Tunisia
Radio journalist Zied El-Heni appears Friday before the terrorism chamber of the Tunis court of first instance, facing four charges including participating in a terrorist conspiracy, after he mentioned leaked recordings linked to an Ennahdha politician on air in 2023. Reporters Without Borders says he faces up to 20 years in prison, and warns that one count, failing to report information, could criminalize ordinary source protection. El-Heni is already serving a one-year sentence for criticizing another journalist's prosecution.
The Free Destourian Party (PDL) announced Thursday it will take part, nationally and regionally, in the October 17 march organized by the UGTT labour federation together with the bar association and the women's rights group Tunisian Democratic Women. PDL spokesperson Thameur Saâd praised UGTT's leading role in the mobilization.
Content creator Yosri Romdhani died on Thursday at Charles-Nicolle hospital in Tunis after being transferred from prison; the circumstances remain unclear. He had been held since late September under investigation over remarks made during a live TikTok broadcast. Relatives say, in social media posts, that he was denied medication in detention, but that claim is unconfirmed, and no official link has been established between his detention and his death.
Tunisia's 2027 draft budget again lets the Treasury draw advances of up to 9.8 billion dinars from the central bank, interest-free and repayable over 15 years, a mechanism that requires an exception to the bank's own statute. The bill also raises the tax on travel abroad from 60 to 80 dinars and increases excise duties on beer, wine and spirits. The bill reached parliament on 15 October and has not yet been adopted.
Tunisia's national water utility SONEDE and Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries Minister Ezzeddine Ben Cheikh inaugurated a seawater desalination plant at Sidi Abdelhamid, near Sousse, on Friday. The plant produces 50,000 cubic metres of drinking water a day, built with Tunisian expertise and state funding at a cost of about 130.5 million dinars, and can be expanded to 100,000 cubic metres. SONEDE chief executive Abdelhamid Mnaja said it could cover up to 90 percent of the Sahel region's water deficit during summer peaks.
Geopolitics
A Khartoum-based rights group, Emergency Lawyers, says at least 72 gold miners were killed in an air strike on a mining site in the mountainous, undemarcated borderland between Sudan and Egypt. The group accuses the Egyptian military of targeting civilian miners; Egypt has not commented. An analyst later put the death toll at 85, calling it the second strike on the site.
Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty on Thursday to new charges of conspiring to commit torture, including against US citizens, US prosecutors said. The couple were taken from Caracas in a US military operation in January 2026, which Maduro has called a kidnapping, and already face charges of narco-terrorism and weapons possession. Their lawyers are seeking to have the case dismissed, arguing presidential and first-lady immunity.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Israel should halt and reverse what he called the 'forced establishment' of settlements in the West Bank, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement issued Friday. The meeting took place in Baku on the sidelines of the CICA summit; Wang called the two-state solution the right path and urged full access to Gaza to prevent a spreading humanitarian catastrophe.
Europe
EU leaders failed to agree on the bloc's 2028-2034 budget at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, after the Irish presidency's compromise, a 141-billion-euro cut, was largely rejected. Council President António Costa will now draft a new proposal; a special summit is set for 26 November, and the original end-of-2026 deadline is now in doubt.
Source:
Euronews · Thursday, 15 October 2026
The US Treasury extended a licence on Thursday letting Russian oil company Lukoil's service stations outside Russia, including in the US, keep operating until 24 April 2027. The move comes days after President Trump announced the deal, which lets Russian diesel reach Western markets; EU foreign ministers have criticized that deal as undermining unity against Moscow while the war on Ukraine continues.
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Euronews · Thursday, 15 October 2026
The European Central Bank cleared Italian lender UniCredit on Thursday to raise its stake in Germany's Commerzbank above 30 percent with no upper limit. The remaining regulatory steps are expected to be completed toward the end of 2026, after which UniCredit would control roughly half of Commerzbank's voting rights, capping a multi-year push against German political resistance to the takeover.
Source:
Euronews · Thursday, 15 October 2026