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Netanyahu’s coalition takes first step toward new elections in Israel

By The Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition on Wednesday submitted a bill to dissolve parliament, taking a preliminary step toward holding new elections later this year.

The proposal sets the stage for a formal vote to dissolve parliament and schedule new elections. Israeli media said a preliminary vote is expected next week.

Netanyahu’s coalition is near the end of its four-year term and must hold new elections by the end of October. But some of Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox governing partners have urged him to push up the vote slightly to early September.

The bill calls for elections “no less than 90 days” after it is approved, giving Netanyahu flexibility to choose a date when he feels he has the best chance of success.

The outgoing coalition has presided over a turbulent term that included the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Opinion polls have indicated that the coalition, comprised of religious and nationalist parties, could struggle to win reelection.

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

By The Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
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