By TIA GOLDENBERG

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government suffered a serious blow on Tuesday when an ultra-Orthodox party announced it was bolting the coalition.

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While this doesn’t immediately threaten Netanyahu’s rule, it could set in motion his government’s demise, although that could still be months away. It also could complicate efforts to halt the war in Gaza.

United Torah Judaism’s two factions said they were leaving the government because of disagreements over a proposed law that would end broad exemptions for religious students from enlistment into the military.

Military service is compulsory for most Jewish Israelis, and the issue of exemptions has long divided the country. Those rifts have only widened since the start of the war in Gaza as demand for military manpower has grown and hundreds of soldiers have been killed.

The threat to the government “looks more serious than ever,” said Shuki Friedman, vice president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.

Netanyahu is on trial for alleged corruption, and critics say he wants to hang on to power so that he can use his office as a bully pulpit to rally supporters and lash out against prosecutors and judges. That makes him all the more vulnerable to the whims of his coalition allies.

Here is a look at Netanyahu’s political predicament and some potential scenarios:

The ultra-Orthodox are key partners

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving leader, has long relied on the ultra-Orthodox parties to prop up his governments.

Without UTJ, his coalition holds just 61 out of parliament’s 120 seats. That means Netanyahu will be more susceptible to pressure from other elements within his government, especially far-right parties who strongly oppose ending the war in Gaza.

The political shake up isn’t likely to completely derail ceasefire talks, but it could complicate how flexible Netanyahu can be in his concessions to Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

A second ultra-Orthodox party is also considering bolting the government over the draft issue. That would give Netanyahu a minority in parliament and make governing almost impossible.

The ultra-Orthodox military exemptions have divided Israel

A decades-old arrangement by Israel’s first prime minister granted hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men exemptions from compulsory Israeli service. Over the years, those exemptions ballooned into the thousands and created deep divisions in Israel.

The ultra-Orthodox say their men are serving the country by studying sacred Jewish texts and preserving centuries’ old tradition. They fear that mandatory enlistment will dilute adherents’ connection to the faith.

But most Jewish Israelis see the exemption as unfair, as well as the generous government stipends granted to many ultra-Orthodox men who study instead of work throughout adulthood. That bitterness has only worsened during nearly two years of war.

The politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties have long had outsize influence in Israel’s fragmented political system and used that status to extract major concessions for their constituents.

But a court last year ruled Netanyahu’s government must enlist the ultra-Orthodox so long as there is no new law codifying the exemptions.

Netanyahu’s coalition has been trying to find a path forward on a new law. But his base is largely opposed to granting sweeping draft exemptions and a key lawmaker has stood in the way of giving the ultra-Orthodox a law they can get behind, prompting their exit.

The political shake up comes during Gaza ceasefire talks

The resignations don’t take effect for 48 hours, so Netanyahu will likely spend the next two days seeking a compromise. But that won’t be easy because the Supreme Court has said the old system of exemptions amounts to discrimination against the secular majority.

That does not mean the government will collapse.

Netanyahu’s opponents cannot submit a motion to dissolve parliament until the end of the year because of procedural reasons. And with parliament’s summer recess beginning later this month, the parties could use that time to find a compromise and return to the government.

Cabinet Minister Miki Zohar, from Netanyahu’s Likud party, said he was hopeful the religious party could be coaxed back to the coalition. “God willing, everything will be fine,” he said. A Likud spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Once the departures become official, Netanyahu will have a razor-thin majority. The far-right parties within it could threaten to leave the coalition, further weakening him, if he gives in to too many of Hamas’ demands.

Hamas wants a permanent end to the war as part of any ceasefire deal. Netanyahu’s hard-line partners are open to a temporary truce, but say the war cannot end until Hamas is destroyed.

If they or any other party leave the coalition, Netanyahu will have a minority government, and that will make it almost impossible to govern and likely lead to its collapse. But he could still find ways to approve a ceasefire deal, including with support from the political opposition.

