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First Move with Julia Chatterley
Lawmakers Fighting Over Face Coverings While U.S. COVID Cases Hit Records; Netflix Guidance Disappoints After Lockdown Led Games; Driving Diversity, Uber Pushes for More Inclusion. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired July 17, 2020 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
W. KAMAU BELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it starts at the very beginning.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, thank you, Kamau and to all of you, be sure to watch the all new season of "United Shades of America." It's going to
premieres Sunday night 10 o'clock Eastern Time and Pacific only on CNN.
CNN Newsroom with someone I know pretty well, Poppy Harlow begins right now.
[09:00:22]
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: Live from New York, I'm Jay Chatterley. This is FIRST MOVE. And here's your need to know.
Mask mayhem. Lawmakers fighting over face coverings while U.S. COVID cases hit records.
Streaming stutter. Netflix guidance disappoints after lockdown led games.
And driving diversity, Uber pushes for more inclusion. We'll hear exactly how.
It's Friday. Let's make a move.
Hello, and welcome once again to all our FIRST MOVErs around the globe. Great to have you with us this Friday and lots to discuss, of course, with
the COVID crisis as always, but I do want to start by saying what a week it's been for tech. We've had Twitter hacked. We've had TikTok attacked and
now Netflix well, thwacked.
The streaming giant setting the earning season tone, warning that the shutdown surge in subscriptions is set to slow. Shares, as you can see,
down over seven percent premarket, still though up more than 50 percent year-to-date. Context as always key.
More broadly, U.S. futures are higher following yesterday's stock stumble. Sentiment was hit by data, I think from the U.S. and China suggesting that
consumers will remain cautious while the pandemic continues.
The expectation, of course, in both countries is that more support and plenty is needed. Now speaking of support, E.U. leaders are meeting face-
to-face this time or should we say, mask to mask and elbow to elbow to work on their multibillion-dollar recovery fund.
French and German stocks though are up over 12 percent since the program was announced back in May. So there's lots of good news we can argue in the
price here. The question is, do we get progress?
Asian markets meanwhile finishing mostly higher. Chinese stocks though, tumbled five percent for the week overall. Overseas investors in fact have
withdrawn some $4 billion from Chinese markets this week, something to watch, and with the concerns about future economic support, not to mention,
of course, geopolitical tensions and the risk therefore, of reaction and economic spillover, whether it's the global economy, or the COVID crisis.
It's a global problem.
And news, the sobering news from the U.S. Sunbelt should be a concern to all. That's where we begin the drivers.
The U.S. reported 77,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday. It's the highest daily jump on record. In at least 39 states, the numbers continue to rise
in California, Arizona, Texas and Florida. Hospitals are simply running out of beds. Rosa Flores reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Miami hospitals are quickly running out of space. They're at 95 percent capacity as Florida continues
to break coronavirus records.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (R), MIAMI, FLORIDA: The situation is dire. I don't want to sugarcoat it, or I don't want to downplay it in any way. Our
hospitalizations are at the highest level.
The death rate will continue to go up if we don't take any more dramatic measures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLORES (voice-over): With the higher demand of testing in the Sunshine State, there's a need for an efficient turnaround in results. Gov. Ron
DeSantis blaming labs, not the Florida Department of Health, for the current backlog.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Our state labs can do stuff, but I mean, they only do a limited bandwidth, we're trying to expand it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLORES (voice-over): On Thursday, Florida reported nearly 14,000 new cases. Still, DeSantis has yet to issue a statewide mask requirement, leaving it
up to local leaders.
Meantime in Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp signed an Executive Order banning cities and counties from enforcing facial coverings, even suing Mayor
Keisha Lance Bottoms over her mandate in Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR HARDIE DAVIS (D-GA), AUGUSTA: What we can't do is use Executive Orders to divide the State of Georgia and take an apolitical public health
crisis and turn it into a political football.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLORES (voice-over): Colorado's governor making masks mandatory statewide, saying it will encourage more people to cover their faces.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GARED POLIS (D-CO): The party has to end if we're going to keep our businesses open, keep our economy open and save lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLORES (voice-over): It's one of at least 38 states experiencing an uptick in new weekly coronavirus cases. Texas hospitals are becoming more and more
overwhelmed.
And with cases skyrocketing, preparation for the worst. A refrigerated truck now spotted in Dallas, serving as a makeshift morgue.
