North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted late Tuesday to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — the only Palestinian American in Congress — an extraordinary rebuke of her rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.

The 234-188 tally came after enough Democrats joined with Republicans to censure Tlaib, a punishment one step below expulsion from the House. The three-term congresswoman has long been a target of criticism for her views on the decades-long conflict in the Middle East.

MIAMI (AP) — Foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war are expected to be prominent in Wednesday’s third Republican primary debate, as a narrowing field of candidates seeks to cut into Donald Trump’s lead without being able to challenge the former president in person.

Trump will again skip the debate in Miami, instead holding a rally in a nearby suburb. He says he won’t participate due to his large lead in national and early state polls.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ivanka Trump testified Wednesday that she had no role in her father’s personal financial statements, echoing her adult brothers about documents central to the civil fraud trial that could reshape Donald Trump’s family business.

The former president’s elder daughter, who has been in his inner circle in both business and politics, rounds out a major stretch in the trial. Her father took the stand on Monday, and her brothers Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. testified last week.

SHEPHERD, TEXAS (AP) — Authorities issued a shelter-in-place order for Texas residents within a one-mile radius of a chemical plant fire Wednesday.

A large plume of smoke could be seen in video captured by residents as the plant caught fire in Shepherd, Texas.

San Jacinto County Office of Emergency Management said in a statement that a private school in the area had been evacuated and that Highway 59 was closed due to the fire.

Shepherd is a mainly rural area about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Houston.

DENVER (AP) — The owner of a Colorado funeral home and his wife were arrested Wednesday after the decaying remains of at least 189 people were recently found at his facility.

Jon and Carrie Hallford were arrested in Wagoner, Oklahoma, on suspicion of four felonies: abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery, District Attorney Michael Allen said in a news release after at least some of the aggrieved families were told.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taxpayers will be able to submit all sorts of tax documents and other communications to the IRS digitally months earlier than originally planned under a new timetable for paperless taxpayer communications announced Tuesday by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

“The impact will be significant and far-reaching,” Yellen says in a speech prepared for delivery at IRS headquarters in Washington, “and we’ll speed up processing times for the system as a whole.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Tuesday imposed sanctions on 13 members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel and four Sonora, Mexico-based firms accused of trafficking fentanyl and other drugs into the United States.

The latest action follows a series of measures taken this year against members of the Sinaloa cartel, cash couriers and cartel fraud schemes.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ’ senior advisers are outlining a difficult path to the Republican presidential nomination that can succeed only by first denying former President Donald Trump “a big win” in Iowa, where the DeSantis campaign is promising to leverage the “vast statewide political operation” of his newest major endorser, Gov. Kim Reynolds.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force’s vast fields of underground nuclear missile silos are rarely disturbed by more than the occasional wandering cow or floating spy balloon. But the service is now asking Congress to help with another unexpected danger: towering wind turbines, which are growing in number and size and are edging closer to the sites each year.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The field of candidates onstage for the third Republican presidential debate will be the smallest yet.

Five hopefuls will participate in Wednesday night’s debate at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, according to the Republican National Committee.