Tunisia
Mostafa Abdelkebir, head of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights, said most Tunisians detained at a checkpoint in Libya's Zelten area, their passports confiscated, have been released, but two remain held, apparently to pressure Tunisian authorities into releasing a Libyan national held in Tunisia on an unrelated matter. He said the two Tunisians have no connection to that Libyan's case and called for their immediate, unconditional release.
Tunisia's draft 2027 budget plans 32,557 new public-sector positions, lifting the wage bill to 27,349 million dinars, up 8.2 percent on 2026 and 17.5 percent over two years, according to finance ministry figures reported by African Manager. Investment spending stays at 6,360 million dinars, about a tenth of the budget, while the central bank is set to finance roughly two-thirds of a projected deficit worth 7.3 percent of GDP.
Tunisia's customs authority reported seizing just over 101 kilograms of cocaine in the first nine months of 2026, more than the 94 kilograms seized in all of 2025 and triple the 33 kilograms seized in 2024. Officials pointed to two growing routes: through Libya, now a transit hub fed by South American and Sahel supply chains, and through European ports such as Marseille and Genoa via La Goulette and Radès.
Source:
Webdo · Sunday, 1 November 2026
Tunisia's transport minister told a conference in Ben Arous that 403 buses were targeted and 277 transport staff faced verbal or physical violence over 2025 and 2026, for losses of close to 4 million dinars. The event closed an awareness campaign on stone-throwing at trains, run by the national railway company SNCFT with youth groups.
Source:
Réalités · Saturday, 31 October 2026
The UGTT's private-sector department filed a strike notice Monday covering every hydrocarbon transport company in Tunisia, setting a walkout for November 23 to 25. The union says a May 2019 agreement on hazard pay, professional recognition and CNSS social security coverage for drivers is still not applied, the same dispute that triggered a 48-hour strike in September. It is calling for urgent talks to avert the new strike, as the labor code requires.
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Réalités · Monday, 2 November 2026
Tunisia's Ministry of Religious Affairs set the 2027 Hajj package at 21,330 dinars per pilgrim, up 400 dinars from last year's 20,930. The price covers accommodation, services and the plane ticket. The 2027 quota is 9,982 pilgrims plus 1,000 handled from abroad, near 10,000 in all.
Source:
Webdo · Monday, 2 November 2026
Geopolitics
The US and German embassies in Moscow warned on Saturday of a "credible threat of a mass casualty event" at the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve, prompting a brief evacuation. Russia's FSB security service said it detained a minor who had posted photos on TikTok in tactical gear at the museum, captioned "I found a place."
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Euronews · Sunday, 1 November 2026
The head of Israel's elections commission, Noam Sohlberg, said even if fraud suspicions were substantiated they would not undermine the overall result, after Netanyahu's Likud accused Arab-led parties of stealing the vote and taking funding from Qatar, without evidence. Qatar denied the claims; with results still awaiting formal certification, Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 seats against the opposition's 48, short of the 61 needed for a majority, and a coalition between opposition leader Eisenkot and Arab-led parties, which won a record 19 seats, could reach that threshold.
The FBI said a North Korean state-sponsored group it calls TraderTraitor, linked to the Lazarus Group, stole more than $6.3 billion in digital assets from Binance around 29 October and laundered them into Ethereum, making it the largest crypto theft on record. Binance said it had frozen about 90 percent of the stolen funds and resumed phased customer withdrawals.
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Euronews · Sunday, 1 November 2026
A six-day truce that began on 27 October, two days earlier than first announced, around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, brokered with help from US First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo XIV, expired Sunday night with no reported violations, after Ukrainian officials said Russia turned down an offer to extend it. About 167 more civilians were evacuated on the truce's last day, including 22 children, while roughly 2,000 residents of Oleshky were offered a choice between leaving or staying with restored supplies.
Europe
The European Commission said the appointment of eight new Constitutional Tribunal judges falls within the powers of the Sejm, Poland's parliament, supporting Prime Minister Donald Tusk in his standoff with President Karol Nawrocki. The dispute escalated on Friday 30 October when Nawrocki tried to enter the tribunal building as police looked on, and Tusk said the next day that restoring calm does not mean accepting lawlessness.
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Euronews · Sunday, 1 November 2026
Acting President Iliana Yotova, who favours dialogue with Moscow, won Sunday's runoff with about 58 percent against Andrey Gyurov's 38 percent in parallel vote counts and exit polls, putting her on course to become Bulgaria's first elected female head of state once results are formally confirmed. Yotova opposes military aid to Ukraine while saying she wants Bulgaria to stay sovereign inside a strong Europe.
Peaceful afternoon Generation Z marches against the cost of living and conscription plans turned violent after dark in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Cologne, with police reporting dozens of arrests, looted shops and officers pelted with stones and bottles. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt blamed the unrest on "left-wing groups and troublemakers from a migrant background" and called for harsh penalties.
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Euronews · Sunday, 1 November 2026