News Round-Up: Facial Recognition To Board Flights, US Urging the UK To Repeal Hate Speech Laws, and Supreme Court Rules Men Are Not Women

Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.

Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:

• US urges the UK to repeal hate speech laws for a trade deal.

• UN aviation policy body wants to introduce facial recognition to board flights.

• UK supreme court ruling: men who call themselves women are not women.

• Greece launches digital client registry.

• Sweden has 4200% more mosques than 25 years ago.

US urges the UK to repeal hate speech laws for a trade deal

Keir Starmer needs to embrace Donald Trump’s agenda by repealing hate speech laws in order to get a trade deal over the line, a source from Washington has told The Independent. The warning came after the US vice-president JD Vance had suggested an agreement between the UK and the US may be close, with the White House “working very hard” on it.

The Independent was told: “The vice-president expressing optimism [on a trade deal] is a way of putting further pressure on the UK over free speech. If a deal does not go through, it makes Labour look bad.”

Vance’s recent speech to the Heritage Foundation think tank was cited as an example of his views on Western culture and of free speech being thus linked to securing an agreement. “No free speech, no deal. It is as simple as that,” the source from Washington said.

US VP JD Vance has said that without free speech, the UK cannot expect a trade deal with the US. Photo: United States Congress/Public domain.

It is understood that Britain has already offered to drop its proposed digital services tax as a means of getting a trade deal through. But the US wants to see laws on hate speech repealed as well as plans for a new online safety law dropped.

UN aviation policy body wants to introduce facial recognition to board flights

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN's aviation policymaking body, plans to overhaul the rules for airports and airlines by introducing digital travel cards and facial recognition systems, writes The Times.

Currently, passengers have to check in to their flight, which can be done online or on arrival at the airport. They will then be issued a bar-coded boarding pass which will be scanned by the passenger at various points in the airport, including at the gate before boarding.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN's aviation policymaking body, plans to overhaul the rules for airports and airlines by introducing digital travel cards and facial recognition systems. Photo: AI-generated image.

However, the changes would do away with the current boarding pass and instead of it, passengers would need to download a digital “journey pass” to their phone when booking a flight. Facial recognition at airports would also be introduced, so that all the passengers arriving at an airport would have their faces scanned and the system would automatically let airlines know about who will be boarding their flight.

ICAO estimates that such changes could come into force within three years. Successful implementation of the plans would require upgrades to airport infrastructure, including the installation of facial recognition technology and the capability of reading travel document data from a mobile device.

UK supreme court ruling: men who call themselves women are not women

The UK supreme court ruled on Wednesday that the Equality Act's legal definition of "woman" is based on biological sex and does not include trans women, or men who call themselves women.

The case in question began in 2018 when For Women Scotland challenged the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018, which was aimed at improving gender balance on public sector boards. An amendment to the Scottish government’s bill expanded the scope of legislation so as to include all trans women, whether or not they had applied for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).

For Women Scotland (FWS) argued that only biological women should have been included in the gender quota and that including men who called themselves women in the quota broke gender-based protections. After controversial results in the lower courts, the case reached the supreme court in November 2024, which was due to decide the legal definition of a woman across the country. Specifically, the supreme court had to examine the legal definition of "woman" under the Equality Act.

Five judges ruled that the definition of gender in the Equality Act 2010 is based on biological sex, not gender identity or legal recognition (GRC). The court ruled that gender is binary, i.e. a person is either female or male, and does not include transgender people. The judges added that if “gender” meant anything other than biological sex, providers of single-sex facilities, including changing rooms, homeless shelters, and medical services, would be faced with serious difficulties. The ruling therefore confirmed that men who call themselves women do not have to be admitted to women-only premises, such as shelters, women's hospitals, and sports competitions.

Greece launches digital client registry

Greece’s Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) has introduced a digital client registry. The hope is that the system will curb tax evasion by providing real-time insights into client transactions, Greek City Times writes.

The digital registry will enable AADE to monitor customer activity instantly and cross-reference data with receipts submitted to the myDATA platform. At first, it will target businesses in the automotive sector, including car repair shops, rental companies, tyre services, parking facilities, and car washes. The key details that are tracked include daily customer counts, customer tax identification numbers, receipt details, vehicle license plate numbers, vehicle category, and the manufacturer.

Looking ahead, the program is set to expand, in its second phase, to include event venues, wedding services, gyms, and hotels, thus broadening its impact across diverse industries.

Sweden has 4200% more mosques than 25 years ago

Sweden has seen massive demographic changes over the last 25 years, and this is not only reflected in the demographic composition but also the religious composition of the country, Remix News writes. While churches continue to close their doors, the country went from approximately seven mosques in 2000 to about 300 in 2025. The exact figure is difficult to ascertain, but it considers all permanent prayer sites of Muslim worship that often feature a minaret and a dome. If unofficial places of Muslim worship were to be factored in as well, such as converted shops or basements, the number would likely be far higher, according to the Swedish newspaper Samnytt.

One of Malmö's oldest mosques, completed in 1984, it also opened a school in 2000, which is said to follow the Swedish curriculum but with an Islamic orientation. Photo: jorchr/Wikimedia Commons.

As in other European countries, many of these mosques receive funding from abroad, and overall, the finances behind many of them remain murky. In several cases, Swedish mosque construction has been partially or completely financed with money from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, or Turkey.

More and more mosques are in the pipeline, with construction taking place across the country. In one city, Helsingborg, a mosque being billed as “Scandinavia’s largest mosque” has so far raised 68 million kroner (€6.3 million) for its construction.