Apparel manufacturing
FILE - Haruyuki Takahashi, executive board member of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games attends the Tokyo 2020 Executive Board Meeting in Tokyo on March 30, 2020. Criminal allegations against a former Tokyo Olympic organizing committee board member widened Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022, as Japanese prosecutors “re-arrested” Takahashi in suspected payments from a publisher that became a sponsor for the Games. (Issei Kato/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Tokyo Olympics sponsorship scandal widens with more arrests

By Yuri Kageyama Sep. 06, 2022 04:28 AM EDT

A car is driven past a billboard showing machines harvesting cotton outside a Huafu Fashion plant, as seen during a government organized trip for foreign journalists, in Aksu in western China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. A backlash against reports of forced labor and other abuses of the largely Muslim Uyghur ethnic group in Xinjiang is taking a toll on China's cotton industry, but it's unclear if the pressure will compel the government or companies to change their ways. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Factory boss defiant as sanctions bite in China's Xinjiang

By Ken Moritsugu And Dake Kang May. 25, 2021 12:11 AM EDT

FILE - This May 3, 2019 file photo shows a Coach retail shop at the Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif. Strong sales results from Coach’s parent as well as from the maker of Wrangler and Lee jeans offer the latest evidence that shoppers’ spending on clothing and accessories is rebounding to pre-pandemic levels. Tapestry Inc. on Thursday, May 6, 2021, reported fiscal third-quarter results that beat Wall Street estimates as spending on luxury goods rebounded from a malaise last year. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
Strong sales from Tapestry, Lee maker show clothing rebound

By Anne D'innocenzio May. 06, 2021 12:04 PM EDT

Fire causes partial roof collapse at textile factory

Apr. 19, 2021 03:50 PM EDT
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A fire caused extensive damage to a textile manufacturing facility in Portland early Monday, officials said. The...

FILE - In this May 7, 2020, file photo, a person looks inside the closed doors of the Pasadena Community Job Center in Pasadena, Calif., during the coronavirus outbreak. While most Americans have weathered the pandemic financially, about 38 million say they are worse off now than before the outbreak began in the U.S. According to a new poll from Impact Genome and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research 55% of Americans say their financial circumstances are about the same now as a year ago, and 30% say their finances have improved. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
With layoffs down and spending up, US rebound gains momentum

By Christopher Rugaber And Joseph Pisani Apr. 15, 2021 08:41 AM EDT

Shafiqul Islam, 67, owner of Arrival Fashion Ltd., stands for a photograph at his factory in Gazipur, on the outskirts of capital Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, March 13, 2021. Islam was studying business at Dhaka College in 1971 when a bloody and brutal war for independence ravaged Bangladesh. After undergoing guerrilla training in India, he returned to fight against Pakistani soldiers. “In 1971, we jumped in and never looked back because we knew independence had to come. Otherwise, this nation won’t survive,” he said. “But that wasn't the end. We still have a way to go but our heart is always with the motherland.” (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
Born in war, Bangladesh marks 50 years of independence

By Julhas Alam And Krutika Pathi Mar. 24, 2021 01:15 AM EDT

FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2015, file photo, workers in the Great Forever factory stitch clothes in the Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone outside Yangon, Myanmar. Garment workers in Myanmar are urging major international brands to denounce the recent military coup there and put more pressure on factories to protect workers from being fired or harassed - or worse arrested and killed for participating in protests. (AP Photo,File)
Myanmar garment workers urge global brands to denounce coup

By Anne D'innocenzio And Elaine Kurtenbach Mar. 19, 2021 07:10 AM EDT

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2021, file photo, vehicles make their ways on a road in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. The military coup in Myanmar is unlikely to do the country’s struggling economy any good at all. The country once considered a promising last frontier has languished as the pandemic added to its challenges. (AP Photo/File)
Military coup yet another blow for Myanmar's sagging economy

By Elaine Kurtenbach And Victoria Milko Feb. 05, 2021 02:41 AM EST

This photo provided by Target shows Levi Strauss & Co. home collection on display at Target. The Jeans maker is deepening its partnership with Target Corp. by launching its first-ever home collection at the discount chain. Levi's limited time only 100-item collection of denim-inspired tableware, quilts, pillows and other items will hit Target stores on Feb. 28, 2021. (Target via AP)
Levi's first home collection deepens Target relationship

