Simon Frankel Pratt
@simonpratt.bsky.social
Political scientist at the University of Melbourne. Formerly of other places. Research: war, intelligence, innovation, and normative change in international politics. Cat paparazzo. He/Him 🇨🇦🏳️🌈✡️
Pinned
Well, I was in Istanbul recently and I photographed many cats. By popular demand, here are some of them.
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
12 months ago, the US, along with Canada & the EU, were joined hand in hand to fight transnational repression from the likes of China, India, & Iran. Now, it's actively participating in repression & censorship. "UK social media campaigners among five denied US visas." www.bbc.com/news/article...
UK social media campaigners among five denied US visas
The Trump administration bans five people who have called for tech regulation from entering the country.
www.bbc.com
December 24, 2025 at 6:21 PM
12 months ago, the US, along with Canada & the EU, were joined hand in hand to fight transnational repression from the likes of China, India, & Iran. Now, it's actively participating in repression & censorship. "UK social media campaigners among five denied US visas." www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
‘All brakes are off’: Russia’s attempt to rein in illicit market for leaked data backfires
‘All brakes are off’: Russia’s attempt to rein in illicit market for leaked data backfires
Russian state has tolerated parallel probiv market for its convenience but now Ukrainian spies are exploiting it
Russia is scrambling to rein in the country’s sprawling illicit market for leaked personal data, a shadowy ecosystem long exploited by investigative journalists, police and criminal groups.
For more than a decade, Russia’s so-called probiv market – a term derived from the verb “to pierce” or “to punch into a search bar” – has operated as a parallel information economy built on a network of corrupt officials, traffic police, bank employees and low-level security staff willing to sell access to restricted government or corporate databases. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 26, 2025 at 9:08 AM
‘All brakes are off’: Russia’s attempt to rein in illicit market for leaked data backfires
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
I'd like to point out that palestinians are having this debate. Something youre apparently not allowed to say in pro palestine spaces in the US 🙄
youtu.be/gbG2HxwLHgk?...
youtu.be/gbG2HxwLHgk?...
المقاومة الفلسطينية.. سؤال الخيارات والمستقبل│ حوارات العربي
YouTube video by العربي - أخبار
youtu.be
December 24, 2025 at 1:41 AM
I'd like to point out that palestinians are having this debate. Something youre apparently not allowed to say in pro palestine spaces in the US 🙄
youtu.be/gbG2HxwLHgk?...
youtu.be/gbG2HxwLHgk?...
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
This is absolutely unacceptable. Jews need to resist having our pain turned into an engine of hatred and bigotry against Muslims. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Retribution fears as Australian Muslims see surge in Islamophobic hate since Bondi terror attack
Security stepped up at mosques amid spate of targeted abuse as leaders mourn Bondi victims and say community will not ‘claim victimhood’
www.theguardian.com
December 24, 2025 at 4:36 AM
This is absolutely unacceptable. Jews need to resist having our pain turned into an engine of hatred and bigotry against Muslims. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
When you’ve gone to this place, it’s time to just admit your only interest in antisemitism is claiming it doesn’t exist
December 24, 2025 at 3:45 AM
When you’ve gone to this place, it’s time to just admit your only interest in antisemitism is claiming it doesn’t exist
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
If you attack a Sunni mosque, and you say it is motivated not by hatred of Muslims as a religious community, but by opposition to the Saudi government as a state, you are still being Islamophobic.
So the younger shooter, in a video submitted to the court, claims the shooting was aimed at the Zionist policies of Israel as a state. This is distinct from being an attack against Jewish people as a group. Once again the pro-Zionist coalition and right wing media jumped the gun and got it wrong.
December 24, 2025 at 5:45 AM
If you attack a Sunni mosque, and you say it is motivated not by hatred of Muslims as a religious community, but by opposition to the Saudi government as a state, you are still being Islamophobic.
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
New story with updates on our ongoing project examining the fates of 55 of Assad's most brutal enforcers: luxury lives in Moscow and Dubai, sure, but also properties in Spain, small apartments in Damascus, and some stuck on tourist visas. And one arrest. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/w...
Assad’s Enforcers Brutalized Syria. Now They’re Living Large, Lying Low and Evading Justice.
www.nytimes.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:32 PM
New story with updates on our ongoing project examining the fates of 55 of Assad's most brutal enforcers: luxury lives in Moscow and Dubai, sure, but also properties in Spain, small apartments in Damascus, and some stuck on tourist visas. And one arrest. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/w...
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
Biases as a trans person aside, I think at some point we need to make a stand simply because Republican affirmative action becoming the norm will make it functionally impossible to teach.
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university
Graduate instructor who gave failing grade to Samantha Fulnecky no longer teaching at OU
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university.
www.koco.com
December 23, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Biases as a trans person aside, I think at some point we need to make a stand simply because Republican affirmative action becoming the norm will make it functionally impossible to teach.
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
AI platforms where users can create intimate, evolving and individualized relationships with digital companions have introduced a daunting new layer of complexity for families seeking to protect their children from harm online.
