Widespread violence flares in Tunis and several other cities during protests against government’s austerity measures. One person has died, 50 policemen have been injured and more than 200 people have been arrested in two nights of widespread and violent protests in Tunisia, driven by anger over steep price rises resulting from austerity measures.

On Tuesday night a Jewish school on a Tunisian island that is home to an ancient Jewish community was attacked. Police and army forces were deployed in several cities during the night, including in Tebourba, 20 miles (30km) west of the capital, Tunis, where hundreds of young people took to the streets after the funeral of a 45-year-old man who died in the unrest on Monday night. Police have insisted they did not kill the man, who they say suffered a chronic respiratory condition. The results of an autopsy have not been made public.(theguardian)…[+]

Catalonia’s two largest pro-independence parties have cut a deal that could see Carles Puigdemont re-elected as the region’s president, three months after he fled to Belgium following the Spanish government’s decision to sack him over his role in staging an illegal referendum and unilaterally declaring independence. On Tuesday night Puigdemont’s party, Together for Catalonia, reached an agreement with its former coalition partner, the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), to give pro-independence parties a majority on the parliamentary board when the regional assembly sits next week for first time since the secessionist bloc retained its majority in last December’s elections.

A spokesman for Puigdemont said that under the pact both parties would “move forward with this new parliamentary term with Puigdemont as the president”.(theguardian)…[+]

The Trump administration plans to loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop a new low-yield nuclear warhead for US Trident missiles, according to a former official who has seen the most recent draft of a policy review. Jon Wolfsthal, who was special assistant to Barack Obama on arms control and nonproliferation, said the new nuclear posture review prepared by the Pentagon, envisages a modified version of the Trident D5 submarine-launched missiles with only part of its normal warhead, with the intention of deterring Russia from using tactical warheads in a conflict in Eastern Europe. The new nuclear policy is significantly more hawkish that the posture adopted by the Obama administration, which sought to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in US defence.(theguardian)…[+]