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Pro-Palestinian Protesters Block New York City Bridges, Tunnel

Protesters block Brooklyn Bridge during a Pro-Palestine active civil disobedience demanding the ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP)
Protesters block Brooklyn Bridge during a Pro-Palestine active civil disobedience demanding the ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP)
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Pro-Palestinian Protesters Block New York City Bridges, Tunnel

Protesters block Brooklyn Bridge during a Pro-Palestine active civil disobedience demanding the ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP)
Protesters block Brooklyn Bridge during a Pro-Palestine active civil disobedience demanding the ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP)

Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked several New York City bridges and a tunnel on Monday to demand an immediate ceasefire in the three-month-old Israel-Hamas conflict.

Dozens of demonstrators sat in the roadway and chanted slogans while holding up traffic on the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges across the East River, as well as at the Holland Tunnel connecting New York City with New Jersey across the Hudson River, local media reported.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the Holland Tunnel, said on its website that the lanes to New Jersey were closed "due to police activity."

Video posted on social media showed protesters chanting: "NYPD, KKK, IDF they’re all the same," referring to the New York Police Department, Ku Klux Klan and the Israel Defense Forces.

Protesters at the Holland Tunnel carried banners that said "Lift the siege on Gaza,Ceasefire Now" and "End the occupation."

The protests were organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, the Palestinian Youth Movement and the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, among other groups, they said on X, formerly called Twitter.

"The siege on Gaza needs to end and I'm ready to put my body on the line to end it," said one protester as she was led away by a police officer with her hands behind her back, video showed.

Israel's campaign in Hamas-run Gaza has so far killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, local health officials say, while Israel says Hamas holds more than 100 hostages of 240 seized during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people.

Israel accuses Hamas of operating among civilians and has released videos and photos it says support the claim. Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, denies the accusation.

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World

Russia's Dmitriev Welcomes EU Summit Decision Not to Use Russia's Frozen Assets

Archive- Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for investment and economic cooperation. (Reuters)
Archive- Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for investment and economic cooperation. (Reuters)
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Russia's Dmitriev Welcomes EU Summit Decision Not to Use Russia's Frozen Assets

Archive- Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for investment and economic cooperation. (Reuters)
Archive- Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for investment and economic cooperation. (Reuters)

Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, said on Friday ‌that "law and ‌sanity" ‌won, after ⁠European Union ‌leaders decided to borrow cash to fund Ukraine rather than use ⁠Russia's frozen assets.

"Major BLOW ‌to EU ‍warmongers ‍led by ‍failed Ursula — voices of reason in the EU BLOCKED the ILLEGAL use of ⁠Russian reserves to fund Ukraine," Dmitriev said on X, mentioning European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

World

UK Government Was Hacked in October, Minister Confirms

A pedestrian shelters from the rain while walking along the South Bank with the River Thames and the office buildings of the City Of London shrouded in fog on December 18, 2025. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)
A pedestrian shelters from the rain while walking along the South Bank with the River Thames and the office buildings of the City Of London shrouded in fog on December 18, 2025. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)
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UK Government Was Hacked in October, Minister Confirms

A pedestrian shelters from the rain while walking along the South Bank with the River Thames and the office buildings of the City Of London shrouded in fog on December 18, 2025. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)
A pedestrian shelters from the rain while walking along the South Bank with the River Thames and the office buildings of the City Of London shrouded in fog on December 18, 2025. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

British trade minister Chris Bryant said the government had been hacked in October, partly confirming a report in the Sun newspaper, which said a Chinese group had breached systems to access foreign office data.

"There certainly has been a hack," Bryant ‌told Times ‌Radio on Friday, according to Reuters.

"I'm not ‌able ⁠to say ‌whether it is directly related to Chinese operatives, or indeed, the Chinese state," he added.

The Sun named Storm 1849 as the Chinese cyber gang responsible for the breach, ⁠which it said was understood to possibly ‌include tens of thousands ‍of visa ‍details.

