By STEVE PEOPLES (AP National Political Writer)

NEW YORK — Nikki Haley will suspend her presidential campaign today after being soundly defeated across the country on Super Tuesday, according to people familiar with her decision, leaving Donald Trump as the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination.

Three people with direct knowledge who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly confirmed Haley’s decision ahead of an announcement by her scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador, was Trump’s first significant rival when she jumped into the race in February 2023. She spent the final phase of her campaign aggressively warning the GOP against embracing Trump, whom she argued was too consumed by chaos and personal grievance to defeat President Joe Biden in the general election.

Her departure clears Trump to focus solely on his likely rematch in November with Biden. The former president is on track to reach the necessary 1,215 delegates to clinch the Republican nomination later this month.

Haley’s defeat marks a painful, if predictable, blow to those voters, donors and Republican Party officials who opposed Trump and his fiery brand of “Make America Great Again” politics. She was especially popular among moderates and college-educated voters, constituencies that will likely play a pivotal role in the general election. It’s unclear whether Trump, who recently declared that Haley donors would be permanently banned from his movement, can ultimately unify a deeply divided party.

Haley leaves the 2024 presidential contest having made history as the first woman to win a Republican primary. She beat Trump in the District of Columbia on Sunday and Vermont on Tuesday.

She had insisted she would stay in the race through Super Tuesday and crossed the country campaigning in states holding Republican contests. Ultimately, she was unable to knock Trump off his glide path to a third straight nomination.

Haley’s allies note that she exceeded most of the political world’s expectations by making it as far as she did.

She had initially ruled out running against Trump in 2024. But she changed her mind and ended up launching her bid three months after he did, citing among other things the country’s economic troubles and the need for “generational change.” Haley, 52, later called for competency tests for politicians over the age of 75 — a knock on both Trump, who is 77, and President Joe Biden, who is 81.

Her candidacy was slow to attract donors and support, but she ultimately outlasted all of her other GOP rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott, her fellow South Carolinian whom she appointed to the Senate in 2012. And the money flowed in until the very end. Her campaign said it raised more than $12 million in February alone.

She gained popularity with many Republican donors, independent voters and the so-called “Never Trump” crowd, even though she criticized the criminal cases against him as politically motivated and pledged that, if president, she would pardon him if he were convicted in federal court.

As the field consolidated, she and DeSantis battled it out through the early-voting states for a distant second to Trump. The two went after each other in debates, ads and interviews, often more directly than they went after Trump.

The campaign’s focus on foreign policy following Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel in October tilted the campaign into Haley’s wheelhouse, giving her an opportunity to showcase her experience from the U.N., tying the war to her conservative domestic priorities and arguing that both Israel and the U.S. could be made vulnerable by what she called “distractions.”

Haley was slow to criticize her former boss directly.

As she campaigned across early states, Haley often complimented some of Trump’s foreign policy achievements but gradually inserted more critiques into her campaign speeches. She argued Trump’s hyperfocus on trade with China led him to ignore security threats posed by a major U.S. rival. She warned that weak support for Ukraine would “only encourage” China to invade Taiwan, a viewpoint shared by several of her GOP rivals, even as many Republican voters questioned whether the U.S. should send aid to Ukraine.

In November, Haley — an accountant who had consistently touted her lean campaign — won the backing of the political arm of the powerful Koch network. AFP Action blasted early-state voters with mailers and door-knockers, committing its nationwide coalition of activists and virtually unlimited funds to helping Haley defeat Trump.

With Trump refusing to participate in primary debates, Haley went head-to-head with DeSantis in a single debate, displaying a combative style that seemed to sit poorly with even those committed to support her in the Iowa caucuses. She would finish third.

Haley’s name emerged as a possible running mate for Trump, with the former president reportedly asking allies what they thought of adding her to his possible ticket. As Haley appeared to gain ground, some of Trump’s backers worked to tamp down the notion.

While Haley initially notably declined to rule out the possibility, she said while campaigning in New Hampshire in January that serving as “anybody’s vice president” is “off the table.”

After DeSantis exited the campaign following Trump’s record-setting win in the Iowa caucuses, Haley hoped that New Hampshire voters would feel so strongly about keeping the former president away from the White House that they would turn out to support her in large numbers.

“America does not do coronations,” Haley said at a VFW hall in Franklin on the eve of the New Hampshire primary. “Let’s show all of the media class and the political class that we’ve got a different plan in mind, and let’s show the country what we can do.”

But she would lose New Hampshire and then refused to participate in Nevada’s caucuses, arguing the state’s rules strongly favored Trump. She instead ran in the state’s primary, which didn’t count for any delegates for the nomination. She still finished a distant second to “ none of these candidates,” an option Nevada offers to voters dissatisfied with their choices and used by many Trump supporters to oppose her.

