US State Department defends Venezuela oil deal

The Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado says that her country needs democracy rather than an oil deal. But a US State Department spokesman tells Newshour that the agreement involved "a very transparent process".

Also in the programme: Indonesia battles huge wildfires as toxic haze spreads across southeast Asia; and we mark the legacy of the American feminist icon, Gloria Steinem.

(Photo: Oil drilling platforms at Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. Credit: Reuters)