Tunisia
Economy and planning minister Samir Abdelhafidh set out the framework for the 2027 economic budget on Wednesday to a ministerial council chaired by head of government Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri. He described the economy as resilient, putting growth at 2.4 percent in the first half and unemployment down from 15.3 to 14.9 percent. The priorities are investment, food and water sovereignty, the energy transition, digitalisation and artificial intelligence.
The central bank's indicators put tourism receipts at 4,718.7 million dinars on 10 August, up 402.2 million on the same date last year, and remittances from Tunisians abroad at 5,576.1 million, up 283.7 million. The two are the country's largest sources of foreign currency outside borrowing. Net reserves stood at 24,997 million dinars on 19 August, equal to 98 days of imports.
The investment promotion agency FIPA puts international investment at 1,929.5 million dinars to the end of June, 11.5 percent above the same period of 2025 and 41.7 percent above 2024. Direct investment accounted for 1,911.8 million, of which 72 percent went to manufacturing and 19 percent to energy. Services took 7.7 percent and agriculture 1.3.
STEG, the state electricity utility, cut power between 13:30 and 17:00 on Wednesday in parts of the centre of the country, in Sfax and in the south and south-west, saying the measure preserves the security and continuity of the electricity system. Demand reached around 6,000 megawatts during July and early August as air conditioning ran flat out. Kapitalis reports the heat is expected back from Saturday.
Source:
Webdo · Wednesday, 19 August 2026
Number plates are among the most searched terms in Tunisia today, after Haithem Chaabani, head of road safety for the centre-west region, reminded Diwan FM listeners what article 88 of the road code actually says. Driving with no plate, covering one, or using a plate belonging to another vehicle carries six months to three years in prison and a fine of 500 to 3,000 dinars. The wrong typeface, colour or placement carries a 40 dinar administrative fine.
Source:
Kapitalis · Wednesday, 19 August 2026
Fuel truck drivers walked out without warning on Thursday morning, paralysing the Radès petroleum zone in Ben Arous and leaving service stations across Greater Tunis with long queues and dry pumps. The drivers were protesting over wage rises owed under the sectoral agreement, over working and safety conditions, and over social-security contributions deducted from their pay but never passed to the CNSS fund. By late afternoon the walkout was called off after talks, and Khaled Bettine, chief executive of the state distributor Agil, said supply was returning to its normal rhythm.
Source:
Réalités · Thursday, 20 August 2026
Europe
Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa say the International Criminal Court's officials must be able to work without outside pressure, after Marco Rubio sanctioned its president Tomoko Akane and a lawyer in the prosecutor's office. Rubio calls the court corrupt and politicised. The Netherlands and Germany condemned the move as well, and all 27 member states have joined the court.
Source:
Euronews · Wednesday, 19 August 2026
The movement that demonstrated for a month for dismissed defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has broken up after he demanded a presidential election under martial law. Organiser Dmytro Koziatynskyi says soldiers at the front could not vote and that the protests were about defence policy, not Fedorov's own career. Ukrainian law allows elections to be postponed while martial law holds.
Source:
Euronews · Wednesday, 19 August 2026
Germany's federal prosecutors say a Ukrainian national, a trained diver, has been arrested in Pula on a European arrest warrant and will be extradited. He is alleged to have been part of the group that attached explosives to Nord Stream 1 and 2 off Bornholm in September 2022. Charges were brought last month against a former Ukrainian officer in the same case.
A three-page questionnaire obtained by Al Jazeera asks allies whether they have publicly backed American foreign policy priorities and whether they restricted US base access or overflight. The document is circulating during the six-month review of American forces in Europe due to conclude in December. NATO officials object that it conflates the alliance's collective defence with US operations in the Middle East.
Forensic teams have excavated three suspected mass graves in northern Kosovo and found skeletal remains of at least 23 people. They are believed to be Kosovo Albanians taken from Mitrovica and executed in the spring of 1999. The DNA work is expected to take months; about 1,600 people are still missing from the 1998 to 1999 war, and three local men have been arrested.