In Washington State, the first epicenter of the virus in the U.S., the governor sending this warning to residents if new infections keep rising.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAY INSLEE (D-WA): We cannot rule out the potential for another stay- at-home order this year and perhaps not in the too distant future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[09:05:13]
FLORES (voice-over): Dr. Anthony Fauci once again reminding young people the seriousness of the virus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You can get the mindset, well, listen, if I'm infected, I don't
know I'm infected. I'm not feeling sick. Who cares? I'm not bothering anybody else. That is incorrect. Because by allowing yourself to get
infected, you are propagating the pandemic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: Rosa Flores reporting there. All right. Let's move on. Beijing says the idea of the United States placing a travel ban on Chinese
Communist Party members and their families would be absurd. It's been reported that the Trump administration is considering exactly that.
China's Foreign Affairs Ministry says, quote, "If this report is true, then the United States is blatantly going against the 1.4 billion Chinese
people."
David Culver is live in Beijing. And David, you and I were speculating on the prospect of this, in fact, yesterday. I've read one report that
suggests this could impact as many as 270 million Chinese, if you include Communist Party members and their families, and some of them are incredibly
high profile.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. And that's rooted, Julia, in the fact that there were some 92 million Communist Party members here in China.
I think the challenge here going forward -- and for one, we should point out, the U.S. has not said officially they're going to go forward with
this. But the challenge, if they were to go forward with it would be one of enforcement.
I mean, it's very difficult to determine who's a party member because it's not like as of now, they have to put that on a visa application to go to
the U.S.
But as you mentioned, there's some high profile folks that were discussing amongst this group who would be included, as well as their family members.
I want to show you a list of some of the people who would be affected here, potentially if it were to be put into action. One would be Ren Zhangfei, he
is the Chairman of Huawei, Jack Ma of Alibaba, Wang Jianlin of Wonder Group -- that's a big shopping and AMC theaters here in China Group. They manage
a lot of those malls, and then Xiu Jiayin of Evergrande Group that is a real estate developer, if you will; they are massive as well.
So you're talking about individuals who have a very large footprint in the financial field, and this could obviously impact them if it were to come to
fruition.
What's interesting here, though, is to see state media reaction. They seem to be pushing this forward with a lot more anger as of now. They feel like
this would ostracize most of the Chinese people.
What's interesting, though, is that it singles out the Communist Party in particular, so it perhaps from the U.S. perspective, would chip away at
some of the rising nationalism that we have seen here as a result of the U.S.-China rising tensions and the back and forth over the past several
weeks and months.
I mean, the reality is, every action the U.S. has taken, be it sanctions with regards to Hong Kong or sanctions with regard to Xinjiang, you have
seen in return a rise in nationalism here, and it's easy for state media to rally that. But with this in particular, you start to segment a group out.
You segment the Communist Party members.
"The New York Times" kind of likened it in the U.S. to folks being disappointed with Trump or angry with Trump and saying the rest of the
Republican Party can't travel in to China. So you then obviously wouldn't anger the Democrats in that situation.
So, it would be interesting to see how this move forward, though it will be very difficult to see it actually put into action.
CHATTERLEY: Absolutely, and those with the financial interests in China as well, some big, big Republicans as well, some business leaders that would
be probably pretty furious not to be able to go there or have access to there as well.
Just to be clear, and you've already reiterated this, Mike Pompeo would not be drawn on this. He said, look, we keep every option on the table with
regard to China. That was the Press Secretary yesterday, speaking in the press conference as well. This is deep water, if they decide to go there.
This would be a very important decision and tough to enforce, 90 million people, let's be clear.
CULVER: It would be incredibly difficult to enforce it. I think that's the reality that they'd be facing. So, perhaps it's not so much putting it into
action. But just the added rhetoric that is now coming from the U.S. and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in particular somebody who has been
targeted directly by Chinese state media and Chinese officials as we have seen the back and forth just intensify.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, absolutely. David Culver, great to have you with us to get your context.
CULVER: Thanks, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: All right. Moving on. Stock midstream, Netflix investors experiencing a buffering blip as the company gives a weak outlook for
subscription growth. U.S. investors have been clamoring for better visibility from companies this earning season.
Clare Sebastian joins me and this is not what they were hoping to hear. Clearly, we saw a subscription bump with people under lockdown watching
things like movies using Netflix and others, but the outlook from these guys is incredibly cautious.
[09:10:15]
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, "The Tiger King" bump, according to Netflix, Julia, appears to be waning. I think what we're
hearing from the company now is that they feel that the best of 2020 in terms of subscriber growth is behind us. So that is why we see the stock
lower, but the numbers were still impressive, 10 million subscribers, added in the quarter down from 16 million in the first quarter, but still above
the company's own estimate of seven and a half million.
