HONG KONG — YouTube has disabled access to videos of a protest song in Hong Kong only days after a court approved an injunction prohibiting the song in the city.

In 2019, “Glory to Hong Kong” was an anti-government protest anthem. YouTube stated that it would comply with a removal order by blocking access to over 32 YouTube videos of the song that were designated “prohibited publications” under the injunction.

Attempts to access the YouTube videos from Hong Kong on Wednesday proved unsuccessful. A warning stated, “This content is not available on this country domain due to a court order.”

YouTube Blocks Hong Kong Protest Anthem After Court Injunction Bans Song In The City

The court approved the government’s application to ban the song, recognizing that it could be “weaponized” and used to foment secession.

“We are disappointed by the court’s decision, but we are complying with its removal order by blocking access to the listed videos for viewers in Hong Kong,” YouTube, controlled by Alphabet Inc., said in an emailed statement.

“We’ll continue to consider our options for an appeal, to promote access to information,” the business said, adding that it shared human rights organizations’ concerns about the ban’s stifling effect on free expression online.

According to YouTube, links to the 32 YouTube videos will also not appear in Google Search for Hong Kong consumers.

George Chen, co-chair of digital practice at Asia Group, a Washington-based business and policy firm, believes it is worth monitoring how forcefully Hong Kong authorities order internet platforms to delete music.

Chen, the former head of public policy for Greater China at Meta, stated that if the government started giving platforms hundreds of links to remove daily, investor trust in Hong Kong would surely suffer

YouTube Blocks Hong Kong Protest Anthem After Court Injunction Bans Song In The City

“That will hurt Hong Kong’s reputation as a leading financial center because we know how important a free flow of data and information means to a financial center,” he stated. “So the government should be very careful and be aware of some unintended consequences that may impact its economic recovery and investors’ confidence.”

Internet and social media services, such as YouTube, often have protocols to address government removal demands.

Demonstrators frequently sang “Glory to Hong Kong” during large anti-government rallies in 2019. The song was then incorrectly played as the city’s anthem during international athletic events, rather than China’s “March of the Volunteers,” causing confusion among city officials.

According to local media, authorities previously arrested several individuals who sang the song in public for other infractions, such as playing a musical instrument in public without a permit.

YouTube Blocks Hong Kong Protest Anthem After Court Injunction Bans Song In The City

Critics argue that barring the song’s broadcast or distribution further restricts free expression in the former British colony since Beijing initiated a crackdown following the 2019 demonstrations. They have also warned that the prohibition will disrupt the operations of major digital companies and harm the city’s appeal as a commercial hub.

SOURCE – (AP)

ROME — In an uncommon public challenge to Pope Francis’ leadership, 49 Vatican Museums employees have launched a class-action complaint with the Vatican administration, asking for higher seniority, leave, and overtime benefits.

The complaint, dated April 23 and published this weekend in Italian newspapers, also claimed that staff faced health and security hazards as a result of cost-cutting and apparent profit-generating activities at the museum, such as congestion and fewer security guards to keep tourists at bay.

Vatican Museums Staff Challenge The Pope With A Legal Bid For Better Terms And Treatment

An email seeking comment received no response from the Vatican spokesman or Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, chief of the City State administration that oversees the museums.

The complaint is the latest judicial challenge highlighting how the Vatican’s laws, regulations, and procedures frequently conflict with Italian and European principles. Recently, civil and criminal cases have revealed how employees, particularly lay Italian nationals, have little or no legal recourse outside the city state’s unique court system, an absolute monarchy in which Francis wields supreme executive, legislative, and judicial power.

Museum employees cited the Catholic Church’s social teaching and Francis’ appeals to employers to respect workers’ dignity when requesting better treatment in the class-action complaint that senior Vatican attorney Laura Sgro filed and signed on behalf of the 49 employees.

Vatican Museums Staff Challenge The Pope With A Legal Bid For Better Terms And Treatment

They sought, among other things, greater transparency about how staff might develop, the reinstatement of seniority bonuses, and the Vatican’s adherence to Italian sick-day policies. According to the complaint, employees are currently required to stay at home all day, rather than just a few hours, to await a potential visit to ensure that they are not simply taking the day off.

According to Vatican labor standards, Verzaga has 30 days to react to the allegation. If no talks commence, Sgro can take the claims to the Vatican’s labor office in an attempt to reach a negotiated settlement, which might lead to a tribunal. However, the office can refuse to hear the case, and lawyers say this happens frequently, leaving the employees with no other options.

In recent instances before the Vatican tribunal, lawyers have indicated that they may seek to take employees’ grievances about the system to the European Court of Human Rights. The Holy See is neither a member of the court nor a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights. However, some lawyers believe the Vatican committed to maintaining European human rights standards when it ratified the European Union Monetary Convention in 2009.

Vatican Museums Staff Challenge The Pope With A Legal Bid For Better Terms And Treatment

The Museums are one of the principal sources of money, funding the Holy See bureaucracy, which serves as the official authority for the Catholic Church. The museums, which have experienced significant financial losses as a result of COVID-19 closures and limitations, raised the price of a full-price ticket to 20 euros ($21.50) at the beginning of the year, up from 17 euros.

SOURCE – (AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister on Sunday in a Cabinet shakeup as he begins his fifth term.

In accordance with Russian law, the entire Russian Cabinet resigned Tuesday following Putin’s spectacular inauguration in the Kremlin. Most members were widely anticipated to preserve their posts, although Shoigu’s status remained uncertain.

The Kremlin reported that Putin signed a decree on Sunday naming Shoigu as secretary of Russia’s Security Council. The appointment was revealed shortly after Putin requested that Andrei Belousov replace Shoigu as the country’s defense minister.

