This morning, on my way to the clinic, though even calling it that feels absurd now, it is more graveyard than refuge; I saw a girl. She was sixteen, no older. She was thin, with the kind of tiredness around her eyes that children should never know. In her hands, she carried a

Amar mayor! Tomar mayor! 🇧🇩 From Parkchester to Jackson Heights, Bangladeshi New Yorkers have been showing up for this campaign from day one — and I’m proud to have their support.

এই বছরে ভোট দেওয়ার নিয়মটা একটু আলাদা — আপনি একজনকে না, বরং পাঁচজনকে র‍্যাঙ্ক করতে পারেন! This year, voting is a little different — you don’t just pick one person, rather you can rank up to five! আপনার পছন্দের প্রার্থীকে #1 অবস্থান দিন (জোহরান মামদানি), তারপর বাকি ব্যালটটা

Mira Nair on how Zohran Mamdani is responsible for Kal Penn being cast in The Namesake because he forced her to watch Harold and Kumar

💐We have our first PhD! 💐 Dr. Tara Merk Tara Merk, a core member of BlockchainGov - has defended her dissertation at Panthéon-Assas. Her work explores Exit to Community (E2C), tracing how platforms shift toward user ownership. A milestone moment for us all. Big congratulations

What happens when online communities are run as cooperatives, not corporations? Following last week’s “How to E2C,” this week’s article explores Social.coop and The Platform - two communities actively translating Exit to Community into real-world practice. Tara Merk

Gaza is not a war. It’s an experiment. Every weapon tested. Every strategy deployed. Every horror normalized. A preview of what empire wants to make permanent. The drones won’t stay in Palestine. The surveillance won’t stop at Rafah. What is done to the colonized today

I am thrilled to share that my book, Mao’s Steelworks, has been awarded the 2025 Reid Prize (given for “the most significant book contributing to the understanding of Asia”) by the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA). asaa.asn.au/news/book-abou…

theguardian.com/world/2025/jul…

Forthcoming March 2026

This is the best ever true news BBC ever made about Israel, 4 minutes but every minute is extremely important

I was impacted by layoffs and I’m now open to new opportunities in Web3. If you’re building where law meets decentralization — I’d love to talk. Here’s what I bring 🧵: 📍 My background: Lawyer with deep crypto-native experience and PhD researcher in blockchain governance •🛠️

Ganges river delta, over India and Bangladesh, photographed in near-infrared from the ISS. It is the largest river delta on Earth.

This weeks article uses a novel application of Hirschmans famous framework of “exit, voice, and loyalty” - applied for the first time to blockchain-based metaverses. Zooming in on Decentraland By Primavera De Filippi , Morshed Mannan| মোর্শেদ মান্নান , Tara Merk tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

So much has happened lately; need help keeping track? Coin Center has a half-year review of crypto policymaking from 119th Congress and new Administration. There's good (Congress and SEC), bad (DOJ Tornado/Samourai), and big lingering questions re financial surveillance:

Land, Law and Empire by John Marriott An innovative exploration of the British Empire's foundational quest for territorial power in seventeenth-century India. 📚 cup.org/45cgop9 #britishhistory

I have a new article (with Farah Bachtiar of UIN Alauddin Makassar) on Indonesia and the New International Economic Order! We argue that Indonesia had an ambivalent position on NIEO, and it supported NIEO mostly to defend developmentalism. Link here: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

🆕New International Labour Organization brief outlines recommendations for strengthening cooperatives in playing a more active role in eliminating #ChildLabour & improving occupational safety & health #OSH in the coffee & tea supply chains in Uganda 🇺🇬. Read it here: ilo.org/sites/default/…

Today is the first anniversary of the publication of our book :)

Today I spoke at the opening of the Summer School of Cooperative Law being held in Pula, Croatia.