Natalie ShermanBBC News, Fall River, Massachusetts
BBC
Frank Teixeira and his daughter Sue Teixeira, co-owners of Fall River-based Accurate Services
In a corner of a cavernous 1890s factory in southern Massachusetts, 15 people are bent over sewing machines, churning out specialty, hospital-grade neonatal gear.
They are all that remain of what was once a much bigger manufacturing operation, most of which the Teixeira family shut down in 1990, reinventing their business as a largely warehousing and distribution business.
Since US President Donald Trump started rolling out sweeping tariffs, the Teixeiras have been fielding more inquiries from companies newly interested in their US-based sewing services.
But they have turned down those offers, deterred by the difficulty of hiring in the midst of an immigration crackdown and doubts that the demand will be sustained.
It’s just one of the many indications that achieving the manufacturing revival promised by the president is likely to be far more difficult than the White House has claimed.
“It’s just not going to happen,” said Frank Teixeira, who joined the family business in the 1970s and oversaw its dismantling and reinvention as Accurate Services Inc.
“Tariffs are a bad policy and eventually are going to come home to haunt us.”
Trump campaigned for the presidency on the promise of a better economy, engineered in part by tariffs that he said would lower costs and usher in a new golden age.
The message proved to resonate with voters, helping the campaign make unexpected inroads in working-class areas long considered Democratic strongholds.
That includes the Teixeiras’ base of Fall River, a former textile manufacturing hub, where Trump’s win marked the first in the city by a Republican presidential candidate in roughly a century.
But his plans were widely panned by experts, who warned that the tariffs, which are a tax on imports, would instead raise prices for American businesses and consumers and slow growth – with particular risks for manufacturers, who often rely on imported supplies.
Now nine months into the president’s term as the tariffs take hold, the gulf between Trump’s rhetoric, which boasts of investments pouring into the country, and the reality on the ground in places like Fall River, is starting to show.
US manufacturer Matouk relies on imported cloth and other materials to make high-end sheets, quilts and towels
Employment growth in the US has slowed precipitously this year, including in manufacturing. After expanding after the pandemic, payrolls at manufacturing firms have shrunk this year, shedding 12,000 jobs last month alone.
Business surveys indicate that activity in the sector is in contraction.
Last month, 71% of manufacturers questioned by the Dallas branch of the Federal Reserve said the tariffs – which range from 10% to 50% on most imports – had already had a negative impact on their business, raising the cost of resources and hurting profits.
At Matouk, a maker of high-end bedding up the road from the Teixeiras’, boss George Matouk said that between April and August tariffs had already added more than $100,000 (£74,000) a month in costs, as they hit supplies like cotton fabric from India and Portugal and down from Liechtenstein.
George Matouk said he was seeing no benefits from the tariffs
Founded by his grandfather in 1929, the company has grown to employ about 300 people in recent years – a point of pride for Mr Matouk, who faced naysayers when he returned as the third generation to join the family business after graduating from Columbia Business School in the late 1990s.
But the sudden tariff expense has forced the firm to cut investments on things such as new equipment and spending on discretionary items like marketing.
Despite the made-in-America distinction of many of his products, Mr Matouk said he expected no benefits from the tariffs because higher costs were pushing him to raise prices, a move likely to weigh on sales.
“Because the materials are subject to tariffs just like everything else, the benefits are not there,” he said.
Mr Matouk called the current challenges faced by his firm “demoralising in a new way”, since they have been inflicted deliberately, by government policy.
“We’ve done all of the things we were supposed to do in order to invest in the industrial base of the United States when no one else was willing to do it and it’s just really frustrating that now we’re being penalised,” he said.
Kim and Mike van der Sleesen, owners of Vanson Leathers
Studies on the impact of the more limited tariffs imposed by Trump during his first term on manufacturers in the US have found that small job gains in protected industries, like steel, were more than offset by losses at other firms that were dependent on parts.
But Mike van der Sleesen, who runs motorcycle jacket business Vanson Leathers, said he thought the changes this year had been so disruptive that it was premature to make predictions.
Mr van der Sleesen, who voted for Trump last year, is no fan of the president’s tariffs, which have driven up his costs some 15% this year.
However, he shared the president’s concerns that foreign companies could easily access the US market, while US firms looking to sell abroad encounter hurdles in the form of tariffs and other taxes.
