Emergency services work at Manchester Arena after reports of an explosion at the venue during an Ariana Grande gig in Manchester, England, on May 22, 2017.Peter Byrne/The Associated Press
At least 22 dead after explosion at Ariana Grande concert in Manchester
Tuesday morning, British police said they arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with a suicide bomb attack in Manchester that killed 22 people and injured dozens at a concert by U.S. singer Ariana Grande Monday night.
Also Tuesday, Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed police were treating the explosion as a possible terrorist attack. No group initially claimed responsibility. The attacker died in the arena after detonating a device he was carrying. Ariana Grande, who was in Manchester as part of her world tour, was not injured. Read our full explainer here. Britain is currently in the midst of an election campaign but both Prime Minister Theresa May and Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn announced that they would suspend campaigning.
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Canada's prison agency closes in on new solitary confinement rules
Correctional Services Canada is close to establishing new rules that would disallow placing vulnerable persons into solitary confinement. The Trudeau Liberals pledged to overhaul Canada's handling of segregated inmates soon after being elected in 2015 but change has been slow to come about. There are 15 proposed changes, including barring pregnant, physically disabled and terminally ill inmates from being put into solitary confinement.
Justice Abella uses U.S. speech to take aim at 'narcissistic populism'
Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella was in the U.S. this past weekend and publicly denounced "narcissistic populism." Justice Abella drew on her own family's experiences surviving the Holocaust in a commencement speech to graduates at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, in which she targeted what she sees as dangerous trends across the world. Although she did not mention any world leaders by name or any countries in particular, many observers thought that her comments were a veiled critique of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Absentee ballot count begins in British Columbia
Elections BC is in the midst of counting absentee ballots following the May 9 provincial election. The BC Liberals won 43 seats to the BC NDP's 41 and the BC Greens' three seats; however, a handful of ridings across the province were closely contested between the Liberals and the NDP and may ultimately flip. If even one or two of the ridings switch parties the impact will be tremendous. If the Liberals are able to secure just one more seat they will have a one seat majority and will enter a fifth straight mandate.
MORNING MARKETS
Markets were mixed on Tuesday as investors continued to grapple with U.S. uncertainty and the deadly bomb blast in Britain subdued the pound, but euro zone PMI surveys, showing the bloc's firms on their strongest run since 2011, lifted the mood. The euro set a new six-month high and the region's shares made gains as the latest economic data made for some encouraging reading, especially in Germany. Tokyo's Nikkei lost 0.3 per cent, and the Shanghai composite 0.5 per cent, though Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.1 per cent. In Europe, London's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.2 and 0.7 per cent by about 4:35 a.m. (ET). New York futures were also up. Oil prices fell, weighed down by U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to sell off half the country's huge oil stockpile.
WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
Never forget the lessons of Europe's concentration camps
"My life started in a country where there had been no democracy, no rights, no justice and all because we were Jewish. No one with this history does not feel lucky to be alive and free. No one with this history takes anything for granted, and no one with this history does not feel that we have a particular duty to wear our identities with pride and to promise our children that we will do everything humanly possible to keep the world safer for them than it was for their grandparents, a world where all children – regardless of race, colour, religion, or gender – can wear their identities with dignity, with pride and in peace." - Rosalie Abella, Supreme Court of Canada Justice
Better health care means fixing bureaucratic failings
"We need to re-engineer the system, and one key element of the modernization needs to be better management. We need to spend a lot less time and money rejigging the organizational flow chart and focus on patient flow through the system." - André Picard
Time for another 'Worthwhile Canadian Initiative'
"Now that the renegotiation of the North American free-trade agreement is about to become a reality, it's time to come up with a plan. Although Canada and Mexico may not have asked for this, they've both shown a willingness to participate. The challenge is figuring out how to make the most of the negotiations. For Canada, this means avoiding a drawn-out wrangling over long-standing bilateral irritants, such as softwood lumber and dairy, that have been dominating the headlines. Instead, we need to focus the negotiations on our common interest in ensuring that North America retains its dominant position in global supply chains." - Rona Ambrose and Laura Dawson, global fellow at the Wilson Center's Canada Institute and director of the Wilson Center, respectively
How to end Canada's biggest public health emergency
"Opioid strategies and action plans, like the one adopted last winter by Ottawa and the provinces, are laudable and important.But this big of an emergency demands big, course-changing action. Canadians, already among the world's top per capita consumers of opioids, can no longer wait." - The Globe and Mail Editorial Board
HEALTH PRIMER
Almost 40 per cent of Canadians eat lunch at their desks: study
Canadians head back to work after the May long weekend and almost 40 per cent of us will end up eating lunch at our desks today, according to a Dalhousie University study. "It really speaks to how pressured workers are," Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie and the study's lead author, said of the findings.
MOMENT IN TIME
Canada's Wonderland opens
May 23, 1981: In an opening ceremony led by hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky and flanked by 10,000 helium balloons, 13 parachutists, cartoon mascots and 350 white doves, Canada's Wonderland welcomed its first 12,000 guests. Two years earlier, when Ontario Premier Bill Davis triggered an explosion on the site to begin its construction, the Royal Ontario Museum and Ontario Place opposed the park, critical of whether Toronto's tourism market could support more competition. Still, the $120-million project moved forward and opened with four roller coasters, including wooden giants Mighty Canadian Minebuster and Wilde Beast, and the steel corkscrew Dragon Fire. "Come for the day of your life," its 1981 TV advertisement promised. Since then, the Vaughan, Ont., theme park has added rides such as Leviathan, one of the world's 10 tallest and fastest coasters. Today, it boasts the world's third-most roller coasters (16) and attracts millions of visitors annually. - Scott Wheeler
Morning Update is written by Mayaz Alam.
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