Top Stories — Sunday, September 7, 2025
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- South Korea Negotiates Release of Korean Workers Detained in Georgia Raid — nyt News
- Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan Will Step Down, Reports Say — nyt News
- Russian Strike Breaks Through Most Protected Part of Kyiv — nyt News
South Korea Negotiates Release of Korean Workers Detained in Georgia Raid
Source: nyt News • Published: 9/7/2025, 2:01:18 PM
South Korea reached a deal with the United States to free hundreds of South Korean workers arrested when U.S. immigration authorities raided the construction site of a battery plant in Georgia, the country's presidential office said on Sunday.
"There are some administrative procedures left, but once they are cleared, we will send a chartered plane to bring our people home," Kang Hoon-sik, the chief of staff for President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea, told a meeting of senior officials from the administration and the governing Democratic Party on Sunday.
Mr. Kang provided no further details, including when South Korea expected to send the plane. But his remarks provided the first strong indication that South Korea and the United States were working out a diplomatic solution after days of tensions between the allies.
U.S. immigration officials stormed the construction site of a major Hyundai-LG electric vehicle battery plant in Ellabell, Ga., on Thursday, arresting 475 people. Of them, about 300 were South Korean citizens, the South Korean foreign minister's office said.
The raid unsettled South Korea, a crucial U.S. ally that has been asked to invest billions of dollars in the United States to build new factories and create jobs. It was part of the Trump administration's aggressive crackdown on immigration, and U.S. officials said those arrested were in the United States illegally or working unlawfully.
"We will not let our guards down until we have our people safely back home," Mr. Kang said. "We will also review and improve the visa system for those who go to the United States on business trips related to investment projects so that similar incidents won't be repeated."
The Trump administration has encouraged South Korean industrial giants like Hyundai, Samsung and LG to invest in the United States. But the administration has also drastically tightened visa allocations, making it more difficult for them to bring cheap and skilled workers to build their factories.
Those arrested included dozens of LG workers who were on business trips with various visas or under a visa waiver program to provide technical guidance for building the battery factory, according to industry officials familiar with the project. Other detained South Korean workers had been hired by construction subcontractors working for Hyundai and LG, they said.
U.S. immigration officials accused the South Korean companies of discriminating against American workers by hiring unauthorized workers from abroad.
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea.
Read the full story at nyt News.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan Will Step Down, Reports Say
Source: nyt News • Published: 9/7/2025, 1:18:00 PM
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan is set to resign, according to the nation's public broadcaster, in a decision that would plunge the country into deep political uncertainty in a turbulent time domestically and geopolitically.
Japan is grappling with rising right-wing populism at home and heightened unpredictability from its key ally, the United States. Mr. Ishiba, who was elected to lead the governing Liberal Democratic Party just last September, is choosing to step down to prevent a split within the party, the public broadcaster, NHK, reported on Sunday.
Several prominent members of the Liberal Democrats have called for a vote to be held on Monday on whether to hold an extraordinary leadership election, nearly two months after suffering a huge setback in parliamentary elections in which new right-wing populist groups gained support. The blow left the Liberal Democrats, who have led Japan for all but five of the last 70 years, a minority party in both chambers of the Diet, the country's Parliament.
Mr. Ishiba's government has also had to manage increasingly tense relations with the United States since President Trump's re-election. Japan and the United States took months to negotiate a trade deal that left Japanese exports with a 15 percent across-the-board tariff. Even after the agreement was reached, key details remain unresolved, including a Japanese pledge to invest $550 billion in the U.S. economy.
The government said Mr. Ishiba would hold a news conference later Sunday evening.
River Akira Davis covers Japan for The Times, including its economy and businesses, and is based in Tokyo.
Kiuko Notoya is a Tokyo-based reporter and researcher for The Times, covering news and features from Japan.
Read the full story at nyt News.
Russian Strike Breaks Through Most Protected Part of Kyiv
Source: nyt News • Published: 9/7/2025, 12:23:36 PM
A government building in Ukraine's capital was burning on Sunday after a Russian strike breached the heavily defended government district overnight, the latest in a relentless offensive that has continued unabated despite the Trump administration's efforts to mediate peace talks.
Smoke could be seen early on Sunday billowing from the large, colonnaded building, where the Cabinet of Ministers convenes, in Kyiv, the capital.
The city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said falling debris from a drone shot down by air defense systems appeared to have started the fire.
"As a result of a likely shoot-down of a drone, a fire broke out in a government building," Mr. Klitschko wrote in a post on the Telegram social networking site. "Firefighters are working at the site."
Rising on a hill and crisscrossed by leafy, cobblestone streets, the Kyiv government district lies at the center of rings of air defenses and is seen as the best protected area in the country. The cabinet building is near Parliament and the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Across Ukraine, drones and missiles hit multiple sites on Sunday, with damage reported in Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city in south-central Ukraine, and Odesa, a port city on the Black Sea. In Kyiv, explosions set fires in two apartment buildings, killing at least one adult and a child, according to the local authorities.
The strikes came three days after European leaders — including Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany and President Emmanuel Macron of France — met in Paris to propose a framework for security guarantees in postwar Ukraine, assuming a cease-fire or peace settlement is reached.
In the latest flurry of diplomacy aimed at stopping the war, President Trump met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at a summit in Alaska last month and with Mr. Zelensky and European leaders at the White House soon after. Russia said it would halt its invasion if Ukraine retreated from territory in the country's Donetsk region, which Russia has tried and failed to seize since it started the war in 2022.
Ukraine proposed an unconditional cease-fire in March, but Russia has demanded concessions on territory, a cap on the size of Ukraine's postwar army and a ban on treaties prohibiting a future invasion. It has continued a campaign of exploding drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, civilian infrastructure, military sites and other targets, despite the international calls for a pause.
Andrew E. Kramer is the Kyiv bureau chief for The Times, who has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014.
Read the full story at nyt News.
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