What in the World?

Test yourself on the week of Sept. 30: Slovakia votes, the EU announces an aid package, and police crack down in Iran.

By , a deputy copy editor at Foreign Policy.

Officials count votes at a polling station during the second round of the presidential election in Male, Maldives.
Officials count votes at a polling station during the second round of the presidential election in Male, Maldives.

Officials count votes at a polling station during the second round of the presidential election in Male, Maldives, on Sept. 30. Mohamed Afrah/AFP via Getty Images

Spooky season is upon us! Have you held off on your scary movie marathon long enough to keep up with international news?

Have feedback? Email whatintheworld@foreignpolicy.com to let me know your thoughts.

Spooky season is upon us! Have you held off on your scary movie marathon long enough to keep up with international news?


1. Which party won the most votes in Slovakia’s early parliamentary elections on Saturday?

Smer, which won 22.9 percent of the vote, is led by Robert Fico, a pro-Russian former prime minister who has promised to stop aid to Ukraine. Even with a victory, though, Fico will have to work hard to secure a government, Amanda Coakley wrote last month.


2. In other election news, who won the Maldives’ presidential election runoff over the weekend?

he election was, in part, seen as a referendum on great-power competition between China and India, Foreign Policy’s Michael Kugelman wrote in South Asia Brief last month.


3. The European Union on Tuesday announced an aid package worth some $680 million to which country?

The pledge came a day before the deadline for renewing an investigation into human rights abuses during Ethiopia’s recent war in its Tigray region. Kate Hixon and Kehinde A. Togun argued in FP in July that reengagement with Ethiopia should not come at the expense of holding its government to account.


4. Which British government official turned heads on Tuesday with a speech that railed against undocumented immigrants and loose national borders?

Braverman’s speech highlights a global turn toward isolationism, a phenomenon explored in a new book that was recently reviewed in FP by Jan-Werner Müller.


5. Kenyan lawmakers on Wednesday said what was required before police could be deployed for a peacekeeping mission in Haiti?

The pushback from Kenya’s political opposition comes after the United Nations approved the deployment of the multinational force, which FP’s Alexandra Sharp reports on in World Brief.


6. A teenage Iranian girl is reportedly in a coma after a confrontation with police in the Tehran metro on Wednesday over what?

The encounter follows Iran’s parliament passing a bill seeking to enforce the mandatory hijab law more strictly, Sina Toossi wrote in September.


7. FIFA announced on Wednesday that it would hold some 2030 men’s World Cup games in which three Latin American countries?

The early games in South America are a nod to the tournament’s earliest days, with Uruguay’s match slated to be played in the stadium that hosted the first-ever World Cup in 1930, FP’s Catherine Osborn writes in Latin America Brief.


8. A South Korean report on Thursday said North Korea has stopped the nuclear reactor at its main atomic complex in order to do what?

The expected harvesting of plutonium comes alongside a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over weapons production and technology-sharing negotiations, FP’s Jack Detsch reported last month.


9. Danish researchers this week announced that Viking buildings possessed what?

The glass panes can be dated from pre-medieval times, suggesting that Vikings were more advanced than previously thought, The Associated Press reports.


10. A Saudi Arabian athlete broke a Guinness world record when she rowed a boat how many miles across open water in just over 57 minutes?

She attempted the record in the Red Sea off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, UPI reports. The effort was complicated by extreme heat, among other factors.

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Drew Gorman is a deputy copy editor at Foreign Policy.

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