World
California restaurant's comeback shows how outdated, false Asian stereotype of dog-eating persists
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — David Rasavong’s cultural pride is evident all throughout his restaurant.
It’s on the wall of family portraits and where a stunning mural depicts his family’s journey from Laos to California. It’s on the menu filled with Lao and Thai dishes like the crispy coconut rice salad of Nam Khao and the stir-fried rice noodles of Pad See Ew.
And it’s in the fact that Love & Thai in Fresno, California, restaurant is open at all. A baseless accusation grounded in a racist stereotype about Asian food using dog meat brought a six-month barrage of harassment so heated that Rasavong, 41, closed down its previous location over fears for his family’s safety.
His earlier restaurant had itself only been open for seven months when a so-called animal welfare crusader in May implied on social media that a pitbull tied up at an unconnected home next door was going to be served on the menu.
A day after the initial commentary, vitriolic statements, voicemails and calls rained down. Rasavong’s body still tenses up when recounting, in particular, a call from an elderly woman.
“She was so disgusted by me and yelling and screaming, and the only thing I can remember hearing her say at the end was ‘Go back to the country you came from you dog-eating mother-effer,’” Rasavong recently told The Associated Press.
Within days, he closed that restaurant because it no longer felt safe between the harassment and people loitering in the parking lot outside of business hours.
The false accusation tapped into a longstanding slur against Asian cuisines and cultures that has persisted in the U.S. for over 150 years, dating back to the xenophobia that grew in the U.S. after Chinese immigrants started arriving in more visible numbers in the 1800s and other Asian communities followed. It’s also one that Asian American communities are fighting against.
It may be astonishing to some that a claim rooted in a racist stereotype took down a family’s restaurant three years after “Stop Asian Hate” became a rallying cry. But for many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, it’s something they’ve heard before as an insult or under the guise of a “joke,” along with other negative reactions to the actual foods of their cultures. In December, a comedian received some backlash for dressing like a UPS delivery driver and walking into an Asian restaurant with caged puppies for a social media video.
There is hope though that more people will learn to tell truth from trope. Since the pandemic first fueled anti-Asian hostilities, AAPI communities themselves have tried to take control of the narrative that Asian food is “dirty,” “weird” yet “exotic.” Furthermore, the appetite to learn about food from the Asian diaspora has only grown across traditional and new media.
Still, there were moments where Rasavong felt like nobody, even media, was on his side. He said a few reporters approached him assuming the claims were true.
But he soon received tons of community support, and the closure ended up being a new beginning.
A shopping center property manager offered him the chance to take over a suite vacated by another restaurant. Nkundwe P. van Wort-Kasyanju, a graphic designer in the Netherlands, and Los Angeles-based interior designer Danny Gonzales proffered their services for free. Hana Luna Her, a local artist, painted the mural. By the Nov. 3 grand opening of the new space, Love & Thai definitely felt the love. The place was bustling all day, Rasavong said, and the city presented a proclamation.
Rasavong is holding onto the belief that he went through this whole saga for a reason.
“There’s a journey that we’re supposed to go on,” said Rasavong, who declined to say if he’ll pursue legal action. “Don’t get me wrong. People need to realize this business is not easy … But you know, we believe in what we’re doing and so far so good.”
In actuality, consuming dog meat is something that has happened in various parts of the world for centuries, where they weren’t seen as domesticated family pets, said Robert Ku, author of “Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA.” Greeks and Romans referenced it. The French also ate dog meat during World War II.
But when Chinese immigrants came to the U.S., it was linked to them as part of “the myths that the Chinese were these bizarre people who had bizarre diets,” Ku said. “It was one of the attractions of actually going to Chinese restaurants back in the day because it came with ‘danger.’”
As other Asian immigrant groups came, the stereotype spread to include them.
“This is a real just blurring of the Asian identity where it doesn’t matter if you’re Thai or Korean or Vietnamese or Cambodian. You’re all the same,” Ku said.
Along with the false allegation of eating dog meat, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders over the generations have often faced disgust and worse from others when they’ve brought their cultures’ foods from home to public spaces like school or work.
