Ahead of Israel's ground strike, Gaza's hospitals are collapsing

Plus, a downgraded response to Roxham Road's closure and the rise of AI [The Star] First Up [By Manuela Vega] By Manuela Vega Good morning. Doug Ford’s embattled Tories are tabling a law today to protect the Greenbelt. [Here’s what to look out for](. Plus, the latest on the destruction of the Israel-Hamas war, Canada’s Roxham Road deal and how schools are responding to Chat GPT. DON’T MISS Abed Khaled/AP Photo israel-hamas war [Gaza’s crowded hospitals are on the verge of collapse]( Ahead of an expected ground strike, hospitals in Gaza are bracing for the impact of Israel’s order to evacuate, and its blockade on water, food and fuel. Doctors are warning that emergency generators used to power machines like ventilators and incubators are down to only about one day of fuel, and medicine is nearly depleted, The Associated Press reports. The WHO says a lack of water puts patients at risk of unsanitary conditions. Four hospitals have stopped operating and 21 have received orders to evacuate, but some workers have refused because it would mean death for their patients. [Here’s what we know about the devastation and what comes next](. - By the numbers: The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,750 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded — the highest death toll of the five Gaza wars for both sides. More than a million Palestinians have fled their homes. In Israel, more than 1,400 have died, and the Israeli military said Monday that at least 199 hostages were taken to Gaza. - Watch for: [Here’s what an Israeli ground offensive might look like](. - On the home front: [Global Affairs has confirmed the death of a fifth Canadian in Israel](. - Star in Israel: [Here’s why Israelis are closely watching what their government does next](. - Calls for peace: Jewish mourners gathered in Toronto to call for peace in Gaza. [Here’s what they had to say](. Demonstrators in Mississauga also called for an end to the bombing. [These are the scenes that emerged](. - Go deeper: The right side of the crisis in the Middle East is that of [humanity and international humanitarian law](. Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz immigration [Canada’s change to its Roxham Road deal is being called a “shameful downgrading”]( Instead of welcoming 15,000 “humanitarian” migrants in exchange for closing down the land border to asylum seekers, the federal government now says it will allocate 4,000 of those spots to temporary foreign workers and the other 11,000 to only Colombians, Haitians and Venezuelans. Gauri Sreenivasan, the co-executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, calls the move a “shameful downgrading” to “already insufficient targets,” Nicholas Keung reports. [Take a closer look at Canada’s immigration targets and why advocates were shocked by the new details](. - Wait, what? The 15,000 new arrivals would not have to meet the United Nations refugee definition — unlike many of those arriving at Roxham Road — and the Immigration Department has not clarified what the standard of humanitarian need would be. “This is a far cry from the protection that was promised to refugee claimants when Roxham Road was closed and it is not acceptable,” Sreenivasan said. - Go deeper: Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program is ballooning — [creating a new class of wage slaves from abroad](. Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images education [How ChatGPT is changing post-secondary education]( Since ChatGPT emerged less than one year ago, educational institutions have been scrambling to figure out whether to adapt, adopt or ban the chatbot, Janet Hurley reports. Skeptics should have a seat at the table, but “the worst possible outcome would be for us to collectively decide just to retreat from this technology.” That’s according to Mark Daley, an expert in artificial intelligence and leader in neural computation. He’s also Western University’s chief AI officer — the first role of its kind at a Canadian university. [Here’s how Ontario universities are tackling the technology head on](. - Why it matters: The rate of change is like nothing Daley has seen in his career. “What we’re capable of doing with the technology we have now is a whole generation beyond what we could when we talked in January.” - Another angle: Is AI coming for your job? [These are the workers who will be replaced first, according to experts](. WHAT ELSE Worried about Pierre Poilievre, [Jagmeet Singh has a warning for Canada’s workers](. Your Canada pension payout is about to improve — [but it will cost you up front](. [A Muslim boy has been killed and a woman has been wounded]( in a hate crime in Illinois. A Burlington man has been arrested after an [east-end Toronto mosque was vandalized](. Once convicted of killing her disabled daughter, [Cindy Ali is getting one more chance to clear her name](. Pearson airport hosted a familiarization tour for autistic people. [Take a closer look at the process](. More homes are being damaged by fires and floods. [Is your home covered? (Are you sure?)]( Two men have been seriously injured in a [shooting at a downtown Hamilton nightclub](. Citytv is boasting an all-Canadian cast for the spinoff series [“Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent.”]( Scott, 32, is single and earns $60K a year. [Can he afford home ownership alone?]( Canada, say Aloha to the Maui Gold pineapple, [which can now be yours for $90 a pop](. Suzanne Somers, of “Three’s Company,” has died at 76. [Here’s what we know](. POV Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images [The story of Israel and Hamas did not start last weekend.]( CLOSE-UP Supplied Photo/Pignatelli Family CORSO ITALIA: Giuseppina Pignatelli leans casually on the porch of a Toronto home in 1966. Fifty-seven years later, her daughter Jasmine, who lives in Rome, reached out to a Facebook community to find out if it still existed. [She ended up finding the house — and much more](. Thank you for reading. You can reach me and the First Up team at [firstup@thestar.ca](mailto:firstup@thestar.ca?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=emailutm_email=6C53B63A8E3FAD70AD4EF13004527437&utm_campaign=frst_201814). I’ll see you back here tomorrow. If you're not enjoying these emails, please tell us how we can make them better by emailing newsletterfeedback@thestar.ca. Or, if you'd prefer, you can unsubscribe from this newsletter by clicking the first link below. 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