Shoigu’s new job was announced after 13 people were killed and 20 more injured in Russia’s border city of Belgorod when a 10-story apartment building partially collapsed due to what Russian officials claimed was Ukrainian shelling. Ukraine has not commented on the incident.

Putin Replaces Shoigu As Russia’s Defense Minister As He Starts His 5th Term

Russia’s upper chamber of parliament must accept Belousov’s candidacy, the Federation Council. On Sunday, it was claimed that Putin had also submitted ideas for additional Cabinet seats, but Shoigu is the only minister on the list who is being changed. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, whom Putin reappointed on Friday, offered several new federal ministry candidates on Saturday.

Shoigu’s deputy, Timur Ivanov, was detained last month on suspicions of bribery and ordered to be held in custody pending an official inquiry. Despite Shoigu’s close personal ties with Putin, the arrest of Ivanov was widely regarded as an attack on him and a likely precursor to his dismissal.

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin chose a civilian as defense minister because the ministry should be “open to innovation and cutting-edge ideas.” He also stated that the increased defense budget “must fit into the country’s larger economy” and that Belousov, who previously served as first deputy prime minister, is the best candidate for the position.

Belousov, 65, held senior roles in the prime minister’s office’s finance and economic departments and the Ministry of Economic Development. In 2013, he was appointed Putin’s adviser, and seven years later, in January 2020, he was named first deputy prime minister.

Peskov promised that the change would not affect “the military aspect,” which “has always been the prerogative of the Chief of General Staff,” and that Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who now holds this position, will continue to operate.

Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote in an online commentary that Shoigu’s new appointment to Russia’s Security Council demonstrated that the Russian leader saw the institution as “a reservoir” for his “‘former’ key figures — people he can’t let go of, but doesn’t have a place for.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has also been named to the Security Council. Medvedev has served as the body’s deputy chairman since 2020.

Putin Replaces Shoigu As Russia’s Defense Minister As He Starts His 5th Term

Shoigu was chosen to the Security Council instead of Putin’s longtime supporter, Nikolai Patrushev. Peskov announced on Sunday that Patrushev is taking on a new job and promised to divulge more details in the coming days.

Shoigu is largely seen as a crucial role in Putin’s decision to deploy Russian soldiers into Ukraine. Russia expected the operation to easily crush Ukraine’s much smaller and less-equipped army and for Ukrainians to warmly welcome Russian troops.

Instead, the conflict inspired Ukraine to launch a fierce resistance, giving humiliating blows to the Russian army, including a retreat from an effort to seize the capital, Kyiv, and a counteroffensive that drove Moscow’s forces out of the Kharkiv area.

Shoigu spent over 20 years conducting varied tasks before being named defense minister in 2012. In 1991, he was appointed head of the Russian Rescue Corps disaster response organization, which later became the Ministry of Emergency Situations. He got visible in the post. As the rescue corps absorbed the armed Civil Defense Troops, he was promoted to general despite having no military background.

Shoigu does not have the same power level as Patrushev, who has long been the country’s top security official. However, the post he will occupy — the same job that Patrushev fought to elevate from a low bureaucratic role to one of significant influence — will still have some weight, according to Mark Galeotti, the president of the Mayak Intelligence consultancy.

Despite the changes at the top, high-level security materials destined for the president’s eyes will continue to transit through the Security Council Secretariat. “You can’t just institutionally turn around a bureaucracy and how it works overnight,” he stated.

Thousands of civilians have fled Russia’s resumed ground offensive in Ukraine’s northeast, which has targeted towns and villages with artillery and mortar fire, officials said Sunday.

The fierce fighting has caused at least one Ukrainian battalion to evacuate from the Kharkiv region, ceding more territory to Russian forces across less-defended villages in the so-called contested gray zone near the Russian border.

By Sunday afternoon, Vovchansk, one of the major towns in the northeast with a prewar population of 17,000, had emerged as a battleground.

Volodymyr Tymoshko, the chief of the Kharkiv regional police, stated that Russian forces were approaching the town from three angles.

An Associated Press team stationed in a nearby village witnessed plumes of smoke billowing from the town as Russian forces fired shells. Evacuation teams worked tirelessly throughout the day to transport inhabitants, most of whom were elderly, out of harm’s way.

At least 4,000 citizens have fled the Kharkiv region since Moscow’s forces initiated the operation on Friday, according to Gov. Oleh Syniehubov’s social media statement. Heavy fighting raged Sunday along the northeast front line, with Russian soldiers attacking 27 towns in the last 24 hours, he added.

Analysts believe the Russian effort is intended to take advantage of ammunition shortages before promised Western supplies reach the front lines.

Putin Replaces Shoigu As Russia’s Defense Minister As He Starts His 5th Term

The Ukrainian military said the Kremlin is employing the standard Russian technique of launching disproportionate amounts of fire and infantry assaults to deplete Ukrainian troops and weapons. By increasing fighting in what was previously a static sector of the front line, Russian forces threatened to shut down Ukrainian soldiers in the northeast while also gaining ground further south.

It follows Russia’s increased attacks on energy infrastructure and settlements in March, which many anticipated were part of a coordinated effort to prepare the stage for an onslaught.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that its forces had conquered four villages near the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv area, in addition to the five villages reported to have been taken on Saturday. Because of the dynamic combat and continual intense shelling, these regions were most likely under-fortified, allowing Russia to move more easily.

Ukraine’s leadership has not acknowledged Moscow’s advantages. However, Tymoshko, the commander of the Kharkiv regional police, stated that Strilecha, Pylna, and Borsivika were under Russian possession and that infantry was being brought in from their direction to organize attacks in other beleaguered villages, such as Hlyboke and Lukiantsi.

SOURCE – (AP)