China unmoved by US rhetoric, focused on bigger diplomatic picture: Analyst
Da Wei, Director of CISS and Professor of the School of Social Sciences at Tsinghua University, joins CNA's Olivia Siong from the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue to unpack US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's speech. He emphasised that ongoing trade talks and a potential leaders' summit will shape the true direction of US-China ties.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Wells Fargo CEO goes from fixer to builder as regulators lift punishments
NEW YORK :Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf knows he has a reputation for sternness, but he said that when the bank was finally freed of a $1.95 trillion asset cap by regulators on Tuesday, he became emotional. "Everyone thinks that I'm this tough, tough person ... but it's been so long in the making, it's impacted so many people so negatively," Scharf said. "All of a sudden, it's like it's all been worth it and everyone's feeling it." Scharf, 60, took the helm at Wells Fargo in 2019, vowing to repair its deeply entrenched problems from a fake-accounts scandal that erupted in 2016. The bank faced a public outcry, was blasted by lawmakers and slapped with billions of dollars in fines. The Federal Reserve's decision to lift one of Wells Fargo's last major punishments this week has largely closed that chapter in its history. It also cements Scharf's legacy after a grueling turnaround in which he overhauled management, slashed headcount and shed businesses. "I feel great," Scharf told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday after being inundated by congratulatory messages from employees and counterparts at other banks. He is turning his focus to growth after serving almost six years as Wells Fargo's fixer-in-chief. He plans to expand further in credit cards and investment banking, while also investing in wealth and commercial banking. It will not expand in mortgages, he said. The bank exited many of those operations after they were beset by scandal. As Wells Fargo aims to increase earnings, it plans to raise its dividend to keep payouts consistent for investors, Scharf said. Share buybacks will continue, but their pace will probably slow as the bank invests in growth, he said. Scharf, who previously ran BNY and Visa, took over scandal-plagued Wells Fargo after his two predecessors were ousted. He installed new leadership, slashed more than 55,000 jobs, exited unprofitable businesses and reworked the bank's risk management and controls. In an effort to transform its culture, he also reworked the company's performance review process to boost accountability. Wells Fargo shares were up 0.5 per cent on Wednesday afternoon, having climbed more than 8 per cent so far this year as investors became more optimistic about the bank shedding its regulatory baggage. "The pressure, by the way, for me - it doesn't go away, it just changes" from focusing on historical problems to future growth, Scharf said. "I'm not going to work any less hard, I'm not going to feel any less pressure, I'll probably have more fun." Below is a transcript of Reuters' interview with Scharf, which has been edited for length and clarity. REACTIONS I feel great. I felt a little emotional yesterday. Everyone thinks I'm this tough, tough person, and I'm not actually. It's been so long in the making, it's impacted so many people so negatively. And I started getting notes immediately from everyone, but especially people who work here. I would say 80 per cent of them, 75 per cent of them were about their experience here over a period of time and how proud they are now, and thankful. Twenty percent were about the $2,000 (stock award) we were giving them. All of a sudden, it's like it's all been worth it and everyone's feeling it. It's everyone, and I really do believe that everyone who is here has been impacted by the work. Some directly, because they had to do it, but even just people having to talk to their family and friends on weekends about Wells Fargo news, and why do they still work here? You put people through a lot. GROWTH AREAS I would expect that across all the remaining businesses that we have, with the slight exception of our mortgage business, all have opportunities to grow and produce higher returns. So it's true of the wealth business through commercial still true of CIB (corporate and investment banking), because even though we're seeing results and significant upside there, it's true in our business, and super importantly, it's true in our consumer and small business banking business, where they were most impacted by the sales practice scandal. We're just introducing disciplines back to be able to serve customers more broadly and grow in ways that we haven't been able to. People always ask me, "What are the top three priority areas for growth?" And I try not to answer the question, because I really believe every line of business has an opportunity. ACQUISITIONS Not on the short list right now. At some time, capabilities around payments, around rewards, around the movement of securities, would we be willing to look at something like that? Sure. But we haven't even begun to think about what that is. And we still have more work to do. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves. CHANGES AT WELLS FARGO In some ways, it's a totally different company. The culture is different here, it's not a "me" culture. People want to be treated fairly, they want to be paid fairly, but they come here because they want to work together. That is incredibly important. Carried to an extreme, it hurt us because we didn't make difficult decisions about people, we didn't confront things. But I do think a culture like that, in a balanced way, is incredible to have. It takes a long time to build. We have real accountability in the organization, and that's those that's positive, that's negative, but it also brings with it a strong desire to help people get better. It's much more of a meritocracy. Nothing's perfect. We've still got a ways to go, but it drives performance. Every senior leader is expected to be involved in a detailed way in both the strategy and the execution of their business plan. HEADCOUNT We're adding bankers, sales people, relationship managers in the commercial bank, technology resources. We're just funding it through efficiencies that we're getting elsewhere. There's significant opportunities to become more efficient. BUYBACKS AND DIVIDENDS We've been buying a lot of stock back, and I anticipate that we'll continue to buy stock back. So on the dividend, what we want to be able to do is increase the earnings capacity of the company (and) increase the dividend to keep a relatively consistent payout ratio. We hope to be able to consistently increase the dividend at a reasonable level. Hopefully we'll have more opportunities to invest inside the business so we'll likely buy less stock back than we had. FUTURE PLANS (Scharf's hobbies include woodworking, playing guitar and tennis.) As hard as I've been working, we find time to do the things that allow us to regenerate. I'm not going to work any less hard, I'm not going to feel any less pressure. I'll probably have more fun. INDUSTRY REACTION I've heard from just about all the big banks' CEOs congratulating us. When you're on the inside of these things, you know how hard they really are and what it takes. Folks have said it's good for the industry. A strong Wells Fargo, without those constraints, allows Wells to be able to support growth. And even though we're all very competitive, a strong U.S. is a good thing.
