Luke Allnutt

Writer, Editor @RFERL || Novel: WE OWN THE SKY. || Based in Prague.

[Josh Glancy @joshglancy]

This is a good progressive take on the Arday scandal, not least because it doesn't pretend that it isn't a scandal. Rather it looks at those who instrumentalised Arday

https://t.co/GtfDTD4VWv

[Adam Lynch @AdamLynch27]

RIP Glen Hansard

A tragic loss

Here he is singing Fairytale of New York at Shane McGowans funeral which is one of the greatest videos over

[Yashar Ali 🐘 @yashar]

Over the past 24 hours, two viral tweets have spread false claims about the military strike in Minab, Iran, that killed schoolgirls — a strike whose origin has not yet been independently verified.

One is from an account frequently amplified by pro-Israel voices in Israel and The United States.

The other is from an account that has somehow amassed thousands of followers in a matter of days.

First, the Nioh Berg tweet claims that the regime has admitted that the IRGC mistakenly bombed the school.

The regime has admitted no such thing.

If you believed this to be true, why have you allowed your critical thinking and common sense to take a vacation when assessing whether this news is accurate or not?

Do you think a criminal, brutal, lying regime facing the greatest threat it has ever faced in its 47-year history would be out here admitting that it killed dozens, if not over 100, schoolgirls while the country is filled with resentment and anger toward it?

Second, the account she cites as a reputable source is mistakenly believed by people to be an official regime account.

It’s not; it is a pro-Pahlavi, anti-regime account.

Nioh’s tweet has been shared all over, and her screenshots are being ripped and used by other influencers.

The second tweet claims to show that it was an IRGC misfired rocket. As noted in the tweet, that shot is from 1,300 km from the school.

Like Nioh’s tweet, the screenshots from this tweet have also been ripped and used by other users who haven’t received the community note this account did.

The truth is, it could have been an IRGC misfired rocket or missile.

It’s just that the evidence these two users have posted — and which subsequently went viral — is not accurate at all.

We know that Israel and the United States were operating in the area. The U.S. says it is investigating the matter, and Israel denies that it bombed the school.

Major news organizations have not yet independently verified who is responsible for this.

Why does this matter? Especially when I despise this regime?

I am defending the integrity of the information that the Iranian people and the world need to make informed decisions in a moment of historic consequence.

Khamenei is dead. The regime is in crisis. The choices made in the coming weeks and months will shape Iran for a generation.

If those choices are made on the basis of lies, the outcome will be corrupted from the start.

You are also handing the regime a gift and you are contributing to the long-term degradation of trust.

It is utterly depressing — but not surprising — how many people accepted these two tweets as fact, particularly Nioh’s tweet, and then went on to spread it independently.

[Steve Capus @SteveCapus]

@RFERL welcomed USAGM head @KariLake & deputies to our Prague HQ. Members of our teams from Farda/Iran; Current Time/Russia, Kyiv/Ukraine plus two formerly imprisoned journalists showcased their dedication. Looking forward to working together w/USAGM to advance our vital mission

[Luke Allnutt @lukeallnutt]

@__Injaneb96 @FoxNews @CNN We are not silent https://t.co/lOQWa3Gsco

[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty @RFERL]

Driven by soaring prices, inflation, and a plunging currency, Iranians took to the streets on December 28, 2025, in what analysts say is the biggest threat to the Islamic regime in years.

🔴Follow the latest developments live:
https://t.co/GCYmrnrYHy

[Markos Mom @Markos_mom]

The Station Nightclub fire happened in 2003. No smartphones. No Instagram.

100 people still died because they stood watching the flames, thinking it was part of the show.

I've retrofitted fire safety for some of the largest property portfolios in the UK post-grenfell.

You are confusing stupidity with biology, physics, and catastrophic design failures.

Here is the actual science of what you are watching:

1. When the music keeps playing and staff don't panic, the human brain overrides flight instincts to fit the threat into a normal context. This is called normalcy bias. These kids froze to process conflicting social cues, not to post for likes. They were likely already filming. They were also likely drunk.