By Anne D'innocenzio Jan. 26, 2021 02:02 PM EST

Matefo Litali opens the curtains of her small rented room that she shares with her youngest daughter and a granddaughter, in the town of Ha Thetsane, Maseru, Lesotho, on Friday, Dec. 11, 2020. While she waited for her final paycheck after being laid off, Litali received no income or support for three months. The family survived off food parcels donated by the local church until her salary arrived. “I got so stressed I thought I was going mad,” she explains. “I would spend the whole day in my house sleeping, not doing anything. It got to a stage where I wouldn’t even try to talk with my daughter. She would ask me: ‘Are you sick? What is the problem?’ and I wouldn’t say anything to her. I didn’t want to speak to anyone or ask for help.” (Neo Ntsoma/The Fuller Project via AP)
Pandemic crushes global supply chains, workers at both ends

By Louise Donovan/The Fuller Project Dec. 22, 2020 10:07 AM EST

Matefo Litali, 53, hangs laundry with her youngest daughter, Refiloe, 20, whom she regards as her best hope for a better future, in the town of Ha Thetsane, Maseru, Lesotho, on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020. Litali's dream is to save money to send her daughter to enroll for a hairdressing course, which she believes will enable her to eventually start her own business and be financially independent. (Neo Ntsoma/The Fuller Project via AP)
Pandemic crushes global supply chains, workers at both ends

By Louise Donovan/The Fuller Project Dec. 22, 2020 10:05 AM EST

Cashier Druhan Parker, center, works behind a plexiglass shield Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020, as he checks out shoppers at an Ulta beauty store on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. The pandemic has forced people to spend more time with themselves than ever. Along the way, it has reshaped and broadened the way many think about and prioritize how they treat themselves — what has come to be called self-care. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
In pandemic era's isolation, meaning of 'self-care' evolves

By Anne D'innocenzio And Sophia Rosenbaum Nov. 24, 2020 03:04 AM EST

FILE - In this May 28, 2020, file photo, a woman wearing face mask and face shield to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus checks surgical gown at a packing session of a garment factory at Industrial Zone in Yangon, Myanmar. The coronavirus pandemic has slammed the apparel industry, leaving many of the 65 million Asian garment factory workers struggling as factories close or cut back on wages, and the International Labor Organization is urging the industry to do more to protect them. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw, File)
ILO says garment industry should do more to help workers

By Elaine Kurtenbach Oct. 21, 2020 06:50 AM EDT

A health officer collecting swab samples from rail commuters to test for COVID-19 drinks water during a break at a railway station in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
The Latest: Sri Lanka orders more curfews over virus cluster

By The Associated Press Oct. 21, 2020 01:12 AM EDT

An Indian villager wearing a face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus sells his ware at market in Jammu, India, Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. India is the world's second most coronavirus affected country after the United States. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
Asia Today: Sri Lanka orders closures to contain virus

Oct. 09, 2020 12:48 AM EDT

A hospital staff member measures a resident's temperature before coronavirus testing at a private hospital in Sunway, on the outskirt of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Asia Today: Sri Lanka bans public gatherings amid sharp rise

Oct. 07, 2020 02:06 AM EDT

Sri Lankan health officials take swab samples from employees of the Colombo municipal council to test for COVID-19 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. Authorities in Sri Lanka on Wednesday widened a curfew and warned of legal action against those evading treatment for COVID-19 after reporting an escalating cluster centered around a garment factory in the capital's suburbs. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Sri Lanka widens curfew, bans gatherings as virus surges

By Bharatha Mallawarachi Oct. 07, 2020 01:49 AM EDT

Lori Gonzalez, left, and Rachel Spray carry flowers to the temporary grave marker of Gonzalez's sister and Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center nurse, Sandra Oldfield, at the Sanger Cemetery in Sanger, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. Oldfield died after being exposed to the novel coronavirus. Workers at the hospital said they did not have the proper personal protective equipment. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
US medical supply chains failed, and COVID deaths followed

By Juliet Linderman And Martha Mendoza Oct. 06, 2020 10:23 AM EDT

Sri Lankan health workers prepare to collect swab samples from people to test for COVID-19 outside a hospital in Minuwangoda, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Asia Today: Sri Lanka confirms 321 cases in factory cluster

Oct. 06, 2020 01:00 AM EDT

Chart shows monthly salaried jobs in India in 2020; 2c x 3 inches; 96.3 mm x 76 mm;
India's contracting economy rebooting from coronavirus blow

By Ashok Sharma And Rishabh R. Jain Oct. 01, 2020 11:06 PM EDT