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Ari Winkleman

OK, you may only recently have learned what “Nagorno-Karabakh” is (and if you didn’t, you can go here.) But when it rains it pours, especially in the Caucasus. So now it’s time to learn about a small exclave that could trigger the region’s next big conflict. Today, we are meeting “Nakhchivan.”

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Guatemala President-elect Bernardo Arevalo meets with judges of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal in Guatemala City.

Reuters

In recent days, supporters of Guatemala’s President-elect Bernardo Arévalo have been blocking roads across the country to protest ongoing efforts by federal prosecutors to block him from taking office.

The background: In August, Arévalo, a former diplomat who ran on an anti-corruption platform, pulled off an upset, defeating former first lady Sandra Torres. Her supporters, including the current ruling party, alleged fraud, but those claims were disputed by international observers and dismissed by Guatemalan courts. Government prosecutors have since sought to outlaw Arévalo’s political party on a registration technicality.

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U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, walks outside on the day of his appearance in a federal court on gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., October 3, 2023.

REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

3: President Joe Biden’s son Hunter President Joe Biden's son pleaded not guilty to three firearms charges in a Delaware federal court on Tuesday. The younger Biden was indicted last month on three counts related to possession of a firearm while using illegal drugs.

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FILE PHOTO: Kosovo police officers patrol, in the aftermath of a shooting incident, in Banjska village, Kosovo September 27, 2023.

REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski

Things are getting hot again between Serbia and Kosovo. The US and NATO have both sounded the alarm after a recent gun battle between Kosovo police and Serb nationalists in Northern Kosovo left several people dead, prompting what the White House called an “unprecedented” buildup of Serbian troops along the Kosovo border.

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Smoke rises from the White House parliament building as Yeltsinist troops storm the Russian parliament October 4, 1993.

REUTERS/Petr Josek
30: Tuesday marks 30 years since Russian President Boris Yeltsin launched a military assault on Russia’s parliament building. Yeltsin made the move to end months of constitutional deadlock with a Communist-led opposition that wanted to slow the painful and chaotic post-Soviet transition to capitalism. After deadly clashes in which opposition forces tried to take over a Moscow TV tower, Yeltsin ordered the army to fire on parliament. US officials commended Yeltsin’s handling of the episode, but it permanently soured many Russians’ views of “democracy.”
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken plays guitar at the State Department, September 27, 2023.

@SecBlinken/X.com

To be honest, if you told us that the US secretary of state, a 61-year-old white guy, was gonna grab a Stratocaster and belt out some Delta Blues in public, we’d have braced for a much more awkward outcome than this.

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Leaders of various political parties attend a televised debate ahead of Slovak early parliamentary election.

Reuters

On Saturday, Slovaks hit the polls in an election that has Brussels and Washington on edge. The wily left-wing, populist former PM Robert Fico, who wants to end support for neighboring Ukraine and block the country’s accession to NATO and the EU, is running neck-and-neck with the liberal Progressive Slovakia party.

Fico (that’s “FEE-tso” if you want to say it like a Slovak) has served two prior stints as PM. He was ousted in 2018 amid allegations that his associates had murdered an investigative journalist for reporting on corruption. Since then, Slovaks have suffered a succession of weak and unstable caretaker governments.

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Columbia River Gorge

Panoramic via Reuters

40: The US and Canada are in an eddy of difficult negotiations about water use from the shared Columbia River, whose dams provide half of British Columbia’s electricity and 40% of all US hydropower. Time is running out — the 1964 treaty that governs the two countries’ use of the river expires next September.

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