London — Rick Davies, the lead singer and co-founder of British band Supertramp, has died after a long battle with cancer, the band said Monday. He was 81.

Davies, who co-wrote the band’s music with Roger Hodgson, was “the voice and pianist behind Supertramp’s most iconic songs, leaving an indelible mark on rock music history,” the band said in a tribute on its website.

He died Saturday after battling multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, for more than a decade, the band said.

Davies and Hodgson formed Supertramp in 1969 and produced hits including “Goodbye Stranger” and “The Logical Song.” The band’s 1979 album “Breakfast in America” topped charts in the United States and Canada, won two Grammys and sold over 18 million copies.

Davies’ “soulful vocals and unmistakable touch on the Wurlitzer became the heartbeat of the bands’ sound,” the statement said.

Born in Swindon, England in 1944, Davies had a passion for jazz, blues and rock’n’roll from a young age, the band said.

Hodgson left the band in 1983 and released solo albums. Supertramp disbanded in 1988, though Davies revived it in 1996. The group performed for the last time in Madrid in 2012.

“Beyond the stage, Rick was known for his warmth, resilience, and devotion to his wife Sue, with whom he shared over five decades,” the ban said. “After facing serious health challenges, which kept him unable to continue touring as Supertramp, he enjoyed performing with his hometown buds as Ricky and the Rockets.”

The band’s tribute concluded with a statement it emphasized: “Rick’s music and legacy continue to inspire many and bears testament to the fact that great songs never die, they live on.”

South Korea said on Monday that it wants hundreds of its citizens, who were arrested last week during a large US immigration raid at a car battery project and are due to be flown home soon, to be allowed to re-enter the United States.

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is flying out to Washington on Monday evening and will meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his trip to resolve the issue. Cho also said he would be asking for the US visa system for Korean workers to be streamlined in the future.

About 300 South Koreans were among 475 arrested on Thursday at the site of a $4.3 billion project by Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution to build batteries for electric cars. It was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigative operations.

The raid sent shockwaves through South Korea, a major US ally, which has been trying to finalise a US trade deal agreed in late July. It came just 10 days after South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, met with US President Donald Trump in Washington and the two pledged closer business ties.

In addition to potentially fraying bilateral ties, the development has shed fresh light on how many foreign firms investing in the US have struggled to find qualified American workers.

Seoul said on Sunday that discussions to arrange the release of workers, who were mostly employed by subcontractors, were largely concluded. A plan is in the works to fly them home on a chartered plane this week under what one South Korean foreign ministry official said would be called a “voluntary departure”.

“From the beginning, we negotiated with the premise that there should be no personal disadvantage (to the detained workers),” Cho told a parliamentary hearing on Monday.

Details on how the workers may have breached immigration rules have not been released by authorities or the companies, but South Korean lawmakers on Monday said some may have overstepped the boundaries of a 90-day visa waiver programme or a B-1 temporary business visa.

South Korea Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said on Monday that he had heard that some experts had travelled from South Korea to help with a test run of the factory, which was due to begin production in October.

“You need to get a visa to do a test run, but it’s very difficult to get an official visa. Time was running out, and I think experts went to the United States,” he said.

Dismay in South Korea

Seoul has expressed its unhappiness about the arrests and the public release of footage showing the operation which involved armoured vehicles and the shackling of workers.

Trump, who has ramped up deportations nationwide as his administration cracks down on illegal immigrants, said last week he had not been aware of the raid. He called those detained “illegal aliens”.

On Sunday, he called on foreign companies investing in the US to “respect our Nation’s immigration laws”, but sounded more conciliatory.

“Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build world-class products, and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so,” he said on Truth Social.

Hyundai Motor is one of the biggest foreign investors in the United States and is among South Korean companies participating in a pledge of $150 billion in foreign direct investment in the US, which comes on top of a $350 billion fund that the South Korean government has separately pledged.

A spokesperson for the automaker said some staff had been asked to suspend non-essential trips to the United States.

LGES has also suspended most staff business trips to the US and will be recalling South Korea-based employees now in the country.

The battery maker said last week it is cooperating with US authorities and had paused construction work on the factory.

A Hyundai Motor spokesperson said last week none of the people detained were employed directly by the automaker and that production of electric vehicles at the sprawling site was not affected.

The companies declined further comment on Monday.

• US last month doubled tariffs on imports from India to 50%.
• Indian FM says country will continue to buy Russian oil.
• US-India two-way goods trade totalled $129 billion in 2024.

US President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on India could reduce the country’s gross domestic product by half a per cent this year, the nation’s Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Monday.

“Depending upon how long it lasts even in this financial year, it may translate into a GDP impact of somewhere between 0.5% to 0.6%,” he told the broadcaster.

Trump, who is seeking to broker an end to the Ukraine conflict, has said India’s oil imports are helping fund Moscow’s war effort and last month doubled tariffs on imports from India to 50%.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said last week the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer will continue to buy Russian oil as it proves economical.

US-India two-way goods trade totalled $129 billion in 2024, with a $45.8 billion US trade deficit, according to US Census Bureau data.

Exporter groups estimate the tariffs could affect nearly 55% of India’s $87 billion in merchandise exports to the US, while benefiting competitors such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and China.

Nageswaran said he would stick to the government’s 6.3-6.8% growth forecast for the current fiscal year ending in March 2026, citing the April-June quarter’s 7.8% expansion, the fastest in over a year.