A bipartisan House majority passed a resolution Wednesday condemning President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and 13 other current and former members of the administration over their roles in the chaotic and deadly U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, after 10 Democrats joined all Republicans in delivering the rare and sweeping rebuke.

The 219-194 vote was the House’s final roll call before members departed Washington to focus on the election, in which control of the chamber is up for grabs. Though the resolution was uniquely broad and direct in condemning the president, members of his Cabinet and top advisers in a personal capacity, instead of as an administration, the vote was symbolic because the measure carries no force of law.

Still, the participation of 10 Democrats — almost all of them facing tight reelection contests — buoyed the Republicans behind the effort to formally hold senior administration officials primarily responsible for the failures of the withdrawal in the summer of 2021, which left 13 U.S. service members dead. Democratic leaders have dismissed the resolution as a politically biased crusade.

“Ten Democrats just joined me in condemning Biden-Harris admin officials who played key roles in the deadly Afghanistan withdrawal,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement on social media after the vote. “I am glad these colleagues put politics aside and voted to do what was right — deliver accountability to the American people.”

GOP presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, has asserted that Harris, his Democratic rival for the White House, was responsible for the deaths of the 13 service members because she professed to be the last one in the room when Biden made the decision to withdraw.

Harris has in turn accused Trump of trying to exploit the service members’ deaths for political gain. The GOP’s report largely excused Trump from culpability, despite his administration’s having struck the deal with the Taliban, which now rules Afghanistan, that pledged the United States to a timeline to depart the country.

$600M Ohio train-crash settlement OK’d

A federal judge on Wednesday approved the $600 million class-action settlement that Norfolk Southern railroad offered to everyone who lived within 20 miles of last year’s disastrous derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, despite the objections of a few residents who questioned the deal.

Judge Benita Pearson gave the deal final approval after a hearing where the lawyers who negotiated it with the railroad argued that residents overwhelmingly supported it, attorneys for the residents and a spokesperson for the railroad told The Associated Press. Roughly 55,000 claims were filed. Only 370 households and 47 businesses opted out.

When the train derailed late on Feb. 3, 2023, tank cars full of hazardous chemicals ruptured, spilled and th contents caught fire just outside the small town on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Then three days later officials decided to needlessly blow open five tank cars of vinyl chloride and burn the toxic plastic ingredient inside because they feared they would explode.

L.A. bus hijacked, passenger killed

A passenger was killed after a gunman hijacked a city bus in Los Angeles early Wednesday, leading to a slow police chase through downtown before the suspect was eventually arrested, authorities said.

The armed man boarded the Metro bus with the driver and two passengers aboard shortly before 1 a.m. in South Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Officers approached the bus as it slowly rolled away. A cavalcade of police vehicles followed it as the driver drove at gunpoint for the next hour. A flashing sign on the front of the bus read: “Emergency. 911 Call Police.”

Police deployed spike strips, which punctured one of the tires. After traveling more than 7 miles, the bus eventually came to a stop at a downtown intersection near the city’s Arts District, and the suspect surrendered, officials said.

Army chief confirmed; objection dropped

The Senate has confirmed a new commander of U.S. Army forces in the Pacific after Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville dropped his objections and allowed a quick vote on the nomination.

Tuberville had blocked Lt. Gen. Ronald Clark’s nomination for months over concerns that the top military aide to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, along with other staff, did not immediately notify President Joe Biden when Austin was hospitalized with complications from cancer treatment earlier this year.

Tuberville had initially demanded to see a report from the Pentagon’s inspector general that will review the matter, but that report hasn’t yet been released and Congress is leaving Washington until after the November election.

Sheriff denies guilt in judge’s fatal shooting

A Kentucky sheriff charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a judge pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a case that has shaken the small community of Letcher County.

Sheriff Shawn Stines, also known as Mickey, made his first court appearance as a defendant in the case at his virtual arraignment. He is accused of fatally shooting Judge Kevin Mullins last Thursday in his chambers in the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg.

Law enforcement officials have not disclosed a motive. And the hearing before Chief Regional District Judge H. Rupert Wilhoit did not yield any clues.

Stines’ next court appearance, a preliminary hearing, has been scheduled for Tuesday in Morgan County, about 1 1/2 hours north of Letcher County.

The Kentucky State Police said last week that Stines, 43, and Mullins, 54, argued briefly in the judge’s chambers before the sheriff shot him multiple times. Stines then surrendered to police.

Meat contamination claims 10th fatality

A 10th person has died in the listeria outbreak that shuttered a Boar’s Head deli meat plant, federal health officials said Wednesday.

At least 59 people in 19 states have been sickened by the bacteria first detected in liverwurst made at the Jarratt, Va., plant.

Illnesses were reported between late May and late August, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

All of those who fell ill were hospitalized.

The latest fatality was reported in New York, bringing the total deaths to two each in New York and South Carolina and one each in Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee and New Mexico.

Boar’s Head faces multiple lawsuits related to the deaths and illnesses.

Houston officer guilty in ‘no-knock’ deaths

A former Houston police officer was convicted Wednesday of murder in the deaths of a couple during a 2019 drug raid that revealed systemic corruption problems within the police department’s narcotics unit.

A jury found Gerald Goines guilty of two counts of murder in the January 2019 deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his 58-year-old wife Rhogena Nicholas.

The couple, along with their dog, were fatally shot after officers burst into their home using a “no-knock” warrant that didn’t require them to announce themselves before entering.

Goines faces up to life in prison.

— From news services