One of the roughly 50 workers at Vanson Leathers
“It’s been a very uneven and unfair trade path for a company like Vanson,” said Mr van der Sleesen, whose business was founded in 1974 and employed more than 160 people as recently as 2000, before the wallop of China’s entry into the global order shrunk the workforce to about 50.
“We shouldn’t charge them and they shouldn’t charge us in my view but that’s never going to happen,” he said.
For now, demand for his jackets, which can sell for thousands of dollars, has held up. He said his suppliers in the US were reporting an uptick in activity.
“We haven’t heard overtime in the textile world for 20 years!” he said. “It’s hard to be confident that you can predict what it’s going to shake out to be because the changes have been so dramatic.”
Retired transit worker Tom Teixeira believes it will take time for things to improve
On the streets of Fall River, many Trump supporters said they remained willing to give the president time to put his strategy to the test.
“We should be able to manufacture,” said Tom Teixeira.
The 72-year-old retired transit worker voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, won over in part by his message on the economy.
“I know how it was and it can improve but it’s not going to improve overnight,” said Mr Teixeira, who is not related to the Teixeira manufacturers, adding that he had yet to notice any major price increases this year.
“A year from now, if things aren’t cheaper, we’ll see.”
Good morning. Retaining and engaging employees remains a core priority for many companies.
For Synechron, this meant celebrating its $1 billion annual revenue milestone by making every employee a part owner. The private AI and tech consultancy recently announced its offering a universal equity grant to all 16,000 employees worldwide—each will receive $1,000 in restricted stock units (RSUs).
Unlike typical performance- or tenure-based models, this RSU grant is equal for all employees, regardless of location or role. There’s no minimum tenure requirement for the award, which is granted to current employees only. The company maintains separate, performance-driven equity awards as well.
Reaching $1 billion, bootstrapped and without outside investors, is a notable accomplishment, CEO and cofounder Faisal Husain told me. Founded in 2001, the once-small New York startup has grown over 24 years into a global player with offices in 21 countries.
Leadership wanted a celebration of the milestone that reflected the company’s values, Husain said. After considering standard rewards like gift cards or gadgets, they chose a shared equity stake. “It’s the best form of appreciation,” he said.
“We’ve all heard the stories—if you bought $1,000 of Amazon or Microsoft shares 20 years ago, it would be worth a lot today,” Husain told me. Synechron employees could have a similar opportunity.
Asked if an IPO is in Synechron’s future, he said it’s possible, but, for now, the focus is on growth, innovation, and helping clients through technology’s rapid changes. “We’ve kept the company privately held for 24 years,” Husain said. At some point, things may change, he added, “but we’re not in any rush.”
Leadership sets the culture
The grant ties directly to Husain’s leadership philosophy—it reflects a culture of transparency and inclusivity reinforced by regular town halls and a belief that everyone should share in the firm’s success, he said.
I spoke with two Synechron employees. Roya Shahilow, chief of staff in London for a decade, recalled joining when revenue was just $300,000. “The $1 billion mark felt like a dream in the distance,” she said. “It’s a proud moment to have achieved that.”
Annushree Chute, senior manager of immigration and travel in Pune, India, also with the company for 10 years, echoed that the excitement in the office was palpable when the news broke. Both credit the company’s supportive culture for their long tenures. “Connecting with everyone, from associates to the CEO, is very important,” Chute said. Shahilow added, “Granting these RSUs speaks volumes about our culture.”
Every employee received a medallion as a physical symbol of their shares. Shahilow plans to frame hers; Chute will display hers on her desk.
As CEO, Husain is both reflecting on this achievement and focused on future growth. “Now we have to chart a new path,” he said. “How do we go from $1 billion today to $10 billion? It’s my role to make sure we stay on the winning side.”
Inder M. Singh was appointed CFO and chief operating officer of IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), a quantum computing and networking provider, effective immediately. Singh succeeds Thomas Kramer, who will remain at IonQ in an advisory capacity for up to 60 days. Singh most recently served as CFO of Arm, a British semiconductor and software design company, where he oversaw the majority of its IPO. Singh previously held several leadership roles at Unisys, a global technology solutions company, culminating with his position as CFO. Before that, Singh led financial strategy for Cisco, one of the world’s largest networking companies, as its VP of corporate financial strategy and M&A.
