Venezuela has endured acute food and medicine shortages, and a severe economic crisis since 2015. 80% of Venezuelans disapprove of President Nicolás Maduro, who was re-elected for a second term on May 20. The United States and European Union have condemned the election as fraudulent. But despite such a high disapproval rating, international relations professors Andrea Oelsner and Federico Merke, argue that Maduro could hang on for quite a while.

Zimbabweans go to the polls today in one of the country’s most contested elections since its independence in 1980. Not only are the stakes incredibly high in the first poll without Robert Mugabe, but voters also have a number of choices they have to make. These include who they want as president, who they want to represent them in parliament as well as a raft of local council positions. David B. Moore makes sense of it all.

Crate diggers collect rare or forgotten vinyl records, often building huge collections that bring past stories and experiences into society’s historical memory. A recent compilation album of 1970s/80s music from the Horn of Africa, “Sweet as Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes”, is a powerful example of this unseen cultural archaeology. Michael Shakib Bhatch, a digger himself, writes that the record allows us to experience the sound, consciousness and ambience of forgotten times and places.