And that means we now have the roundup of the first half of the year, 26 million subscribers were added in the first half; that's compared to 28
million in the entirety of 2019. So you can really see the sort of surge that they saw during the lockdown.
So clearly, they feel at this point that this is a pull forward in demand and that it will wane in the second half of the year. I think it's still
sort of early to know if that was what this was or if it's part of a longer term shift into streaming and perhaps away from things like movie theaters.
But you know, a note of optimism as well from the company, they say that some production is coming online, their slate of content for 2020 is un-
impacted by this because of the long lead time, but they do say that in 2021, they expect some of their titles to shift to the second half of the
year because of the delays that we've seen in production.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, that was one of the things that fascinated me; also on the call referring to TikTok as a competitor. Anyone that creates content here,
it seems, is a competitor. But one of the other things that we saw, obviously not relating to the financials here, a co-CEO, a step up for the
chief of content now is going to share the lead title with Reed Hastings. What do we think of that?
SEBASTIAN: Yes, I think this was an interesting one from Netflix. Ted Sarandos has been at the company for more than 20 years. He's a very
visible person. He's on all of the earnings calls.
And I think this is a statement from the company on two things. One, just how crucial content is to who they are as a company. This is really kind of
a Hollywood facing company as well as something that is traded as a tech stock. So I think that's critical.
And I think, you know, there's a lot of questions now swirling around succession. Reed Hastings, who is the current CEO who is now going to share
the role with Ted Sarandos said look, I'm around for another decade, but I think part of this is succession planning and continuity for this company
as it continues to grow and perhaps expand into new areas -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, absolutely. And I couldn't agree more. Content King and then making that really clear. Clare Sebastian, thank you.
Tweeters and explanation, mystery still surrounds this week's massive Twitter hack. Both Twitter and now the F.B.I. are investigating how around
130 big accounts were breached in an apparent Bitcoin scam. Donie O'Sullivan is on the story for us. What more do we know here, Donie,
obviously the F.B.I. now involved, but for me, it's still the lack of information coming from Twitter about what on earth happened and how?
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Hey, Julia, yes, Twitter posted a small update last night to this story, their investigation finding that, as
you said about 130 accounts, they say were targeted.
So in some ways, you know, that is a relatively low number given that there are millions of accounts, but given that we know about the high profile
people that were targeted, you know, we know about a dozen or so. There's Obama, Gates, Elon Musk, Joe Biden.
You know, we don't know who those 100 accounts or so are and we also don't know, and Twitter says they are still working to determine which is a
little bit hard to believe that they're still working to determine whether or not private information like private messages were accessed as part of
this.
The F.B.I. is leading the Federal investigation. Here in New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has launched his own investigation and over the past 24 hours,
we've heard from the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee and others in Congress demanding that Twitter briefs them.
So likely, we will probably see some more updates from Twitter over the weekend. Possibly they will be hoping to get that news out the weekend. So
maybe people don't take notice.
But you know, this is just incredibly concerning -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it is. And to your point as well, there are what -- 260 million Twitter users. There were only, we believe, let's be clear, 130
accounts targeted, but millions and millions and millions of eyeballs see those specific accounts because they've got so many followers, which is
what makes what happened here so potent, Donie.
But I do think, again, it raises a question that you and I have debated so many times. We are in a presidential election year. We know there was
interference and these social media platforms are simply not safe.
O'SULLIVAN: Yes, I mean, you know, if just Joe Biden's account alone had been compromised, that would be a huge story in an election year. And you
know, I think once we learn more about who the accounts that were targeted, the 130 accounts they say were targeted, we might learn more about the
motives of the attackers.
Obviously, they ostensibly posted that it was a Bitcoin scam. You know, there may have been more to it than that. But as you mentioned, this is an
election year. Now, regardless of who has done this hack, you know, what we have seen before is when hacked materials emerge online sometimes,
sometimes they're faked.
[09:15:33]
O'SULLIVAN: So now, you know, somebody could potentially start posting to say, oh, we have private messages belonging to this Twitter user who we
hacked. Here are their messages, but the messages themselves, of course, might turn out to be fake.
So, you know, regardless of who was behind this hack, bad actors, fire nation states and others could exploit us in different ways to cause
confusion. And you know, it's possible I guess, that just like 2016, the 2020 election here in the U.S. could be one that is characterized by hacks
and leaks, whether they're real or not -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and we'd had four years to tackle this. Donie O'Sullivan, thank you so much. I'll get off my high horse before I carry on this
conversation and blow all things up in the show.
