Archive: The Week

Ted Turner died May 6 at his home in Lamont, Florida, surrounded by family, after a long battle with Lewy body dementia. Turner founded CNN as the first 24-hour cable news channel and gave $1 billion to the United Nations. He is survived by five children, fourteen grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

The Trump administration released previously classified files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, including Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 photos and transcripts. The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office is working with the White House on staged releases. AARO maintains it has found no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology.

Google I/O 2026 opens Tuesday May 19 in Mountain View. CEO Sundar Pichai delivers the keynote, with Sameer Samat (President, Android Ecosystem) leading the Android slate. Samat has positioned this year's update as the biggest in Android's history, signaling significant Gemini integration across the platform. The event marks the densest visible Indian American leadership stack of any tier-1 tech keynote on the 2026 calendar.

Nithya Raman, the first South Asian and first Asian American woman elected to the Los Angeles City Council, is mounting a serious challenge in the LA mayor race, drawing comparisons to Zohran Mamdani's New York City run. Raman's coalition crosses progressive voters and the city's growing South Asian population, where Indian American political representation has been building for two cycles.

TVK secures 105 seats, leading over DMK with 59 seats as of 11:15 p.m.; PM Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi congratulate TVK's poll performance

Bengaluru-based GalaxEye, incubated at IIT Madras, deployed Mission Drishti aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 over the weekend. The satellite is the world's first OptoSAR platform, combining optical and radar imaging in a single payload, and India's largest privately built spacecraft to date. PM Modi posted congratulations to the team on X, with Elon Musk replying with an India flag, marking growing international notice for India's private space sector.

BJP legislature party meeting will be held on May 8. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several Chief Ministers of BJP and NDA-ruled States will be present during the swearing-in on May 9

A Seat at the Table: South Asians’ Rise in American Politics, directed by Sarita Khurana and Yoav Attias, premieres at CAAMFest on Saturday May 9 at the AMC Kabuki in San Francisco. The film traces the cohort moving from local boards to Congress, governors’ mansions, and the cabinet, and uses personal storytelling to track identity, belonging, and power.

South Asian Trailblazers founder Simi Shah hosted a panel with Diipa Buller-Khosla (indē wild), Lisa Mattam (Sahajan), Nisha Pathak (Lion Pose), and Rooshy Roy (AAVRANI) on the path to Sephora shelves. The conversation covers motherhood, founder economics, and what it takes to land a major retail launch.

The Met Gala returned to New York on Monday with the diaspora out in full force on fashion's biggest night. Mindy Kaling, Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra, Karan Johar, and Hasan Minhaj walked the carpet. The 2026 theme drew a wave of South Asian designers behind the scenes, with Bibhu Mohapatra and Manish Malhotra clothing several headline guests.

Mother’s Day falls Sunday May 10 in the US, India, and most of the diaspora calendar. The 2026 global theme is The Great Unburdening, framed around reducing the emotional, social, and household load carried by mothers. The theme has spread through schools, NGOs, and brand campaigns from Mumbai to New York and ties to this week’s hero ingredient, cardamom.

Penn Masala, the world’s first Hindi a cappella group, opens a six-city India tour through TribeVibe by BookMyShow. Confirmed stops include Hyderabad on May 21 and Delhi on May 28, with Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa, and Pune also on the route.

Dacoit: A Love Story (Adivi Sesh, Mrunal Thakur) drops on Amazon Prime Video. Lukkhe, a Hindi rap-and-crime drama set in Chandigarh, premieres on Prime Video. Love Mocktail 3 streams on ZEE5 as the franchise finale. Daadi Ki Shaadi opens theatrically with Riddhima Kapoor Sahni making her acting debut alongside Neetu Kapoor and Kapil Sharma. Kartavya, with Saif Ali Khan, trailer dropped this week ahead of a Netflix May 15 release; Sanjay Dutt’s Aakhri Sawaal is held up in CBFC review.

Aziz Ansari is touring the US under the Hypothetical Tour banner, with stops including Brooklyn’s Bell House on April 27 and Flagstar at Westbury Music Fair on July 15. Additional theater dates continue across the year.

Russell Peters is on a 2026 US run with stops including Lillian S. Wells Hall at The Parker on May 1, Levity Live in Oxnard on May 9, and NJPAC Prudential Hall in Newark on May 29.

India became the largest source of overseas-born residents in Australia, surpassing the United Kingdom for the first time. The shift caps a decade-plus of migration growth into Australian metros and reframes the diaspora map in the Anglosphere. Local commentary flags concerns about how the community is being treated even as its economic footprint expands.