Tunisia
The US Navy awarded a $998,000 contract, posted 22 September on the federal procurement site SAM.gov, for a third construction phase of the Maritime Center of Excellence at Tunisia's Bizerte naval base, which trains Tunisian naval commandos. Defence Minister Khaled Sehili says the centre aims to make Tunisia a regional military training hub. The work, awarded to a Turkish construction firm, follows a June visit by the commander of US naval forces in Europe and Africa, part of Washington's 'Building Partner Capacity' programme.
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Kapitalis · Sunday, 27 September 2026
Tunisia's water availability has fallen to 380 cubic metres per person a year, below the international scarcity threshold, a fuller chapter of the World Bank's water report shows, the same report this paper covered on 22 September for its downgraded 2026 growth forecast, which put the crisis's cost to GDP at 6.4 percent by 2050. The bank recommends $900 million a year in investment through 2050, in network repairs, wastewater reuse and irrigation management, to avert losing 30 percent of farm jobs.
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Kapitalis · Sunday, 27 September 2026
China's embassy in Tunis issued an alert on 25 September after several Chinese nationals were denied entry at Tunis-Carthage airport over damaged passports or travel plans inconsistent with visa-free entry rules. The warning comes as Tunisia, which has waived visas for Chinese tourists since October 2023 and drew about 28,000 of them in 2025, promotes itself ahead of Beijing's COITM tourism fair in October.
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Webdo · Sunday, 27 September 2026
Education Minister Noureddine Nouri said on 26 September that from October students will be completely barred from leaving school premises during the day, part of a new programme to protect them from 'emerging phenomena and risky behaviour.' Schools will also devote 10 minutes of civic and humanities classes to raising students' awareness of those risks, the minister said.
Tunisia's National Chamber of Private Clinics, part of the employers' body UTICA, said on Monday it has received no payment from the state health insurer CNAM for eight months. Money from CNAM covers between 30 and 70 percent of clinics' revenue, depending on the establishment, the chamber said. It also cited unpaid Libyan state debts dating back to 2016. The chamber is asking CNAM for a repayment schedule, the social security fund CNSS for a joint memo resolving a dispute over contributions for freelance doctors, and government help recovering the Libyan debt. It warned that some clinics risk having to halt activity.
Europe
Aleksandar Vučić resigned as Serbia's president on 27 September, seven months before his second and constitutionally final term would have ended, clearing the way for early elections. He plans to run for prime minister with his Serbian Progressive Party in the 25 October snap parliamentary vote, called after nearly two years of protests triggered by a railway station roof collapse in Novi Sad that killed 16 people.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pledged on 27 September to pass a housing decree restricting evictions by investment funds and blocking such funds from buying more residential property, after the eviction of 87-year-old Madrid tenant Maricarmen, carried out on a stretcher after 70 years in her home. Tens of thousands protested in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, where a tent camp has drawn comparisons to Spain's 2011 anti-austerity movement.
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Euronews · Sunday, 27 September 2026
Around 70 percent of Swiss voters rejected a referendum on 27 September that would have written 'perpetual and armed neutrality' into the constitution and required UN approval before Switzerland could impose sanctions, a change that would have shielded Russia from further Swiss measures given its Security Council veto. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said the result confirms Switzerland's current course: militarily non-aligned but free to sanction when it chooses.
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Euronews · Sunday, 27 September 2026
Independent candidate Łukasz Gibała led Sunday's first round for Kraków mayor with 36.6 percent, ahead of Monika Piątkowska of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's governing Civic Coalition on 24.4 percent, exit polls showed, sending the race to an 11 October runoff. The far-right Confederation's candidate had already been barred from the ballot after more than 2,000 of his nomination signatures were found invalid, an outcome one of the party's own leaders called a 'catastrophe.'
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TVP World · Sunday, 27 September 2026