Still to come on FIRST MOVE, from smart phones to theme parks, this Corporate Empire does it all.
I speak to the Vice Chair of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup about their ethos, and their expansion plans and more.
And Uber says it will rid its platform of racism: how the company is tackling, perhaps the most persistent gridlock in Silicon Valley.
That's all coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE live from New York. Futures still pointing to a higher Wall Street open. Tech, trying to play a bit of catch
up here despite that weak growth outlook from Netflix.
Remember that stock is still up some 50 percent year-to-date over the past five trading sessions. The NASDAQ has fallen around half a percent, compare
and contrast that with the Dow and the S&P, which is still posting solid gains. So some nervousness after weeks of gains particularly for the tech
stocks here.
As we wrap up another trading week, Chinese stocks remain higher for the year. The Nikkei is modestly lower and the Hang Seng down 11 percent.
Southeast Asian shares the laggard in the region with stocks in Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines all down by some 14 percent year-to-date.
Interesting views on catch up there, too, potentially.
[09:20:25]
CHATTERLEY: Now the rise of a corporate empire in Vietnam, Vingroup, one of the biggest private companies in Asia has dozens of subsidiaries, including
Vinsmart, Vinfast and Vinschool. We will explain.
The company made its name in real estate and expanded into other avenues like supermarkets, amusement parks, education, healthcare, and as I just
mentioned there now, smartphones and cars. Wow.
Joining us now, I'm pleased to say Vingroup Vice Chairman, Le Thin Thu Thuy. Great to have you on the show with us. Thank you so much for joining
us.
For viewers that might not understand what Vingroup here is outside of Vietnam, just explain what the ethos of the company is and just how you've
expanded to so many areas.
LE THIN THU THUY, VICE CHAIRMAN, VINGROUP: Thank you for having me. Well, when you think about Vingroup, a few words come to my mind.
Our tagline is forever startup. So every day we live a life of a startup and we try our best to survive that day. We promote, being effective and
speedy and we are all about result oriented.
Vingroup is a very dynamic and demanding organization, on all the employees. And we also -- above all, we also promote the Vietnamese culture
and experience within our group.
But at the same time, we also -- we started becoming international and started having a lot more and more international employees supporting us in
the workforce as well.
CHATTERLEY: From Vingroup, I think is an evolution from sort of traditional businesses that I mentioned like tourism, real estate to far higher, tech,
the work that you're doing with smartphones, with cars for example, too.
Again It feels like the ethos of the company comes back to some modernization push as well in Vietnam and beyond.
THUY: You know, our mission is for a better life of the Vietnamese people. So everything that we do is for that purpose. We build residential
development to make -- to give the people not just better homes, but give them a better lifestyle.
We've built modern shopping malls. We've built school, hospitals. We modernized the agriculture in Vietnam, and most recently, as you already
mentioned, we started our company less than three years ago, Vinfast, and our cars are already on the street in Vietnam, becoming two out of three
cars have become recently the best selling cars in Vietnam in June, surpassing every -- all the other car models in Vietnam.
And we also just over a year ago, we started getting into smartphone and we are already making smartphones and IoT products and many other technology
related products.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, this is astonishing. In the space of two to three years, suddenly going from getting into a business and actually having cars
and phones on the market here.
I know you're eyeing expansion opportunities, as you mentioned internationally as well. Talk about your ambitions here in the United
States, because I know you see this is a potential market for Vingroup products.
THUY: You know, we are very focused about our international expansion. So outside of Vietnam, we would like to expand into the U.S. and focus oil
resources in the U.S. before we expand to other countries. So we are preparing for Vinfast and Vinsmart to be in the U.S. pretty soon.
CHATTERLEY: Can you give me a sense of how soon?
THUY: The smartphone very soon, this year, and Vinfast cars, next year.
CHATTERLEY: Wow. I mean, this is pretty incredible. Okay, I want to talk about what's happened in light of the pandemic that we've seen. I mean, our
viewers are well aware that Vietnam's handling of this is been very different compared to what we've seen in the West.
But clearly you have tourism assets. You have parts of the business that surely have been pretty severely impacted. Can you give us a sense of that?
[09:25:11]
THUY: As you might have seen that Vietnam has handled the situation pretty well from day one, even though next to China and we were probably the first
-- one of the first countries that had people coming from China with COVID -- so far, we still have a clean record. So no deaths from COVID in Vietnam
yet.
