Amazon bans police use of facial recognition technology for a year

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.

Amazon has become the latest tech giant to clamp down on microblogging and social network service Parler, notifying it of plans to suspend its web hosting service on Sunday.

Bezos, who founded the firm almost 30 years ago, will be replaced by Andy Jassy. The 57-year-old Amazon CEO is worth almost $200 billion and wants to focus more on other projects, such as his media and space programs.

Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon chief executive

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.

The coronavirus has fueled sky-high company profits but Amazon workers say they are being pushed to the limit. The first strike of its kind in Italy includes suppliers and delivery drivers.

Senator Bernie Sanders joins the drive to unionize Amazon workers in Alabama as clashes intensified between lawmakers and the e-commerce giant ahead of a deadline for a vote that could lead to the first union on US soil at the massive tech company.

Employees at a warehouse in Alabama decided not to unionize. Labor representatives already have said they will challenge the vote alleging interference by the company.

Brazilian Pilot Antonio Sena is rescued from the middle of the Amazon jungle, where he spent 38 days stranded after he crashed his plane, until he stumbled across a family of nut pickers who gave him shelter and delivered him to the police. "I was emotionally devastated... I thought that I might not get out of there, that I might die there," he says back home in the capital Brasilia.

Dozens of companies are threatening to stop using Brazilian produce amid concerns that the proposed law could accelerate deforestation.

Brussels says it will "carefully study" whether to appeal to Europe's top court after Amazon won the annulment of a 2017 back-taxes ruling.

German cartel office chief Andreas Mundt says the probe into Amazon uses a new law allowing his agency to "intervene earlier" and "across markets" against retail giants.