recognition

New “contactless borders” are set to reduce queues at Birmingham and East Midlands airports. Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Glasgow, Heathrow, London City, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle and Stansted, will upgrade soon.

Britons will no longer need to show their passports when flying back into UK airports – thanks to facial recognition technology at e-gates.

New “contactless borders” are set to reduce queues when introduced at Birmingham and East Midlands airports.

All e-gates, which operate at Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Glasgow, Heathrow, London City, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle and Stansted airports, will have the upgraded system by early next year.

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Returning passengers who use the e-gates and have their face captured on camera will not have to scan their passport.

Phil Douglas, the director general of Border Force, said: “It will mean we have a more secure border and a much faster transit through the airport.

“It’s quicker, it’s more modern, it’s more secure.”

Passengers must travel with their passport because it will be needed to check in and to board the plane.

The new system, to be introduced in the coming weeks, will work only for British passport holders at first.

But the longer term aim is to extend it to other nationalities allowed to use e-gates.

They currently include those with biometric passports from Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the US.

Mr Douglas told the Sunday Times that contactless gates could speed up border control by up to 25 per cent.

The existing process typically takes 20-25 seconds.

But it can take longer because of problems such as failing to place their passports correctly in the machine, or the chip on their passport being dirty and therefore unreadable.

Under the new system, each airline will transmit a gallery of arriving British passengers’ passport photos to border control at each airport, which will then be collated for the e-gates to reference.

Mr Douglas added: “We know who’s coming and can load up that gallery of who is arriving, it’s not a one in 60 million check, it’s a one in tens of thousands check.”

If the passenger’s face is not recognised by the e-gate they will be asked to scan their passport.

If that fails, they will be directed to a Border Force officer at a manned desk. The technology had a successful three-week trial at Manchester airport last October.

The Home Office said passengers typically passed through the gates faster and had a better experience.

Chris Brown is speaking out after lawmakers honored him during his concert in Arlington, Texas, then apologized for the honor.

On Sept. 12, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Democratic Texas Rep. Venton Jones appeared at AT&T Stadium for Brown and Usher’s R&B Tour, where they honored both singers for their contributions to music. The politicians presented them with a Congressional Record recognition and state proclamation.

“Right now, we are experiencing Black joy to the highest level,” Crockett said on stage. “And I wanted to make sure we document that in the Congressional Record.”

Usher was not on stage when either honor was presented.

The incident sparked public backlash because of Brown’s history of domestic violence. In June 2009, the “Forever” singer pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault for physically attacking Rihanna.

On Monday, the 37-year-old singer and dancer took to social media to apologize to Crockett for the criticism she received following the recognition, uploading a photo of the two to his Instagram story with text that read: “I apologize for any backlash you have to deal with for awarding for me. I’m not political but I move off of frequency and energy and I’m so grateful. Once again, thank you.”

But by Tuesday, Jones released a statement apologizing to his constituents for his role in presenting Brown with a state resolution.

“Over the past few days, I have listened closely to the conversations, concerns, and heartfelt feedback shared across our community following my presentation honoring Chris Brown with a state resolution,” Jones said.

Jones, who first assumed his role in 2023, said that the presentation was an attempt to reach voters ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election.

“First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the women, the Black women, whom my actions have hurt. In moments like these, I think it’s important to be specific and just as loud with an apology as our original actions were,” Jones added in his statement. “I apologize.”

After Jones’ statement, Brown called out the representative.

“I didn’t ask to be honored because I knew some s— like this would happen and [Venton Jones] immediately started tap dancing and apologizing because he didn’t wanna lose voters and support,” Brown wrote on Sept. 15 on his Instagram. “I have a great idea.. how about [y’all] leave me the f— alone and let me focus on the fans that spent their money to actually see and support me.”

Outside of the most widely recognized incident involving Rihanna — which occurred hours before the couple was set to appear at the 2009 Grammy Awards — there have been multiple domestic violence allegations against Brown, including by his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran. She was granted a restraining order against the singer in 2017.

Brown has been accused in several other cases of violence against women from 2018 to 2022, either dismissed, settled out of court, or the investigation dropped.

This summer, the singer pleaded guilty to beating up a man in a London nightclub with a glass bottle in 2023. There is an active $50-million suit against Brown and members of his entourage by four male concertgoers who allege they faced a “brutal, violent assault” backstage following a Fort Worth, Texas, show in 2024.