverdale, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Salt Lake City.

KYIV, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Russia pounded Ukraine's two biggest cities on Tuesday in a new wave of heavy air strikes that killed at least five civilians and prompted calls for the West to quickly provide more military assistance.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry said 135 people had been injured in the latest missile and drone attacks, including 61 in and around Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city in the northeast and 17 in and around the capital, Kyiv.

HELSINKI (AP) — Finland and Sweden recorded their coldest temperatures of the winter Tuesday when thermometers plummeted as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) as a cold spell grips the Nordic region.

Cold and snow disrupted transportation throughout the region, including in Norway where a major highway in the south was closed due to the weather and ferry lines suspended operations. Swedish train operators said the cold snap caused substantial problems for rail traffic in the Arctic north.

KABUL, Jan 2 (NNN-ANA) – Afghanistan’s exports in 2023 reached nearly two billion U.S. dollars, spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad, said.

“The volume of Afghanistan’s exports in the past year reached 1.9 billion U.S. dollars, and the figure shows a two percent increase, which is equal to 41 million U.S. dollars, against the export volume in 2022,” the private television channel, Tolonews, quoted Jawad as saying today.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s two largest cities came under attack from Russian hypersonic ballistic missiles on Tuesday morning, killing at least four people and injuring almost 100, officials said, as the war approached its two-year milestone and the Kremlin’s forces stepped up their winter bombardment of urban areas.

LACONIA, N.H. (AP) — U.S. presidential elections have been rocked in recent years by economic disaster, stunning gaffes, secret video and a pandemic. But for all the tumult that defined those campaigns, the volatility surrounding this year’s presidential contest has few modern parallels, posing profound challenges to the future of American democracy.

Not since the Supreme Court effectively decided the 2000 campaign in favor of Republican George W. Bush has the judiciary been so intertwined with presidential politics.

MOSCOW, January 2. /TASS/: The Bitcoin prices surged above $45,000 during the trading session for the first time since April 5, 2022, according to Coindesk data.

As of 04:05 a.m. Moscow time, the cost of bitcoin grew by 6.33% to $45,173. By 04:09 a.m. Moscow time, bitcoin continued to grow and was at $45,374 (+6.93%).

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand and China will soon implement visa-free entry for each other’s citizens, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said Tuesday.

Chinese nationals will be granted visa-free entry on a permanent basis beginning March 1, Srettha said after his Cabinet’s weekly meeting. Chinese visitors have been allowed visa-free entry since September last year, but the privilege was due to expire on Feb. 29.

ULAN BATOR, Jan 2 (NNN-APA) – Mongolia’s central bank said today, it had purchased a total of 17.8 tonnes of gold in 2023, from legal entities and individuals.

Purchasing gold is one of the key ways for the central bank to ensure the country’s economic stability, according to the Bank of Mongolia.

A statement revealed that, at the close of 2023, Mongolia’s foreign exchange reserves reached 4.8 billion U.S. dollars, marking a rise of 1.4 billion dollars from the end of 2022.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s president on Tuesday rejected an agreement signed between Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland to give landlocked Ethiopia access to its coast, calling it a violation of international law.

“We will not stand idly by and watch our sovereignty being compromised,” President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told a joint session of Somalia’s federal parliament.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s tough-speaking liberal opposition leader, Lee Jae-myung, was stabbed in the neck by an unidentified knife-wielding man who attempted to kill him during his visit to the southeastern city of Busan on Tuesday, police said.

Lee, 59, the head of the main opposition Democratic Party, was airlifted to a Seoul hospital after receiving emergency treatment in Busan. Lee’s party later said he was recovering at an intensive care unit at the Seoul National University Hospital following a two-hour operation.