Samantha Rutty was appointed EVP and CFO at Myers Industries, Inc. (NYSE: MYE), a manufacturer, effective Sept. 22. Rutty brings to her new role more than two decades of finance leadership experience across global services and manufacturing companies. She joins Myers from The Brink’s Company, where she had served as VP and CFO of Brink’s North America since November 2022. Before that, Rutty spent 20 years with Eaton Corporation in a series of senior finance roles, including director of finance, eMobility.
Big Deal
The Labor Department released the August jobs report on Friday, showing U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs as the labor market continued to cool. Hiring slowed from an upwardly revised 79,000 in July. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, the highest level since 2021.
The results are likely to heighten concerns at the Federal Reserve about labor market weakness, according to a note to clients from BofA Global Research. “There is now clearer evidence of deterioration in labor demand, not just supply,” BofA economists wrote. “Therefore, we are changing our Fed call to show two 25bp cuts this year, in September and December.”
Jerome Powell’s current term as chair of the Federal Reserve is set to expire in May 2026. BofA economists maintain their view that the next Fed Chair will guide the Federal Open Market Committee in a more dovish direction. They now expect another 75bp of rate cuts under the new chair, aiming for a terminal rate of 3.00-3.25%.
“We pencil those in for June, September, and December 2026,” the note says. “This raises our forecast of cumulative cuts by end-2026 from 100bp to 125bp.”
On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish its preliminary payroll revision, which recalculates which recalculates employment numbers for the previous year using more comprehensive data, such as company payrolls.
Going deeper
“Anthropic reaches $1.5 Billion settlement with authors in landmark copyright case” is a Fortune report by Beatrice Nolan.
From the report: “Anthropic agreed to pay authors around $3,000 per book for roughly 500,000 works, after it was accused of downloading millions of pirated texts from shadow libraries to train its large language model, Claude. As part of the deal, Anthropic will also destroy data it was accused of illegally acquiring. The fast-growing AI startup announced on Sept. 2 that it had just raised an additional $13 billion in new venture capital funding in a deal that valued the company at $183 billion.” Read the complete report here.
Overheard
“We’re actually seeing the human skills coming into premium.”
—Kelly Monahan, managing director of the Upwork Research Institute, told Fortune in a recent interview regarding the use of AI-generated content.
new video loaded: Protesters March in Brazil as Bolsonaro Faces Conviction
By Shawn Paik•
Supporters of the former president largely outnumbered his critics on Sunday, as thousands flooded the streets in the final week of the former president’s criminal trial.
The University of Texas men will carry 30 swimmers into the 2025-2026 collegiate swimming & diving season, in spite of an SEC-mandated cap of 22 swimmers for men’s programs beginning next season in light of the House settlement.
Head coach Bob Bowman confirmed that the SEC will also allow Designated Student Athletes referred to in the settlement, namely those who were cut from rosters as a result of the House vs. NCAAroster-trimming.
While DSA designations are not public, this does allow for a bit of a loophole. Namely, a coach could choose to ‘cut’ even star athletes with a wink, and then bring those athletes back as Designated Student Athletes. While it’s unclear which of Texas’ 30-man roster are Designated Student Athletes, by definition, some portion of their 22 returning athletes must be logged as DSAs.
The upcoming Texas roster includes Alec Enyeart, who didn’t compete for the Longhorns last season. After not racing from April 2024 until December 2024, and then competing back home in his native Kansas City, Enyeart had a huge bounceback performance at the USA Swimming National Championships.
There he finished 6th in the 400 free in a best time of 3:48.46, earning a spot on the World University Games team. He finished 7th in Germany at that meet. Enyeart last competed for Texas at the 2024 Big 12 Championships during Eddie Reese’s last season as a head coach. He raced at the 2023 NCAA Championships in the 500 free and 1650 free, finishing 13th in the latter to score four points.
Eduardo Chillida, the Basque artist, installed one of his best-known series of sculptures on the breakwater of Donostia and called it “The Comb of the Wind.” And there is something of that in the wind turbines that are beginning to populate the coastal waters of many countries. Between 2020 and 2021, the energy capacity of these “wind combs” will almost double, reaching 48.2 GW. In turn, floating offshore wind has begun to represent a significant part of the total installed wind farm on a global scale.
In this article, you will find the following contents:
What is floating offshore wind, and how does it work?
The traditional approach to installing offshore wind farms has been to move onshore wind turbine structures to shallow coastal waters. One of the reasons is that offshore winds are more stable and intense, as they do not face obstacles as onshore, such as mountains or forested areas.