She had long vowed to win South Carolina but backed off of that pledge as the primary drew nearer. She crisscrossed the state that twice elected her governor on a bus tour, holding smaller events than Trump’s less frequent rallies and suggesting she was better equipped to beat Biden than him.

She lost South Carolina by 20 points and Michigan three days later by 40. The Koch brothers’ AFP Action announced after her South Carolina loss that it would stop organizing for her.

But by staying in the campaign, Haley drew enough support from suburbanites and college-educated voters to highlight Trump’s apparent weaknesses with those groups.

Haley has made clear she doesn’t want to serve as Trump’s vice president or run on a third-party ticket arranged by the group No Labels. She leaves the race with an elevated national profile that could help her in a future presidential run.

In recent days, she backed off a pledge to endorse the eventual Republican nominee that was required of anyone participating in party debates.

“I think I’ll make what decision I want to make,” she told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Maybe it’s best to start here, late in the fourth quarter of Week 15 with the Seattle Seahawks trailing 17-13 and pinned inside their 10-yard line. The two-minute warning had just passed, right after the Philadelphia Eagles downed a punt at the Seahawks 8.

After kicking a field goal two possessions earlier, the Seahawks had life but faced a pressure-packed challenge against a quality opponent in the late stages of a “gotta have it” game. On the sideline at Lumen Field, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron grabbed quarterback Drew Lock — an emergency starter that night due to Geno Smith’s groin injury — and went to work.

It was showtime in Seattle for a 6-7, playoff-contending team in need of a big moment on the “Monday Night Football” stage.

The ensuing drive began with an incompletion — a Lock bullet over the middle that ricocheted off tight end Noah Fant’s hands and almost was intercepted. Over the next nine snaps, there were a few other near-disasters too. But the series also included five Lock completions, including a third-and-10 shot play up the right sideline to DK Metcalf for 34 yards.

Then, in the moment of truth, facing another third-and-long from the Eagles 29, Lock identified rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba in single coverage, had the ideal play call from Waldron and dropped a game-winning bomb into the end zone with 28 seconds remaining.

Seahawks 20, Eagles 17.

That was a relatively small moment folded into a disappointing season for the Seahawks. But for all involved, it was a game-on-the-line triumph and represented the kind of resilient, poised and fearless football Waldron wants his unit to play.

Six days later, with Smith back at quarterback, Waldron put his fingerprints on another game-winning touchdown drive that ended in the final minute, this time a grinding, 14-play, 75-yard march that finished with Smith’s 5-yard pass to Colby Parkinson in a 20-17 road win over the Tennessee Titans.

That marked the second time in NFL history — and the first since 1999 — a team had two quarterbacks throw game-winning touchdown passes in the final minute of regulation in consecutive weeks. And it provided added evidence of Waldron’s ability to adapt and set up his players for success in the critical stages of games.

The Chicago Bears hope to lean into those skills and many more with Waldron as their new offensive coordinator. That union became official Tuesday. Waldron, 44, will begin the next leg of his football journey at a potentially landmark time in Bears history.

He will be the offensive visionary tasked with fueling the team’s championship pursuit while bringing out the best in whichever quarterback(s) the Bears choose to lead them into 2024 and beyond.

Waldron also will walk into an offensive coordinator’s office at Halas Hall where — with the exception of Adam Gase — the inhabitants almost always leave through a trap door rather than on an up escalator.

The pursuit of consistency

Within league circles, Waldron is regarded as an up-and-coming offensive architect, an intelligent and creative coach with strong teaching skills. His work with Smith in Seattle in 2022 is particularly notable as the once-forgotten quarterback enjoyed a career year (4,282 passing yards, 30 TDs) on the way to earning Pro Bowl honors and the league’s Comeback Player of the Year award.

Waldron has worked under some of the sport’s coaching greats — Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots (2008-09), Sean McVay with the Los Angeles Rams (2017-20) and Pete Carroll for the last three seasons in Seattle.

He was the Rams passing game coordinator for three seasons and Jared Goff’s quarterbacks coach in 2019. He spent one season with Russell Wilson in Seattle before preparing Smith to be a productive starter for a playoff team in 2022.

When it comes time for the Bears to formally introduce Waldron, he likely will detail three key tenets within his offensive philosophy. Ball security is a must. Fundamentals require a daily investment to stay sharp. Buy-in from the entire group will be the blowtorch that ignites everything.

Waldron likely will talk often about being committed to the pursuit of consistency. He strives for balance in his offense, wanting to establish a strong running game while embracing an attacking mentality when explosive-play opportunities present themselves.

And as was the case in those two late comeback victories last month, Waldron surely wants the identity of his offense to include composure, determination and high-level mental toughness.

