Axios

Guatemala and Ecuador head to the polls on Sunday after intense and dramatic campaign seasons.

State of play: Guatemala will hold its presidential runoff, while voters in Ecuador will cast their ballots in the first round of early presidential and legislative elections, which were called after President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the opposition-controlled National Assembly earlier this year.

A smaller percentage of Latinos than Black Americans say their personal views on racial equality have been shaped by the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., according to a new survey.

Why it matters: This month marks the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial. But how it's remembered depends on race and generation, a Pew Research Center survey out this week shows.

The U.S. and other countries are facing growing pressure to do more to stop Azerbaijan's blockade of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, where a former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court recently determined ethnic Armenians are facing genocide.

The big picture: The blockade has left about 120,000 people largely without food, medicine, drinking water and other essentials, despite more than a dozen large trucks loaded with aid ready to enter the region.

Beijing is caught between rolling out more stimulus to prop up the Chinese economy, or pulling back government incentives that fueled the real estate bubble — and risking a deeper economic slowdown that could create social unrest, experts say.

Why it matters: China has already reported a slew of weak economic data. A collapse in the financial and real estate sectors could plunge the country into recession.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will travel to Israel next week amid growing concerns inside the Biden administration about how the Netanyahu government's judicial overhaul is affecting the Israeli military, two Israeli officials told Axios.

Why it matters: Thousands of Israeli reservists have suspended their service over their opposition to the right-wing government's weakening of the country's Supreme Court. Milley's visit will enable the Biden administration to assess first-hand how deep the crisis inside the IDF goes, and whether it could have any implications for U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Despite smashing box office records and becoming a cultural phenomenon, "Barbie" is banned in a growing number of countries around the world.

Driving the news: Greta Gerwig's blockbuster film about the titular doll has sparked conservative backlash and geopolitical anger in some places.