Smile to enter: China embraces facial recognition technology

Ukraine asked Western powers to share data to help determine whether it was an Iranian missile that caused a plane crash earlier this week. Germany's foreign minister is calling for "the greatest possible transparency."

The often ruthless work of spy agencies like Israel's Mossad is justified when it saves hundreds or thousands of lives. That's the view of journalist Ronen Bergman, who's spent almost ten years researching and writing a book on Mossad. He tells us about the organisation's successes and failures, as he admits innocent people have died and that killing a man no longer requires even the prime minister's approval. It's a hard-hitting image of Mossad, but one he says is understandable for a country constantly battling terrorism. His book "Rise and Kill First" has just been published in French.

Dame Cressida Dick has slammed critics of facial recognition technology, saying they are simply "ill-informed".

For the first time anywhere, Syrian intelligence officers are facing trial — in Germany. The court aims to probe the defendant's alleged crimes as well as cast light on Bashar Assad's system of torture and oppression.

Rights groups and researchers have long criticized Amazon's facial recognition software, saying it incorrectly identifies people with darker skin. The decision also came amid widespread anti-police brutality protests.

In this edition, as a faulty facial recognition match leads to the arrest of an innocent man in the US state of Michigan, we take a look at the underlying racial and gender bias of the technology. We dig deeper into the subject with MIT's Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, who is helping correct the code.

Russia will try to "denigrate" Joe Biden, China wants "unpredictable" Trump out of office and Iran will use social media to spread disinformation, according the latest election threat assessment by US intelligence.

This week we begin by looking at South Korea's strategy against Covid-19. It has been widely praised as effective against the virus but is it corrosive to personal freedoms? Next we see how monks are racing to save a Buddhist temple from rising waters in Thailand. The result of failed economic planning at the cost of the local environment. Finally, we head to India where the pandemic has exacerbated the problem of aggressive monkeys in New Delhi. We will look at how innovative solutions such as facial recognition are being used to deal with the problem.

The intelligence agencies issued a joint statement saying the hacking was for the purpose of "intelligence gathering," rather than an attempt to disrupt operations. President Trump had previously placed blame on China.

Tackling insecurity: Offering intelligence reports is a major duty of police - CSO

The World Health Organization mission in Wuhan ended without finding the source of the coronavirus, prompting criticism from Washington. But experts have found new lines of inquiry, including some proposed by China.

Russia's leading food retailer group is launching a facial recognition payment system in more than fifty Moscow supermarkets, with plans to extend the technology to its entire network.