AP PHOTOS: Decades-old weaving businesses near India's financial capital struggle to survive

BHIWANDI, India (AP) — Abdul Sattar stands in a dimly lit aisle surrounded by dozens of electric-powered looms that make a rhythmic din several decibels above what is considered healthy for a human ear. With his flowing white beard and a wispy head of hair, he could be mistaken for a professor or a philosopher, but, at 70, he has spent most of his life working 12-hour shifts on power looms in poorly ventilated, noisy workshops.

When he arrived in Bhiwandi as a 15-year-old boy, workshops weaving cloth on the looms were thriving, providing ready jobs for many unskilled workers from far-flung villages in north India. The wages were poor and the hours long, but it was steady employment.

In recent years, however, about 30% of the looms have shut down, according to Abdul Rashid Tahir Momin, President of Bhiwandi Powerloom Weavers Federation.

Increasing yarn prices and more expensive electricity supply are making them less competitive against cheap Chinese imports. Power looms, an innovation of the early 19th century, are also an old technology. They are being replaced by newer automatic looms that make higher quality cloth faster and need fewer operators.

Bhiwandi is about 58 kilometers (36 miles) from India’s financial capital, Mumbai. Its proximity to the sea and the large metropolis make it an attractive location for small manufacturers and suppliers.

The future of the roughly 300,000 power looms still operating in Bhiwandi is uncertain.

Ishtaq Ahmad Ansari, 54, who used to own 110 power looms, had to shut his business down four years ago and now works as a contractor in another factory.

“This industry was once the second largest employer after farming. It is sad to see it in such a state,” Ansari says.

While loom owners are grappling with whether to use loans to modernize, Sattar has decided to stay put in the profession he knows best.

“I have managed to provide for my family all these years. I will keep working as long as my body allows me, but I am sure about one thing: I don’t want my son to be in the same profession,” Sattar says.

This combination photo shows portraits of power loom operators shot in February 2025 in Bhiwandi, India; From left, top row, Mohammed Amin Ansari 65, Abdul Qayoom 55, Lalmanth Ramdas Paswan, 55, Talim shah, 60; From left, bottom row, Mohammed Ibrahim 60, Mohammed Ilyyas, 65, Abdul Kamaluddin, 69, and Nissar Ahmad 50. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A worker operates a power loom at a workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Mohammed Amat, 40, operates a power loom at a workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A worker smokes a beedi, a thin leaf-wrapped cigarette, during a break at a power weaving loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Bird droppings gather on an unfinished piece of clothe at a nonoperational power loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Ghulam Ahmad inspects a sheet of cloth for defects at a power loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A man carries bundles of cloth manufactured at a power loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Workers relax during lunch break at a power loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A man sleeps under a mosquito net while another uses his phone in their shared one-room accommodation near a power loom workshop, where they work, in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A worker stands next to wrapped bundles of cloth manufactured at a power loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Workers measure cloth at a power weaving loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A worker gets his beard trimmed by a barber as others take a break outside a power loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A workers operates a power loom at a workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Wrapped warp beam yarns for weaving cloth on a power loom are kept outside a workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Cobwebs cover the machines at a non-operating power loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Workers from a power loom workshop eat at a local roadside eatery during lunch break, in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Mohammed Ibrahim Nathani, 67, right, watches a worker fold a sheet of cloth at his power loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A worker keeps thread bobbins tucked in the waist of his trousers at a power weaving loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Islam-ud-din Ansari, 62, smokes a beedi, a thin leaf-wrapped cigarette, during a break at a power loom workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Reels of yarn feed a power weaving loom at a workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A weaver pulls a length of thread from a shuttle before feeding it to a power weaving loom at a workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Abdul Sattar, 70, untangles a piece of thread from his hair as he operates a power weaving loom at a workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Abdul Sattar, 70, operates a power loom at a workshop in Bhiwandi, India, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

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)