Venezuela, which has been mired in recession for nearly four years, has now partially defaulted on its debt. This unsurprising sign of insolvency will only deepen the humanitarian crisis in a country where 54 percent of children already suffer from malnutrition. Even so, writes Venezuelan economist Henkel García U, no one – not even Venezuela’s two main creditors, Russia and China – is rushing to bail out the authoritarian regime of Nicolás Maduro.

And, Edmund W. Cheng of Hong Kong Baptist University and Samson Yuen of Lingnan University consider the subtle and effective means that Hong Kong’s government is using to suppress the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. The “challenges facing the new generation of activists are not how to mobilise mass protests, but how to wrestle with the state’s innovative strategy to manage society,” they write.