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Amazon's delivery, logistics get an AI boost
SUNNYVALE, Calif. :Amazon wants customers to know that artificial intelligence is not just for writing college essays. In a series of announcements Wednesday, Amazon demonstrated how stockroom robots, delivery people and its sprawling warehouses will all benefit from a hefty dose of artificial intelligence, speeding packages to customer doorsteps. The company said it is forming a new group at its Lab126 device unit focused on creating warehouse robots that will perform multiple tasks when prompted, a significant advance over today's robots that typically are designed for a singular job. Using so-called agentic AI, these robots will be able to unload trailers and then retrieve parts for repairs, according to Amazon. "For our customers, it's, of course, faster delivery," said the unit's leader, Yesh Dattatreya, a robotics scientist, at an event at Amazon's Silicon Valley Lab126 hardware device lab. He said the robots could be critical during times of heavy demand, like around the holidays, for things like lifting heavy objects in confined spaces. The new AI would also help the company minimize waste and cut carbon emissions, Amazon said. Agentic AI has become one of the hot investment areas with technologists promising software that can make decisions and act upon them without any additional input from users. Such software is meant to help automate everyday tasks like scheduling. 'We're creating systems that can hear, understand and act on natural language commands, turning warehouse robots into flexible, multi-talented assistants,' Amazon said in a statement prior to the lab event. Dattatreya said decisions like what the robots would look like, how many would be deployed or when had yet to be determined. NAVIGATING OBSTACLES AT DELIVERY POINTS Amazon is also using generative AI to create more advanced maps for its delivery drivers, so that they can more efficiently deliver packages. The specialized AI will provide Amazon fine detail on building shapes, as well as obstacles and anything else they may need to navigate for a package drop-off. 'This innovation is making it easier for Amazon drivers to find the right delivery spot, especially in tricky places like big office complexes,' Amazon said. That technology could be critical to specialized eyeglasses Amazon is developing for delivery drivers that Reuters reported exclusively last year. The company hopes to outfit drivers with screen-embedded glasses that free their hands from GPS devices and give them turn-by-turn directions while driving, as well as while carrying packages at their destination. Viraj Chatterjee, a vice president in Amazon's Geospatial unit, said in an interview the technology could potentially be used in the eyeglasses, but that the hardware was far from being perfected. It marked Amazon's first public acknowledgement of the eyeglass project. He said delivery drivers in the U.S. were already using the maps daily. The software has been particularly useful for large apartment complexes and housing developments, he said. Chatterjee said Amazon's delivery people, who are largely contractors, are not required to use the software. Some gig companies have faced legal challenges over whether they are asserting too much control over their contracted workers through mapping and other software. Amazon also said AI will help it more efficiently predict what products customers will need and where to improve its same day delivery operations, with the software considering factors such as price, convenience, weather and sales events, like Prime Day. "It allows us to sell a different set of books in Boston than we would in Boise, and cater to different tastes really, really efficiently across the communities that we serve," said Nathan Smith, director of demand forecasting for Amazon's supply chain optimization technologies unit.
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Japan April real wages slump for fourth month as inflation bites
TOKYO :Japanese real wages fell for a fourth consecutive month in April, eroded by stubborn inflation that has continued to outpace pay hikes delivered so far by companies, government data showed on Thursday. The wage data adds to concerns about Japan's growth outlook at a time U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs stir uncertainty about the global economy. Japanese policymakers and analysts are concerned global trade tensions may offset the pay hike momentum and complicate the Bank of Japan's efforts to normalise monetary policy. Inflation-adjusted real wages, a key determinant of households' purchasing power, slumped 1.8 per cent in April from a year earlier after a revised 1.8 per cent drop in March and 1.5 per cent fall in February, labour ministry data showed. The consumer inflation rate the ministry uses to calculate real wages, which includes fresh food prices but not rent costs, eased slightly to 4.1 per cent year-on-year in April from 4.2 per cent in March but stayed around 4 per cent for five months in a row. "While wages are steadily rising, prices remain high," said a labour ministry official. Regular pay, or base salary, rose 2.2 per cent in April, the fastest pace in four months. Overtime pay edged up 0.8 per cent, reversing a decline in March, while special payments grew 4.1 per cent. Total average cash earnings, or nominal pay, increased 2.3 per cent to 302,453 yen ($2,098.04) in April, the same as a revised increase in March. Major Japanese firms on average agreed to more than 5 per cent pay hikes during annual spring wage talks in March. While some of those were already implemented in April, the labour ministry official said the newly agreed pay hikes would be gradually reflected in future wage data. ($1 = 144.1600 yen)
