Julian Assange is now free to do or say whatever he likes. What does his future hold?

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — He has run for office, published hundreds of thousands of leaked government documents online, and once lobbied to save his local swimming pool. One of the most polarizing and influential figures of the information age, Julian Assange is now free after five years in a British prison and seven years in self-imposed exile in a London embassy.

What's next for the WikiLeaks founder remains unclear.

Assange, 52, landed in his homeland of Australia this week after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that put an end to an attempt to extradite him to the United States. That could have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence in the event of conviction.

“Julian plans to swim in the ocean every day. He plans to sleep in a real bed. He plans to taste real food, and he plans to enjoy his freedom,” his wife, Stella Assange, told reporters Thursday at a news conference that Assange did not attend.

Her husband and the father of her two children would continue to “defend human rights and speak out against injustice,” she said. “He can choose how he does that because he is a free man.”

Assange himself has given no clues.

All friends and acquaintances of Assange interviewed by The Associated Press this week emphasized that they did not know his future plans and underscored the toll taken by his ordeal — in prison he spent 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, following years in self-exile inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

“I just want him to survive this ordeal and be happy. I don’t care what Julian does next,” said Andrew Wilkie, an Independent Australian lawmaker who met Assange before the hacker launched WikiLeaks — and was one of the first politicians to lobby for Australia to intervene in his case.

But some also found it hard to imagine Assange wouldn't eventually return to the preoccupations that have long captured him.

“I suspect though that he doesn’t switch off, and it’s hard to see him just disappearing to a beach shack forever,” added Wilkie.

Assange was “unable to walk past injustice” said Suelette Dreyfus, a lecturer in the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne who has known Assange since he was a teenager, hacking secure networks for the fun of it. Dreyfus, who once lobbied alongside Assange to save a swimming pool in Melbourne, said her friend's health had worsened during his years in a British jail.

“But I suspect he will not sit on a beach for the rest of his life,” she said.

It is unclear what will happen to WikiLeaks, the site Assange founded in 2006 as a place to post confidential documents exposing corruption and revealing secret government workings behind warfare and spying. That work led him to be celebrated by supporters as a transparency crusader but lambasted by national security hawks who insisted that his conduct put lives at risk and strayed far beyond the bounds of traditional journalism.

The site remains online, although Assange told The Nation in 2023 that it had ceased publishing because of his imprisonment, and because state surveillance and the freezing of WikiLeaks funds had deterred whistleblowers. Assange’s plea deal with the U.S. included an agreement to destroy any unpublished U.S. documents.

“Will he go back to WikiLeaks and, if he does, will he do it differently? I don’t know,” said Wilkie, the lawmaker.

One matter where Assange’s views are known is his hope for a pardon from a current or future U.S. president on the charge he pleaded guilty to as part of his deal.

White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said President Joe Biden is not considering one.

Media analysts worry the conviction threatened to cast a chilling effect on public interest journalism. Assange has always insisted he is a journalist and the case could lead to the prosecution of other reporters, said Peter Greste, a professor at the University of Queensland and a former foreign correspondent who was jailed in Egypt for his reporting.

In the past, Assange had designs on elected office, making an unsuccessful bid for the Australian senate with his WikiLeaks party in 2013, although he has not suggested he will contest an election again.

“When you turn a bright light on, the cockroaches scuttle away. That’s what we need to do to Canberra,” he told the news program “60 Minutes” the same year, when asked why he wanted to enter politics.

But where the government of the day had despised Assange — a mutual feeling, he said — he was met in his homeland on Wednesday with a hero’s welcome, including from some politicians and a public who had not supported him before.

It reflected a slow reversal of views about the WikiLeaks founder in Australia – but it belied an odd tension, too. In a recent high-profile case, an Australian judge sentenced a former army lawyer to almost six years in prison for leaking classified information that exposed allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. Assange’s legal team mentioned the case on Thursday.

Analysts said that case and others, along with the renewed focus on Assange, drew attention to a fraught national culture of information secrecy that has been endorsed even by some of the politicians who celebrated Assange’s freedom.

“We have some of the most restrictive legislation on access to public information in the world, and we have no constitutional protection for press freedom or freedom of speech,” said Greste. “I hope that Julian does also get involved in campaigning to support press freedom, and transparency and accountability of information in Australia.”

Even when Assange did address the idea of what he may do next — in a 2018 interview for the World Ethical Digital Forum, credited as his last public appearance before he was jailed — he was typically enigmatic.

“I don’t know,” he said. “No, I mean I do know. But I don’t know what I should answer in response to that question.”

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange embraces his wife Stella after landing at RAAF air base Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia, Wednesday, June 26 2024. Assange has returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga.(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange embraces his wife Stella after landing at RAAF air base Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia, Wednesday, June 26 2024. Assange has returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga.(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange waves after landing at RAAF air base Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia, Wednesday, June 26 2024. Assange has returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga.(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the federal court in Saipan, Mariana Islands, Wednesday, June 26 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gestures after landing at RAAF air base Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia, Wednesday, June 26 2024. Assange has returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga.(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — An illness forced Brian Ortega to withdraw Saturday hours before his scheduled fight with Diego Lopes in the co-main event at UFC 303, and Dan Ige was called in as a replacement and narrowly lost by decision.

All three judges scored the fight 29-28 in favor Lopes (25-6).

“I've said before whoever, wherever, I'll fight anybody,” Lopes, a Brazilian, said through an interpreter.

Ige (18-8) received a loud ovation from the crowd after his loss for his willingness to step in on short notice.

“I was like, ‘Man, this an opportunity to become a legend,’” Ige said. "This is a story I will tell my grandkids. I'd love to (have won), but man I couldn't be happier."

UFC President Dana White said before the bout that it likely would have been called off if Ige hadn’t been available.

“There would have been no other options,” White said.

The match is the warm-up bout to the main event between light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and top-ranked challenger Jiri Prochazka.

White said Ortega was running a fever and wasn't ready to go on. Ige, who is from Honolulu but trains in Las Vegas, already was in town preparing for another fight.

“It's all about opportunity,” White said. “He jumped at it. Who's hotter than Lopes right now?”

White joked that Ige likely was sitting on his couch about to order the pay-per-view when he got the call.

Jeff Mullen, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, told ESPN that because Ige fought Feb. 10 in Las Vegas, that made the process smoother to get him approved.

“We already had his medicals and all his requirements completed,” Mullen said. “It was a perfectly approved matchup. I checked with the attorneys to make sure everything was in order.”

The Ortega-Lopes fight itself was a replacement for a previously scheduled bout. Jamahal Hill had to ask out of his match against Carlos Ulberg because a knee injury in training.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Diego Lopes, right, is declared the winner by unanimous decision over Dan Ige in a 165-pound catchweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 303, Saturday, June 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. Ige replaced Brian Ortega, who withdrew from the bout due to illness. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Dan Ige, left, punches Diego Lopes during a 165-pound catchweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 303, Saturday, June 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. Ige replaced Brian Ortega, who withdrew from the bout due to illness. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Featherweight fighters Brian Ortega, left, and Diego Lopes face off during a UFC 303 news conference Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)