As a play caller, he will have to connect on a heightened level with his quarterback, striving to consistently bring out the best in whomever that turns out to be.

The presumption is, at the very least, he will be afforded input as his new bosses at Halas Hall work to solve that riddle in the coming weeks and months. That work will include both pre-draft homework and in-house discussions on the developmental progress of Justin Fields.

Fit process

Like with any coaching hire, it’s easy to gravitate first to feelings of hope, to the optimistic visions of the significant improvements that can catalyze a meaningful breakthrough. Waldron’s experience calling plays was a definite plus for the Bears. For general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus, that removes a chunk of the guesswork that comes with trying to forecast how he might handle those duties in Chicago and what kind of productivity they can expect.

Still, Eberflus and Poles are less than two years removed from hiring their last offensive coordinator — the January 2022 union with Luke Getsy that triggered significant excitement at Halas Hall.

Like Waldron, Getsy was hailed as a rising, young offensive coach with high intelligence, proven teaching skills and impressive creativity. He had been with the Green Bay Packers for six of the previous seven seasons, including three working under Matt LaFleur in a Kyle Shanahan/McVay-style offense. Getsy was endorsed by those who knew him best — players and coaches — as a strong communicator, steadying leader and sincere, relatable team builder.

He had been Aaron Rodgers’ quarterbacks coach for MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021 and, while serving as Mike McCarthy’s receivers coach in 2016 and 2017, had been credited by Davante Adams as influential in his breakthrough.

“He’s been on my radar for a while,” Eberflus said after hiring Getsy, later emphasizing his attraction to the timing-based, quick-decision passing attack Getsy was likely to bring.

For the next two seasons, Getsy was regarded as an imaginative football mind with strong collaborative skills and a comprehensive understanding of all the moving parts within an offense. But the Bears, under his guidance, also had significant inconsistency issues, and the desired breakthrough for Fields never reached the level the team hoped.

All the positive traits the Bears identified in Getsy didn’t mean enough when his offense too frequently found itself sputtering.

Fields worked his hardest to master a system that was not ideal for him. Getsy’s troubleshooting efforts sometimes steered Fields away from concepts and plays he was most comfortable with.

It became a frustrating square dance. The quarterback was frequently adjusting to the play caller. The play caller was adjusting to the quarterback. The offense, in turn, was adjusting, readjusting, then adjusting yet again for large chunks of two seasons, impeding the opportunity to build momentum or expand, particularly in the passing game.

It was a fit issue. A significant one. And it’s a lesson Eberflus and Poles must learn as they try to set up Waldron for success.

Waldron’s experience and adaptive qualities should help. But with the Bears potentially at a pivot point at quarterback, striving to marry the offensive vision with the personnel must remain a priority as well.

For whatever it’s worth, Waldron’s Seahawks ranked behind the Bears this season in total offense, first downs, touchdowns, third-down conversion percentage and red-zone efficiency. They also had a bottom-five rushing attack.

Waldron must find ways to make his next offense much more potent. Whatever it takes. He must have solutions and ideas for maximizing his quarterback’s gifts while also playing to the strengths of the supporting cast.

And when the pressure rises? When the Bears reach those critical stages of close games? Waldron will be expected to consistently be at his best, bringing out the best in every player in his offense.

The Bears, naturally, are hopeful for what’s ahead. Ultimately, the results Waldron produces and his ability to help the team’s quarterback(s) shine will define his time in Chicago.

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Donald Trump is helping Vladimir Putin defeat Ukraine. Right now, as you read this.

To stop that from happening, President Joe Biden must do an end run around Congress — where Trump and his MAGA clique have cowed House Speaker Mike Johnson into blocking a vote on vital military aid for Ukraine.

Biden still has the power to get some critical aid to Kyiv and prevent a MAGA sellout to Putin that will have ugly, long-term security consequences for America. But the White House can only counter the appeasers if Biden finally summons the political will to help Ukraine win.

Today, Trump and Putin hold the advantage.

With U.S. military funding cut off, Ukraine recently lost the town of Avdiivka to Russia because frontline soldiers ran out of artillery shells and bullets.

Our European allies — who already give twice as much aid to Ukraine as the U.S. does — are trying to rev up their military production capacity to compensate. They need to do much better, but they can’t do this fast enough or big enough to make up for the U.S. abdication. Meantime, Russia is boosting its military production with substantial help from Iran and North Korea.

Trump has long made his admiration of Putin clear, and his disdain for Ukraine clearer — he still resents Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to dig up fake dirt on Biden in 2019.

That makes urgent White House action even more imperative before the November elections. If Trump should win, he insists he will settle the Ukraine war in 24 hours in Moscow, which means pressing Kyiv to surrender to Putin’s demands.

