10 victims in Colorado supermarket shooting ranged in age from 20 to 65

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On Monday 22 March, police identified a twenty-one year old suspect in the killing of ten people at a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket the previous day. Among the ten victims whose ages ranged from twenty to sixty-five years, there was one police officer. The victims have been identified as Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikky Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65. Maris Herold, the Boulder Police Chief also said that a police officer Eric Talley was killed. There have been several mass shootings in Colorado, and Biden urged his colleagues in the House and Senate to act, saying that they “can ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines” in America once again. [CBC News][By Emily Ma]

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics Bans International Spectators

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Tokyo 2020 organizers announced on 20 March that overseas spectators will not be allowed to attend the Summer Olympics, due to pandemic concerns. Committee President Seiko Hashimoto assured the public that although “the Tokyo 2020 Games will be completely different from the past”, “the essence remains the same.” The games were delayed last year, amid the spread of Covid-19, and are scheduled for the summer of 2021. The more than 600,000 international tickets already sold are in the reportedly painstaking process of being refunded. [NYT] [By Kevin Wang] 

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More Than 150 Taiwanese Change Their Names to ‘Salmon’ in Sushi Craze

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A local promotion in Taiwan on 18 March by the Japanese sushi chain Sushiro, offering a free all-you-can-eat buffet to anyone with the words “鲑鱼”—guī yú, the chinese characters for salmon, had dozens of people changing their names to phrases like “Salmon Prince”, “Meteor Salmon King”, and “Salmon Fried Rice”. The most extreme example of what has been dubbed “salmon chaos” involves one individual who added thirty-six characters to his name, most of them words for various seafoods like abalone, crab, and lobster—possibly anticipating future promotions. Although Taiwanese law permits up to three legal name changes, officials complained that “this kind of name change not only wastes time but causes unnecessary paperwork.” [Guardian] [By Kevin Wang] 

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Supreme Court deems Carbon Tax constitutional in a 6-3 vote. 

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The Supreme Court issued a ruling on the constitutionality of the 2018 Greenhouse Gas Pricing Act. The act requires provinces to implement their own carbon tax plans, with a minimum pricing standard of $30 per tonne of CO2 released. This number will increase to annually up to $170 by 2030. Additionally, the act allows Ottawa to apply its own tax on provinces that do not comply with the taxing scheme. Although praised by some for its ambition in tackling climate change, the act was challenged by Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. They claimed that it was not within federal jurisdiction, as natural resources is a provincial issue. The ruling the Court gave in favour of the federal government was based on the fact that “failure of one or more provinces to co-operate would prevent the other provinces from successfully addressing it.” Moving forward, it is likely that the three provinces will look into implementing carbon tax plans. [CBC] [By Miranda Zhao] 

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1000s March in Montreal to Protest Against Anti-Asian Hate Crimes 

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After eight people, including six Asian American women, were shot and murdered at three different spas in Atlanta, thousands in Montreal marched on the streets on Sunday to protest against racism and hate crimes. Not only was there the shooting, Asian hate crime rates have significantly increased since the beginning of this global pandemic. Montreal police say that a total of 30 crimes occurred targeting the Asian community from March to December of 2020. In the United States, Asian hate crimes have increased by 150% during the same time. [GlobalNews][By Iris Ma]

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Biden’s goal is for 200 million doses in the first 100 days

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The COVID-19 pandemic has taken over 545,000 lives in America and has devastated the country’s economy since it first started. Biden promised that defeating the pandemic was a priority for him as before even his 60th day in office, the administration met Biden’s initial goal of a 100 million doses earlier in March. Biden has since doubled his goal by pledging that the nation will administer 200 million doses before his 100th day in office. Although the goal is seemingly ambitious, it is in pace with the existing vaccine production as the U.S. is currently averaging 2.5 million doses per day, a rate which is expected to grow as more vaccines are produced. [CBC] By Anirudh Goel

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At least 137 people killed in villages near Niger’s border with Mali

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Villages were attacked by gunmen atop motorcycles leaving at least one hundred thirty-seven people dead, the government announced March 22. This violence comes weeks after the election of Niger’s new president, Mohamed Bazoum who is due to take office 2 April amid a situation destabilized by the Islamic insurgency in neighbouring Mali. In January, 100 and 66 people died in several waves of attacks. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for these attacks. [CBC News][By Emily Ma]