G7 foreign ministers sought Wednesday to hammer out a common line on the Israel-Hamas war while vowing there would be no let-up in their support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

The ministers were expected to call in a joint statement to be issued later in Tokyo for “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza, while stopping short of urging a ceasefire.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, arriving for the talks from his latest whirlwind Middle East tour, called Tuesday for the G7 to speak “in one clear voice” on the conflict.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamiwaka said late Tuesday that the G7 ministers “need to call on the relevant countries to take humanitarian pauses and ensure humanitarian access, which is a pre-condition for sufficient and continued humanitarian assistance”.

A diplomatic source said after a working dinner the same day focusing on Gaza that there was “great unity that in view of the humanitarian emergency in Gaza, humanitarian care for the Palestinian civilian population needs to be urgently expanded”.

The source added that there were “constructive exchanges” about humanitarian pauses, as well as the need for discussions among the G7 and other countries in the region about the future of Gaza and how to stop the conflict from spreading.

‘Overall security’ 

The Israeli military has relentlessly bombarded Gaza since October 7, when Hamas operatives launched an attack that left 1,400 dead in Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

The Hamas-run health ministry says the death number in Gaza has surpassed 10,300 people.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday there would be no fuel delivered to Gaza and no ceasefire unless the more than 240 Israeli hostages seized by Hamas were freed.

He also said Israel would assume “overall security” in Gaza after the war ends while allowing for possible “tactical pauses” before then to free captives and deliver aid to the besieged territory of 2.4 million people.

However, Washington said Tuesday it opposed a new long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel.

“Our viewpoint is that Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions and Gaza is Palestinian land and it will remain Palestinian land,” said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.

“Generally speaking, we do not support the reoccupation of Gaza and neither does Israel.”

While agreeing Palestinian leadership was part of the “route towards a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution,” British foreign minister James Cleverly on Tuesday also conceded a military presence would remain after the fighting, at least temporarily.

“At some point after the immediate conflict and before the creation of civilian leadership, it is inevitable that the military forces on the ground would have to take over security control,” he said.

Ukraine fatigue 

On the Ukraine war, Japan said Wednesday after their talks that the G7 was “united” in their resolve to continue providing “strong support” to Kyiv and imposing “severe sanctions” on Russia.

Kamikawa added that “even as tensions increase in the Middle East, it is important for the G7 to be united in sending a clear message to the international community that our steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine will never waver”.

With the war there now in its 20th month and Ukraine’s counteroffensive struggling to gain ground, President Volodymyr Zelensky has regularly met Western leaders to try to stave off fatigue over the conflict.

Ukraine’s most senior military official, General Valery Zaluzhny, was quoted last week as saying the two sides had hit a “stalemate”, an assessment rejected by both Zelensky and the Kremlin.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said earlier that G7 countries were working on providing help to Ukraine as the country braced for a second full winter of Russian attacks on energy facilities.

Systematic strikes by Moscow’s forces last year targeted Ukraine’s energy grid, leaving thousands without heating or electricity in freezing temperatures for long periods.

“It is clear, particularly at this moment, that around the world some (parties) are watching very closely how we will continue to support Ukraine,” Baerbock told reporters.

“We will do that with everything we are doing.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was set to join the G7 meeting by video conference.

The toxic smog that has enveloped Delhi and neighbouring areas has led to a sudden spike in sales of air purifier makers. Companies say they are receiving queries from Mumbai and some eastern parts of the country, along with Delhi-NCR region, where air quality levels have gone down substantially. Online retailers too have seen an increase in the searches for air purifiers on its platform. One of them, Swiggy Instamart, saw 3,233 per cent increase in searches for the term compared to same time in October.

The company said it has stocked up on air purifiers to deal with the huge increase.

Companies such as Philips, Kent RO, Xiaomi, Daikin and Havells expect a further uptick in demand in the coming days, as they anticipate air quality to be impacted by other reasons as well as from construction activities, along with rising health consciousness among consumers.

“In the past 4-5 days, we have witnessed a 15-20 per cent increase in demand, as people anticipated the need for a solution to combat the polluted air,” Mahesh Gupta, CMD of Kent RO Systems Ltd told news agency PTI.

This year has seen an early surge in sales due to a sudden surge in air pollution levels, companies said.

“There has been a strong spike in demand for air purifiers. This week itself we witnessed a 10x increase in sales. With other metros like Mumbai seeing a rise in Air Quality Index (AQI) levels, the category itself has grown 40-50 pc through the year, compared to 2022,” said a Xiaomi spokesperson.

Delhi’s air quality remained ‘severe’ for the sixth consecutive day on Wednesday. The city’s air quality index stood at 421, worsening from 395 at 4 pm on Tuesday.

In view of air pollution, the December winter break of all schools has been rescheduled and it will be now from November 9 to November 18, a circular of the Delhi Directorate of Education said on Wednesday.

The national capital has been witnessing stringent curbs under Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). Under the final stage of the pollution control plan, all kinds of construction work and the entry of polluting trucks into the city have been banned.

Driving old diesel or petrol vehicles and trucks carrying non-essential material in the national capital will attract a fine of Rs 20,000 under the Motor Vehicles Act.

The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) is commencing the registration for the first round of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test – Super Specialty (NEET SS 2023) counselling today, November 8. Those who have successfully cleared the exam conducted by the National Board of Examinations (NBE) are eligible to apply for counselling. The registration link will be available on the official website of MCC, mcc.nic.in. The Medical Counselling Committee will oversee two rounds of counselling to allocate seats for the Super Specialty Doctorate of Medicine (MD) and Master of Chirurgiae (MCh) programmes in central, state, and deemed universities under the 100% All India Quota (AIQ).

Applicants are required to submit a non-refundable application fee of Rs 5,000 and a refundable security deposit fee of Rs 2 lakh when registering for NEET SS counselling in 2023.

NEET SS counselling in 2023: The schedule for the first round 

Registration: November 8 to November 14 (until 12 noon)
Payment facility: November 8 to November 14 (until 3pm)
Choice filling and locking: November 8 to November 14 (until 11.55pm, with choice-locking available from 4pm on November 8 to 11.55 pm on November 14)
Processing of Seat allotment: From November 15 to November 16
Allotment result: November 17
Reporting to the allotted institutes: November 18 to November 24

Some prominent colleges that will be accepting NEET SS 2023 scores:

CMC Vellore – Christian Medical College, Vellore (NIRF Ranking: 3)
NIMHANS Bangalore – National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore (NIRF Ranking: 4)
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore (NIRF Ranking: 6)
SGPGIMS Lucknow – Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow (NIRF Ranking: 7)
BHU Varanasi – Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (NIRF Ranking: 8)
KMC Manipal – Kasturba Medical College, Manipal (NIRF Ranking: 9)
SCTIMST Trivandrum – Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum (NIRF Ranking: 10)
MMC Chennai – Madras Medical College, Chennai (NIRF Ranking: 11)
KGMU Lucknow – King George’s Medical University, Lucknow (NIRF Ranking: 12)
VMMC – Safdarjung Hospital – Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi (NIRF Ranking: 14)