Last month, it seemed that Democrats might be able to pull a parliamentary maneuver to do an end run around Johnson — if they could get only four Republicans to join them. But now, continued MAGA haggling over efforts to prevent a government shutdown means any movement on Ukraine could be delayed for weeks.

Each day that passes without further U.S. aid encourages Putin to expand his ambitions — and leads directly to more Ukrainian deaths.

Unless, that is, the White House takes immediate steps to sustain Ukraine in the near term while pushing harder for congressional funding. This will help enable Kyiv to achieve military progress this year.

Here are four steps Biden must take:

Provide weapons

Much of U.S. military aid to Ukraine relies on presidential drawdown authority, known as PDA, meaning Biden can immediately send Kyiv weapons from existing stocks. Military aid appropriations then go to replace these weapons, often with newer models. (Contrary to MAGA misinformation, most of the military aid money for Ukraine stays in the U.S. and funds manufacturing jobs for U.S. workers.)

Biden still has PDA access to around $4.2 billion worth of weapons but stopped sending them in late December. The given reason: The halt to Ukraine aid means there is no money for the Pentagon to replace the diminished stocks.

Strategically, this makes no sense. We have an $850 billion-plus annual defense budget. Russian aggression is the most urgent security threat the United States faces. And the Pentagon can’t wait for reimbursement of $4 billion that will help block Putin from scoring more gains in Ukraine?

Send ATACMS

ATACMS are long-range missiles with a powerful single warhead that can travel 300 kilometers.

“ATACMS are not a silver bullet, but would make a tremendous difference,” says retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of the United States Army Europe. “They would allow Ukraine to destroy every Russian logistics base and headquarters inside occupied Ukrainian territory, with precision. Nowhere would be safe for the Russians. It would neutralize their advantage,” in terms of artillery and man power.

Ukraine has already had great success with French and British long-range missiles in destroying Russian ships in the Black Sea, but their numbers are limited, and the U.S. missiles are more powerful. Sending ATACMS would prod Germany to add its own Taurus missiles. It could enable Ukraine to take down the Kerch Bridge and make Russia’s presence in the occupied Crimea Peninsula untenable.

This is the best opportunity to put Putin on the back foot and persuade him that his war can’t be won.

None of the current White House excuses for withholding ATACMS holds water. The Pentagon has hundreds of them in stock and is already replacing them with next-generation Precision Strike Missiles.

Rev up production

Increase U.S. industrial production of ammunition and weaponry in 2024, as Europe is doing, to help Ukraine and better prepare for future Russian (or Chinese) aggression. In the meantime, scour current U.S. stocks for more immediate ammo aid, including supplies of cluster munitions the Pentagon no longer uses.

Clarify: How this helps America

Explain directly to the American people why more military aid for Ukraine is crucial for U.S. security.

First off, MAGA calls for Ukraine to negotiate now with Putin are a pipe dream. “Anybody who thinks you can negotiate in good faith with Russia has never read a history book,” Hodges told me. Putin has blatantly broken every past deal Russia made with Ukraine, and has made publicly clear he wants to turn the country into a puppet colony — or destroy it.

Moreover, if the Kremlin crushes Ukraine, Putin has also made clear his desire to undermine or bite off chunks of NATO member states — potentially provoking a wider war.

Meantime, the world is watching whether the United States of Trumpism is ready to let an aggressive dictator break all post-World War II rules in Europe by brutally annexing a neighboring nation. If so, violent challenges to the United States on land, sea, and space will multiply exponentially.

This does not have to happen if Biden pushes back forcefully.

“Hopefully we will rediscover our strategic backbone,” Hodges told me. Hopefully in time to prevent MAGA appeasers from handing Putin a victory in 2024.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for The Philadelphia Inquirer, P.O. Box 8263, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101. Her email address is trubin@phillynews.com

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The Chicago White Sox added to their bullpen depth Saturday, signing right-hander John Brebbia to a one-year deal, a source confirmed to the Tribune.

The move is pending a physical.

MLB Network’s Jon Morosi initially reported the signing and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the deal is for $5.5 million.

Brebbia, 33, is 15-15 with a 3.42 ERA and two saves in 295 career appearances (21 starts as an opener) during six seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (2017-19) and San Francisco Giants (2021-23). He has 321 strikeouts and 90 walks in 299 2/3 career innings.

He went 3-5 with a 3.99 ERA in 40 outings (10 as an opener) for the Giants in 2023. Brebbia had 47 strikeouts and 14 walks in 38 1/3 innings, missing a portion of the season with a right lat strain.

Brebbia underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2020 and made 18 appearances for the Giants in 2021. He led the National League with 76 outings the next season (11 as an opener), going 6-2 with a 3.18 ERA, 54 strikeouts and 18 walks in 68 innings.

The signing comes on the heels of the Sox agreeing to terms on a one-year contract with left-handed reliever Tim Hill last month.

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