Musk accuses Australia of censorship
MELBOURNE, Australia, April 23, (AP): Tech billionaire Elon Musk accused Australia of censorship after an Australian judge ruled that his social media platform X must block users worldwide from accessing video of a bishop being stabbed in a Sydney church.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded Tuesday by describing Musk as an “arrogant billionaire” who considered himself above the law and was out of touch with the public.
X Corp., the tech company rebranded in 2023 by Musk after he bought Twitter, announced last week it would fight in court Australian orders to take down posts relating to a knife attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in an Assyrian Orthodox church as a service was being streamed online on April 15.
The material was geoblocked from Australia but available elsewhere.
But the regulator that made the orders, Australia’s eSafety Commission, which describes itself as the world’s first government agency dedicated to keeping people safer online, successfully applied to the Federal Court in Sydney for a temporary global ban on sharing the video of the bishop being stabbed.
In an after-hours hearing Monday, Justice Geoffrey Kennett suppressed the footage from all X users until Wednesday, when an application for a permanent ban will be heard.
❑ ❑ ❑ Leaders trek Kokoda:
Australia and Papua New Guinea’s prime ministers on Tuesday began trekking into the South Pacific island nation’s mountainous interior to commemorate a pivotal World War II campaign and to underscore their current security alliance, which faces challenges from China’s growing regional influence.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received an elaborate traditional welcome when he arrived by helicopter at Kokoda Village with
to an average of 13 kilograms (28.7 pounds) between 2013 and 2020 , said the report from the UN Office on Drugs and
his Papua New Guinean counterpart James Marape.
❑ ❑ ❑ NKorea’s Kim leads rocket drills:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised salvo launches of the country’s “super-large” multiple rocket launchers that simulated a nuclear counterattack against enemy targets, state media said Tuesday, adding to his belligerent testing activities and threats that have raised tensions in the region.
The report by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the North firing what they suspected were multiple short-range ballistic missiles from a region near its capital, Pyongyang, toward its eastern seas.
❑ ❑ ❑ Myanmar’s VP steps down:
Myanmar’s Vice President Henry Van Thio,
Crime.
Cocaine is the most seized drug in the Sahel after cannabis resin, the report
who served in the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and then continued in the position after the military ousted her to seize power in 2021, is stepping down for unspecified health reasons, state media said Monday.
State television MRTV announced on Monday night that 65-year-old Van Thio had been allowed to retire from his post for health reasons in accordance with the constitution but did not provide any details of his health or say who, if anyone, will replace him.
Van Thio, a member of Myanmar’s Chin ethnic minority and a former army officer, was named second vice president in 2016 when Suu Kyi’s party started its first term after winning the 2015 general election in a landslide. Her National League for Democracy party governed Myanmar with overwhelming majorities in Parliament from 2015 to 2021, before being overthrown by the military.
said. The analysis comes as Senegal, which borders on the Sahel, announced Sunday a record-breaking cocaine seizure of 1,137 kilograms - the most ever intercepted on land and valued at $146 million - near an artisanal mine in the east of the country. Incidents like this are becoming more common in the region: In one incident last year in December, the Senegalese navy seized a total of 3 tons of cocaine at sea.
The location of the Sahel, lying south of the Sahara desert and running from the Atlantic to the Arabian Ocean, makes it a natural transit point for the increasing amount of cocaine produced in South America and destined for Europe. The trafficking has detrimental impacts for both peace and health, locally and globally, said Amado Philip de Andrés, UNODC Regional Representative in West and Central Africa.
“The involvement of various armed groups in drug trafficking continues to undermine peace and stability in the region,” said Philip de Andrés. The report said the drug trade provides financial resources to armed groups in the Sahel, where Islamic extremist networks have flourished as the region struggles with a recent spate of coups. (AP)