Our group, having more than 50,000 employees all over the country, and you know, suffering through the lockdown, obviously, we were impacted by the
pandemic. However, we actually found a way to -- one of the very first organization in the country to let people work from home and basically
segregate our employees into different groups and you know, people that don't need to serve customers were allowed to stay -- to work from home and
we started promoting like working from home.
But there were people in our workforce that had to be in touch with the customers so we have special allowances for people that -- you know, the
high risk people, the people that have to face the customers on daily basis. We give them additional allowance for, you know, for being in the
risk group.
And then we have the medium risk group with a little bit lower allowance, and a lot -- I mean, by now, we get back to normal and all the business
units know that they had to at least reach their target or even or, you know, have to surpass the target that they set out at the beginning of the
year.
But the pandemic brought some very memorable experiences for us, like, for example, at Vinfast where some of the expatriates, like some expatriate
came to our Chairman and said that, you know, we don't want to take -- the company is suffering, we don't want to take salary. You know -- just we
willing to take some pay cut.
So our chairman said -- I mean, he's very touched by the by the gesture, but we vowed to keep all our employees on the payroll even though we stay
at home for like a month and a half, almost two months.
And our chairman said because all of these -- all our employees, they have families. They still have to support families even though other businesses
in the country or elsewhere are shut down or cut the salary. We don't do it. We still make sure that the employees are fully paid and we still made
sure that we support the employees.
CHATTERLEY: That's credibly important.
THUY: To be very important for us and we get a lot of loyalty from the people out to that.
CHATTERLEY: Which is essential and many businesses around the world would love to do the same. Miss Thuy, I do want to ask you, if there's any
criticism of Vingroup that I've read, as I've been sort of investigating in trying to understand the company, it comes to sustainability and how green
the company is as it expands.
And I know it's a challenge perhaps in Vietnam, but it's a different story, and the focus is different when you are trying to enter a country like the
United States, for example. What's your stance on sustainability? What's the plan?
THUY: You know, there has been some news in the past few weeks about one of the projects that we just got awarded. But I think the facts have surfaced
recently that a lot of the rumors were ungrounded. So I think gradually, you're going to see the facts coming out.
At Vingroup, we, in the past, I would say two or three years, we started focusing a lot more efforts on green policy. Part of it is being
responsible because we are the biggest business group in Vietnam. So being responsible to the country and responsible to the world as a whole.
But also for us, especially for me being a CEO of Vinsmart, right, I know that I cannot get our products into like E.U. or the U.S. if we don't have
a clear green policy.
So we started implementing a green policy within Vinsmart and within Vingroup in the past few years.
Vingroup is one of the founding member of the National Plastic Action Plan which is a program by World Economic Forum. So we are one of the founding
members in Vietnam, and we're leading the efforts in Vietnam.
Within all different groups -- different businesses within Vingroup, we also implemented various actions, written in our policy to protect the
environment and to reduce the impact on the environment.
[09:30:37]
THUY: Like, I'll give you a specific example of Vinsmart, my business. We have reduced the use of plastic by 11.2 percent from the beginning of the
year, and the target is by 20 percent by the end of the year despite the pandemic.
And in addition to the actions to preserve the environment. We also, you know, we are looking to invest into like renewable energy so we're working
with one of the big international partner right now on LNG power plant and then we're looking at a few other like solar --
CHATTERLEY: Miss Thuy, I'm going to have to stop me there because I have to go to a break now, but it's been fascinating to talk to you. We will
continue the conversation because I have plenty more questions, I promise you and I know I've stolen you from your birthday party, I believe, as
well.
So we will let you get back to that and Happy Birthday for next week. Great to chat to you. The Chairwoman of Vingroup there.
THUY: Thank you. Thank you so much.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you. The market open is next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE, just taking a look at the market open this morning and U.S. stocks are green for the final trading day of
the week, at least to begin.
Tech stocks in focus of course with Netflix shares under pressure after reporting solid results, but soft guidance and that was the key. Netflix,
the first of the FAANGs to report earnings of course this season. Investors really need to see better results from the tech giants over the next few
weeks to justify some of the lofty valuations.
[09:35:12]
CHATTERLEY: Netflix, as I had mentioned already up 50 percent year-to-date, also some nervousness in the bond market over this week's cautious economic
data and warnings from the banks as they stockpile cash for 10 and 30-year yields -- bond yields are ticking lower.
