Members of the public attend a candlelit vigil at Albert Square on Tuesday in Manchester, England, to honour the victims of Monday evening's terror attack.Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
TODAY'S TOP STORIES
Britain's threat level raised after Manchester attack
In the wake of Monday's terror attack in Manchester, Britain has raised its terror threat level to imminent. At least 22 people, including children, died after a bomb exploded at an Ariana Grande concert. The attack is the deadliest in Britain since 2005, when 52 people were killed in a series of bombings targeting London's transit system. On Wednesday, police announced three more arrests.
The victims: Only a handful of the victims have been identified so far, including Saffie Rose Roussos, who was eight years old; 15-year-old Olivia Campbell; Georgina Callander, who was 18; and 26-year-old John Atkinson. Police are still working to identify bodies.
The attacker: Salman Abedi, 22, has been named the suspected suicide bomber. Abedi was born in Manchester to parents who fled from Moammar Gadhafi's Libya. He's the latest second-generation citizen to carry out an attack in Europe (the perpetrators behind the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Bataclan shooting and Brussels bombings were all children of immigrants). A feeling of cultural dislocation makes second-generation citizens more vulnerable to radicalization, security experts say.
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NATO, G7 leaders to focus on terrorism at meeting this week
The Manchester attack is set to put the issue of terrorism front-and-centre at this week's NATO and G7 meetings. Canada's Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said the bombing is a reminder that terrorism is a global issue that requires allied co-operation.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in his first foreign trip, is expected to press NATO partners to boost defence spending to 2 per cent. Canada's leadership role in Latvia is one factor that may ease pressure from Trump on the spending front. Leaders are expected to be keeping a close eye on how Trump discusses relations with Russia, as well as the Paris climate accord.
BC NDP widen lead in tight Courtenay-Comox riding
The BC NDP have widened their lead in the Courtenay-Comox riding to 101 votes. Elections BC is still counting absentee ballots, with the final results expected today. Courtenay-Comox has been a focal point in the weeks after the provincial election since a flip to the Liberals would give Christy Clark a narrow majority government. The initial tally after the May 9 vote had NDP candidate Ronna-Rae Leonard leading Liberal rival Jim Benninger by just nine votes. If the numbers stay in Leonard's favour, the final seat tallies will likely be 43 for the Liberals, 41 for the NDP and 3 for the Greens. That scenario would leave the Greens holding the balance of power.
Senators stay alive, force decisive Game 7 with Penguins
The Ottawa Senators kept their season alive with a 2-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins last night. Mike Hoffman scored the game-winner in the third period, sneaking a shot past Pens goalie Matt Murray. Game 7 is set for tomorrow, with the winner advancing to play the Nashville Predators in the Stanley Cup final.
MORNING MARKETS
Global stocks inched lower on Wednesday after China's sovereign credit rating was downgraded by Moody's and as investors eyed a pause in Wall Street's four-day winning streak, the longest in over three months. China's massive debt has been at the centre of concerns among economists and Beijing is walking a fine line as it tries to contain financial risks. Tokyo's Nikkei gained 0.7 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and the Shanghai composite each rose by about 0.1 per cent. In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was up 0.2 per cent by about 4:15 a.m. (ET), with the Paris CAC 40 down marginally and Germany's DAX down 0.1 per cent. New York futures were little changed. Oil prices rose again on strengthening expectations of an extension to OPEC-led supply cuts.
WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
The Manchester attack will change British life for the worse
"Routine events such as concerts are going to be subject to much higher security, and detailed X-ray checks and searches will become a routine inconvenience for almost anyone's day-to-day life (as they were during the peak years of the IRA crisis). Second, it means that there are a huge number of potential suspects who officials fear could carry out a similar attack. … The upshot is that British policing and intelligence efforts are likely to become even more invasive, intrusive and disquieting. And this change is occurring weeks before Britain heads to an already-fraught election (all parties agreed to suspend campaigning after Monday). Beyond the immediate grief and horror, there is a real sense that Manchester is going to change things for the worse." – Doug Saunders
Why terror attacks on children are truly terrifying
"The insidious thing about terror attacks on children is that they really are irrationally terrifying. You can't reason your way out of them. As an adult, I can tell myself that I am more likely to be killed by a falling vending machine than a suicide bomber. It's much harder to apply the same logic to threats directed at children. I've tried. I'm sure I'm not the only parent who sits on an airplane beside their kids and obsessively counts the rows to the emergency exits while mentally citing the excellent safety record of air flight. Terror attacks on children and young people are a perversion, a way to attract even more attention in a numbed landscape, which must be the reason they are deployed so often around the world." – Elizabeth Renzetti
In a darkening world, it's time Canada moved beyond fear
"How should our country position itself in this anxious age? The world has changed fundamentally since Canada's internationalist heyday under Lester B. Pearson. Much of it is a mess: the Middle East, obviously, but also Europe, as it struggles with mass migration and right-wing extremism. … Meanwhile, globalization has prompted economic changes that eliminate or downgrade the jobs of many workers. … If we build sets of alliances among a wider group of states and other global actors to promote carefully considered and well-targeted objectives, Canada can be one of a handful of countries that helps to steer the world through a deeply troubling period. To do so, we must take current anxieties seriously, and open up our political and economic deliberations to those who have rightly felt excluded from the benefits of globalization." – Stephen J. Toope, Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
HEALTH PRIMER
This summer, get in shape before getting back in the game
Summertime prompts many of us to jump straight back into sports – without preparing first. You can start, for example, by just throwing a baseball around. From there, play pick-up before moving on to more competitive games. You can also work on strengthening your weak spots in order to avoid injuries. As personal trainer Kathleen Trotter puts it: "Get in shape to play your sport; don't play your sport to get in shape."
MOMENT IN TIME
Death on tap in Walkerton
May 24, 2000: Three adults and a baby were the first casualties in a mysterious outbreak of bloody diarrhea sweeping through Walkerton, Ont. They had contracted E. coli O157:H7 poisoning from drinking water contaminated with animal feces. The Conservative government of Mike Harris, in its haste to privatize public services such as water management, failed to put safeguards in place. The men who ran the town's water supply, Stan and Frank Koebel, cut corners, and then lied and cheated to cover their tracks. The Ministry of the Environment was slow to issue a boil-water advisory, exacerbating the problem. In total, seven people died and 2,300 fell ill, including dozens left with life-long consequences such as kidney damage. "This could have been prevented," Justice Dennis O'Connor wrote in a damning report. Stan Koebel went to jail for one year; his brother Frank received nine months of house arrest. – André Picard
Morning Update is written by Arik Ligeti.
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