One of the challenges of offshore wind power is to fix the structures of these wind turbines to the seabed and make them robust enough to withstand the onslaught of waves. The fact that it is necessary to install such a support limits its possibilities to the continental shelf closest to land in shallow waters.
Floating platforms, also known as Floating Offshore Wind Platforms (FOWP), overcome some of these pitfalls by using floating structures connected to the platform by steel or other cables. These cables keep the platform stationary while providing some mobility in very strong waves.
Advantages of floating offshore wind turbines
As can be seen, the floating offshore wind energy approach offers numerous advantages, including the following:
Reduced visual impact by being able to be installed at a greater distance from the coastline
Types of floating offshore wind
To a large extent, the wind turbines used on the platforms tend to share similar characteristics, except for some developments that use two-bladed windmills. The main difference is underwater, in the type of floating platforms used. In this regard, the following variants could be mentioned:
Spar buoy. This platform uses a cylindrical base that offers a simple and efficient design, with the weight applied at the lower end. It requires more than one hundred meters of depth to operate properly.
Barge or pontoon model. Unlike the Spar design, the platform is more like a ship in terms of length and width.
Semi-submersible base. It uses several semi-submersible cylinders connected utilizing beams.
TLP model (Tension Leg Platform). It is based on a central column and arms connected to the tensioners to ensure stability.
Wind pyramids: an innovative approach
One of the few models in which the most marked divergences are manifested on the surface is the proposal of the French company Eolink. This is because the wind turbine is conceived from the outset as a model intended for floating offshore wind, and its entire design leverages the particularities of the environment.
On land, wind turbines use a design known as a “nacelle.” That is, with an ovoid body like aircraft engines. This design allows a heavy structure to behave like a head that turns and “faces” the direction of the wind. Mobility at sea, on the other hand, is very different. And that is the first differentiating factor of the “pyramidal” turbines.
The model proposed by Eolink dispenses with the nacelle and is inserted into a pyramidal structure composed of four masts. Here it is the entire platform that rotates, instead of the wind turbine head. A nacelle turbine has weight limitations and even more so at sea, where waves and strong winds expose it to a lot of wear and tear. Think of a very heavy “head” with a thin neck to understand this. On the other hand, the combined mast structure can hold much larger turbines.
Another way to reduce wear and tear on the structure of a wind turbine is to use flexible blades. The problem with the nacelle model is that the proximity of the main mast prevents the use of blades that are too long and flexible, as they could impact it.
According to its developers, the “pyramid” of masts reduces the risk of impact and allows the use of longer and more flexible blades, resulting in higher energy efficiency. In addition, this structure distributes weight better and improves strength.
Coupled with a new floating platform design with a buoy at a depth of 20 meters, the new wind turbines could produce 20 MW per unit with an efficiency 20-25 % higher than current reference solutions.
This innovative floating offshore wind approach is still in the prototype phase, but the manufacturer plans to install a demonstration wind turbine with a capacity of 5 MW in the near future.
Independent music company Bamboo Artists has made a lot of noise in its home market of Germany.
The company, founded and led by CEO Leander Kirschner when he was just 17 years old, represents 32 artists and 47 songwriters, including Ski Aggu, 01099 and Zartmann. Bamboo reports that its catalog generates more than 3 billionstreams annually and over 80 million streams per week.
More than 180 Bamboo songs have entered the German charts, 11 of them reaching No.1 in the German singles and album charts, with over 200 gold and platinum certifications awarded.
Having established itself as an independent powerhouse in Europe, the company is now accelerating its expansion in the UK and US markets.
Bamboo is expanding into the United States under the leadership of Nils Gums as General Manager USA. The company is also establishing a permanent office in Los Angeles.
Gums reports directly to Bamboo’s Founder and CEO, who, according to the company, also plans to spend significant time in the US as part of the expansion.
In addition to an office in Los Angeles, Bamboo has set up two studios exclusively dedicated to its roster of artists and songwriters.
GM Nils Gums brings more than 20 years of experience in the US music industry and has worked with artists such as Anderson .Paak, Meghan Trainor, and Charlie Puth.
Meanwhile, as Product Manager for the British market, Mike Burns assumes the role of UK Label Lead.
He is responsible for managing the international roster in the UK, including Ella Boh, Zimmer90 and WizTheMc, while discovering and developing new local talent.
