Journalism - as both a profession and as a check on societies and relationships with power - and its last stand.

https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/18/chris-hedges-julian-assanges-final-appealchris-hedges/

Julian’s “crime” is that he published classified documents, internal messages, reports and videos from the U.S. government and U.S. military in 2010, which were provided by U.S. army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. This vast trove of material revealed massacres of civilians, torture, assassinations, the list of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and the conditions they were subjected to, as well as the Rules of Engagement in Iraq. Those who perpetrated these crimes — including the U.S. helicopter pilots who gunned down two Reuters journalists and 10 other civilians and severely injured two children, all captured in the Collateral Murder video — have never been prosecuted. 

If his appeal fails, I suspect he'll never make it to the United States alive.