"Hot potato" is an idiom with two main meanings: a problem or situation that is difficult to deal with and causes disagreement, or to quickly abandon something or someone because it's unpleasant or problematic.
It can also refer to a game where players pass a ball (or real potato) around while music plays, and the person holding it when the music stops is eliminated.
Example from TIME magazine (NOVEMBER 3, 1924):
“Last week, the U. S. press was presented with one of the hugest and hottest journalistic potatoes ever baked in Washington, D. C.— the dubiously legal opportunity of publishing the income tax figures of U. S. citizens as paid since Jan. 1, 1924.
Some newspapers had anticipated this opportunity, others had to decide speedily upon their conduct toward the luscious, but alarming, vegetable. … “
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Believe it or not, there is even a biannual(ish) publication called “Hot Potato newsletter” for people who don’t normally read news:
Introducing the man behind Hot Potato.
BTW, G7 leaders are gathering together in Alberta Canada right now. It ain’t hard to imagine what the “hot potato” topics are being discussed in the meeting: Israel-Iran crisis and the trading war. They can’t afford not to.
IMHO, there's enough chaos in the world now, we need peace not war! 
