Tunisia
A 48-hour hydrocarbon transport strike called by the UGTT begins today, Wednesday, but Fethi Zouari, president of the national chamber for transporting dangerous goods, says most heavy truck drivers will not join and disputes that a valid strike notice was ever filed. The dispute traces to a bonus promised in a 2019 agreement the union says employers never honoured, and the Ministry of Social Affairs has yet to convene the conciliation session both sides say the labour code requires.
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Réalités · Tuesday, 22 September 2026
In a new report, "The Challenge of Water in Tunisia: From Scarcity to Resilience," the World Bank now projects Tunisia's economy will grow 2.3 percent in 2026, down from 2.7 percent in 2025, pointing to a widening energy deficit and a current account gap that both grew sharply in the first half of the year; growth is expected to slow further, averaging 2.1 percent in 2027 and 2028. A separate chapter of the same report, on water scarcity, warns of a rising cost to GDP in the decades ahead unless Tunisia invests in resilience.
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Webdo · Tuesday, 22 September 2026
Tarek Belhaj Ali, vice-president of the FTTH textile and clothing federation, says sector output fell 40 to 60 percent in July and August because of the summer's power-cut crisis; he points to the lack of advance notice on cut schedules, which left companies without the visibility to honour their commitments. Workers have taken on overtime to make up the delays, and the industry is now looking at solar and renewable power as a hedge against future cuts.
The fourth criminal chamber of the Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced former public prosecutor Béchir Akremi to 15 years in prison for falsification and for possessing and using forged documents, in a verdict issued overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. The case is separate from his convictions over the judicial handling of the Chokri Belaïd assassination file, where a first-instance court gave him 23 years in March and an appeals court raised that to 29 in July.
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Webdo · Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Agil's chief executive Khaled Battin said Wednesday evening that fuel remains available in stations nationwide despite the 48-hour fuel transport strike, and warned that a rush to buy could alone empty some stations even though national reserves cover about a month of consumption. Webdo, however, reported gasoline shortages in several Grand Tunis stations as early as Wednesday morning, with some pumps already dry and others expecting resupply within hours. Agil said several drivers kept working despite the strike call and that two tanker deliveries this week are reinforcing supply.
Europe
The EU's 27 member states agreed hours before a midnight deadline to extend the Russia sanctions regime to 22 September 2029, but as part of the compromise struck oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the blacklist under pressure from France and Slovakia; Latvia, which had wanted the sanctions tightened rather than eased, eventually dropped its objection to delisting the two. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called the decision "Moscow's victory," saying it hands Russia a sense of impunity and divides Europeans.
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Euronews · Tuesday, 22 September 2026
President Trump, Danish PM Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's head of government Jens-Frederik Nielsen signed a security deal at the UN in New York that modernises Pituffik base and opens new American defence areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, with free movement by land, sea and air. The deal reaffirms Danish sovereignty and Greenland's self-determination, while barring US rivals from investing in or basing forces on the island without American approval; it falls short of Trump's earlier demand to buy Greenland outright.
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Euronews · Tuesday, 22 September 2026
Speaking from the UN in New York, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told CNN that Morocco's border control "failed," repeating what he had already told the Spanish parliament on 3 September, after more than 70,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on 30-31 July. A Spanish police report seen by AFP found the number of Moroccan officers at the border post on those days was well below normal. Sánchez said he lacks evidence Morocco orchestrated the crossing, but still wants explanations and changes from Rabat.
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La Libre · Wednesday, 23 September 2026
