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A South Korean charter plane left for the U.S. on Wednesday to bring back Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia last week.A total of 475 workers, more than 300 of them South Koreans, were rounded up in the Sept. 4 raid at the battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant. U.S. authorities released video showing some being shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists, causing shock and a sense of betrayal among many in South Korea, a key U.S. ally.South Korea’s government later said it reached an agreement with the U.S. for the release of the workers. Korean workers will be brought back home after days of detention South Korean TV footage showed the charter plane, a Boeing 747-8i from Korean Air, taking off at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it was talking with U.S. officials about letting the plane return home with the released workers as soon as possible. But it said the plane cannot depart from the U.S. on Wednesday as South Korea earlier wished due to an unspecified reason involving the U.S. side.The Korean workers are currently being held at an immigration detention center in Folkston in southeast Georgia. South Korean media reported that they will be freed and moved to Atlanta to take the charter plane.South Korean officials said they’ve been negotiating with the U.S. to win “voluntary” departures of the workers, rather than deportations that could result in making them ineligible to return to the U.S. for up to 10 years.The workplace raid by the U.S. Homeland Security agency was its largest yet as it pursues its mass deportation agenda. The Georgia battery plant, a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, is one of more than 20 major industrial sites that South Korean companies are currently building in the United States.Many South Koreans view the Georgia raid as a source of national disgrace and remain stunned over it. Only 10 days earlier, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump held their first summit in Washington on Aug. 25. In late July, South Korea also promised hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments to reach a tariff deal.Experts say South Korea won’t likely take any major retaliatory steps against the U.S., but the Georgia raid could become a source of tensions between the allies as the Trump administration intensifies immigration raids. South Korea calls for improvement in U.S. visa systems U.S. authorities said some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the U.S. border, while others had entered the country legally but had expired visas or entered on a visa waiver that prohibited them from working. But South Korean experts and officials said Washington has yet to act on Seoul’s yearslong demand to ensure a visa system to accommodate skilled Korean workers needed to build facilities, though it has been pressing South Korea to expand industrial investments in the U.S.South Korean companies have been relying on short-term visitor visas or Electronic System for Travel Authorization to send workers needed to launch manufacturing sites and handle other setup tasks, a practice that had been largely tolerated for years.LG Energy Solution, which employed most of the detained workers, instructed its South Korean employees in the U.S. on B-1 or B-2 short-term visit visas not to report to work until further notice, and told those with ESTAs to return home immediately.During his visit to Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met representatives of major Korean companies operating in the U.S. including Hyundai, LG and Samsung on Tuesday. Cho told them that South Korean officials are in active discussions with U.S. officials and lawmakers about possible legislation to create a separate visa quota for South Korean professionals operating in the U.S., according to Cho’s ministry.Trump said this week the workers “were here illegally,” and that the U.S. needs to work with other countries to have their experts train U.S. citizens to do specialized work such as battery and computer manufacturing.Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck, who represents four of the detained South Korean nationals, told The Associated Press on Monday that no company in the U.S. makes the machines used in the Georgia battery plant. So they had to come from abroad to install or repair equipment on-site work that would take about three to five years to train someone in the U.S. to do, he said.The South Korea-U.S. military alliance, forged in blood during the 1950-53 Korean War, has experienced ups and downs over the decades. But surveys have shown a majority of South Koreans support the two countries’ alliance, as the U.S. deployment of 28,500 troops in South Korea and 50,000 others in Japan has served as the backbone of the American military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.During a Cabinet Council meeting on Tuesday, Lee said he felt “big responsibility” over the raid and expressed hopes that the operations of South Korean businesses won’t be infringed upon unfairly again. He said his government will push to improve systems to prevent recurrences of similar incidents in close consultations with the U.S. Hyung-Jin Kim and Kim Tong-Hyung, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Are you overly reliant on an emotional-support lol at the end of a text? Do you stop yourself from adding lol to work emails and Slack messages? Are you, by chance, a millennial? Those three small letters have become the topic of a generational debate that has been dividing the internet in recent months. The conversation started earlier this year across X, Threads, and Reddit when one user suggested: Millennials use lol like STOP at the end of a telegram lol. In the comments millennials quickly defended their favorite acronym. What of it? one wrote. Hold steady lads, another added. In a culture that has taken everything from you, never let them strip you of your lols. What of it?— Skylar Romines (@skylarromines) June 4, 2025 The debate resurfaced on TikTok when creator Anna Gaddis backed the use of lol and its many functions. Millennials invented the language so how about no one tells us anything, one commenter wrote. They will never erase our culture lol, added another. @annagaddis And we wont stop! lol. #lol #millennial #humor original sound – Anna Gaddis LOL entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011 (Merriam-Webster also lists it in all caps, noting that the all-lowercase version is considered a variant). Since then, its meaning has shifted from signaling laughter to acting as punctuation. Lol is to millennials as . . . is to boomers, explained one X user. But it often does much more. Lol is to millennials as is to boomers— Anna Carter NYC (@meetannacarter) June 5, 2025 Some sentences need an lol at the beginning or end to set tone. Without the cues of expression, tone of voice, and body language, text can feel flator harsh. Thats where the three letters carry weight. It can be hard to decipher whether the person youre texting is joking or deadly serious, happy or mad. This is where the three little letters do the most heavy lifting. For example: I need to ask you something. Aggressive, direct, anxiety-inducing. Whereas, I need to ask you something lol. Lighthearted, curious, friendly.