2. We explicitly design buildings to account for this hesitation (pre-movement time). Fire safety codes assume people will wait before running. In a compliant building, you can assume up to a minute or two before egress commences. Sprinklers and detection systems are designed specifically to buy that time.

3. The reason the time buffer didn't exist here is the material. That ceiling is polyurethane foam. It doesn't burn linearly; it hits flashover (1,100°F) in under 90 seconds. It's essentially solid gasoline. The room would have exploded for all intents and purposes. Way before anyone could reasonably evacuate.

4. We calculate exit widths based on how many people can physically pass through a door per minute (flow rate) versus how fast a fire spreads. With foam fires, the available safe egress time drops to almost zero. Even if they had reacted instantly, the crowd density would have choked the exits before the room cleared.

5. In any normal building fire, especially one that starts off small, you expect a responsible adult to put it out, or sprinklers to do the same. When there's a pan fire in a restaurant, you don't run out in case the entire building suddenly explodes. No reasonable person should have expected this unless they were the owner and knew how the building was designed.

Those poor teenagers likely passed out from smoke inhalation soon after this video. If they didn't, they would have been caught in a catastrophic explosion as they crammed into the single tiny exit.

They didn't die because of Instagram.

They died because the physics of the fire moved faster than human bodies can physically squeeze through a door, and a catastrophic disregard of safe design principles meant they never stood a chance.

[Luke Allnutt @lukeallnutt]

@KeebleStev96723 @LauraKirk12 im so sorry, Steve. and what a beautiful tribute. take care mate

[Rusudan Djakeli 🇬🇪🇺🇦 @rusudanjakeli]

Every night, this girl stands by the police cars blocking Rustaveli avenue, greeting oncoming traffic with the Georgian flag on her shoulders. If she's ever delayed, she apologizes in the group Daitove.

For many, this movement is a daily commitment. #GeorgiaProtests

[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty @RFERL]

Residents of Novi Sad cheered as hundreds of students completed a nearly 80-kilometer walk from Belgrade on January 31. It was the culmination of months of protests in Serbia after the deadly collapse of the roof of a train station in Novi Sad, followed by a campaign of arrests and attacks targeting the protesters. #rfe_rl

[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty @RFERL]

As Belarus prepares for another presidential election on January 26, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka still has a tight grip on power. But with persistent health rumors, could he be on his way out? #rfe_rl https://t.co/X7rkByvK6C

[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty @RFERL]

In 2020, the photo went viral: a young Belarusian woman sitting on the ground in Minsk, her face and head covered with blood. #rfe_rl https://t.co/jgPSpg5ijn

[Luke Allnutt @lukeallnutt]

@GWRHelp Cool many thanks

[Luke Allnutt @lukeallnutt]

@GWRHelp Fair enough. Obviously there are worse things in the world. Could you share a link to where we could get compensation?

[Luke Allnutt @lukeallnutt]

@GWRHelp Any help or explanation @GWRHelp ?

[Luke Allnutt @lukeallnutt]

We are a family of four travelling from Reading to Camborne. We’ve been told our carriage J with our booked seats doesn’t even exist as the train has been shortened. So my children are sitting on the dirty floor and we are standing for 4 and 1/2 hours. In these situations you shouldn’t be offering compensation but a full refund for the inconvenience.

[Carl Schreck @CarlSchreck]

When I interviewed Navalny in late 2009 -- when he was still building his rep as an anti-corruption activist and had yet to enter big-time politics -- he told me one of the most common questions he's asked is: "When are you going to be killed?"

[Luke Allnutt @lukeallnutt]

My colleague Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist at @RFERL, was unjustly detained by Russian authorities in October and has been placed in pre-trial detention until December 5. Find out more about her case here. https://t.co/LGF6W5KQZc Every retweet, every "like" helps. #FreeAlsu

[Tom Holland @holland_tom]

Notably not stuck in traffic

[Steve Padilla @StevePadilla2]

As promised, here are Ten New Year’s Resolutions for Editors. They're resolutions you really can keep.

Resolution for Editors No. 1: To read every word of a draft before making changes. (Yes, this is hard. But if time permits, a good practice.)