The uncertainty driving mortgage rates in the United States below three percent, yes, 30-year mortgage rate below three percent. Wow.
Cathay Pacific, meanwhile, warning of a $1.3 billion loss for the first half of 2020. Passenger numbers were at one percent in June of where they
were last year, rising to seven percent so far in July.
This comes as British Airways retires its entire 747 fleet early after a lack of demand.
The CEO of Gatwick Airport says he doesn't expect passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels -- fears. Bear in mind, this is usually the
U.K.'s second biggest airport, busiest airport after Heathrow.
Stewart Wingate told our Anna Stewart he also sees more job cuts ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEWART WINGATE, CEO, GATWICK AIRPORT: As we've gone into June, we've started to see some green shoots of recovery. We've seen EasyJet first of
all start with flights to domestic destinations. One international flight to Nice.
And then as we've moved in to July, we've seen more airlines participating. Currently, we're up to about a hundred aircraft movements on the runway per
day. That's what we'll see in July time. Usually this time of year we see about 900 movements on the runway.
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Do you think you'll ever bring back all of your furloughed staff?
WINGATE: I think for us, we've already reduced our workforce by just less than 25 percent. But what we'll have to do is to look at the demand for
flights this winter and also into next year, and just as any business will do, we will have to right size our operation to the customer demand.
So it's too early to tell. But unfortunately, a lot of jobs have been lost already, and I would envisage more jobs being lost in the coming months.
STEWART: Do you worry that is the furlough scheme isn't extended or if there isn't additional support and thousands of jobs are lost in this
industry that we could lose skills that could take a very, very long time or maybe never to really return.
WINGATE: I think the fundamental concern I have is that when you look at an airport, the number of jobs broadly speaking are proportionate to the
volume of passengers going through the airport.
So last year, we saw 47 million passengers go through the airport. Next year, we think we're going to see somewhere between 30 and 35 million
passengers pass through Gatwick. So that gives you an idea of the proportionate reduction in passenger volumes and therefore, the likely
impact on jobs across the airport campus.
STEWART: Hey, lessons learned -- if we have a second wave and there are lots of reports to suggest that we should be worried about the winter. What
would you like the government to do differently? What would airports do differently? How would they operate?
WINGATE: I think in terms of a second wave, what we need to do is to avoid big blanket approaches. As we went into the first wave, understandably,
when we really had little intelligence about what we were confronting, there was little other option and to take the small blanket approach.
But as we look forwards, what we'd like to see is the government looking at countries and regions on a region by region basis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: Richard Quest joins us now with more. Richard, I mean, it's really bleak. If I go back to what we were saying about Cathay Pacific,
they've gone from one percent of the volume that we were seeing, compared to this time last year to seven percent. It's a huge increase, but it's
minimal people traveling and we don't know how long this lasts.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: The airline industry has borne the brunt of this crisis. Many other industries have
been affected, but the airline industry is on its knees and virtually destroyed as a result of it because there's no obvious improvement -- major
improvement.
And remember yesterday, the CEO of Delta Airlines, Ed Bastian wrote to his staff saying 17,000 of you have already agreed to take early redundancy or
early payoffs; 40,000 of you have agreed to take long holidays, and it's still not enough. We are still overstaffed.
So every airline, most of them will tell you quite honestly and openly, they have no idea what the airline will look like this time next year,
other than to be certain it's smaller -- much smaller.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and I'm faced with the job cuts and the belt tightening that has still got to come and I just -- I remember what you were saying
about how polite and kind everybody was as you were traveling just a few days ago. They've got no choice.
QUEST: This morning, British Airways -- this morning British Airways announced it was retiring thirty one 747 jumbo jets, the Queen of the
skies.
[09:40:14]
QUEST: Yes, so we were told fine, they were always going to get rid of them in the next five or seven years. But for an airline to say we're going to
retire 31 of our largest planes overnight, because we know we're not going to need them for the next four or five years, by which time they would have
been gone and we have newer, more efficient planes.
But what a day in aviation. BA was, at one point, the largest operator of the jumbo. I mean, I sort of go weak at the knees and tremble when I see
that plane take off.
I think it is the most beautiful aircraft, probably since Concorde or along with Concord. To know that they're getting rid of 31 of them in one go for
good reason.
And Julia, what are they going to do with them? They will be scrapped, flown off to Spain or to the West Coast of the States and scrapped.
CHATTERLEY: Heartbreaking. When was your first 747 flight, Richard?
QUEST: 1983. People's Express. London Gatwick to Newark and you paid for your ticket on the plane.