The group has been accused ‍of targeting politicians and groups critical of the Chinese government, the newspaper said.

Bryant said that some of the reporting was speculation, and that the government was "on top of" ⁠the incident.

"We're fairly confident that there's a low risk of any individual actually being affected by this," he told Sky News.

A government spokesperson said that it had been working to investigate a cyber incident.

"We take the security of our systems and data ‌extremely seriously," the spokesperson said.

World

Ukraine's Zelenskiy to Meet Poland's Trump-backed President at Key Moment in War

Polish President Karol Nawrocki (C) attends the ceremony marking the 86th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in Wielun, central Poland, 01 September 2025. EPA/Marian Zubrzycki POLAND OUT
Polish President Karol Nawrocki (C) attends the ceremony marking the 86th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in Wielun, central Poland, 01 September 2025. EPA/Marian Zubrzycki POLAND OUT
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Ukraine's Zelenskiy to Meet Poland's Trump-backed President at Key Moment in War

Polish President Karol Nawrocki (C) attends the ceremony marking the 86th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in Wielun, central Poland, 01 September 2025. EPA/Marian Zubrzycki POLAND OUT
Polish President Karol Nawrocki (C) attends the ceremony marking the 86th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in Wielun, central Poland, 01 September 2025. EPA/Marian Zubrzycki POLAND OUT

Volodymyr Zelenskiy will meet Poland's President Karol Nawrocki in Warsaw on Friday, as the Ukrainian leader tries to shore up relations with a key ally at a crucial moment for Kyiv's war effort.

The visit comes just as European Union leaders that United States President Donald Trump recently branded "weak" have agreed to borrow cash to fund Ukraine for the next two years, ensuring it can continue its fight against Russia's invasion.

While there is broad agreement in Warsaw that aid for Kyiv is essential in ‌order to keep ‌Russian forces away from Poland's borders, hardening attitudes towards ‌Ukrainian ⁠refugees have fueled ‌simmering tensions.

In a nod to rising anti-Ukrainian sentiment among some right-wing voters, nationalist Nawrocki had insisted that Zelenskiy should visit Warsaw to thank Poland for its support before he would consider visiting Kyiv.

"We should support Ukraine, and we do," Nawrocki said in an interview with the wp.pl news website published on Monday.

"At the same time, we should... ensure that Ukraine treats Poland as a partner. The conflict has been going on for nearly four ⁠years, and I have the impression that we, Poles, often don't feel like partners in this relationship."

Nawrocki's approach ‌to relations with Kyiv is much cooler than that ‍of his predecessor Andrzej Duda, and ‍reflects the increasing fractures on the right of Polish politics.

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Zelenskiy said maintaining ‍relations with Poland was "very important" when confirming Friday's visit.

Wojciech Przybylski, head of the Res Publica Foundation think tank, believes that Nawrocki, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, could prove valuable to the Ukrainian president.

"Zelenskiy needs allies and circles who have some ties to Donald Trump... so here, Nawrocki is showing that he holds the cards and is thus trying to establish himself as a significant player in Ukraine," he said.

While Nawrocki's ⁠presidential election campaign this year was backed by Poland's largest nationalist opposition party PiS, his eventual victory in June's run-off vote owed much to supporters of far-right parties who say Poland has given Ukraine too much support.

Such views are becoming increasingly common. A Pollster survey for the Super Express tabloid published on Tuesday found that 57% of respondents had a negative opinion about Poland's decision to spend $100 million on US arms for Ukraine.

Poland's approach to the war in Ukraine also forms part of the bitter feud at the heart of Polish politics between MAGA-enthusiast Nawrocki and centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a former European Council president.

Tusk said on Thursday that he would meet Zelenskiy in Warsaw after returning ‌from the summit.

He has previously berated right-wing parties over their attitude to Ukraine, telling them to "stand by Ukraine's side in its war with Ukraine with no 'buts'".