Freedom

Nobel Peace Prize winner returns to Venezuela from exile, pressing for elections and criticising a controversial US oil deal with Caracas.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has thanked US President Donald Trump’s administration for opening the “floodgate to freedom” by abducting President Nicolas Maduro in January.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate on Thursday also called for elections to be held in Venezuela next year, in her first public remarks since returning from more than 10 months in exile.

“Thanks to their vision, their courage, and their action on January 3, the floodgate to freedom has been opened,” Machado told a news conference in Caracas, naming Trump, his administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rubio “has set out a sequence of events aimed at moving toward a democratic transition that makes clear the holding of presidential elections in 2027”, she said.

Machado has praised Trump before, presenting the president with her Nobel medal – a prize he feverishly coveted for himself in 2025.

A longtime activist, Machado fled Venezuela for Oslo in December to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. On Thursday, she said she had come home to “mobilise society”. US special forces veterans with an organisation called Grey Bull Rescue helped Machado escape by boat after she spent a year in hiding from Maduro’s regime.

Since Maduro’s abduction in January, the country has been ruled by his former Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.

Machado was greeted by cheering supporters as she travelled in her motorcade after she returned to Venezuela on Sunday. Rodriguez voiced distaste for the fanfare.

“The show could have been avoided – the airports are right here,” she said on state television.

When asked about a possible meeting with Rodriguez, the opposition leader said she had not received any message from her or from Washington.

Shortly before Machado’s statements on Thursday, Rodriguez assured the nation that elections would be held in Venezuela “with the world as witness” but did not specify a date.

Her return comes just weeks after a controversial US oil deal that will see Venezuela hand over 20 percent of its vast oil reserves.

“This agreement does not reflect the levels of transparency that Venezuelan society wants,” Machado said, criticising the deal.

The plaintiffs argue they are losing access to vital information media outlets covering Trump used to provide.

A group of private citizens has sued the administration of United States President Donald Trump over its restrictions on news outlets covering the White House.

“All of the Plaintiffs rely on the White House press corps for independent reporting about the president and his administration, and all of them use that reporting in a variety of ways in their scholarship, teaching, journalism, or advocacy,” says the lawsuit, filed on Monday in a federal court in New York.

The lawsuit is the first lodged not by the news outlets being banned, but by those who consume the news and rely on it for their work.

The plaintiffs include a human rights advocate, a media watchdog, a university history professor, a high school teacher, a legal journalist and a student journalist.

Each argues they need unbiased, diverse media reporting from the White House to do their work.

“I’m gravely concerned that the Trump administration’s restrictions on White House reporters are cutting off access to crucial information,” Peter Schmidt-Nowara, a high school social studies teacher in New York City, said in a statement.

“I joined this lawsuit because my students deserve to know what’s happening in their government and to hear from a free and independent press.”

Trump already faces several legal challenges to his practice of banning journalists from outlets he dislikes from accessing the White House.

Last month, he banned journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from attending news conferences at the White House. A federal judge later ruled the order was unconstitutional, a violation of the First Amendment, which protects freedom of the press, and ordered access be restored. However, the Trump administration continues to fight the ruling.

Last week, Trump dismissed reporting that he planned to evict journalists from the White House press briefing room and restore a swimming pool that was housed there starting in 1933. But he said he is still considering moving the press out of the briefing room.

“I am thinking about moving the Press, and putting them in a different location, but I will use that location for very badly needed space,” Trump said in a social media post.

Kenneth Roth, a senior fellow at Yale University and former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the restrictions on press access were familiar postmarks in countries whose leaders have become authoritarian.

“Worldwide, I have seen how governmental leaders’ efforts to penalise independent journalists are a prelude to the rise of autocracy,” he said in a statement.

Journalists prepare to strike as politicians push through changes that critics say threaten independence.

The Czech Republic’s governing coalition has advanced changes to the funding of public media, despite criticism that it could weaken broadcaster independence.

In a rare overnight vote in the early hours of Saturday, the coalition voted to send the bill to committees for further discussion.

The changes include scrapping the 205 crown ($9.45) household broadcasting fee, and replacing it with funding from the state budget.

The populist government of billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis, backed by the far-right SPD party, has frequently criticised public and private media coverage of its policies and accused some outlets of bias.

Babis promised to scrap the broadcasting fee before taking office last December, and says his three-party government is now fulfilling that pledge to voters.

Public media employees staged a strike against the move in June, saying it would make broadcasters vulnerable to government pressure.

Opposition parties have compared the changes with reforms under neighbouring Hungary’s former Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.

Babis has said the new funding model would be fairer to poorer households and encourage outlets to become more efficient.

“There is no war for independent media,” Babis said on Facebook late on Friday. “There is no fight for democracy and no nationalisation of media is being prepared.”

The proposal would cut funding for Czech Television and Czech Radio by about 15 percent and keep nominal funding unchanged for several years.

Public media are among the most trusted news sources in the Czech Republic, with Czech Television the most-watched broadcaster across several age groups.

A civic group has called a public protest for Sunday, while journalists and other employees at the broadcasters announced a strike for November 3.

Rwanda’s controversial Formula One GP leads Lewis Hamilton to call for freedom for DR Congo, while renewing Palestine plea.

Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has renewed his call for freedom for Palestine when pressed on the controversial decision to award a Grand Prix to Rwanda.

The 41-year-old is the only Black competitor in the motorsport and said an African race would make people more aware of the continent, but recognised there were concerns and used the issue to expand on his stance on humanitarian issues across the world.

Human rights campaigners Amnesty International recently accused Formula One of hollow words and offering Rwanda a “sportswashing prize” – an accusation levelled at countries perceived to be using sport to improve a tarnished image abroad.

Hamilton, who was speaking before Sunday’s US Grand Prix, has long called for a Gaza ceasefire amid Israel’s genocidal war and returned to the matter – as well as other conflicts – when asked about a Grand Prix in Rwanda.

“I think we need to make sure we’re pushing to free Congo, free Sudan, free Syria, free Palestine,” Hamilton said.

“There’s a lot of peace that I’m hoping we get to at some stage.”

Rwanda in the spotlight after Formula One GP award

Rwanda President Paul Kagame has been accused of repressive methods to keep his grip on power, with opponents dying in prisons, independent media muzzled, and other abuses.

Neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) joined the criticism of Formula One’s decision to award a race to Rwanda, which is accused by the DRC, the United States and United Nations experts of backing the M23 rebels fighting in the DRC.

“Of course, I don’t get to choose where we go,” Hamilton continued.

“Naturally, there are problems all over the world today, so I’ve seen many of the stories. But I think we really have to approach it with humility.

“Of course, going there doesn’t mean that you neglect the things that are happening there.

“So hopefully many people start to educate themselves a little bit more about what is happening there and what has happened there for hundreds of years. I hope that does spark the conversation.

“Growing up in England, they never taught us anything about Africa. It needs to be on the curriculum.

“A lot of the problems they have there are still results of colonialism and the West intervening.”

Formula One’s return to Africa has been Hamilton’s dream

Hamilton said a race in Africa was a dream that could keep him going longer in the sport now that Formula One has done a deal with Rwanda for a Grand Prix in the early 2030s.

The Ferrari driver will be 42 in January and has a contract for 2027. Fernando Alonso, the oldest active F1 driver, is 45 and recently signed up for another season with Aston Martin.

“I’m now forced to stay a lot longer because we have a race in Africa, and that’s been my dream, to be able to race in Africa,” Hamilton said on Thursday in a news conference alongside championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

“I have to keep fighting to try and stay fit. If I can still punch out good results over the next year, we’ll keep it going.”

Antonelli, who replaced Hamilton at Mercedes last season and is still only 20 years old, encouraged him: “You got to do at least the first one.”

Hamilton, the sport’s first and only Black champion, has long campaigned for a race in Africa – a continent that last hosted a race at South Africa’s Kyalami circuit in 1993 – and spoke of his efforts.

“Countless meetings with the stakeholders, so many meetings with (F1 CEO) Stefano (Domenicali) at his office in London, but also on race weekends, countless calls: ‘What’s happening? Where are we going? Who are you meeting with?’

“Many meetings with different presidents from different countries. Lots of phone calls with different presidents from different countries within Africa,” he recalled.

“I think for me, it’s a place that deserves to have a Grand Prix. It’s about more than just one country. It’s about the continent itself.”