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00:00:01MUSIC
00:00:03Live from Singapore now on BBC News,
00:00:10News, Business Today. The US Federal
00:00:17Federal Reserve has raised interest interest rates for the first time time in three years as it tries to
00:00:20to combat rising prices and Snap
00:00:23Snap launches new augmented reality reality glasses as it targets the the next generation of wearable technology.
00:00:27technology. We'll hear from Snap Snap CEO about the company's latest
00:00:31latest push into AR glasses. Hello
00:00:38Hello and welcome to Business Today Today with me Steve Lai. US interest interest rates have been raised for
00:00:42for the first time in more than three three years, with the Federal Reserve
00:00:46Reserve lifting its benchmark rate
00:00:48rate to between 3.75% and 4%. The
00:00:51The decision was unanimous despite despite President Donald Trump calling
00:00:53calling for rates to be cut to 1% 1% or less. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh
00:00:57Warsh says inflation remains too too high and has not improved enough.
00:01:00enough. Yet. For more than five years,
00:01:04years, inflation has been running running above target. So our predominant
00:01:07predominant focus is on the price
00:01:09price stability side of our mandate.
00:01:11mandate. The plain fact is that inflation
00:01:14inflation is too high and has been
00:01:17been for too long. This summer's
00:01:20summer's inflation readings do not not tell me that underlying trends
00:01:24trends have meaningfully improved. improved. US stocks fell after the
00:01:27the decision, with the Dow dropping dropping more than 600 points. Markets
00:01:31Markets here in Asia, though, are are trading mixed as investors assess
00:01:34assess the implications of this latest latest hike. I spoke to Diane Swonk,
00:01:38Swonk, chief economist and managing managing director at KPMG. She says
00:01:41says the Fed's move marks the beginning
00:01:43beginning of a rate hiking cycle.
00:01:45cycle. It's exactly the right decision decision and it's the beginning of
00:01:48of a rate hiking cycle, which I think think is very important to take in
00:01:52in context as well as we saw, not
00:01:54not only was this decision there,
00:01:57there, but the larger participants participants at the meeting, the
00:02:00the larger group of participants participants actually had marked
00:02:03marked up another rate hike for the
00:02:05the end of this year. And in another
00:02:08another 1 in 2027. So that's three three quarters of a percent, which
00:02:11which I think it will take at least least that to derail the inflation
00:02:14inflation that we've got, which has has persisted for more than five
00:02:17five years now. We thought we got got close to a soft landing, but
00:02:20but that was not the case. It's unclear
00:02:22unclear we'll able to actually manoeuver
00:02:26manoeuver that elusive soft landing
00:02:27landing again. And I think another
00:02:30another important point right now now is that the vote was unanimous.
00:02:34unanimous. That's important for the
00:02:35the Fed's credibility that they acted acted independently and together
00:02:39together to shore up not only the the Fed's credibility, which has
00:02:42has been damaged by the persistence persistence of inflation, but also
00:02:46also in the context of the political political pressure on The Fed to
00:02:49to cut rates right now. Yeah, we'll we'll get to the political pressure pressure in just a moment. I just
00:02:52just want to get your take on what what this these series of rate hikes,
00:02:56hikes, rate hikes will mean for us us consumers, for mortgages, for
00:02:59for businesses, for hiring. Well,
00:03:01Well, if we only get three quarters quarters of a percent increase in
00:03:05in interest rates, we could see a
00:03:09a modest slowdown. But the economy economy is currently accelerating accelerating a point that Chairman
00:03:12Chairman Morris actually made today. today. And so you're really starting
00:03:16starting to have to lean against against the wind a little bit heavier.
00:03:19heavier. And I think the next discussion
00:03:21discussion will be not how many just just whether it's, you know, a couple
00:03:25couple of more rate hikes, but whether whether or not it might require more
00:03:28more than that to actually derail derail this inflation now. And just
00:03:32just coming back to the politics politics of it then, President Trump Trump blamed the decision on The
00:03:35The Fed board and not on his appointed appointed fed chair Warsh, which
00:03:39which is quite a different from singling singling out his predecessor, Jerome
00:03:42Jerome Powell. That is different. different. But at the end of the
00:03:45the day, this was a unanimous vote. vote. And Kevin Warsh was quite clear
00:03:49clear today that he voted in favour favour of this as well. And I think
00:03:53think that was an important statement statement for the Federal Reserve
00:03:56Reserve to make at this time. And
00:03:59And at this juncture, given the extraordinary extraordinary pressure that they
00:04:02they have seen publicly, it's not
00:04:04not that politically a lot of politicians politicians do not like what central
00:04:07central banks do, and that is not
00:04:09not uncommon. But the extraordinary extraordinary public pressure on
00:04:13on the Federal Reserve to cut it
00:04:15it was important that he look aligned aligned with his leadership within
00:04:19within The Fed system, and they are are aligned with him. They spoke
00:04:22spoke as one today. The US is not not alone in facing pressure from
00:04:25from higher inflation. The European European Central Bank raised rates rates last week, while the Bank of
00:04:29of England is due to make its decision decision on Thursday. Here in Asia,
00:04:32Asia, the Bank of Japan will unveil
00:04:34unveil its policy decision on Friday.