They’re taking steps to fight back, like in 2021, when San Francisco-Bay Area-based writers Diann Leo-Omineto, Anthony Shu and Shirley Huey self-published “Lunchbox Moments,” a compilation of over two dozen personal essays and illustrations that raised $6,000 for charity.
The project became “a powerful thing for all of us,” Leo-Omineto said.
“We tried to show it’s not always about being in relation to being American or being white or assimilated,” she said. “You can have moments of joy, too…I hope that it opened people’s minds a little bit more — or made them want to try new foods.”
It’s actually been a big year in publishing and food media for Asian cuisine. Publishers Weekly dedicated a feature in August entirely to Chinese and Taiwanese food after observing nine new cookbooks on the subjects were coming out this year. Several of the authors grew up outside of Asia. The titles range from “Vegan Chinese Food,” to “Kung Food” and “A Very Chinese Cookbook” from America’s Test Kitchen. Also, children’s book author Grace Lin released “Chinese Menu,” which relays folklore behind favorite Chinese American dishes. They all share personal anecdotes and readers often seem drawn to “personality-driven” cookbooks, said Carolyn Juris, features editor.
“It’s not just about the recipes. It’s about the stories behind them and I think people respond to that,” Juris said.
Like any other culture, Asian cultures encompass many different regional cuisines and nuances. With the growing Asian diaspora, it’s not strange that so many cookbooks can be mined and “publishers are savvy enough to know that there is a market for these books,” Juris added.
Back at Love & Thai, Rasavong is busy filling online orders for a waiting third-party delivery driver. He is optimistic about keeping up business now that the initial hoopla around his restaurant renaissance has calmed down. Rasavong also hopes his situation will remind others to think before they speak.
“People say these jokes and they think it’s just fun and just light-hearted,” he said. “There are certain things that you shouldn’t say that really do cross a line.”
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Tang is a Phoenix-based member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @ttangAP.
WESTERLY, R.I. (AP) — When a large tent appeared next door to Taylor Swift’s Watch Hill estate this week, it didn’t take long for speculation about the superstar’s impending nuptials to ripple through the affluent New England seaside village — and the internet.
Soon, fans were swapping theories online, photographers were staking out vantage points and residents found themselves fielding questions about a wedding that never was. Or at least, a wedding that seems yet to happen.
The rumors, so far, have proved unfounded. But they offered a glimpse into life in Watch Hill, the Rhode Island beach community in the town of Westerly, close to the Connecticut border, where Swift has owned a home for more than a decade and where curiosity about the singer has become woven into everyday life.
Rumors take hold
From the nearby lighthouse, visitors craned for a better view of Swift’s mansion, a sprawling white home perched atop a rocky bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Security cameras dotted the property, and a guard called out to visitors who strayed too close.
Wedding planner Nicole Simeral, dressed in black, stood outside the small white chapel across from the massive yellow Ocean House hotel — Swift’s neighbor on the beach — waving along cars and buses that slowed and directing traffic to keep moving.
Wedding planners Nicole Simeral and Carlo Monti oversee a wedding at the Watch Hill Chapel, near Taylor Swift’s house, Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Westerly, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
She watched visitors speculate about a wedding she said she knew wasn’t Swift’s. She’s working a different wedding every weekend in June in that spot. Still, the questions kept coming.
“Is Taylor Swift getting married here? Many, many, many have asked,” Simeral said.
She said there had been “a lot of chitter chatter” as people tried to connect sightings of people who know Swift in local shops to impending nuptials. But she doubted Watch Hill would be practical for a wedding of that scale because of its limited luxury lodging.
The Watch Hill rumors also dovetailed with separate online speculation that Swift and her fiance, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, were planning a celebration at Madison Square Garden, though no details about the pair’s wedding have been released, despite multiple requests for comment to Swift’s spokesperson.
The tent itself, Simeral said, was hardly unusual. “Next weekend, there’ll be another tent just like this.”
For two summers, Westerly Police Department community service officer Nick Quaratella has stood at the entrance to a public path leading to the beach beside Swift’s estate, answering questions from beachgoers and keeping traffic moving.