CHATTERLEY: No?
QUEST: They came along with one of those old machines that they run the credit -- yes, yes. They run the credit card and I even remember the in-
flight movie. It was "Chariots of Fire," which you paid. And I bought a basket, a salad basket for $5.00. Don't ask me. I can't remember what I did
yesterday, but I can remember that flight like it was yesterday. People's Express.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, you are the world's best aviation analyst and you remember your first 747 flight. Childhood memories. Thank you so much for that.
Richard Quest.
All right. After the break, we'll talk to Uber's chief legal officer about his plans to drive up diversity and what's being done to make this transit
giant more inclusive. Stay with us. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. Uber unveiling a new initiative to tackle racism and improve diversity within its staff and leadership.
The ride-hailing giant says drivers and riders will receive anti-bias training. It also wants to build out its talent pipeline with the aim of
doubling black representation at senior levels by 2025.
Uber also says executive pay is already tied to the company's diversity targets. That's a key point.
I'm pleased to say Tony West, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Uber joins us now. He also served in the U.S.
Justice Department under President Obama. Tony, a great pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you so much for this.
[09:45:11]
CHATTERLEY: I think the message seems to be, look, we're not where we want to be. But this is the product of listening to our employees. And here's
the action plan.
TONY WEST, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER, CORPORATE SECRETARY, UBER: That's exactly right. Look, you know, we're doing this because, well
Uber stood with Black Lives Matter with the black community in solidarity when protests erupted across the nation and around the world.
We've always known that the real test of commitment to racial equality, you know, that comes in actions actually taken, you know, long after the
protests have subsided.
And so it's important that we not let the issue of systemic racism, of inequality fade from our minds and our actions. So we spend a lot of time
reflecting internally with our team members and externally with experts about what more can we do as a company to really leverage our tech,
leverage the scale of our platform to combat racism and advance equity.
CHATTERLEY: If I look at African-American representation in the senior exec level, I was wading through your diversity report from 2019, and, you know,
I'll be clear, it's disappointing.
It's what? Around three percent of your senior executives. So when you're talking about a 25 percent rise over five years, I mean, it's something but
you've got a lot of work to do, Tony.
WEST: We have a lot of work to do, not just at Uber but throughout tech. And I'll tell you, look, it's not as much as I'd like to see and I think
most leaders at the company would like to see, but it's an important start and an important beginning in the journey of how do we really diversify the
ranks of not only our leadership, because as you say, we're aiming to double black representation at the five most senior leadership levels added
by Uber 2025. And that's in addition to the implementation last year of tying executive job performance and compensation to really measurable TNI
goals.
But, you know, it's a recognition that while we'd like to commit to even more, we're living in a world where right now there's a lot of uncertainty
because of the COVID crisis. And it's unclear exactly how much hiring we're going to be able to do over the next year or two.
And so one of the things we wanted to do is make sure we set a goal that was important, and that reflected our commitment, but was also reflective
of the economic reality in which we're living.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and I understand that and I know you're also looking at the pipeline, too. This is not just about hiring in members from the
African-American community. This is about looking at the people that you've got working in support, which the ratios here are very different compared
to your executive level and giving them a way to progress in the company, because this feels critical, too.
WEST: That's absolutely right. In fact, we already have a program in which we try to give opportunities to folks who are in our customer support staff
ranks, to drivers, to delivery folks who are on our platform, give them opportunities to come in and pursue careers at Uber if that's something
that they choose to do.
And in fact, we've already had something called the Pursuit Program in which we've had many drivers and delivery persons be hired into tech roles
at Uber and our commitment is to really double that pipeline, because as you said, because of the uncertainty that we face, it's unclear on how much
we're going to be able to hire, but we have a great pipeline of individuals who are already associated with Uber that if they would like to pursue an
opportunity to do at Uber, we want to make that a reality and really make that something that they can do.
And so many of those folks, of course, are people of color. We think it's one of the best ways in which we can diversify our company over the next
few years.
CHATTERLEY: Tony, I know this is an incredibly important and personal subject for you, not only your decision to join Uber, but you wrote this
incredible internal memo where you talked about being 16 and getting driving lessons and your father giving you sort of safety guidelines, if
you were ever stopped by police it. It sort of hit me in my stomach.
What are you doing to sort of send your message as an executive and sort of showing that your experiences are sort of driving your approach to this
sort of -- in a very personal way?
