🌏 New Zealand's Biggest City Hit With Worst Flood In Modern History, South Korean Dating Contestant Declares Feeling For Another Woman And More

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Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, has completely flooded after receiving more than 75% of its annual summer rainfall in just 15 hours.

The torrential rainfall on Friday Jan. 27 led to the worst floods in the city’s modern history and the wettest day ever recorded.

A state of emergency has been declared as bridges were washed away, houses were inundated and thousands of people were left without power.

At least four people have died and thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes.

Photos and videos on social media showed people wading through waist-deep flood waters as rain continued pouring down and items floating down flooded supermarket aisles.

Flights were delayed and canceled as Auckland Airport’s terminal and runway were also severely flooded.

200 passengers on a Qantas flight bound for Sydney were forced to spend the night in the plane after it became trapped on the runway and unable to be evacuated.

On Saturday, prime minister Chris Hipkins, less than a week in office, flew by helicopter over Auckland before touring flood-hit homes.

He described the flood impact in the city as “unprecedented” in recent memory.

Also Happening Around The World

🇦🇺 Also down under, thousands of people across Australia took part in demonstrations around the country on Jan. 26 to protest the country’s national day, which many see as the beginning of a long history of colonization and oppression of Indigenous Australians.

🇨🇳 A Chinese woman who took part in the A4 Revolution protests has disappeared after filming a video warning about her imminent arrest.

🇵🇪 Peru’s government has closed Machu Picchu and the Inca trail leading up to it indefinitely as anti-government protests continue to grow.

A South Korean reality dating show has gone viral after one woman contestant confessed her feelings to another woman contestant.

The show “Love Alarm Clap! Clap! Clap!” was based on a famous webtoon-based drama called “Love Alarm”, which has five billion views.

Like the plot in the webtoon, the reality TV show centers on a mobile app called “Love Alarm”, which tells contestants if someone within 10 meters is romantically attracted to them.

Using nicknames, the eight contestants are not allowed to reveal their personal information, including their real names and earn hearts twice a day if someone nearby rings their “love alarm”.

With the hearts, they can then purchase cards to perform certain activities such as going on a date, stealing another person’s date, holding another person’s hand for an hour and so on.

In the end, the contestant with the most hearts wins 10 million won.

On the 11th episode, a woman contestant with the nickname Jasmine, who had been dating male contestants, openly chose to go on a date with another woman contestant named White Rose, saying that she has liked her since the first episode.

“To be honest, this all started because I had feelings for ‘White Rose’. I think if I met with her to clear everything up and be honest about everything, it will be better for both Rose and me,” Jasmine said.

Jasmine’s choice surprised not only the contestants but the hosts, and soon sparked discussion on social media.

Viewers praised Jasmine for how fearless she was when she confessed her feelings for White Rose.

More Women You Should Know About

🇵🇸 A Lutheran church in Jerusalem has ordained the first woman Palestinian pastor in the Holy Land.

A zoo in China did a tiger-rabbit handover ceremony for Lunar New Year and it didn’t exactly go according to plan.

Zookeepers at Linfen Zoo in China’s Shanxi Province had decided to perform a symbolic passing of the Chinese zodiac baton with a tiger and a rabbit on Jan. 20 to welcome the Lunar New Year, as 2022 was the year of the tiger and 2023 is the year of the rabbit.

The video, which was posted on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, shows zookeepers bringing the rabbit and tiger cub into close proximity, before the tiger cub stretches its head towards the rabbit’s neck and jumps towards it as if to bite it.

The staff can then be seen shouting and attempting to separate the two animals before the video cuts out.

The video then cuts to the staff standing apart and holding the two animals separately to conclude the ceremony.

According to Chinese news outlets, the zookeepers were able to separate both animals on time and no injuries were recorded.

People on Weibo joked that the zoo “almost stayed in the year of the tiger” and “skipped the year of the rabbit”.

“The rabbit almost became a tiger’s New Year’s Eve dinner,” another Weibo user wrote.

Here’s hoping handover ceremonies go smoother next year and zoos manage to find a dragon for the year of the dragon in 2024.

More Good News For Your Week

🧧 In other rabbit news, here are the cutest, coolest and most chaotic rabbit mascots of this Lunar New Year.

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