I think my not being able to access these links was related to a general Mac malaise on my devices yesterday (and which happens occasionally - usually at inconvenient times - and which was why I was so angry about it!
I had the same issue yesterday (including not being able to login to my AppleID account) and I got a lot of help from Apple Support and eventually it was solved.
However I am not sure which of the many steps actually fixed it.
I cleared all browser cache (Safari, Chrome, Opera) and explicitly deleted all cookies with the word 'apple' in them - permanent, local and session. I made sure all the devices were in the correct timezone with automatic time sync.
I then shut down (and I think this was also important) powered off all my devices (MacBook, Mac mini, iPad and iPhone), shutdown and powered off my router (TalkTalk ADSL 2 via Utility Warehouse) - and then powered up the router and my MacBook. My router then had a different external IP - and everything of course worked fine.