Israel may be on the path toward early elections

Netanyahu could seek to shore up his coalition by appeasing the far-right and agreeing for now to just a partial, 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, promising his governing partners that he can still resume the war once it expires.

But Netanyahu is balancing those political constraints with pressure from the Trump administration, which is pressing Israel to wrap up the war.

Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said she expects Netanyahu to work during those 60 days to shift the narrative away from the draft exemptions and the war in Gaza, toward something that could potentially give him an electoral boost – like an expansion of U.S.-led normalization deals between Israel and Arab or Muslim countries.

Once the 60-day ceasefire is up, Netanyahu could bend to U.S. pressure to end the war and bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza — a move most Israelis would support.

Elections are currently scheduled for October 2026. But if Netanyahu feels like he has improved his political standing, he may want to call elections before then.

The 15th annual St. George Middle Eastern Festival will return to West St. Paul this weekend for a cultural celebration featuring food, dancing, live Arabic music and camel rides.

The event will be from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at the St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church.

“It’s more of all the same fun we’ve had at the last 14 festivals,” founding chair Anthony Rezcallah said.

The St. George Dance Troupe and Lebanese singer John Khoury will perform at the event. Middle Eastern cuisine, such as falafel and kebab wraps, will be served. There will be a bake sale, a silent auction and a children’s tent with games and activities.

The event is free. Visitors can park in front of the church at 1250 Oakdale Ave. in West St. Paul.

For more information, visit mideastfest.com/.

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By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans were exploring changes Tuesday to President Donald Trump’s request to cancel $9.4 billion in previously approved spending targeted by his Department of Government Efficiency, signaling potential difficulties ahead of an important test vote.

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The president is looking to claw back $1.1 billion of funding authority from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and about $8.3 billion from foreign aid programs that aim to fight famine and disease and promote global stability. Congress has until Friday to get a bill to the president’s desk for his signature or the spending stands.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said some GOP senators would like to see “modest changes” to the bill. He’ll need nearly every Republican senator on board to get the package approved, but some are questioning the severity of the cuts to public media and to a global health program known as PEPFAR that has saved millions of lives since it was established under then-President George W. Bush.

“We’re trying to find out if there’s a path forward that gets us 51 (votes) and stays consistent with what the White House proposed in terms of a rescissions package,” Thune told reporters.

Republicans were expected to hear directly from Russ Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, during their weekly conference luncheon on Tuesday as the White House worked to address their concerns.

The White House campaign to win over potential holdouts was already having some success. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., tweeted that he would vote to support the measure after working with the administration to “find Green New Deal money that could be reallocated to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption.”

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she still had questions about what the administration was seeking to cut from global health programs.

Other senators are worried that the cuts to public media could decimate many of the 1,500 local radio and television stations around the country that rely on some federal funding to operate. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributes more than 70% of its funding to those stations.

Democrats are expected to unanimously oppose the package. They see the president’s request as an effort to erode the Senate filibuster. They also warn it’s absurd to expect them to work with Republicans on bipartisan spending measures if Republicans turn around a few months later and use their majority to cut the parts they don’t like.

“It shreds the appropriations process,” said Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats. “The Appropriations Committee, and indeed this body becomes a rubber stamp for whatever the administration wants.”

If senators vote to take up the bill, it sets up the potential for 10 hours of debate plus votes on scores of potentially thorny amendments in what is known as a vote-a-rama. The House has already shown its support for the president’s request with a mostly party line 214-212 vote, but if the Senate amends the bill, it will have to go back to the House for another vote.

“We’re encouraging our Senate partners over there to get the job done and to pass it as it is,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday. “That’s what we did.”

Republicans who vote against the measure also face the prospect of incurring Trump’s wrath. He has issued a warning on his social media site directly aimed at individual Senate Republicans who may be considering voting against the rescissions package. He said it was important that all Republicans adhere to the bill and in particular defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement,” he said.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro and staff writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

By FREIDA FRISARO

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — When an emergency happens in Collier County, Florida, the 911 calls go to one of the most high-tech communications centers in the U.S., where callers can send text and video from the scene to dispatchers.