“They come to the beach, but then they also ask if she’s here or not,” Quaratella said.
Community service officer Nick Quaratella keeps watch over beach-goers using a public path next to Taylor Swift house, Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Westerly, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
He said he can’t help but joke around with some fans.
“I’ll say, ‘Oh, did you hear that she moved?’” he said. “And they’ll say, ‘No.’ And I say, ‘Yeah, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson moved in.’ And they’ll go, ‘Oh, really?’ and then they’ll walk away.”
“That’s pretty funny,” he concluded.
Over the years, he’s seen plenty of unusual reactions. His coworker once spotted a fan on their knees, bowing toward the entrance gate near the property. Visitors have shouted “I love you, Taylor!” from the roadside. One woman convinced her granddaughter he was Swift’s security guard and posed for a photo with him.
Quaratella has fielded a few questions about the supposed wedding, but not as many as he expected.
“At this point, it’s part of my job,” he said. “It makes me smile. It makes me laugh. I have no problem with it. It makes the day go by.”
Living with Taylor Swift
Down near a strip of beach boutiques, lifelong resident Lauren Nigrelli said the frenzy surrounding the star has eased since Swift first moved into the neighborhood in 2013. Back then, Nigrelli recalled, fans would drive around in circles by her shop playing Swift’s songs.
“Things have definitely calmed down since then,” she said.
Today, Swift’s presence remains a fixture among local businesses in what she described as a “quaint New England coastal community.” Nigrelli, a Realtor who owns the boutiques Tide and Tide Kids, said she began selling apparel emblazoned with “Holiday House,” the nickname associated with Swift’s mansion, after children began coming into the store asking for it. On Saturday, she was also selling a Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding sticker book.
“I think every shop has something related to her,” Nigrelli said.
On the beach below the mansion, Audrey and John Curtis, a married couple from Connecticut who have been vacationing in Westerly for years, settled into beach chairs and debated the wedding rumors.
“We were just looking up at her house,” Audrey Curtis said, pointing toward the mansion. “She’s not getting married here now, though.”
Audrey and John Curtis of Mansfield, Conn., enjoy a beach day a short distance from Taylor Swift’s “Holiday House,” in background, Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Westerly, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Curtis said she had heard various theories, including speculation that a wedding might be held at Ocean House. But as she thought through the logistics, she became skeptical.
“Then I was thinking about, ‘How would everybody get here?’” she said. “In New York, you’ve got JFK, you’ve got LaGuardia, and she’s got two penthouses in New York that she combined, so I figured they could obviously have more people there.”
Her husband wasn’t so sure.
“They could lie and say it’s happening there, but it’s happening here,” John Curtis said. “When important people do things, they don’t want people to know.”
World
Trump-backed ‘El Tigre’ looks to crush cartels, end Colombia’s socialist era in pivotal election
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As Colombia heads into a pivotal presidential runoff on Sunday, conservative outsider Abelardo de la Espriella is riding a wave of voter frustration over crime, cartels and economic uncertainty.
His rise comes as outgoing President Gustavo Petro faces mounting political turmoil, turning the election into a high-stakes battle over the future of one of America’s most important allies in Latin America.
De le Espriella’s campaign is built on a platform of law and order, anti-cartel crackdowns and repairing U.S.-Colombia relations as he faces leftist politician Iván Cepeda in the presidential runoff. Cepeda is from Petro’s socialist party.
COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT PETRO THREATENS MILITARY RESPONSE AFTER TRUMP WARNS COLOMBIA MAY BE NEXT TARGET
Colombia’s presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, of the Defensores de la Patria party, speaks behind bulletproof glass during his closing campaign rally in Medellin, Colombia on May 24, 2026. Colombia will hold presidential elections on May 31. (Jaime Saldarriaga/AFP Via Getty Images)
In a region increasingly defined by larger-than-life political figures, de la Espriella is known universally as “El Tigre,” and has transformed his nickname into a political movement. Campaign rallies feature tiger imagery, merchandise and slogans built around strength and fearlessness.