Her daughter was unraveling, and she didn’t know why. Then she found the AI chat logs.
A majority of teens are interacting with AI companions, and many of their parents have no idea.
wapo.st
December 23, 2025 at 5:00 PM
AI platforms where users can create intimate, evolving and individualized relationships with digital companions have introduced a daunting new layer of complexity for families seeking to protect their children from harm online.
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
Don't agree with everything here, but it is worth considering: thediasporist.de/is-holocaust...
Is Holocaust Memory Over? – the Diasporist
How the German political and media classes have hollowed out the lessons of history
thediasporist.de
December 23, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Don't agree with everything here, but it is worth considering: thediasporist.de/is-holocaust...
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
Recent satellite imagery from @planet.com taken on December 23 2025 shows that the eastern half of the Ma'an Cemetery south of Khan Yunis has been completely destroyed and converted into part of an IDF outpost.
The cemetery was previously damaged in late 2023/early 2024: bsky.app/profile/godi...
The cemetery was previously damaged in late 2023/early 2024: bsky.app/profile/godi...
December 23, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Recent satellite imagery from @planet.com taken on December 23 2025 shows that the eastern half of the Ma'an Cemetery south of Khan Yunis has been completely destroyed and converted into part of an IDF outpost.
The cemetery was previously damaged in late 2023/early 2024: bsky.app/profile/godi...
The cemetery was previously damaged in late 2023/early 2024: bsky.app/profile/godi...
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
Trump and Putin share a craving for status. That’s why they both want to destroy Europe | Henry Farrell and Sergey Radchenko
Trump and Putin share a craving for status. That’s why they both want to destroy Europe | Henry Farrell and Sergey Radchenko
Liberal democracies view Putin’s Russia as a bully – and Trump’s US as an angry drunk with a bazooka. The response is pure venom, say Henry Farrell and Sergey Radchenko of Johns Hopkins
www.theguardian.com
December 23, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Trump and Putin share a craving for status. That’s why they both want to destroy Europe | Henry Farrell and Sergey Radchenko
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
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While at war, PM Netanyahu's top aides misled the Israeli and international media, and operated as agents of Qatari propaganda.
Amos Harel
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
While at war, PM Netanyahu's top aides misled the Israeli and international media, and operated as agents of Qatari propaganda.
Amos Harel
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Netanyahu's aides misled the Israeli media for the PM and spread Qatari propaganda
The Ease With Which Dubious Information Was Shared With Reporters – Who Then Shared It With Their Viewers and Readers – Raises Serious Concerns About the Integrity of the Conduct of Senior Bodies in I...
www.haaretz.com
December 23, 2025 at 7:39 AM
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While at war, PM Netanyahu's top aides misled the Israeli and international media, and operated as agents of Qatari propaganda.
Amos Harel
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
While at war, PM Netanyahu's top aides misled the Israeli and international media, and operated as agents of Qatari propaganda.
Amos Harel
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
It went from "makes tech firms pay" to "California will contribute more than Google and also here's some AI bs."
State lawmakers give up on bills to force tech companies to pay media outlets for using news. Instead, they agree with Google on a program to help local newsrooms and to explore artificial intelligence
California Tried To Make Google Pay News Outlets. The Company Cut a Deal that Includes Funding AI – The Markup
State lawmakers give up on bills to force tech companies to pay media outlets for using news. Instead, they agree with Google on a program to help local newsrooms and to explore artificial intelligence
bit.ly
December 23, 2025 at 9:03 AM
It went from "makes tech firms pay" to "California will contribute more than Google and also here's some AI bs."
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
I just uploaded @jasonparis.bsky.social 's recording of the segment CBS News pulled from "60 Minutes" to YouTube:
WATCH: Segment CBS News Pulled From "60 Minutes"
YouTube video by Phil Lewis
www.youtube.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:45 PM
I just uploaded @jasonparis.bsky.social 's recording of the segment CBS News pulled from "60 Minutes" to YouTube:
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
These are concentration camps. No other way to describe them. Truly horrific, and none of it surprising in the least.
30 minutes. Some deportees described sexual assault. Detainee describes the guard sexually assaulting most detainees. Lights left on all day. Prisoners not given clean water.
Now the DHS tour. Nobody spoke to the detainees. Noem's video was in a different area of the prison.
Now the DHS tour. Nobody spoke to the detainees. Noem's video was in a different area of the prison.
December 22, 2025 at 11:56 PM
These are concentration camps. No other way to describe them. Truly horrific, and none of it surprising in the least.
Hi friends! I'm revising my syllabus for my upcoming 'terrorism and insurgency' course/module. Students are masters-level. For those of you also teaching and researching this topic, what are the Big Questions you want students to know and address?
Especially keen to address antisemitism better.
Especially keen to address antisemitism better.
December 23, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Hi friends! I'm revising my syllabus for my upcoming 'terrorism and insurgency' course/module. Students are masters-level. For those of you also teaching and researching this topic, what are the Big Questions you want students to know and address?
Especially keen to address antisemitism better.
Especially keen to address antisemitism better.
