Tunisia
The United States State Department and the American embassy in Tunis opened a funding opportunity in early August worth between 1,000,000 and 1,536,511 dollars over 18 to 24 months, titled “Safeguarding U.S. Critical Minerals Supply Chains – Tunisia”. The documents behind the call set a target of mobilising more than 100 million dollars of American private capital and a stake of 30 to 40 percent in PhosCo, the Australian company that has developed the Gasaat project in Kasserine since its wholly owned subsidiary Himilco Resources was granted the 112 square kilometre exploration permit on 6 March 2025. PhosCo reports a JORC-compliant resource of 166.6 million tonnes at an average grade of 20.6 percent phosphorus pentoxide, while adding that only four of the project's nine prospects have been drilled. Tunisian output was about 3.9 million tonnes in 2025 against 3.04 million in 2024, far below the 14 million tonnes by 2030 the government set out in March 2025.
The Tunisian-Libyan company Joint Oil has revised the timetable of the international tender meant to find partners for the Joint Oil offshore block and for the development of the Zarat discovery. According to details Energy-Pedia published on 12 August from the company and its strategic adviser Moyes & Co, the procedure formally opens on 7 September 2026 and stays open until 31 December, with bids to be filed by 8 January 2027, selected firms informed on 26 February and formal awards expected by 30 April. The timetable issued in the spring had the opening on 1 August. The block sits in the Gabès-Tripoli basin, covers about 3,000 square kilometres in water 80 to 120 metres deep, and carries roughly 6,500 kilometres of two-dimensional and 1,900 square kilometres of three-dimensional seismic data.
Source:
Webdo · Saturday, 15 August 2026
A ministerial council on the state of the administration's digitisation was shown 114 projects under way, several of them more than 90 percent complete, according to a statement the head of government's office published on Saturday. Among the items meant to reach citizens directly are applying for a residence certificate remotely, renewing a driving licence and a national identity card online, a broadening of remote passport renewal, electronic exchange of civil status records between Tunisia's consulates and municipalities, and a national register of university degrees. The head of government, Sara Zaafrani Zenzri, said that following up the projects has to rest on precise measurement of performance and impact indicators.
The decision to release everyone detained, including minors, was taken on the evening of Friday 14 August, and the president of the Tunisian Human Rights League, the LTDH, confirmed the releases the same evening on his Facebook page. The arrests followed protests in Borj Erras, a hillside district of Mahdia, against repeated and prolonged cuts to the drinking water supply. Several associations, led by the LTDH's regional section, had condemned the detention of people making a social demand and recalled that access to drinking water is a fundamental right. According to the columnist Riadh Jrad, nine people were detained after among other things throwing stones at the security forces, causing injuries and damage. We reported on 15 August that an investigation for conspiracy had been opened, and the releases say nothing about what happens to that investigation.
Mohamed Rochdi Bennani, president of the national association for the development of the prickly pear, told the state news agency TAP that the cochineal insect has cut this year's crop in the Zelfane basin from about 250,000 tonnes last season to about 100,000. The fruit is the main income for tens of thousands of families across Thala, Foussana and El Ayoun, and he warned there may be nothing at all to pick next season if the insect is not stopped. He blamed the agriculture ministry for putting the treatment and the uprooting of infected plants through ordinary public tenders instead of handling it as an emergency.
Geopolitics
A senior White House official told Wall Street Journal reporter Brian Schwartz that the president has not met his advisers about declaring the Strait of Hormuz United States territory and was joking during his speech at Garden City in New York state. Trump had said in that speech that he would soon be declaring the strait a territory of the United States, adding that it is true, and he also claimed that no ships get through unless Washington wants them to. Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi replied that the strait has been, is and will remain Iranian, that it is opened and closed only at Iran's command, and that it cannot be seized by a social media post, an aircraft carrier, an order or an election speech.
General Mohammad Bagherzadeh of Iran's armed forces wrote to the International Committee of the Red Cross that three pilots, Javad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian and Omran Behraveshian, were captured alive by Qatar after their Su-24 aircraft crashed in March, and said they had been held incommunicado for six months, with no access to their families or to diplomats, according to the Fars news agency. Qatar's foreign ministry replied on Saturday through spokesman Majed al-Ansari that it categorically denies the claims that Iranian pilots are being detained and is surprised by misleading statements at a time when diplomatic efforts to de-escalate are under way. Iran had previously said one pilot was killed and the others were missing.
Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas's political leader and chief negotiator, is expected to meet Egypt's intelligence chief Hassan Rashad in Cairo on Sunday morning, according to Hamas sources speaking to AFP and Anadolu, his first visit to the country since he took over the leadership in late July. Next week Donald Trump's envoy Jared Kushner travels to Israel and Egypt with Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace's high representative for Gaza, to narrow differences over a 15-point plan that Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly dismissed and under which Hamas had agreed to hand its weapons to a new Palestinian governing committee. On Saturday Israeli fire killed two Palestinians and wounded 14 in air strikes, artillery shelling and demolitions, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Europe
The United States ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, called on the bloc on Friday to align two laws on human rights and environmental standards in supply chains, the CSDDD and the CSRD, with last year's trade deal. The American document he posted warns that Washington will take any actions necessary if its concerns are not addressed. The EU has already narrowed the scope of both laws under pressure from business, delaying implementation and sparing smaller firms, and the American document says that does not go far enough. Commission spokesperson Arianna Podestà replied that the exchanges continue but that neither the rules framework nor the EU's regulatory autonomy is up for negotiation. The day before, Puzder called the carbon border adjustment mechanism, CBAM, a tariff in substance.
Source:
Euronews · Friday, 14 August 2026
The Constitutional Council on Friday approved the law establishing a right to assisted dying for adults with an incurable condition, passed by parliament in July, and France now joins the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada. Some provisions require clarification, among them the conscience clause, which must also apply to private healthcare facilities where the procedure is manifestly contrary to their mission, provided they are not the only establishments able to meet local needs. At the same time the council struck down the ban on social media for children under 15, finding it an infringement of the freedom of expression and communication that is neither appropriate, necessary nor proportionate. The Élysée says the government will work on a new draft law.
Source:
Euronews · Friday, 14 August 2026
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had struck the Progress Rocket and Space Centre in the Samara region with FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles, calling the facility one of the key enterprises of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. He also reported hits on the Savasleyka air base in the Nizhny Novgorod region and on an oil facility at Ust-Luga near the Estonian border. Ukraine's General Staff confirmed hits at both the centre and the air base, saying the launch vehicles built there put Russian military, reconnaissance and communications satellites into orbit and that the base operates MiG-31K jets carrying Kinzhal missiles.
Source:
Euronews · Saturday, 15 August 2026