NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-05-2025 12PM EDT

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skiyavoni. Hiring in the U.S. slowed significantly in August. The Labor Department says employers added 22,000 jobs during the month far fewer than were expected. NPR Scott Horsley tells us the nation's jobless rate ticked higher to 4.3%. For the second month in a row, the report shows U.S. employers added far fewer jobs than forecasters had expected. Factories and construction companies cut jobs last month, as did the federal government. Healthcare was one of the few industries to add jobs, and even there, hiring was slower than in previous months. Revised figures show a net loss of jobs in June for the first time since the depths of the pandemic in late 2020.

The Federal Reserve has been keeping a close eye on the softening job market as it weighs a possible interest rate cut later this month. Investors widely expect the central bank to lower its benchmark rate, by a quarter percentage point. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. The South Korean government is expressing concern about an immigration enforcement raid at the site of a Hyundai electric car battery factory in the state of Georgia. 475 people were detained in the federal action, Homeland Security Special Agent Stephen Shrank. We have also received many leads from community members, from prior workers. We have conducted many arrests through the immigration operations.

operations throughout the state of Georgia that have identified other employees that, when encountered, informed us that they worked there. We have interviewed folks and we have developed evidence over the course of many months in support of the investigation. The plant is part of a multi-billion dollar package of South Korean investments in the U.S. in a deal announced in July. A day after a coalition of 35 nations came together in Paris to commit a peacekeeping force for Ukraine, Russian president of Vladimir Putin has issued a warning. NPR's Eleanor Beersley reports that Putin says any foreign troops in Ukraine would be a legitimate Russian target. 26 of the 35 nations that pledged support to Kyiv say they are willing to put troops on the ground and in the seas and skies and skies of Ukraine to keep the peace once it's established. The U.S. is supposed to provide some sort of backstop to this mostly European security force.

But given President Trump's reluctance to impose tariffs on Russia and his enduring affinity for Vladimir Putin, many wonder if he will commit support, says Martin Kinsey, with the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The commitment of the president himself will depend on how he sees the evolution of the conflict, his exchanges with Vladimir Putin. So far, Putin has rebuffed all of Trump's peace propaganda. proposals and never waivers from his maximalist demands. Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris.

On Wall Street, the Dow Down 268, this is NPR News. President Trump is modifying the name of the Department of Defense, making the title Department of War a secondary title available to DOD. In an executive order to be issued early in the afternoon, Defense Department officials will be authorized to substitute the word war into their titles. so, for example, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could use the title's Secretary of War. Women's basketball star, Caitlin Clark, says she is out for the remainder of the WNBA season following multiple injuries. NPR's Matt Bloom reports that 23-year-old had hoped to return to the court this year.

Clark's troubles started this summer with a right groin injury during a game in July. She also bruised her left ankle during a workout several weeks later. In a post on social media announcing her decision not to return this season, Clark wrote that she spent hours in the gym every day with the goal of recovering. But she and Indiana fever managers decided protecting her long-term health and well-being remained their top priority. This is Clark's second season with a fever. Her injuries meant she appeared in just 13 games this year after not missing a single game in her first season. Next, the fever must contend for her. a playoff spot sands their star player. Matt Bloom, NPR News. At Arthur Ash Stadium in

Flushing Meadows, New York, the competitors are set for tomorrow's U.S. Open women's final. Arena Sabalanka of Belarus will face American Amanda Anissimova. Sabalinka advanced last night after defeating American Jessica Pagula. I'm Luis Giovanni and PR News, Washington.