🌏 Russia Withdraws From Ukraine's Kherson, Former Miss Argentina And Puerto Rico Secretly Get Married And More

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Celebrations have erupted in Kherson, Ukraine, after the Russian army completely withdrew from the city, the only regional capital it had captured since its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

As Ukrainian troops entered the city on Saturday Nov. 13 after eight months of Russian occupation, residents flooded the streets to welcome the soldiers with hugs, song, dance and tears of joy.

“I cannot even speak, I am so full of emotions, I cannot believe that it (liberation) has happened, God, please, bless us,” a resident named Lyudmila told Reuters, while fighting back tears.

Ukrainian authorities are now rushing to restore critical infrastructure, including electricity and water, which most homes have been left without.

Kherson had been one of the four partly occupied areas of Ukraine that Putin had announced Russia would annexed in September after holding sham referendums in the regions.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to the city on Monday Nov. 14, telling reporters that it was necessary to visit Kherson to support the residents, calling the liberation of the city the “beginning of the end” of the war with Russia.

“I would also like, in a human way, to get the emotion, the energy from people. It is motivating,” he added.

Speaking to a crowd in the city’s main square, Zelensky also joked that he had visited the city because he “wanted a watermelon,” which are grown in Kherson and have become a popular Ukrainian symbol of resistance.

Also Happening Around The World

🇪🇹 The Ethiopian government and Tigray forces have agreed to a ceasefire to end the two-year civil war that has killed as many as 600,000 people and displaced millions of others.

🇺🇳 The head of the United Nations, Secretary General António Guterres, opened COP27, the UN’s annual climate change conference, by calling for urgent and drastic climate action to limit global warming.

🇨🇳 China’s most populous city, Shanghai, has started rolling out the world’s first inhalable COVID-19 vaccine.

🇮🇳 At least 141 people – mostly women, children and the elderly – are dead and many more missing after a suspension bridge in India collapsed into the river on Sunday Oct. 30.

After keeping their two-year relationship secret, the former Miss Argentina and Miss Puerto Rico have announced they are officially married on Instagram.

Mariana Varela and Fabiola Valentín were contestants at the Miss Grand International in 2020, representing their countries Argentina and Puerto Rico, respectively.

CNN reported both contestants met at the competition and appeared to be “close friends” on social media thereafter.

The couple announced their marriage through an Instagram Reel that showed off moments throughout their relationship as the song “Lugar Seguro”, meaning “safe place” in Spanish, by Jay Wheeler and Noreh played in the background.

The caption read, “After deciding to keep our relationship private, we opened the doors to them on a special day. 28/10/22.”

The couple married at the city courthouse in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Oct. 28.

Several celebrities and the former Miss Universe have congratulated the couple on their marriage.

More Women You Should Know About

🇿🇦 Women in South Africa are calling for justice after prosecutors cleared 14 men, who allegedly robbed and gang-raped several women from a film crew, when DNA evidence failed to link them to the crime.

A video of people in Japan trying a matcha ice cream coated with thick matcha powder has gone viral on Twitter and has received more than 9.8 million views.

The video from a Japanese TV show was first shared on Twitter in March 2021 by user @JapaneseBaobao, but went viral recently after it was reshared by user @Johnny_suputama on Nov. 1.

In the video, people were filmed trying the matcha ice cream for the first time, but all of them ended up spitting or coughing out the excess matcha powder out.

“It really makes me choke,” a man in the video can be seen saying while gagging.

The ice cream is from a Japanese tea shop called Nagamine Seicha located in Tokyo.

The dessert is called the “Coughing Matcha Cone”, which makes people cough as they consume it, according to the manager of the shop.

More Good News For Your Week

🇨🇱 A Chilean reporter was covering a story about increasing thefts on air when a parrot stole his earphone.

🇿🇦 Thousands of people took part in the first Pride march in Johannesburg, South Africa, since the COVID-19 pandemic on Saturday Oct. 29, celebrating the LGBTQ community despite a US terror attack warning in the city.

🇫🇷 As France launches an energy efficiency plan following Russia’s cutoff of gas to Europe, Parisian teens are using parkour to turn off store lights at night to save energy.

ICYMI From Halloween

🇨🇳 People in China are mocking their own lives during the COVID-19 pandemic with hilarious and creative Halloween costumes.

🇹🇼 Muxi, a three-month-old baby girl from Banqiao, New Taipei City, Taiwan, dressed up as Pennywise the Clown from “It” for Halloween and it’s the cutest.

🇹🇼 For the fourth year in a row, online shopping platform Shopee held a “down-to-earth” Halloween party in Taiwan, where attendees could only dress up as normal people in everyday situations.

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