Receiving German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul in Carthage, President Kais Saied said Tunisia's partnership agreements with the EU need fundamental revision, arguing that past financing had been diverted from its intended purpose and left ordinary Tunisians carrying the resulting debt. He welcomed deeper cooperation with Germany on higher education, energy and technology.
Marking five years since President Kais Saied suspended parliament and seized emergency powers on 25 July 2021, Tunisians interviewed by Al Jazeera describe an economy no better than before and a political space that has narrowed rather than opened. A 2022 referendum entrenched presidential rule, and courts have since upheld lengthy prison terms against dozens convicted in a mass 'conspiracy' case widely seen as targeting the opposition.
Employees at the state-owned Compagnie des Phosphates de Gafsa gave notice of a general strike for September 1 to 3 over unpaid 2015-2017 salary increases, higher end-of-career payouts and a six-month freeze on debt recovery, after management failed to respond to a June 30 request for talks. Similar CPG strike notices in December 2024 and January 2025 were both called off after last-minute negotiations, so whether this one holds depends on whether that pattern repeats.
Workers at the state-owned Gafsa Phosphate Company began a three-day general strike on Tuesday, halting washeries, quarries, workshops and offices in Gafsa and Tunis. The miners' union called the strike over unanswered pay demands, and by 8am about 95 percent of administrative staff had joined. The action follows the strike notice filed on 17 August; two earlier CPG strikes, in December 2024 and January 2025, were both called off after last-minute talks.
President Trump said the US would respond after Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired on American positions in Jordan, the first exchange since a lull that began in late July. Iran said it intercepted a US surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz hours after Trump's warning, reviving fears that the fragile pause in the wider Iran war could break down.
The Trump administration invited Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov to G20 talks in North Carolina on Monday, his first in-person appearance at the forum since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, prompting Poland and Germany to warn against normalising relations with Moscow. Siluanov met US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to discuss Trump's Ukraine peace plan; European officials refused to appear in the summit's traditional group photo alongside him.
Meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, President Xi told President Putin their ties had grown 'more solid' despite what he called uncertainty in the international order, and Putin said cooperation was 'developing successfully on all fronts'. The show of alignment comes as Russia leans further on China amid Western sanctions over Ukraine.
Three thousand young volunteers began a ten-month national service programme this week, training in basic soldiering before joining army, air force or navy units for an €800 monthly stipend. President Macron wants the scheme, which replaces the earlier Universal National Service, to grow to 50,000 volunteers a year by 2035 as France rebuilds its reserve pool.
Speaking at the Bled Strategic Forum, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said the European Union suffers from a lack of political leadership and that Brussels' bureaucracy stifles initiative. He also criticised EU migration fines on Hungary as unfair, months after his government secured €16.4 billion in previously frozen EU funds by carrying out anti-corruption and rule-of-law reforms.
The European Commission barred Brazil, its second-largest beef supplier, from exporting meat, poultry, eggs and honey to the bloc from Thursday, saying Brasília had not shown it meets EU rules restricting antibiotics used to promote growth in livestock. Brazil sold the EU more than 92,000 tonnes of beef worth €713 million last year; an audit due to conclude Friday will decide how soon poultry exports can resume.