He has openly embraced comparisons to President Trump, presenting himself as a political outsider willing to confront entrenched elites, challenge progressive orthodoxies and restore what supporters describe as strength and order to government.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro delivers a speech during a troop recognition ceremony at the Jose Maria Cordova Military Cadet School in Bogota on March 11, 2025. (Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)
Earlier this week Trump endorsed him stating in part on social media that: “Colombian Presidential Candidate, “El Tigre (THE TIGER),” Abelardo de la Espriella, is a Smart, Strong, and Tough Leader, who fights tirelessly for, and loves, his Great Country and People, just like I do for the United States of America.”
Trump added, “Because of his tremendous accomplishments in life, and his political support for me, it is my Honor to give Abelardo my Complete and Total Endorsement. GET OUT AND VOTE FOR “EL TIGRE” ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA — HE WILL NOT LET THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OF COLOMBIA DOWN. It will rise to a new height of Greatness!”
President Donald Trump, left, waves as he greets El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele as Bukele arrives at the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
TRUMP DOUBLES DOWN ON COLOMBIA CRACKDOWN, CALLS PETRO ‘LUNATIC,’ VOWS TO END ALL US PAYMENTS OVER DRUGS
Aside from the Trump comparison, he’s also been likened to El Salvador’s President Bukele. Like Bukele, he has built a political brand around toughness, disruption and public frustration with crime. His campaign rhetoric frequently emphasizes restoring state authority and defeating criminal organizations through overwhelming force.
Petro’s ally, Iván Cepeda, has pledged to continue the administration’s social and economic agenda while expanding negotiations with armed groups.
Cepeda’s campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on his campaign and hopes for the country.
Colombia’s presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda, of the Pacto Historico party, speaks to supporters during his final campaign rally in Barranquilla, Atlantico department, Colombia on May 24, 2026. (Vanessa Romero/AFP via Getty Images)
Carlos Chacón, executive director of Instituto de Ciencia Política (ICP), a think tank in Colombia told Fox News Digital, “Colombia is torn between two models and two visions: the leftist model, which seeks to increase state intervention in the economy, a model already proven to generate fiscal deficits and economic crises; a model that prioritizes negotiations and appeasement over security, resulting in the strengthening of criminal networks nationwide; and, above all, a model whose political agenda is to alter the Constitution.”
US SANCTIONS COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT AND FAMILY OVER DRUG TRAFFICKING ALLEGATIONS
Chacón said the difference between the two candidates is clear, saying that Abelardo’s model “favors free enterprise and seeks to ensure security, regain territorial control, downsize the state, revitalize strategic sectors, and mend international relations, would be implemented entirely within the framework of the 1991 Constitution.” He added, “Abelardo has never spoken of replacing the constitutional model with an authoritarian one, as is the case with the project proposed by Petro, Cepeda.”
Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella of the political movement Defenders of the Homeland reacts after the results of the first round of the presidential election, in Barranquilla, Colombia May 31, 2026. (Sergio Acero/reuters )
One of the recurring themes of de la Espriella’s campaign has been rebuilding a close relationship with Washington and pursuing a more aggressive security partnership against narcotrafficking and armed groups. He has advocated U.S.-backed operations against narco-terrorist camps and stronger bilateral cooperation on security issues.
De la Espriella rise comes as the outgoing Colombian President Petro faces a battle over allegations of improper involvement in the country’s presidential election. The head of Colombia’s congressional investigative commission has proposed suspending president Petro while authorities examine allegations that he improperly intervened in the presidential campaign on behalf of his political movement.
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A supporter of Colombia’s presidential candidate for the Defensores de la Patria party, Abelardo de la Espriella, takes a selfie as she awaits his arrival to his last campaign rally in Barranquilla, Colombia, on May 23, 2026. Colombia will hold presidential elections on May 31. (Vanessa Romero/AFP via Getty Images)
The proposal has triggered fierce debate across Colombia, with supporters describing it as necessary accountability and critics arguing it exceeds constitutional authority. Petro has denied wrongdoing and remains in office.
