Iowa entrance polls show MAGA fans turned out for caucus: Live updates

Former President Donald Trump moved closer to the Republican nomination on Saturday with victories in the Idaho, Michigan, and Missouri caucuses that put his remaining rival, Nikki Haley, further in the rear-view mirror.

In Michigan, the former president took all 39 delegates that were available on Saturday. In a separate Michigan primary earlier this week, Mr Trump won 12 of the other 16 delegates up for grabs.

Saturday’s contests were the last before Super Tuesday where Nikki Haley is desperate to pick off a single state to make her case for hanging on in the primaries and providing an alternative to voters.

The unspoken implication appears to be that some, apparently including Ms Haley, believe that Mr Trump, who is facing 91 felony charges, may yet exit the race.

On 5 March, voters will head to the polls in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. The voting wave accounts for more than a third of delegates ahead of the Republican National Convention in July.

For Ms Haley, this Tuesday is an opportunity to breathe life into her campaign. For Mr Trump, it is the time to put the race away in a decisive manner. Polls do not show Ms Haley leading anywhere, however, her campaign is optimistic about states with high suburban populations.

“Vermont, Utah, Virginia. I think there are states that, if you look at demographically, she has a chance to win,” a source close to the leadership of Ms Haley’s super PAC told reporters last week, after her defeat in South Carolina.

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The youngest Republican woman to serve in the US Senate will deliver the response to President Biden’s State of the Union address next week.

Alabama Senator Katie Britt is set to give the remarks – a rebuttal speech to the president’s address made by the opposing party – on 7 March, which she has promised will be a “candid discussion about the future of our nation”.

Mike Bedigan profiles the rising star in the Republican Party:

Eric Garcia and Gustaf Kilander filed this report from Capitol Hill:

Senate Republicans have a clear message for former president Donald Trump about the race to replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: stay out of this.

After they got over the initial shock of McConnell’s announcement on Wednesday, the race to replace him – namely among the “Three Johns,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune, Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso and Senator John Cornyn of Texas – has begun at a quick pace. Friends of The Independent’s Inside Washington newsletter Stef Kight and Stephen Neukam at Axios reported that Trump wants National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines of Montana to run for the job.

But Republicans expressed scepticism about Trump playing a role in replacing McConnell, his longtime nemesis.

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If a presidential election year wasn’t enough in Washington DC, this year will also see a lot of new faces in Congress, as many members have decided to not seek re-election, with many citing frustration with the chambers’ productivity as their reason for stepping down.

Eight Senators and 42 Representatives have announced their intentions to step down from their current post in 2024, with some running for different elected positions and others leaving politics altogether. Some of those could still run for their current seats if they do not win primary elections.

The mass Congressional exodus includes several controversial seats, which could alter the control of each chamber and numerous Committee chairs.

Here is a list of every member of Congress who has announced that they won’t seek re-election in 2024:

President Joe Biden on Friday announced that the U.S. will begin airdropping sorely needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Here’s what you need to know:

The United States will soon begin airdropping humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip to alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s war against Hamas.

President Joe Biden confirmed on Friday that US forces would join the Jordanian Air Force’s existing mission that has been conducting airdrops of food, medicine and other supplies in recent days.

Speaking alongside Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni in the Oval Office, Mr Biden referenced the tragic deaths of more than 100 Palestinians who were killed after the Israeli army opened fire at a crowd trying to get food from an aid convoy on Wednesday, calling the loss of life “heartbreaking”.

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The drugstore chains CVS Health and Walgreens plan to start dispensing an abortion pill in a few states within weeks.

CVS Health will start filling prescriptions for mifepristone in Rhode Island and neighboring Massachusetts “in the weeks ahead,” spokeswoman Amy Thibault said Friday.

Walgreens will begin dispensing the medication within a week, spokesman Fraser Engerman said. The chain will start with some locations in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Illinois.

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A Missouri lawmaker has introduced legislation to clarify that the state’s judges can grant divorces even when one spouse is pregnant.

The notion that they can’t already has sparked anger from people who see it as an antiquated policy that controls women unfairly, possibly trapping them in abusive marriages.

But divorce lawyers say the practice – which goes beyond Missouri – is not meant to be punitive for pregnant women and has some important practical benefits.

Here’s a look at the issue:

A long-shot Missouri gubernatorial candidate who once admitted to being an “honorary” member of the Klu Klux Klan says he will defy attempts by the state Republican Party to have him kicked off the ballot.

Photos of Darrell L McClanahan appearing to make a Nazi salute while standing in front of a burning cross resurfaced online this week, nearly two years after they were first published by the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Center on Extremism.

On Thursday, the Missouri Republican Party said in a post on X it had been made aware that Mr McClanahan had filed to run for governor “despite his affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan”.

The party said this “fundamentally contradicts our party’s values and platform”, and that it had begun the process of removing him from the ballot.

Bevan Hurley has the story: