- Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado named winner in October
- Award ceremony took place in front of Norway’s King Harald
- Machado dedicated honour in part to US President Donald Trump
- Says she plans to return to Venezuela
World
Nobel laureate Machado arrives in Oslo, hours after award ceremony
OSLO, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado appeared in Oslo early on Thursday, climbing barriers outside her hotel to hug well-wishers after the Venezuelan opposition figure failed to reach the Norwegian capital in time to receive her award at a ceremony held hours earlier.
The 58-year-old engineer had secretly left Venezuela for Oslo in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in her home country and after spending more than a year in hiding.
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Speaking in Oslo, the laureate described the joy of meeting her children – who live in exile – for the first time in about two years.
“For over 16 months I haven’t been able to hug or touch anyone,” Machado told the BBC. “Suddenly in the matter of a few hours I’ve been able to see the people I love the most, and touch them and cry and pray together.”
Machado greeted dozens of people from the balcony of Oslo’s Grand Hotel, where Nobel laureates traditionally stay, waving and singing the national anthem along with the crowd, which waved Venezuelan flags and filmed her with their mobile phones.
Later, Machado came down to the street and climbed over crowd barriers to hug and shake hands with people who had gathered in the cold for the chance to see her.
“After all these months in which she has been in hiding and her life has been in danger, I think seeing her together with the entire Venezuelan diaspora is a pleasure and a reassurance that she is safe, and it is also a way for the Venezuelan cause to stay alive and a way to put more pressure on the regime,” said Diana Luna, a Mexican-German woman in the crowd.
Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, earlier accepted the Nobel Prize in her name and delivered a speech by her mother in which she said democracies must be prepared to fight for freedom in order to survive.
In her speech, Machado said that the prize held profound significance, not only for her country but for the world.
“It reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace,” she said via her daughter, whose voice cracked when she spoke of her mother. “And more than anything, what we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey: that to have a democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom.”
LAUREATE LEFT VENEZUELA BY BOAT
Machado left Venezuela by boat on Tuesday and travelled to the Caribbean island of Curacao, from where she departed on a private plane for Norway, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The source, who had been briefed by Machado’s camp, said her escape from the Venezuelan coast was handled by her security staff. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Machado’s travel to Curacao, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Speaking at her hotel early on Thursday, Machado said she plans to return to Venezuela despite the risks she faces.
“Of course I’m going back,” she told the BBC.
A large portrait of a smiling Machado hung in the Oslo City Hall to represent her at the ceremony. The audience cheered and clapped when Norwegian Nobel Committee head Joergen Watne Frydnes said during his speech that Machado would be coming to Oslo.
Evoking previous laureates Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa, he said fighters for democracy were expected “to pursue their aims with a moral purity their opponents never display”.
Item 1 of 8 Supporters greet Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado outside the Grand Hotel, after her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the award on her behalf, in Oslo, Norway December 11, 2025. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
[1/8]Supporters greet Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado outside the Grand Hotel, after her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the award on her behalf, in Oslo, Norway December 11, 2025. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger Purchase Licensing Rights
“This is unrealistic. It is unfair,” he said.
“No democracy operates in ideal circumstances. Activist leaders must confront and resolve dilemmas that we onlookers are free to ignore. People living under the dictatorship often have to choose between the difficult and the impossible.”
‘A CHOICE THAT MUST BE RENEWED EACH DAY’
In 2024, Machado was barred from running in the presidential election, despite having won the opposition’s primary by a landslide. She went into hiding in August 2024 after authorities expanded arrests of opposition figures following the disputed vote.
The electoral authority and top court declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner, but international observers and the opposition say its candidate handily won and the opposition has published ballot box-level tallies as evidence of its victory.
“Freedom is a choice that must be renewed each day, measured by our willingness and our courage to defend it. For this reason, the cause of Venezuela transcends our borders,” she said in her prepared speech.
“A people who choose freedom contribute not only to themselves, but to humanity.”
‘FRAGILE’ DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS
In her speech, Machado said Venezuelans did not realise in time that their country was sliding into what she described as a dictatorship.
Referring to the late president Hugo Chavez, who was elected in 1999 and held power until his death in 2013, Machado said: “By the time we recognised how fragile our institutions had become, a man who had once led a military coup to overthrow democracy, was elected president. Many thought that charisma could substitute the rule of law.”
“From 1999 onward, the regime dismantled our democracy.”
Maduro, in power since 2013, says U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to overthrow him to gain access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and that Venezuelan citizens and armed forces will resist any such attempt.
DEDICATED TO TRUMP
When Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize in October, she dedicated it in part to Trump, who has said he himself deserved the honour.
She has aligned herself with hawks close to Trump who argue that Maduro has links to criminal gangs that pose a direct threat to U.S. national security, despite doubts raised by the U.S. intelligence community.
The Trump administration has ordered more than 20 military strikes in recent months against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and off Latin America’s Pacific coast.
Human rights groups, some Democrats and several Latin American countries have condemned the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings of civilians.
Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, Terje Solsvik, Miguel Pereira, Tom Little and Leonhard Foeger in Oslo, Matt Spetalnick in Washington DC, Ilze Filks and Niklas Pollard in Stockholm; Editing by Alison Williams, Alex Richardson and Michael Perry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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World
Netflix Unveils Turkish Slate, Headlined by Series Adaptation of Nobel Prize-Winning Author Orhan Pamuk’s ‘The Museum of Innocence’
Netflix has unveiled its Turkish production slate for 2026, which is headlined by a hotly anticipated series adaptation of Turkish Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk acclaimed book “The Museum Of Innocence” and several other high-end shows with international reach.
The previously announced nine-episode “Museum of Innocence” series – that will drop on Netflix Feb. 13 – starts out in 1970’s Istanbul where a wealthy man named Kemal becomes romantically obsessed with his poor and distant young relative, a shopgirl named Füsun. Their romance unfolds over a decade against the backdrop of the changing city, after which he spends the rest of his life creating a museum in her memory that contains “his beloved’s earrings, her hair clips, and even her discarded cigarette butts,” as the synopsis puts it.
Directed by Zeynep Günay, “Museum of Innocence” is written by Ertan Kurtulan and produced by Turkish TV Powerhouse Ay Yapım known for International Emmy-winning series “Endless Love,” and also “Fatmagul,” “Ezel” and “Forbidden Love,” among other global hit series.
Other standout titles in Netflix’s new Turkish that have not been previously announced comprise:
— “Seni Tanıyorum,” a series written by Tuğba Doğan (“Hepimiz Birimiz Için”), directed by Mert Baykal (“Hot Skull”) and produced by Bonbon Studios. “After taking a break from painting following childbirth, Funda finds the nanny she has been searching for,” reads the synopsis. “But the mystery and unsettling nature of Nazlı begins to change the lives of Funda and her husband İlker forever. What starts as a simple encounter turns into a long-running game in which each of them is tested in their loyalty and desires.”
— “Sonra Gözler Görür,” a series penned by Ece Yörenç (“Fallen Leaves,” “Forbidden Love”), directed by Bertan Başaran (“Shahmaran”) and produced by Ay Yapim. “A quiet coastal town is shaken by the mysterious death of a young girl. When a renowned journalist returns to the place she grew up years later to investigate the case, her search uncovers not only a killer, but long-buried secrets and the truth about her own past,” the synopsis says.
New upcoming 2026 instalments of popular pre-existing Netflix Turkey originals shows include fresh seasons of “Ethos,” “Money Trap,” “Thank You, Next,” “Another Self” and Graveyard.”
World
Iran accused of sex assaults on teenage prisoners, while families charged to recover remains of loved ones
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Reports have emerged from eyewitnesses in Iran alleging sexual assaults on teenagers held in custody, as well as authorities forcing families of those protesters killed to pay as much as 10 billion rials to recover their bodies.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI-US) also told Fox News Digital Wednesday that the “barbarity continues” across the nation, with prison detainees allegedly being killed and their bodies burned.
The reports came as Iran’s government claimed it had successfully crushed weeks of unrest that swept the country.
Beginning Dec. 28, the protests erupted amid deep public anger over political repression, economic hardship and state violence before rapidly expanding nationwide.
LINDSEY GRAHAM SPEAKS AGAINST PENDING EXECUTION OF 26-YEAR-OLD IRANIAN PROTESTER: ‘THIS REGIME MUST FALL’
Iranian demonstrators gather in a street during a protest over the collapse of the currency’s value, in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 8, 2026. (Stringer/WANA/Reuters)
“The sedition is over now,” Iran’s prosecutor general Mohammad Movahedi said, according to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency.
“And we must be grateful, as always, to the people who extinguished this sedition by being in the field in a timely manner,” he added, according to the New York Times.
The regime’s claims emerged on day 25 of the protests with the number of confirmed fatalities reaching 4,902, and the number of deaths still under review standing at 9,387.
The total number of arrests has risen to 26,541, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.
IRAN STATE TV HACKED TO SHOW EXILED CROWN PRINCE PAHLAVI
Demonstrators burn a poster depicting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in support of anti-government protests in Iran, in Holon, Israel Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) also said it received information indicating that some families were forced to pay sums of up to 10 billion rials to recover the bodies of their relatives.
In many cases, funeral ceremonies were held under heavy security control in the hometowns of those killed.
Some families were reportedly subjected to threats and pressure to falsely attribute responsibility for the killings to protesters.
KHRN further said that two protesters, including a 16-year-old, said they were sexually assaulted by Iranian security forces who detained them in Kermanshah, according to reports.
G7 THREATENS IRAN WITH NEW SANCTIONS OVER NATIONWIDE PROTEST CRACKDOWN KILLING THOUSANDS
Iranian security forces allegedly killed detainees and burned bodies during protests, with clashes continuing in Kermanshah, Rasht and Mashhad despite government claims. (NCRI)
Meanwhile, NCRI’s Ali Safavi said eyewitnesses reported that “several young women and men were forced to undress, so the military could see whether they had pellet wounds.”
“There has been barbarity with people who were detained. When they were killed, their bodies were burned,” he added.
Safavi also said clashes continued in multiple cities Tuesday night, including “Kermanshah where protesters and armed units of the IRGC fought in parts of the city.”
“There was the same in Rasht and Mashhad where the people and the regime will not return to the status quo even if the uprisings have slowed down. This is because of the blood of thousands of martyrs on their hands.”
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“The regime is still in power, and it won’t abandon brutal and bloody suppression so there is no pathway to a velvet revolution in Iran.”
“The shoes and sneakers seen left along the sidewalks remind us of the 30,000 MEK members and Iranian prisoners who were hanged during the 1988 massacre based on a fatwa by Khomeini,” Safavi added.
World
French firm Lactalis latest to recall baby formula amid contamination scare
French, Swiss food giants Danone and Nestle have also recalled infant formula batches in recent weeks over toxin fears.
Published On 22 Jan 2026
French dairy product giant Lactalis has announced a recall of batches of infant formula in France and more than a dozen other countries over worries batches have been contaminated by a toxin.
The announcement on Wednesday follows the recall of infant formula by Swiss dairy corporation Nestle in almost 60 countries since the beginning of the month.
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Lactalis “is proceeding with a voluntary recall of six batches of Picot infant milk, available in pharmacies and mass retail, due to the presence of cereulide in an ingredient supplied by a supplier”, the company said, referring to the toxin that can cause diarrhoea and vomiting.
“We are fully aware that this information may cause concern among parents of young children,” the company said.
Outside France, the recall affects Australia, Chile, China, Colombia, the Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Spain, Madagascar, Mexico, Uzbekistan, Peru, Georgia, Greece, Kuwait, the Czech Republic and Taiwan, a spokesperson for the company told the AFP news agency.
The recall involves “a few batches” of formula in each of the countries, the spokesperson said.
The company said the French authorities had not signalled “any claim nor any report related to the consumption of these products”.
The infant formula industry has been rocked by recalls in recent weeks.
Authorities in Singapore on Saturday recalled Dumex baby formula, a brand owned by French food giant Danone, as well as batches of Nestle formula.
The Singapore Food Agency said it ordered the precautionary recall of a batch of Danone’s Thai-origin Dumex Dulac 1 and Nestle’s Swiss-origin NAN HA1 SupremePro after detecting cereulide.
Danone said the authorities blocked just “a few pallets” of Dumex, indicating they were not yet on the shelves of retail outlets.
Like Lactalis, Nestle has issued recalls since January due to the potential presence of cereulide, a bacterial substance that can cause sickness.
Nestle France said it was carrying out a “preventive and voluntary recall” of certain batches of its Guigoz and Nidal infant formulas after new investigations showed the potential presence of cereulide.
French health authorities said on Tuesday an investigation was under way after the death of a baby who had consumed milk from one of the batches recalled by Nestle, though no link has been established between its consumption and the death at this stage.
In 2018, Lactalis was at the centre of a salmonella outbreak and ensuing scandal after the company was accused of trying to cover up the extent of the outbreak, which led to the recall of 12 million tins of baby formula from more than 80 countries.
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