It has always infuriated me when elements of the Israeli right use antisemitism and terrorism elsewhere to encourage aliyah. If someone is afraid and decides to make it, fine. But manipulating fear and alienation in this way is just gross.
December 22, 2025 at 11:47 PM
It has always infuriated me when elements of the Israeli right use antisemitism and terrorism elsewhere to encourage aliyah. If someone is afraid and decides to make it, fine. But manipulating fear and alienation in this way is just gross.
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
A Syrian expat was dining at Sixty, a restaurant at the top of a Moscow skyscraper, when waiters asked him not to take any photos. The diner looked around to see who the VIP was. It was Bashar al-Assad. Our story on the family’s life in exile: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/w...
For Fallen Syrian Dictator Assad and Family, an Exile of Luxury and Impunity
www.nytimes.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:33 PM
A Syrian expat was dining at Sixty, a restaurant at the top of a Moscow skyscraper, when waiters asked him not to take any photos. The diner looked around to see who the VIP was. It was Bashar al-Assad. Our story on the family’s life in exile: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/w...
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
Israel's war on Gaza has placed an extraordinary burden on the local journalists in country to tell the story, as international reporters have been barred from entering and coverage. Glad to see NBC spotlight that heartbreaking, vital work, done by their local workers www.nbcnews.com/video/filmed...
Filmed in Gaza: Two NBC News journalists on what it is like to cover the Israel-Hamas war from inside Gaza
For almost two years, Samed Abu Zarifa and Samir Al Boji covered the Israel-Hamas war from inside Gaza as it unfolded around them. "Filmed in Gaza" is a rare, intimate portrait of their daily lives si...
www.nbcnews.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Israel's war on Gaza has placed an extraordinary burden on the local journalists in country to tell the story, as international reporters have been barred from entering and coverage. Glad to see NBC spotlight that heartbreaking, vital work, done by their local workers www.nbcnews.com/video/filmed...
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
False flag claims have also spread rapidly.
Richmond, CA Mayor Eduardo Martinez, a DSA member, reposted content speculating an Israeli soldier committed the attack, along with a Star of David image claiming "the root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel."
Richmond, CA Mayor Eduardo Martinez, a DSA member, reposted content speculating an Israeli soldier committed the attack, along with a Star of David image claiming "the root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel."
California mayor urged to resign for spreading antisemitic Bondi Beach conspiracies
Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area says Eduardo Martinez 'can no longer effectively serve' after he reposted claim that Hanukkah attack was a 'false flag' by Israel
www.timesofisrael.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:46 PM
False flag claims have also spread rapidly.
Richmond, CA Mayor Eduardo Martinez, a DSA member, reposted content speculating an Israeli soldier committed the attack, along with a Star of David image claiming "the root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel."
Richmond, CA Mayor Eduardo Martinez, a DSA member, reposted content speculating an Israeli soldier committed the attack, along with a Star of David image claiming "the root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel."
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
🧵
1) Google Scholar is not inventing fake citations, but it transfers these hallucinations into a temporary catalog page on the library site via standard API tools. This not good, here the story continues:
December 21, 2025 at 7:26 PM
🧵
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
Over the past few months I’ve spoken to a number of intelligence analysts in the private sector about their use of LLMs in their work.
A number of concerning observations 🧵
1) Overwhelmingly, LLMs are thrust upon them by management with no training or direction other than ‘use it somehow’.
A number of concerning observations 🧵
1) Overwhelmingly, LLMs are thrust upon them by management with no training or direction other than ‘use it somehow’.
December 20, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Over the past few months I’ve spoken to a number of intelligence analysts in the private sector about their use of LLMs in their work.
A number of concerning observations 🧵
1) Overwhelmingly, LLMs are thrust upon them by management with no training or direction other than ‘use it somehow’.
A number of concerning observations 🧵
1) Overwhelmingly, LLMs are thrust upon them by management with no training or direction other than ‘use it somehow’.
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
Fifteen people were killed in a December 14 attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, including a 10-year-old girl, a long-serving rabbi and a Holocaust survivor. Here is what we know about the victims’ lives.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/w...
December 20, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Fifteen people were killed in a December 14 attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, including a 10-year-old girl, a long-serving rabbi and a Holocaust survivor. Here is what we know about the victims’ lives.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/w...
Reposted by Simon Frankel Pratt
In the last two years, Yuval Abraham @972mag.com brought groundbreaking investigative reporting on war crimes in Gaza. This podcast gives a glimpse into the work behind it - and why you should support it.
www.972mag.com/podcast-unco...
www.972mag.com/podcast-unco...
Uncovering the inner workings of an AI genocide
+972's Yuval Abraham takes us inside his investigations into the Gaza war and the legal and moral challenges he faces when reporting.
www.972mag.com
December 20, 2025 at 11:07 PM
In the last two years, Yuval Abraham @972mag.com brought groundbreaking investigative reporting on war crimes in Gaza. This podcast gives a glimpse into the work behind it - and why you should support it.
www.972mag.com/podcast-unco...
www.972mag.com/podcast-unco...