The outcome of this election will help determine not only the future of Colombia’s security strategy, but also the trajectory of one of Washington’s most important allies in the Western Hemisphere.
Current and former Ukrainian officials are to return honours bestowed upon them by Poland after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was stripped of the country’s highest state honour.
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Tensions have been rising between Kyiv and Warsaw since Zelenskyy named a military unit after the controversial World War Two Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
In response to the move, Poland’s far-right president, Karol Nawrocki, announced that he was stripping Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy said he had sent the Order back to Poland, posting a photo to social media appearing to show it being packaged up ready to be shipped.
“We believed that the Order of the White Eagle, awarded in 2023, was meant for the Ukrainian People and our army,” he wrote, adding that Ukraine was “grateful to the Polish People for their support and cooperation”.
Cracks in the alliance?
Nawrocki has insisted that the decision was “not directed against the Ukrainian people” and that Poland would continue to support Ukraine.
Even so, many in Ukraine saw Nawrocki’s move as an attack.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, was the first to react, announcing that he would return the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, which he received in 2022.
The head of the Office of the Ukrainian President, Kyrylo Budanov, and Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, followed suit by relinquishing their Officer’s Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
The second, third and fifth presidents of independent Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma (1994–2004), Viktor Yushchenko (2005–2010) and Petro Poroshenko (2014–2019), also all announced that they were giving up their Order of the White Eagle honours.
Poroshenko made it clear that he had taken the decision in reaction to the Polish president’s move, but that it was in no way directed against the Polish people.
Yushchenko also stressed that he was acting in solidarity with Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian army, while calling Nawrocki’s decision “irresponsible”.
How did the crisis begin?
On 27 May, Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree naming the Independent Special Operations Centre “North” of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces as the “Heroes of the UPA”.
He said he had taken the decision “in order to restore the historical traditions of the national army and in view of the exemplary execution of the missions assigned in the defence of the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine”.
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, was a Ukrainian guerrilla force formed in October 1942 in Volhynia, in north-western Ukraine, as the military wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B), an ultranationalist movement led by Stepan Bandera.
While fighting both the German army and Soviet forces, the organisation carried out massacres of the Polish population in Volhynia.
The decision has gone down particularly badly in Poland, and Nawrocki said he had learned of the move “with great sadness”.
“This is not how you build relations between nations,” he said on Friday, adding that glorifying the UPA gave Russian propaganda “a lot of oxygen for disinformation”.
The Polish president doubled down on Saturday, justifying his decision to withdraw the Order of the White Eagle from Zelenskyy by saying that his actions had overstepped the mark.
Some have argued that only Russia stands to gain from the breakdown in relations.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s main allies since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees and serving as a logistical hub for Western aid bound for Kyiv.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said he was convinced that, given the historical context, only Russia could profit from a Polish-Ukrainian dispute.
Sikorski shared a comment by journalist and columnist Witold Jurasz of the newspaper Onet, who argued that by stripping Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Nawrocki had indeed won a moral victory but had also suffered a defeat – and, with it, so had Poland as a whole.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government is at odds with Nawrocki, criticised Zelenskyy’s decision, while stressing that the Ukrainian leader had assured him that he had not intended to offend Poles. He called on the two nations not to lose their solidarity and not to let “history ruin our future”.
For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who had earlier described the Polish president’s decision as “a strategic mistake… from which only Russia will benefit”, expressed his gratitude to Poles who do not support escalating tensions with Ukraine.
“I wish to thank every Pole who has clearly expressed their stance against escalating tensions with Ukraine. We are staunch supporters of the same approach,” he wrote on X.
“We are wise nations, always able to find a way out of a difficult situation. We are bound by a difficult history, a shared future, and the threat from our age-old enemy – Moscow,” he added.
Russian officials – who have repeatedly invoked the Second World War as a means to justify Moscow’s invasion by claiming it is a fight against “neo-Nazis” in Ukraine – have welcomed Nawrocki’s decision.
“The Polish president has finally stripped (Zelenskyy) of the Order of the White Eagle,” said former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
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