Nikki Haley is dropping out of the U.S. presidential race, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday, a decision that will ensure Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination and once again face Democratic President Joe Biden in November's election.
Haley, a former US Ambassador to the United Nations, is expected to make an appearance to deliver brief remarks in the Charleston area of South Carolina around 10:00 am ET (1500 GMT).
She will not announce an endorsement on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, but will encourage Trump to earn the support of Republican and independent voters who backed her.
Haley was Trump's last remaining rival for the Republican nomination.
On Super Tuesday Trump won the Republican votes in 14 of 15 states - including delegate-rich California and Texas - brushing aside Haley, whose only win of the night came in Vermont.
The Journal said Haley was expected to emphasize that she will continue to advocate for the conservative domestic and foreign policies she supports and caution against some of the dangers, such as isolationism and a lack of fiscal discipline, that she sees coming from Washington.
A preliminary report depicted confusion in the cockpit shortly before an Air India jetliner crashed, killing 260 people last month, after the plane's engine fuel cutoff switches almost simultaneously flipped, starving the engines of fuel.
US President Donald Trump defended the state and federal response to deadly flash flooding in Texas on Friday as he visited the stricken Hill Country region, where at least 120 people, including dozens of children, perished a week ago.
Russia pounded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles on Saturday, in the fourth major attack this month, targeting western cities and killing at least two people in Chernivtsi on the border with Romania.
Thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long armed conflict against Turkey.