The US government gives Egypt $1.4 billion in aid per year, most of it for the military. There is a lot of huff and puff about human rights, but no real concern for the throttling of democratic processes within the country, as 65,000 political prisoners – over half of the country’s total 120,000 prisoners – sit in jail.

The secretary general of ALBA-TCP, Sacha Llorenti, asked Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and the Instituto Simón Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela to start an international discussion responding to the broad crises of our times. We brought together twenty-six research institutes from around the world whose work has now culminated in a report called A Plan to Save the Planet. The plan covers twelve areas from ‘democracy and the world order’ to ‘the digital world’.

As we enter the new year, the official death count from COVID-19 sits just below 5.5 million people. Countries like the United States, Brazil, and India have not only failed to manage the crisis in a scientific manner but have stoked cultural divides and used the crisis to expand their power. Despite the comprehensive health clauses in international treaties from the UN 1946 Constitution to 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration, a toxic culture of routine disregard for the well-being of ordinary people continues to be the norm.

There have been some immense victories and some catastrophic defeats this year, the most terrible being the failure of Global North countries to adopt a democratic attitude towards the COVID-19 pandemic, as evidenced by vaccine apartheid. Despite the growing divisions in the world, several advances have been made for humankind – from the Indian farmers’ triumph against corporate interests to left governments taking power in Bolivia, Chile, and Honduras. These struggles not only provide new possibilities in the present but help us imagine different possibilities for the future.

When WikiLeaks and Assange released the video of the July 2007 attack against Iraqi civilians, they embarrassed the United States government. All its claims of humanitarian warfare lost credibility. It is from this point onwards that the US government – whether under the charge of Obama, Trump, or Biden – sought to punish Assange. Assange had to be brought to the United States and thrown into prison. No one was going to be allowed to get away with revealing the truth of US warmongering.