Venezuela may be on the verge of coup today as citizens, opposition leaders and rebel soldiers march on the capital to demand President Nicolás Maduro’s resignation. Opposition leader Juan Guaidó has been trying to oust the authoritarian Maduro since January, but this protest is different, writes professor Marco Aponte-Moreno. Guaidó has freed Venezuela’s most famous political prisoner, Leopoldo López, from jail – and his star power brings new energy to the Venezuelan resistance.

Given a chance to amend their state’s constitution, Florida voters approved a measure that seemed to automatically restore voting rights to 1.4 million citizens with felony convictions. But there could be a hitch. The ballot initiative said this would happen “after they complete all terms of their sentence including parole or probation.” Depending on how pending legislation defines “all terms,” the number of people getting relief could be much lower, explains Victoria Shineman, a political scientist at the University of Pittsburgh.

Why do people abuse animals? Laura Reese, a political scientist at Michigan State University, wanted to understand these heinous crimes better. So she analyzed hundreds of animal cruelty reports submitted to the Detroit Police Department. Her new study sheds some light on what drives people to abuse animals – and why one person might abuse a pet in a very different way from another.