00:04:38Friday. Amazon is raising the minimum
00:04:39minimum hourly pay for eligible full-time
00:04:42full-time US operations workers by by $1 to $20 an hour, the company
00:04:46company says average total compensation, compensation, including benefits,
00:04:49benefits, will now exceed $32 an an hour. Amazon is also introducing
00:04:53introducing a new banking benefit benefit for employees and their families
00:04:56families as it looks to strengthen
00:04:57strengthen its overall benefits package.
00:05:00package. Snap launches its new specs. specs. They are augmented reality
00:05:04reality glasses priced at over $2,000
00:05:06$2,000 as it bets on a new generation generation of wearable computing.
00:05:09computing. The glasses have built built in displays, hand tracking
00:05:12tracking and artificial intelligence, intelligence, with apps for navigation, navigation, entertainment and live
00:05:16live translation. But their size size and high price could make them
00:05:19them a product of mainly for early early adopters. Snap says it would
00:05:23would be willing to consider default default time limits on its apps for
00:05:26for young people. CEO Evan Spiegel Spiegel or Evan Spiegel rather told
00:05:30told the BBC he sees that as an important important step for the industry.
00:05:34industry. Lily Jamali spoke to him him about social media regulation
00:05:36regulation and Snap's new augmented augmented reality glasses. I want
00:05:39want to get your thoughts on this
00:05:42this Meta settlement that was announced announced recently with a bunch of
00:05:45of states. Almost all the US states, states, in fact, who were levelling
00:05:49levelling a social media addiction addiction case against that company.
00:05:52company. They part of the settlement settlement includes Meta agreeing
00:05:56agreeing to make certain changes changes to their platforms, Instagram
00:05:58Instagram probably being the closest closest competitor to Snapchat. So
00:06:02So we're talking about daily time
00:06:04time limits, muted notifications notifications during school hours.
00:06:07hours. There's a list of these. And
00:06:09And now Meta is trying to pressure pressure competitors to follow suit.
00:06:13suit. What do you make of that? Well Well I think it is an important step
00:06:17step forwards in the industry in in terms to, you know, in terms of
00:06:20of really identifying industry norms. norms. And I think that would be
00:06:24be beneficial overall. So we've looked looked really thoughtfully at the the terms. We think a lot of them
00:06:28them are great. Many of those things things we already work to implement. implement. We really think it's important
00:06:31important for parents to be in control control of their teens experience
00:06:34experience online. And of course course on, on Snapchat. And that's that's something parents can do through
00:06:37through family centre. We also provide provide tools like the keys that
00:06:41that help educate teens and their their parents about the risks online.
00:06:44online. And so I think for us, that that was a step forward and we want
00:06:48want to figure out how we can be be part of the solution as well and
00:06:51and hopefully get to an industry industry wide solution that really really helps parents stay in control
00:06:55control and helps teens manage the
00:06:57the risks of communicating online. online. So would you agree to what
00:07:01what Meta is asking competitors to
00:07:04to do, which is a default time limit
00:07:06limit on apps such as yours? Yeah, Yeah, absolutely. I think that's
00:07:09that's a really good example of something something that we'd be willing to
00:07:13to implement. Obviously, you know, know, I don't want to get into all
00:07:16all the terms here with you today, today, but I do think, you know that
00:07:19that that is an example of an important important step forward for the industry.
00:07:21industry. OK. And can I just on that
00:07:23that note, how are you going to telegraph
00:07:26telegraph the prospect that you would
00:07:29would co-operate on that front in
00:07:31in terms of implementing time limits? limits? That's something we've talked
00:07:34talked about internally. I don't don't have more to share today. And,
00:07:37And, you know, today is really focused focused on the specs launch, but
00:07:40but I'm sure we can catch up on that that as soon as we've got more to
00:07:43to share. I appreciate that I asked asked because outside of this building
00:07:47building just a couple of months months ago, there were parents protesting
00:07:50protesting here saying that they're they're concerned they believe some
00:07:54some of their children have been been lost due to design features
00:07:57features that are implemented by by apps including yours. Before we
00:08:00we move on from this topic, do you
00:08:02you have a message to those parents?
00:08:05parents? Well, their loss is heartbreaking heartbreaking and tragic, and I think
00:08:08think those parents in particular particular were concerned about fentanyl.
