Meanwhile in ... Mongolia, women are experiencing their own #MeToo movement

And in Lithuania, a toy for children has provoked an intense legal dispute.

Mongolia, women are experiencing their own #MeToo movement. A year ago, Saranzaya Chambuu says she was raped by a member of Mongolia’s parliament. Today, a lawsuit is going forward against her alleged attacker – a very unusual event in a country that has comparatively few legal protections for women. But some say it’s not a moment too soon. According to Mongolia’s first nationwide survey on gender-based violence, 1 in 7 Mongolian women (14 percent) says she has been subjected to sexual violence by someone who is not her partner – twice as many as the estimated world average.

Lithuania, a toy for children has provoked an intense legal dispute. The so-called Polite Soldiers are plastic figurines meant to represent the “polite” Russian soldiers who annexed Crimea in 2014. But some Lithuanians see the Russian-made toys as propaganda tools and don’t want them in stores in their country. That’s why they’re pushing for a national law that bans the sale of any goods that “distort Lithuanian history.” Some Jewish groups are opposed to the law, though, and say Lithuanians eager to bury the country’s participation in the Holocaust will use the law to ban books that attempt to set the record straight.  

Dallas, Laotian food is becoming the new craze. It started with a young Laotian woman who liked to cook dinner for her friends in a grocery store in Irving, Texas. Those who sampled her meals enthusiastically urged her to open a restaurant. She succeeded, and others were inspired to do the same. Since January 2016, reports the Dallas Observer, 10 Laotian restaurants, food trucks, and farmers market stalls have opened in Dallas-Fort Worth, with an 11th coming soon. Laotian food is said to be similar to Thai food but spicier and bolder, featuring more fermented fish sauce.