WEST: Well, you know, literally, I think that wherever one finds oneself, I think it's really important to try to make whatever change he can, you know
sort of do whatever good you can whatever. Whatever you can do to open doors of opportunity, and bring those values to whatever position you might
be in.
And that's something that I've tried to do in my career, whether it's here at Uber or at PepsiCo are at the Department of Justice, to try to really
focus on diversity and inclusion and bringing people in.
[09:50:27]
WEST: And one of the ways in which you can do that is to let people know that you've had these same experiences, right? I mean, you know, I know
what it's like to shop in stores, because nobody knows when I'm shopping in a store, you know, whether I'm the chief legal officer of a Fortune 500
tech company, they just -- they see a black guy shopping in a store.
You know, I've been pulled over for ostensibly, you know, no reason and that is a very anxiety-producing kind of experience.
I've often been the only black voice in the room and you feel a lot of the responsibility and a lot of the anxiety that can come from that when you
know everything that you're saying is being dissected.
So, look, I've had those experiences. I know what that is like. It makes it all the more important to make sure that when I'm in these positions of
influence or impact that I'm making sure I'm being upfront and open about the importance of bringing more of those voices around decision making
tables.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and however sinew you get, your experiences mirror what you've had in the past, and oh, boy, do we need to change this.
Tony West, thank you for sharing your experiences and your work at Uber.
WEST: Yes, absolutely.
CHATTERLEY: We will keep track of your progress. Thank you.
WEST: Thank you, Julia, and thank you for continuing this conversation. It's so important.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you. All right. Coming up on the show, E.U. leaders come together in Brussels and try to find consensus on a coronavirus plan of
action -- a financial one. The latest from the meeting, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to the show. We're off to Brussels. European leaders meeting face-to-face for the first time since the pandemic began.
They are discussing an $850 billion virus recovery fund. No one is in any doubt how high the stakes are, as the French President underlined.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): This is a moment of truth and ambition for Europe. We're experiencing an unprecedented health,
but also economic and social crisis. It requires much more solidarity and ambition.
France and Germany have built an agreement on May 18. It served as the basis for the Commission's proposals for this recovery plan and the next
few hours are absolutely decisive for meeting this ambition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: Fred Pleitgen has all the details for us. Fred, I believe it's Angela Merkel's birthday today as well. There may be cake, but this is not
going to be a cakewalk.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: Agreeing this is going to be tough.
PLEITGEN: No, you're absolutely right. I think it's her 66th birthday today. So Happy Birthday to Angela Merkel. But you're absolutely right, it
is probably going to be a pretty long evening for her, not sure it's going to be one with a lot of celebrations.
And just hearing Emmanuel Macron, they are saying the next couple of hours are going to be decisive. Probably looking like it might actually be the
next couple of days because one of the things that I haven't heard from any European leaders going into that meeting is any sense of optimism that
they're going to be able to reach some sort of conclusion.
And what you really have, Julia, in this recovery fund negotiations around it is really the risk that you almost always have in the European Union,
mostly the southern nations, versus the northern nations, who are of course the ones who are more frugal or a little more tight with the money.
The difference this time is that the two E.U. powerhouses, Germany and France are actually on the side of the southern nations wanting to give out
some of that recovery fund money more easily.
But then you have that nations known as the Frugal Four who want to be more tight about the money, chief among them, of course, as usual, the
Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark and they're saying, look, if we're going to hand out this recovery fund money, they'd rather have it be
in the form of loans that need to be repaid, rather than grants.
And if it is grants, and they want those grants to be absolutely tied to reforms that need to be made. Obviously, that's not something that the
southern European nations want to hear. They believe that's impeding on their sovereignty.
So we're looking for some very, very long negotiations. There are already some who are saying this might actually last all the way into Sunday. Of
course, these leaders haven't seen each other face-to-face in a very long time. But whether they want to spend that much time together, I don't know
--Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I know. There's some irony there, seeing them all elbowing as well, because that's certainly what they do, as far as policy is
concerned, it is like elbow each other out, but we won't go there.
Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much for that. We keep our fingers crossed for action.
All right. I'm going to leave you with the positive thought this Friday because it's World Emoji Day and something I personally use with happy and
probably alarming regularity. With coronavirus, you'd have thought the facemask emoji would have been the most popular. Nope. Face with tears of
joy came out top in a Twitter search from April followed by loudly crying face, which I guess could be good or bad.
And my personal favorite, smiling face with hearts came in at number 10. That's definitely my top because we all need a bit of love at the moment.
That's it for the show. Have a great weekend, guys. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
END