00:08:11fentanyl. And that's something that that we jumped on as soon as parents
00:08:15parents alerted, alerted us to what what was happening with fentanyl
00:08:18fentanyl in our country. As you know, know, there's a terrible fentanyl
00:08:21fentanyl epidemic. Fortunately, there there has, you know, seemingly in
00:08:24in recent months and even the last last year have seen some real progress
00:08:27progress there. But the fentanyl fentanyl epidemic has claimed far
00:08:30far too many lives. And so the minute minute we heard about that, we started
00:08:33started working to develop new technology technology to proactively find and
00:08:36and remove that sort of content. content. We collaborate very closely
00:08:39closely with law enforcement to remove
00:08:41remove drug dealers from our platform,
00:08:44platform, and we've also worked very very heavily on educational campaigns campaigns because one of the things
00:08:48things we found out very early on on is that, you know, teens and people
00:08:51people more broadly were unaware unaware that, you know, pills could could be laced with fentanyl and
00:08:55and that just one grain of sand,
00:08:58sand, you know, of, you know, equivalent equivalent size of, of fentanyl,
00:09:02fentanyl, something that can kill kill you. And so we worked on the
00:09:06the largest ever public awareness awareness campaign for fentanyl.
00:09:08fentanyl. And I think, you know,
00:09:10know, it's been a really, you know, know, heartbreaking journey. But But we've collaborated together with
00:09:14with parents, we've listened to parents parents and I think we've made Snapchat
00:09:17Snapchat a lot safer as a result. result. And it's been, you know,
00:09:20know, reaffirming to see the progress progress in terms of the, you know,
00:09:23know, the fentanyl epidemic and the
00:09:25the decline in fentanyl related deaths. deaths. Luxury handbags, jewellery
00:09:28jewellery and watches seized in Singapore's Singapore's biggest ever money laundering
00:09:31laundering case are being held inside inside a high security facility until until they are put up for auction.
00:09:35auction. The BBC s Vandhna Bhan has has been given access inside. Everything
00:09:38Everything you're about to see was was seized in a $2 billion money
00:09:42money laundering case, and now it's it's about to be auctioned off. We're
00:09:46We're inside Singapore's Fort Knox, Knox, and these are just some of
00:09:49of the luxury goods going up for for grabs that was seized in the
00:09:52the sensational money laundering laundering case that rocked the city
00:09:55city state. Take a look at this.
00:09:58this. This is a limited edition Louis Louis Vuitton. Yayoi Kozuma pumpkin
00:10:02pumpkin bag. One of these sold for
00:10:05for $150,000 back in 2024. And then
00:10:08then there's Dior, Chanel rare jewels.
00:10:10jewels. In total, there's 624 items
00:10:14items here. These items were seized
00:10:16seized by police back in 2023 during
00:10:19during raids in Singapore's most most affluent neighbourhoods. Ten
00:10:22Ten Chinese nationals were convicted
00:10:25convicted of laundering $2.2 billion.
00:10:29billion. That's around £1.8 billion billion earned from criminal activities
00:10:32activities abroad. Now the scandal scandal embroiled multiple banks,
00:10:36banks, property agents, precious precious metal traders and a top
00:10:39top golf club. The auction is being being held online, but all these
00:10:42these items here can be viewed by
00:10:44by appointment only. And this Bullet-proof Bullet-proof maximum security vault
00:10:47vault at Singapore's Le Freeport. Freeport. The sale of these items
00:10:50items are expected to bring in around
00:10:54around 3.9 million Singaporean dollars. dollars. That's around £2.3 million.
00:10:58million. And all of that is going going into a fund for Singapore government
00:11:01government spending. Vandhna Bhan Bhan there, thanks for joining me.
00:11:04me. Bye for now.
00:14:32I was on air when the London
00:14:34seven over seven attacks happened. happened. That day was different
00:14:38different because of the sheer volume volume of information we were grappling
00:14:41grappling with in real time. We couldn't couldn't let the desperation for
00:14:44for news influence our reporting reporting or be overwhelmed by the
00:14:47the magnitude of what we were witnessing. witnessing. Today, as we wade through
00:14:51through endless waves of misinformation, misinformation, it's vital that we
00:14:54we don't just ask the questions.
00:14:56questions. We question the answers. answers. I'm Matthew Amroliwala on
00:15:00on Verified Live for BBC News. Now
00:15:04Now on BBC News. A round up of the the day's sporting action plus talking
00:15:08talking points analysis and original
00:15:10original journalism. BBC Sport. Hello
00:15:20Hello there. Great to be with you you at the BBC Sports Centre. I'm
00:15:23I'm Ben Croucher. It's a memorable memorable return to Europe for Sunderland.
00:15:27Sunderland. We'll tell you about about another difficult night for for Manchester United in the League
00:15:30League Cup as well. Golf's DP World World Tour gets ready for Wentworth,
00:15:34Wentworth, but find out why one player player is not comfortable with where
00:15:38where the season is ending and the
00:15:40the British racing driver. Ollie Ollie Millroy, who crashed during
00:15:43during a race in China, calls his
00:15:45his Dutch rival Loek Hartog a superhero
00:15:47superhero for pulling him from the
00:15:50the wreckage.