On the table are photos from another time: young men in uniform, barely older than 20, with serious expressions on their faces. Haxhimusa runs his fingers over one of the pictures. "That was us," he says quietly. The 58-year-old ethnic Albanian was once a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian separatist militia that fought against the Serbian police and the Yugoslav Army in the Kosovo War at the end of the 1990s.
Voters in Kosovo are casting ballots in an early parliamentary election in the hope of breaking a political deadlock that has gripped the small Balkan nation for much of this year. The snap vote was scheduled after the prime minister Albin Kurti's governing Vetevendosje, or Self-Determination, party failed to form a government despite winning the most votes in a 9 February election.
Austria came from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina, which booked their place at the 2026 World Cup. Bosnia-Herzegovina were on course to leapfrog Austria into top spot in Group H after Haris Tabakovic gave them a 12th-minute lead. Ralf Rangnick's side were then denied an equaliser just before the break, when Konrad Laimer drilled in off the post, only for it to be chalked off after a VAR review for a foul in the build-up.
Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti failed to secure enough support in Kosovo's parliament to form a new government, plunging the country further into political chaos and bringing it closer to its second elections this year. Only 56 parliamentary deputies voted in favor of Kurti's proposed administration on October 26, five short of the number needed for approval. Fifty-two voted against the government and four abstained.
It's awful. Embarrassing. Disappointing, yet again. Everything is too bad. We're playing too badly. The way we're playing doesn't work. We're doing it too badly individually too. It's a combination of everything. It's sad that we're in this situation. It's a bit of a crisis situation. That's clear.
