Tunisia
When EU interior ministers meet in Brussels on Tuesday 4 August, Italy's interior minister Matteo Piantedosi will put forward a plan to create EU-funded centres outside the Union where irregular migrants would be held pending removal: a model drawn from Italy's arrangement with Albania. Corriere della Sera reports that the preliminary list of possible host countries includes Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Rwanda, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Montenegro; Italian news agency Ansa carried the same list on 2 August, citing government sources. No decision has been taken, and twenty-two member states have separately written asking for tougher external borders. For Tunis, the proposal reopens the question of what role Brussels envisages for the country in European migration control, beyond the 2023 memorandum of understanding.
A final rule from the US State Department, effective Monday 3 August, makes permanent the visa bond pilot launched in August 2025 and raises the amounts: consular officers may now require 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000 dollars from B-1 (business) and B-2 (tourism) visa applicants from designated countries, with 15,000 dollars as the reference figure. Tunisia has been on that list since the State Department's expansion took effect on 2 April 2026, bringing the number of covered countries to fifty. The bond is not a fee: it is refunded when the holder respects the terms of the visa and departs on time, but forfeited on overstay, late filing for an extension or change of status, or an asylum claim made after entry; the ceiling will be reindexed to inflation every seven years from 1 October 2027. The State Department says the fifty countries recorded 45,488 overstays in fiscal 2024 and fewer than fifty during the pilot's first ten months: while visa issuances fell 83 percent, a sign the requirement deters applicants outright.
According to the Banque centrale de Tunisie's exchange-rate indicators, the dinar strengthened 0.8 percent at end-July against a basket of the main foreign currencies compared with end-June, while slipping 0.2 percent against the euro over the same month; on 31 July the dollar was quoted at 2.9375 dinars and the euro at 3.3813. Since January the picture is different: down 1.3 percent against the dollar and 0.2 percent against the euro. The central bank puts net foreign assets at 23.111 billion dinars, or 91 days of imports, refinancing of the banking system at 10.899 billion, and notes and coins in circulation at 29.771 billion. July's recovery rests on tourism receipts and transfers from Tunisians abroad in peak season, so it reverses no trend: the structural pressures from import financing and external commitments remain. Only one newsroom carried these July figures within the window covered by this edition.
The harvest and collection campaign is 98 percent complete with just over 10.752 million quintals delivered, while the agriculture ministry has revised the national harvest up to more than 20 million quintals against the 19 million assumed in the economic budget. According to the Office national des céréales, stored durum wheat covers the country's needs until January 2027, limiting purchases on a world market where durum is trading around 350 dollars a tonne. Soft wheat collection rose from 600,000 to 1.1 million quintals, against domestic consumption of roughly 100,000 tonnes a month; Tunisians consume close to 30 million quintals of cereals a year in total. For a country whose food trade balance depends on imports, a second consecutive year near 20 million quintals is real relief for both the import bill and foreign reserves. The figures come from the same agency copy carried by several newsrooms and could not be independently confirmed.
Geopolitics
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran has one last chance to reach a deal before large-scale air strikes, and that talks are being held at Iran's request with the backing of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. On Truth Social he called Iran's leadership duplicitous after Tehran denied that negotiations were under way and said it was dealing only with Oman. Trump said the US blockade of Iran's southern ports will remain until a deal is reached to end the war, which began in February, and that free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz has to be restored.
Doron Spielman, spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, told the AP that Israel has raised serious security concerns with the White House about the disarmament deal announced by President Donald Trump. Israel's assessment is that Hamas intends to rebuild its military capability rather than genuinely demilitarise, and Spielman said the military will not withdraw from Gaza, where it controls more than 60 percent of the territory, before disarmament is complete. At least 17 people including children were killed in Israeli strikes overnight and into Sunday.
Source:
AP News · Sunday, 2 August 2026
Japan's Ministry of Finance confirmed a coordinated yen-buying intervention with the United States to halt the currency's slide to a forty-year low, after President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Washington was helping as a sign of friendship and to support the global economy. The yen gained 1.4 percent to 155.20 per dollar, its strongest level in nearly three months, following a 3.8 percent rise over the two previous sessions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would not hesitate to take part in further joint intervention, and Tokyo said the same. It is the first joint action since 2011, when the two countries moved in the opposite direction to weaken the yen after the earthquake in eastern Japan.
Europe
Local officials on each side reported at least 16 people killed in Russia and 11 in Ukraine over the past day. In Russia's Krasnodar region, governor Veniamin Kondratyev said seven people, three of them children, died when drone debris fell on the resort village of Arkhipo-Osipovka, while five were killed in the Moscow region according to the Tass news agency. On the Ukrainian side, eight people including two children were killed in an overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia and three at a petrol station in the Kryvyi Rih district. The war is entering its fifth year with no sign of slowing.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar warned on Monday that the hardest five days lie ahead as water levels in parts of the Danube fall low enough to force the Paks nuclear plant into its first shutdown in 44 years of operation. The plant, which supplies close to half of Hungary's electricity, draws cooling water from the river and needs large volumes even once powered down. In Romania two reactors were already shut in July for the same reason, prompting a nationwide state of emergency over electricity production, and authorities there are now diverting water towards one of their nuclear plants using controlled explosions.
Source:
CNN · Monday, 3 August 2026
Most of the roughly 60,000 migrants who swam or forced their way into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta during the week had walked back to Morocco by Sunday, while some stayed on in the hills around the city. Spanish authorities said on Sunday that at least 72 migrants had died, some by drowning and others in a crush at a breakwater, and the search for bodies in the water off the city beach continued. Morocco reported eleven deaths on its side without clarifying whether these are in addition to the Spanish figure, and blames the breach on disinformation and people smugglers.
Source:
AP News · Sunday, 2 August 2026