AP PHOTOS: Indonesia welcomes the Year of the Snake with dragon puppets and drum displays

BOGOR, Indonesia (AP) — From narrow side streets to packed malls, the traditional music and dance of dragon puppet performances have filled this bustling city south of Indonesia's capital to usher in the Lunar New Year.

Asian communities across the world will begin ringing in the Lunar New Year on Jan. 29, with 2025 designated as the Year of the Snake in the Chinese zodiac. Fireworks, parades and other Lunar New Year rituals are centered around removing bad luck and welcoming prosperity.

In Indonesia, where millions of people have Chinese ancestry, crowds gathered in the city of Bohor to watch as drummers interspersed around puppet performers display the traditional dragon and lion puppets, which stretched up to 65 feet (20 meters) long in interconnected segments held by about a dozen people walking beneath.

For weeks before the Lunar New Year festivities, the performance troupe — which can number anywhere from 50 to 100 people depending on how in-demand shows are — practice in the abandoned back area of a small storefront selling coffee and snacks. Women and children from around the area stop by to sit and watch. During slower weeks puppet heads sit unused on a storage shelf.

On Sunday, days before the start of the Lunar New Year, the troupe loaded puppets and performers into the back of a small truck and headed to a shopping mall for a performance. Those who couldn’t fit into the truck followed on motorbikes.

In the mall, hundreds of visitors gathered to listen to the drums and watch the dance of the performance troupe. Rounds of applause greeted the dance, while some in the audience placed “angpau” — an envelope containing money usually given during holidays or for special occasions — into the puppet’s mouth.

This story has been updated to reflect it was reported from Bohor, Indonesia, not Jakarta.

A member of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon), named after Indonesian national colors, carry a dragon puppet as he and his team leave the changing room to perform in a Lunar New Year celebration, at a shopping mall in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

A Muslim woman and her daughter have their photo taken with members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) in lion costume after a performance at a shopping mall in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which is named after Indonesian national colors, perform in a Lunar New Year celebration at a shopping mall in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

People give "angpau," an envelope containing money traditionally given during Chinese holidays or for special occasions, to members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) after a performance at a shopping mall in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon), named after Indonesian national colors, perform lion dance at a shopping mall in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon), named after Indonesian national colors, parade around a shopping mall during a performance in a Lunar New Year celebration, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) sit on the back of a truck as they leave for a shopping mall to perform in a Lunar New Year celebration, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which named after Indonesian national colors, carry a dragon puppet onto a truck as they prepare to leave for a shopping mall to perform in a Lunar New Year celebration, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon), named after Indonesian national colors, practice drumming days ahead of a performance, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which is named after Indonesian national colors, sit near dragon and lion puppets at the in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which is named after Indonesian national colors, Muhammad Ilman, second right, and Muhammad Fadil, right, practice their dance movements in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which named after Indonesian national colors, prepare a dragon puppet before leaving for a shopping mall to perform in a Lunar New Year celebration, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which is named after Indonesian national colors, practice in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which is named after Indonesian national colors, practice as local residents watch in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Muhammad Hisyam, left, and Aji Permana, members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which is named after Indonesian national colors, practice in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon), named after Indonesian national colors, take a break after a training in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which is named after Indonesian national colors, practice in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

A member of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon), named after Indonesian national colors, holds a dragon puppet as he and his team prepare to leave for a shopping mall to perform in a Lunar New Year celebration, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which is named after Indonesian national colors, Mumammad Fadil, top, and Muhammad Ilman, bottom, train ahead of a performance, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Members of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon), named after Indonesian national colors, Mumammad Fadil, top, and Muhammad Ilman, bottom, practice their dance movements as Aji Permana, right assists, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

A member of dragon dance club Naga Merah Putih (Red White Dragon) which is named after Indonesian national colors, holds the head of a dragon puppet prepared for a performance in a Lunar New Year celebration, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powellsaid Sunday the Department of Justice has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.

The move represents an unprecedented escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he's repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.

The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project Trump has criticized as excessive.

Here's the latest:

Stocks are falling on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Department of Justice had served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony about the Fed’s building renovations.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% in early trading Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 384 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%.

Powell characterized the threat of criminal charges as pretexts to undermine the Fed’s independence in setting interest rates, its main tool for fighting inflation. The threat is the latest escalation in President Trump’s feud with the Fed.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

She says she had “a very good conversation” with Trump on Monday morning about topics including “security with respect to our sovereignties.”

Last week, Sheinbaum had said she was seeking a conversation with Trump or U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S. president made comments in an interview that he was ready to confront drug cartels on the ground and repeated the accusation that cartels were running Mexico.

Trump’s offers of using U.S. forces against Mexican cartels took on a new weight after the Trump administration deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sheinbaum was expected to share more about their conversation later Monday.

A leader of the Canadian government is visiting China this week for the first time in nearly a decade, a bid to rebuild his country’s fractured relations with the world’s second-largest economy — and reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States, its neighbor and until recently one of its most supportive and unswerving allies.

The push by Prime Minster Mark Carney, who arrives Wednesday, is part of a major rethink as ties sour with the United States — the world’s No. 1 economy and long the largest trading partner for Canada by far.

Carney aims to double Canada’s non-U.S. exports in the next decade in the face of President Trump’s tariffs and the American leader’s musing that Canada could become “the 51st state.”

▶ Read more about relations between Canada and China

The comment by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson came in response to a question at a regular daily briefing. President Trump has said he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from taking it over.

Tensions have grown between Washington, Denmark and Greenland this month as Trump and his administration push the issue and the White House considers a range of options, including military force, to acquire the vast Arctic island.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.

▶ Read more about the U.S. and Greenland

Trump said Sunday that he is “inclined” to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela after its top executive was skeptical about oil investment efforts in the country after the toppling of former President Nicolás Maduro.

“I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One as he departed West Palm Beach, Florida. “They’re playing too cute.”

During a meeting Friday with oil executives, Trump tried to assuage the concerns of the companies and said they would be dealing directly with the U.S., rather than the Venezuelan government.

Some, however, weren’t convinced.

“If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable,” said Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest U.S. oil company.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.

▶ Read more about Trump’s comments on ExxonMobil

Trump’s motorcade took a different route than usual to the airport as he was departing Florida on Sunday due to a “suspicious object,” according to the White House.

The object, which the White House did not describe, was discovered during security sweeps in advance of Trump’s arrival at Palm Beach International Airport.

“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday.

The president, when asked about the package by reporters, said, “I know nothing about it.”

Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman for U.S. Secret Service, said the secondary route was taken just as a precaution and that “that is standard protocol.”

▶ Read more about the “suspicious object”

Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no direct reaction to Trump’s comments, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, insisted “the situation has come under total control” in fiery remarks that blamed Israel and the U.S. for the violence, without offering evidence.

▶ Read more about the possible negotiations and follow live updates

Fed Chair Powell said Sunday the DOJ has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.

The move represents an unprecedented escalation in Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.

The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project that Trump has criticized as excessive.

Powell on Sunday cast off what has up to this point been a restrained approach to Trump’s criticisms and personal insults, which he has mostly ignored. Instead, Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.

▶ Read more about the subpoenas

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)