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.
President Donald Trump cancelled a trip to Islamabad by two US envoys to meet Iran war mediator Pakistan on Saturday after Iran's foreign minister flew out of the Pakistani capital following talks, dealing a new setback to peace prospects.
Israel said on Saturday it would attack Hezbollah targets forcefully, further testing a fragile ceasefire with Lebanon that US President Donald Trump recently said had been extended by three weeks.
Russian forces pounded the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Saturday in waves of attacks with drones and missiles that also hit other regions, killing 10 people and injuring dozens.
Insurgents launched attacks in Mali's capital and other locations across the country on Saturday, with the army urging people to remain calm as the military-led government faced one of the biggest operations yet in a long campaign against it.
The US military has announced that it struck a vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Friday, killing two people, in the latest such attack, condemned by rights groups as "extrajudicial killings" and described by Washington as targeting "narco-terrorists".