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E-Commerce
A federal court has ruled that embattled Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook can remain in her position while she fights President Donald Trump’s efforts to fire her.The ruling, which will almost certainly be appealed, is a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to assert more control over the traditionally independent Fed, which sets short-term interest rates to achieve its congressionally mandated goals of stable prices and maximum employment. Congress has also sought to insulate the Fed from day-to-day politics.U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb late Tuesday granted Cook’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking her firing while the dispute makes its way through the courts. Cobb ruled that Cook would likely prevail in the lawsuit she filed late last month to overturn her firing.Trump, a Republican, said he was firing Cook on Aug. 25 over allegations raised by one of his appointees that she committed mortgage fraud related to two properties she purchased in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Atlanta in 2021, before she joined the Fed. Cook is accused of saying the properties were “primary residences,” which could have resulted in lower down payments and mortgage rates than if either was designated a second home or investment property.The White House insisted Trump had the right to fire Cook.“President Trump lawfully removed Lisa Cook for cause due to credible allegations of mortgage fraud from her highly sensitive position overseeing financial institutions on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said Wednesday in a statement. “This ruling will not be the last say on the matter, and the Trump Administration will continue to work to restore accountability and confidence in the Fed.”But Cobb ruled that the allegations likely weren’t sufficient legal cause to fire Cook. Under the law governing the Fed, governors can only be removed “for cause,” which Cobb said was limited to actions taken during a governor’s time in office.The “removal of a Federal Reserve Governor extends only to concerns about the Board member’s ability to effectively and faithfully execute their statutory duties, in light of events that have occurred while they are in office,” Cobb wrote. Cobb was appointed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.“President Trump has not stated a legally permissible cause for Cook’s removal,” the ruling added.The decision means Cook will be able to participate in the Fed’s meeting Sept. 16-17, when it is expected to reduce its key short-term rate by a quarter-point to between 4% and 4.25%.Federal Reserve governors aren’t like cabinet secretaries and the law doesn’t allow a president to fire them over policy disagreements or because he simply wants to replace them. Congress sought to insulate the Fed from political pressure, the court noted, by giving Fed governors long, staggered terms that make it unlikely a president can appoint a majority of the board in a single term.“Allowing the President to unlawfully remove Governor Cook on unsubstantiated and vague allegations would endanger the stability of our financial system and undermine the rule of law,” Cook’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a written statement. “Governor Cook will continue to carry out her sworn duties as a Senate-confirmed Board Governor.”The court also directed the Fed’s board of governors and its chair, Jerome Powell, “to allow Cook to continue to operate as a member of the Board for the pendency of this litigation.”Lowell had argued in court filings that Cook was entitled to a hearing and a chance to respond to the charges before being fired but was not provided either. The court agreed that she was not provided due process by the Trump administration. Her lawsuit denied the charges but did not provide more details.The case could become a turning point for the 112-year-old Federal Reserve. No president has sought to fire a Fed governor before. Economists prefer independent central banks because they can do unpopular things like lifting interest rates to combat inflation more easily than elected officials.Many economists worry that if the Fed falls under the control of the White House, it will keep its key interest rate lower than justified by economic fundamentals to satisfy Trump’s demands for cheaper borrowing. That could accelerate inflation and could also push up longer-term interest rates, such as those on mortgages and car loans. Investors may demand a higher yield to own bonds to offset greater inflation in the future, lifting borrowing costs for the U.S. government, and the entire economy.If Trump can replace Cook, he may be able to gain a 4-3 majority on the Fed’s governing board. Trump appointed two board members during his first term and has nominated a key White House economic adviser, Stephen Miran, to replace Adriana Kugler, another Fed governor who stepped down unexpectedly Aug. 1. The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on Miran’s nomination.Trump has said he will only appoint to the Fed people who will support lower rates.Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell and the other members of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee for not cutting the short-term interest rate they control more quickly. It currently stands at 4.3%, after Fed policymakers reduced it by a full percentage point late last year. Trump has said he thinks it should be as low as 1.3%, a level that no Fed official and few economists support.Powell recently signaled that the central bank was leaning toward cutting its rate at its meeting next week.Cook is the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor. She was a Marshall Scholar and received degrees from Oxford University and Spelman College, and prior to joining the board she taught at Michigan State University and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. AP writer Will Weissert contributed to this report. Christopher Rugaber and Lindsay Whitehurst, Associated Press
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