When Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega was reelected to run the country in 2007, his ally Hugo Chávez began supporting his regime with shipments of cheap Venezuelan crude oil. Profits from oil sales boosted Nicaragua’s economy and helped Ortega fund ambitious anti-poverty initiatives that made his government wildly popular. But when Venezuela’s economy started to collapse in 2015, oil aid dried up. So did support for Ortega’s regime. Benjamin Waddell, who recently fled Nicaragua, follows the oil money behind Ortega’s rise and dizzying fall.

Elephants are notorious for destroying crops in their search for food. Some of these crops are crucial to people’s livelihoods. But in one region in Tanzania, researchers are exploring the use of beehives to deter elephants. Katarzyna Nowak explains how this is working, and keeping elephants safe in the process.