Tunisia
Rached Ghannouchi's lawyer Samir Dilou said the 85-year-old Ennahdha leader's health is stable since his 18 August discharge from hospital, after a 23-day period without visits or news that his defence team says violated his rights. Separately, Ahmed Nejib Chebbi's daughter and lawyer, Haifa Chebbi, said her 82-year-old father's health remains fragile after summer heat worsened existing health problems, though she said his morale is holding, buoyed by the opposition turnout around this year's fifth anniversary, on 25 July, of Kais Saied's 2021 seizure of emergency powers.
Tunisia's foreign ministry says 4,829 migrants took part in its voluntary return programme so far in 2026, more than double the 2,103 recorded by mid-May, as the pace picked up sharply over the summer. The programme helps migrants stranded in Tunisia return to their countries of origin rather than attempt the crossing to Europe.
Source:
Webdo · Friday, 21 August 2026
Tunisia's petroleum and chemical workers' federation, part of the UGTT, says it may file formal strike notice if talks with fuel transport companies and the authorities fail to resolve a dispute over working conditions. It follows a surprise walkout by fuel truck drivers on 20 August that emptied petrol stations across Greater Tunis before being called off the same day. The sector's strike notices in 2022 and twice in 2024 were withdrawn or postponed after negotiations, with no stoppage lasting more than a day. No date has been set for a new strike.
Source:
Webdo · Friday, 21 August 2026
Tunisia's public prosecutor opened a judicial inquiry on 22 August after a boat carrying migrants sank off Zarzis in Médenine governorate, National Guard spokesperson Houssem Eddine Jebabli said. At least two bodies have been recovered and the search for others continues with coastal units, naval units and a helicopter. The sole known survivor, interviewed by the TAP news agency, says around 15 people were on board, but accounts of how many remain missing still do not agree with each other.
Source:
Webdo · Saturday, 22 August 2026
Tunisia's prison authority said on 22 August that it recorded 20,773 hospital consultations for detainees in the first half of 2026, rejecting accusations of deteriorating care or neglect that it called a distortion of reality. Spokesperson Hatem Akroute said medical decisions are made by qualified health staff, not by the administration, and the authority warned it may take legal action against anyone spreading what it calls false information about the institution. It is the authority's second denial on the same subject since late July, when the Tunisian League for Human Rights said it could not verify prison conditions because it had been barred from visiting.
Source:
Webdo · Saturday, 22 August 2026
Geopolitics
Britain, Canada, Australia and Poland condemned Israel's decision not to pursue criminal charges over the April 2024 strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers. The countries called the closure, announced on 19 August without explanation on World Humanitarian Day, 'shameful', and Poland summoned Israel's ambassador. Israel's military says a preliminary inquiry found command errors but no criminal misconduct.
Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, Guyana's ambassador to the UN, emerged as the front runner in the UN Security Council's second informal straw poll on 21 August, ahead of Costa Rica's Rebeca Grynspan and the IAEA's Rafael Grossi. The council is narrowing a field of seven candidates before recommending one to the General Assembly, which normally ratifies the choice. Guterres's second term ends this year, making the choice of his successor one of the most closely watched diplomatic contests of the year.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran should now end its months-long war with the United States because Tehran holds the stronger hand, telling a meeting of doctors that "the whole world acknowledges our victory." The remarks come as Washington shifts from military pressure toward an economic campaign, with the US Treasury vowing to "collapse" Iran's economy, and as Tehran keeps the Strait of Hormuz partially closed. Neither side has set a date or format for talks.
Europe
EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius says Europe must be able to mobilise around 100,000 troops rapidly, warning that Russia could have that many soldiers massed at the EU and NATO border by 2030. A survey of eleven countries by Euromil, the European federation of military personnel associations, found recruitment and retention already rated as problematic or worse almost everywhere, despite an 800 billion euro rearmament push. Low pay, poor work-life balance and competition from the private sector are named as the main reasons soldiers leave after about ten years of service.
Source:
Euronews · Friday, 21 August 2026
Russian drones hit a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, President Zelensky's home city, in two waves half an hour apart on 21 August, killing at least 15 people and wounding some 130, including children. Zelensky said the second strike deliberately targeted the rescuers who had rushed to the first. He called it a terrorist act and repeated his call for tougher international consequences for Russia.
A local mayor from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's own CDU, Bernd Prange, donated 10,000 euros to the far-right AfD and publicly urged voters to back it in Saxony-Anhalt's state election in September. Merz's party has ruled out any deal with the AfD as part of the so-called firewall against the far right, but the party polls around 40 percent in the state. Prange's open letter, calling for Merz's removal, shows how thin that firewall has become at the local level.