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Moving to what’s known as an NG911 — or Next Generation 911 — system is a journey Sheriff Kevin Rambosk and Bob Finney, the county’s director of communication, have been on for much of the past decade.

It’s a long way from Feb. 16, 1968, when Alabama’s then-House Speaker Rankin Fite made the nation’s very first 911 call in Haleyville, Alabama, on a bright red, rotary-style landline telephone. That ceremonial call came just 35 days after AT&T announced plans to use 911 as a nationwide emergency number.

Today, most calls to 911 originate with cellphones, with dispatchers in upgraded centers using geo tracking to get accurate geographic locations from callers.

But the response time in an emergency depends on the type of technology being used at any of the 6,000 emergency communications centers in the U.S. that receive 911 calls. There is no uniform emergency system in the U.S., so individual cities, counties, states or geographic regions are responsible for operating their own 911 call centers.

While some states have fully updated to NG911 systems, others are still using legacy 911 systems that rely on antiquated equipment.

“We’re just reminded in these last two weeks, with the flooding in Texas, just how important the work of 911 is,” said Michael Martin, CEO of RapidSOS, which provides infrastructure that passes critical data to emergency centers across the United States.

The future is now for 911

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office covers 911 calls from an area of about 2,030 square miles that stretches from sandy beaches at the southernmost tip of the Gulf Coast on Florida’s peninsula inland to the Everglades.

It’s a region that has been ravaged by hurricanes this century, including Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricanes Ian and Milton most recently.

That’s why Sheriff Rambosk wanted a high-tech emergency operations center.

“We just believe that when we can reduce the response time using technology, it will improve safety and survivability of those calling in,” said Rambosk, who has been sheriff since 2009. “And that’s really what we’re all about, keeping people safe and rescuing them when they need it.”

Today 61 full-time employees and three part-timers staff two emergency operations centers around the clock.

They rely on data that RapidSOS collects from connected buildings, devices, vehicles and even smart watches to send first responders to emergency scenes. The baseline data is provide free of charge to all 911 centers, Martin said.

Mixing technology with emergency response

As Hurricane Helene was tracking toward north Florida last September, forecasters were predicting it could hit Tallahassee as a major Category 3 storm. Officials in Leon County, which serves the state’s Capitol and nearby counties on legacy 911 equipment, reached out to Collier County, some 430 miles to the southeast, to see if they could take over emergency calls if the storm knocked their center out.

Helene moved to the east of Tallahassee, but Collier County was prepared to help if needed.

“Because of the partnership with Rapid SOS, they were able to create a map to where not only did we see our own calls, but we could see exactly where the calls were coming in Tallahassee,” Finney said.

Collier County has also partnered with Charleston, South Carolina, as a backup 911 center. Each region is fully prepared to take on 911 calls for the other in case their emergency system goes down for any reason.

It’s a similar story in North Carolina, where legislation in 2017 helped establish funding for a next generation 911 system, said Pokey Harris, who serves as president of the National Association of State 911 Administrators and executive director of the North Carolina 911 Board.

Harris said Hurricane Helene provided validation for the upgraded system by being able to direct 911 calls from areas that were devastated by the storm to other parts of North Carolina that were not affected.

“During Helene, if a citizen could reach a dial tone, even though their local 911 center may have been impacted because of infrastructure devastation, another center somewhere in the state could answer their call,” Harris said.

No federal funding for next-generation systems

Next Generation 911 systems aren’t cheap.

“There has been no federal funding for 911,” Martin, of RapidSOS said. “It has been in various draft formats as long as I’ve been doing this and it’s never gotten through Congress.”

There is also no federal oversight of 911, he said.

“It’s really quite remarkable how well 911 works despite those challenges,” Martin said. “I think it’s a testament to the people of 911, not the technology.”