World
Bougainville a step closer to independence. Thirty-one dead as Kenya cracks down on protesters. Elon Musk’s America Party. By Jonathan Pearlman.
Trump claims ceasefire possible within days
Great power rivalry
Gaza: Donald Trump this week indicated a ceasefire in Gaza could be reached within days as talks between Israel and Hamas focused on bridging a lingering dispute over withdrawal lines for the Israeli military.
The United States president hosted a visit by his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, although their meetings on Monday and Tuesday ended without any public statement about the outcomes. The pair reportedly discussed plans for a 60-day ceasefire and a permanent end to the war.
Ahead of their second meeting, Trump told reporters that Gaza was a “tragedy” and all sides were committed to reaching an agreement.
“[Netanyahu] wants to get it solved, and I want to get it solved, and I think the other side wants to get it solved,” he said.
US envoy Steve Witkoff, who was due to join talks between Israel and Hamas in Qatar, said on Tuesday he believed a deal could be reached by the end of the week. According to CNN, the final impasse involved differences over the lines to which the Israeli military would withdraw following a ceasefire. Israel wants to keep troops in the corridor between Egypt and Gaza and to retain potential security control over the enclave, while Hamas wants a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, this week proposed his government could establish a “humanitarian city” in southern Gaza during the ceasefire that would conduct security screenings of Palestinians before they entered to ensure they were not Hamas operatives. But those who entered would not be allowed to leave. Legal experts said any attempt to displace and contain residents was a violation of international law.
Israel continued its campaign in Gaza this week, launching air strikes on Tuesday that killed at least 20 people, according to local officials.
Mohammed Joundiya, a resident who visited the site of the attacks, told Reuters: “We hope that a ceasefire will be reached and that the massacres against the Palestinian people will stop.”
During his meeting with Trump, Netanyahu revealed he had nominated the president for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing the Abraham Accords, which normalised diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
“He’s forging peace as we speak in one country and one region after the other,” Netanyahu said.
The neighbourhood
Papua New Guinea: A deal between the governments of Papua New Guinea and Bougainville has raised hopes in Bougainville that the autonomous region could gain independence by 2027.
In 2019, 98 per cent of Bougainville residents voted in favour of independence in a referendum that was held as part of an agreement that ended the region’s civil war from 1988 to 1998. Just 2 per cent of residents favoured continuing with the region’s autonomy.
Since the referendum, there has been little progress towards a change of the region’s status. The referendum was non-binding and must be ratified by PNG’s parliament.
But Bougainville officials and community groups say a deal – the Melanesia Agreement – signed on June 26 by PNG’s Prime Minister James Marape and Bougainville’s President Ishmael Toroama could provide a pathway to independence.
Ezekiel Masatt, a Bougainville cabinet member, told Radio New Zealand the deal had given a “new lease of life” to the push for independence. He said the PNG government had a history of “procrastinating”, but the deal outlined steps towards ratification of the referendum.
“It’s a process, and therefore, there’s been some delays,” he said. “We’re confident in where we’re going.”
Marape said in a statement that the deal marked a step towards resolving the region’s status but noted that the agreement “continues the journey, rather than ends it”.
“Our ultimate goal is to reach a destination that respects Bougainville’s aspirations while preserving the legal foundation of our nation,” he said.
Helen Hakena, a peace and women’s rights campaigner in Bougainville, told ABC News this week that the deal “brings us one step closer to independence”.
“This is finally some progress in the right direction,” she said.
Democracy in retreat
Kenya: A crackdown on protesters in Kenya this week left 31 people dead, adding to a growing toll from months of demonstrations against corruption, economic inequality and police brutality.
Clashes between police and protesters occurred across the country on Monday and led to an effective lockdown of Nairobi, the capital, as authorities shut roads and schools. Police said 567 people were arrested.
The protests were held to mark the anniversary of pro-democracy marches in 1990 known as Saba Saba, which demanded the government transition from a one-party state to a democracy.
The protests were the latest in a series of “Gen Z” demonstrations involving mainly younger Kenyans who have expressed anger at the country’s lack of economic opportunity and poor governance. On June 25, protests marking the anniversary of violent demonstrations against a proposed tax increase last year left at least 19 people dead.
Police said this week they will investigate reports of officers opening fire on protesters but insisted authorities had acted to maintain public order.
Raila Odinga, a former prime minister, called for a national dialogue on reforming the country’s “rogue police force that shoots people with impunity, a force inherited from the colonialists”.
Spotlight: Elon Musk’s America Party
United States: Elon Musk announced plans this week to create a new political party – the America Party – to combat waste and corruption as his feud with Donald Trump escalated following the passage of what he described as an “insane spending bill”.
Musk shifted from being Trump’s “first buddy” to one of the president’s foremost critics after the pair fell out over legislation – the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – that introduced sweeping spending cuts and tax breaks worth US$4.5 trillion. Economists have slammed the bill, which is set to add $3.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years.
Following the bill’s passage, Musk said he would create a party that would contest the 2026 elections and break the grip on power of the Republicans and Democrats – a task The New York Times said would be more difficult than his other goal of sending people to Mars.
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” Musk posted on X, his social media platform.
Trump said the plan was ridiculous, saying on his rival social media platform that Musk had gone “completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks”.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act extends tax cuts from Trump’s first term that were due to expire in December, as well as allowing deductions for tips and overtime and introducing a US$6000 deduction for those aged 65 or older who earn up to $75,000 a year. Analysis by the independent Congressional Budget Office found the legislation will result in poorer Americans losing $1600 a year due to cuts to healthcare and food aid, while wealthier households will receive an extra $12,000. The act cuts tax breaks for clean energy projects but grants tax credits to some coal producers.
Trump disputed the deficit estimates, saying the US will now “explode with massive growth”.
Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, said in a Substack post titled “Trump’s Big Beautiful Debt Bomb” the new act was devastatingly cruel and deeply irresponsible and increased the risk of a financial crisis. “[W]e are no longer a serious country run by serious people,” he said.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on July 12, 2025 as "Trump claims ceasefire possible within days".
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