Tunis court's ninth correctional chamber sentenced Adel Ben Ghazi and Moudhafer Ben Amor on Tuesday to six months' suspended imprisonment for taking part in the September 19 march in support of detained members of the Flottille Soumoud solidarity committee. It is the next batch of rulings in the same prosecution, a day after three other marchers were given suspended sentences and freed.
The Assemblée des femmes, which says it represents more than 70 Tunisian women's-rights associations, called on Tuesday for its members to join Saturday's national march from Place Mohamed Ali in Tunis, citing rising unemployment, violence against women and farm workers, and a rise in prosecutions over people's opinions. The march, first called on September 29 by several national organisations and eight opposition parties, is set to start at 11am.
Mohamed Yousfi, a journalist held at Mornaguia prison, sent a letter, made public Tuesday, to the Tunisian journalists' union's seventh congress, linking press freedom to judicial independence and union rights, and warning of rising prosecutions and worsening conditions for journalists. He referred to jailed and exiled colleagues without naming them, criticised the politicisation of public media, and asked the union to preserve its unity and independence.
Salah Zouari, the Equipment and Housing minister who also oversees Industry, Mines and Energy, told Washington-based platform Attaqa that Tunisia wants to restore phosphate production to its historical level of around 10 million tonnes a year by rehabilitating and modernising existing facilities. The goal is to process 60 to 70 percent of extracted phosphate domestically, including into fertiliser, in the near future; no timeline was given for either the production or processing targets.
A Houthi missile struck an Aramco administrative building in Dhahran on Tuesday, starting a fire with no reported casualties, hours after Saudi-led coalition forces ordered an evacuation of a Houthi fuel depot near Sanaa that they then struck. It is the first hit on Aramco's own headquarters in an escalation that has already struck Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on three separate days, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 300. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree threatened a 'harsh and painful' reprisal for any Saudi strike on Sanaa, and Trump said he might ask Erdoğan to intervene.
The 2026 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, held outside Washington for the first time in three years, are drawing roughly 18,000 attendees to Bangkok (October 12-18) under the strain of the US-Israel-Iran war and warnings that global public debt is at its highest level since the Second World War. IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva has flagged coming growth downgrades for Ukraine and Gulf states, while developing countries face roughly $400 billion in external debt payments this year.
Israel's Transport Ministry ordered foreign airlines on October 1 to bar pilots and cabin crew holding the nationality or dual nationality of 31 countries without diplomatic relations with Israel, including Tunisia, Algeria, Iran and Pakistan, according to Israeli media and French outlet Mediapart. Air France confirmed it is complying; Paris-based anti-discrimination lawyer Clara Gandin told Al Jazeera the measure amounts to direct discrimination under French labour law and could expose the airline to damages claims, while air-law professor Vincent Correia said states can restrict foreign crews' nationality under the Chicago Convention but warned the move could worsen pilot shortages. The directive came a day after an alleged attempt by an Omani co-pilot to hijack a Flydubai flight on September 30, according to Israeli and Emirati authorities.
The Council of the EU formally ended the conditionality mechanism that has frozen €16.4 billion of Hungary's EU funds since late in Viktor Orbán's government, releasing the €4.2 billion of it that the Commission proposed unfreezing on 23 September, and restoring access to the Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programmes. The move follows anti-corruption and transparency reforms adopted since Péter Magyar's Tisza party took power from Orbán. "A new chapter starts today, for Hungary and for Europe," von der Leyen said.
Drones struck the Ukrainian-owned cargo ship Chelsea 3 and the Guinea-Bissau-flagged HS Dignity off Bulgaria's coast on Tuesday; all 15 aboard the first were rescued, but the second sank and at least 11 of its crew are missing. Prime Minister Rumen Radev summoned Russia's ambassador and called the attack unacceptable, while saying there is not yet firm evidence against any specific party; Ukraine's foreign minister and the European Commission blamed Russia, and NATO said it would adjust its posture accordingly.
President Macron said the French navy boarded the tanker DF Peak about 450 nautical miles south of Réunion, suspected of sailing under a false flag. Ukraine's military intelligence agency GUR says the ship carries Russian crude oil and is linked to the Sovcomflot shipping firm; France is now escorting the tanker for further checks under the authority of the Réunion prefecture. In June, France carried out a similar boarding of the tanker Deliver off Sicily.
Chancellor Merz, Prime Minister Meloni and Prime Minister De Wever wrote to European Council President Costa proposing an "emergency brake" mechanism as a last-resort safeguard against new EU legislation seen as excessively burdensome for business. The letter also calls for faster approval of energy, AI and defence investments and for reversing the burden of proof so that any new reporting requirement must be justified. The proposal is expected to be raised at Thursday's EU leaders' summit in Brussels.