Welcome to Andy Worthington

Marking the 5th anniversary, today, of the Grenfell Tower fire, on June 14, 2017, when 72 people died, in a disaster that should never have happened, but that came to pass because everyone responsible prioritised cost-cutting and profits over the safety of residents. I also discuss how the insanely flammable cladding, which was the primary cause of the disaster, was also used on hundreds of other buildings, both public and private, and discuss how, in the shameful deregulated world of housing safety, much of it is still in place, still endangering lives, and leaving everyone involved – whether leaseholders or tenants – trapped in homes that are both worthless and unsafe.

My latest quarterly fundraiser, in which I ask you, if you can, to make a donation to support my work on Guantánamo (now in its 17th year) as a reader-funded independent journalist, researcher, commentator and campaigner. Any help you can provide will be very gratefully received.

I mark the 16th anniversary of the deaths of three men at Guantánamo, and revisit the implausibility of the official narrative, which is that they committed suicide. This is an act of remembrance that I engage in every year, and this year I include new information about the events of that particular night that was provided by former prisoner Mansoor Adayfi in his memoir ‘Don’t Forget Us Here,’ published last summer.

Posting the letter sent by 69 lawmakers to the chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee, urging them to drop the ban on sending Guantánamo prisoners to the US mainland for any reason (even for urgent medical treatment) in next year’s National Defense Authorization Act – plus my account of the shameful 12-year history of the obstacles raised by Republicans regarding Guantánamo in successive versions of the NDAA.

Marking the 37th anniversary of the Battle of the Beanfield, on June 1, 1985, when the police, under Margaret Thatcher, violently assaulted a convoy of travellers en route to Stonehenge to establish what would have been the 12th annual Stonehenge Free Festival, with commentary about how, today, Gypsies and travellers face a threat to their very way of life via legislation introduced by our dangerous and bigoted home secretary, Priti Patel.

My report about the case of Khaled Qassim, one of the last five “forever prisoners” in Guantánamo, after his recent Periodic Review Board, including a powerful statement in support of his approval for release that was sent to the Board by Mark Maher, one of his attorneys.

My review of Hat Vickers’ documentary film ‘The Battle for Deptford’, now available for free on YouTube, which focuses on community activism and the long struggle to save the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden and Reginald House, a block of structurally sound council flats, from destruction for a housing project in Deptford, in south east London.

Recently discovered videos of speakers at the rally for the closure of Guantánamo that was held in London in January 2022, featuring speakers including John McDonnell MP and myself, to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the prison.

As “forever prisoner” Muhammad Rahim, an Afghan, has his ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial at Guantánamo recommended by a Periodic Review Board, I look at his case, and those of the other four remaining “forever prisoners” (down from 22 when Joe Biden took office), and the problem they represent for the president in his efforts to finally close the prison.

A fundraiser marking ten years of my photo-journalism project ‘The State of London’, and marking five years since I began posting a photo a day from the project, plus accompanying essays, on Facebook. This is an entirely reader-funded project, so any help you can provide will be very gratefully received.