Burns brings more than 10 years of experience from EMI and Ultra Records/Sony Music, where he worked on campaigns for artists such as Jonas Blue, The Chemical Brothers and Duke Dumont.
In addition, Bamboo Artists is building an in-house unit for brand partnerships and influencer marketing. This new unit will be led by Dorothea Szota as Brand Partnerships Manager.
She previously worked as Product Manager at Lichdicht Records for Milky Chance and at MBG Premium Brands on campaigns for brands such as 9 MILE Vodka and SCAVI & RAY.
“Our expansion is a clear commitment to our artists. We are not only investing in markets, but above all in talent, teams, and creative spaces that foster the development of new global careers.”
Leander Kirschner
“Our expansion is a clear commitment to our artists. We are not only investing in markets, but above all in talent, teams, and creative spaces that foster the development of new global careers,” Kirschner told MBW.
“We are creating structures that are unique in the independent sector. Our artists benefit from direct access to key music markets, global partnerships, and an international infrastructure on a major-label level.”
According to the army, soldiers were taking part in an operation in San Juan de Micay when they were blocked by about 600 locals.
Published On 8 Sep 20258 Sep 2025
Colombian authorities have rescued 27 out of 72 soldiers who were held captive in the southwest of the country in an area controlled by rebel fighters and a key zone for cocaine production.
In a statement on Sunday, the military noted 45 soldiers “remain deprived of their liberty under the guerrilla regime”.
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“The National Army maintains a presence in the area, taking steps to restore order and ensure the return of the kidnapped personnel,” it added.
The incident took place in the Micay Canyon in the Cauca Department, in an area known for coca crops and a rebel faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), known as the Central General Staff, that has been attacking military positions.
According to the army, the soldiers had been taking part in a military operation when about 600 people “obstructed the deployment of troops” in San Juan de Micay.
The army added that the move was “intended to facilitate control of routes used for drug trafficking and illegal mining”.
Colombia has struggled to maintain security in some rural areas, where drug gangs and rebel groups are fighting over territory abandoned by FARC after it made peace with the government in 2016.
Last year, President Gustavo Petro launched an offensive to regain control of the area, but he has encountered strong local resistance.
In a post on X, Petro said it was time to let the soldiers go free.
“They could be your children. The children of Colombia must embrace each other and outlive their parents. The dialogue commission is ready and it is the word of the president,” he wrote.
According to the government, detentions in the local community are often carried out on the orders of armed groups in the area where there is little state presence.
But this is the second time in less than a month that members of a defunct FARC group have captured soldiers.
Last month, 33 soldiers were taken by villagers under the orders of a rebel group in the southern Department of Guaviare after a gunfight that killed 10 members of the former FARC group.
At the time, the army said the villagers holding the soldiers were demanding the return of the body of the killed rebels, which was transported to a morgue in the provincial capital. The soldiers were returned four days later.
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A woman accused of murdering her two children and hiding their remains in suitcases is being tried in New Zealand, in a high-profile case that has shocked the country.
Hakyung Lee, who was extradited from South Korea to New Zealand in November 2022, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder.
The remains of her children were discovered in suitcases by a family who had purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit at an auction in Auckland.
The bodies were believed to have been stored there for several years.
The trial opened on Monday and is expected to last up to four weeks. The prosecution will open arguments on Tuesday, according to local media.
Given the public attention the case has received, the judge told the jury that Ms Lee’s guilt or innocence must be determined based on facts.
Justice Geoffrey Venning added that it’s also likely that the case will be determined “whether, at the time the children were killed, Ms Lee was insane”.
Ms Lee, 44, will represent herself in court with two court-appointed lawyers acting as stand-by counsel. She remained silent when asked to enter a plea on Monday.
A New Zealand national who was born in South Korea, Ms Lee lived in Auckland for several years before she returned to South Korea in 2018.
The year before – 2017 – the children’s father died of cancer. And the two children, aged six and eight, died some time after that, though it is not known when exactly.
Their bodies then discovered in August 2022 after a family bought a trailer load of goods, including the suitcases, in an online auction.
Local media reported that the sale was part of an effort to clear abandoned items from a storage unit.
Police said the buyers had no connection to the deaths.
Ms Lee was arrested in Ulsan, South Korea in September 2022 after Interpol issued a global red notice for her.
BBC
