Archive: The Week

President Trump's first China trip since 2017 ran May 12-15. Xi and Trump framed the relationship as 'constructive, strategic and stable.' Both agreed Strait of Hormuz must reopen and Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. Xi called Taiwan 'the most important issue in US-China relations.' No substantive agreements announced. Trade envoys had reached 'overall balanced and positive outcomes' at the preparatory South Korea meeting.

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Indian-American MLS CMO Radhika Duggal is running the 2026 marketing campaign 'MLS Is Back' across The Call, Where the Drama Lives, and the Walmart Saturday Showdown on Apple TV. Stars include Son Heung-Min, Diego Luna, Magic Johnson, and content creator Celine Dept. The push converts 2026 World Cup hype (June 11-July 19, much of the tournament on US soil, final at MetLife) into MLS fandom. Confirm the canonical four-series list with MLS comms before publish.

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Reality star Spencer Pratt's AI-generated campaign videos for LA mayor have racked up millions of views. Polymarket shows Pratt 20% vs. Mayor Karen Bass 19%. The Emerson poll has Bass 30, Pratt 22, LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman 19. Diaspora hook is Raman; the chai angle is the Indian-American polling in a viral three-way race, not the reality star.

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Consulate General of India Seattle announced that Indian Kesar mangoes will arrive at six Costco locations in the Seattle area on May 15: Seattle, Kirkland, Issaquah, Woodinville, Lynnwood, and Redmond. Diaspora summer ritual plus the cultural-element-meets-mainstream-venue formula (Kesar at Costco). Check if other US consulates are coordinating parallel drops.

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UMBC researchers extracted hand-gesture building blocks from Bharatanatyam mudras and found a richer alphabet of movement than natural grasps. Mudra-derived synergies reconstructed American Sign Language gestures with 8.65 percent average error vs. natural grasps' 11.08 percent. The team is testing the techniques on a stand-alone robotic hand and a humanoid robot. Published in Scientific Reports.

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TVK founder C. Joseph Vijay took oath as the 9th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on May 10 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, with Governor Rajendra Arlekar administering the oath to Vijay and nine other ministers. TVK won 108 of 234 seats in the 2026 assembly election and, with INC support plus outside backing from CPI(M), CPI, VCK and IUML, secured 120 MLAs. The government passed the floor test on May 13.

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In a public address in Hyderabad on May 10, Modi appealed to Indians to use public transport, work from home, carpool, avoid non-essential gold purchases, and postpone foreign trips and destination weddings for at least a year, citing Iran-war oil-shock pressure on India's import bill and forex reserves. The Diplomat noted Modi himself begins a 5-nation foreign tour on May 15.

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Modi begins a six-day five-nation tour on May 15: UAE, then official visit to Netherlands (May 15-17, talks with PM Rob Jetten and call on King Willem-Alexander), Gothenburg Sweden on May 17, Norway (May 18-19, third India-Nordic Summit with PM Jonas Gahr Store), and Italy (May 19-20, talks with PM Giorgia Meloni). Energy security, trade, defence, and tech are the agenda amid the Iran war.

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The April 8 US-Iran ceasefire has held but wavered: Iranian strikes on three US Navy ships near Hormuz, a UAE drone-and-missile incident, and ship traffic through the Strait still below pre-war levels. Brent crude surged ~6% to settle above $114 a barrel. India hiked fuel prices about 3% (Rs 3 per litre) as petroleum imports - 22% of India's total import bill - squeeze forex reserves. Modi's austerity ask is downstream of this.

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Tara Sutaria is making her Cannes Film Festival debut this May, ahead of her release in Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups later in 2026. The debut adds another diaspora face to the Cannes red carpet alongside the established Indian contingent.

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Manish Malhotra walked the Met Gala in a black bandhgala whose cape carried the embroidered names of the 50+ Mumbai and Delhi artisans who built the look over 960 hours. He also dressed Karan Johar, Dwayne Johnson, Camila Mendes, and Sudha Reddy. The night's most direct South-Asian-craft-meets-global-A-list moment.

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Gold House's fifth annual Gold Gala honored Priyanka Chopra Jonas with the inaugural Global Vanguard Award at the Music Center in downtown LA on May 9. Flex CEO Revathi Advaithi received Forbes Gold; Gold100 onstage honorees included Tejasvi Manoj (Social Impact) and Theresia Gouw (Business and Technology). 650-plus AAPI leaders attended under the theme A New Gold World. Priyanka used her acceptance speech to thank her mother Madhu Chopra, landing the night's Mother's Day moment.

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Disha Patani plays Jessica in The Portal of Force, the first instalment of the Statiguards vs Holiguards Saga and Kevin Spacey's first directing project in two decades. The trailer launched May 9. Editorial note: the Spacey association is a reader-discomfort risk, frame around Disha's debut.

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Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre with India's Ministry of Culture brought India back to the Venice Biennale after a seven-year absence. Nita, Mukesh, Isha, Anand Piramal, Akash, and Shloka Ambani attended the inauguration. Anant and Radhika were subsequently spotted on a date night in France on May 10. Heritage funding meets the global art world meets diaspora elite.

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Indian handcrafted sneaker label Gully Labs landed in NYC this week with multiple drop events including a May 10 partnership with a NY deli. The brand makes hand-lasted Indian sneakers and pushes Indian textiles into US street culture. Tier-1 NY geography. Confirm specific limited-collection name and SKUs with the brand before publish.

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India has no titles in Cannes 2026 official competition or Un Certain Regard, but Mehar Malhotra's Punjabi-language short Shadows of the Moonless Nights is in La Cinef (selected from 2,750 submissions, one of 19 in competition) and Film Heritage Foundation returns with a 4K restoration of John Abraham's 1986 Amma Ariyan in Cannes Classics. Anshuman Jha's company brings a six-film slate to Marche du Film.

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