A four-day cease fire in the Israel-Hamas war begins Friday morning in Gaza as part of an agreement that Qatar helped broker

MEXICO CITY Mexico's economy grew 0.8% in the second quarter from the previous three-month period, national statistics agency

Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson threw an interception and was unable to generate much offense with his legs either during Indianapolis’ preseason-opening 23-19 loss to the Buffalo Bills in an outing decided by the third-stringers

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) called on Republican donors to force candidates who have little to no chance to win the Republican nomination for president out of the race to prevent Donald Trump from winning. The 2012 Republican presidential nominee-turned-chief critic of the former president within the GOP wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that any candidate had a shot of beating Mr Trump if the contest became a two-person race. “For that to happen, Republican megadonors and influencers – large and small – are going to have to do something they didn’t do in 2016: get candidates they support to agree to withdraw if and when their paths to the nomination are effectively closed,” he said. Mr Romney set the deadline of 26 February, which would be after the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, the Nevada caucus and the South Carolina primary. He said plenty of Republican candidates with no chance of winning benefit greatly from their candidacies. “Left to their own inclinations, expect several of the contenders to stay in the race for a long time,” Mr Romney noted. “They will split the non-Trump vote, giving him the prize. A plurality is all that is needed for winner-take-all primaries.” Mr Romney also cited the presidential candidacy of his father, the late George Romney, when he ran in 1968 and how many moderate Republicans got behind him before the elder Romney dropped out and they pledged their support to Nelson Rockefeller to stop Richard Nixon. But Mr Romney said such circumstances don’t exist today because of the rise of super PACs, which allow for unlimited fundraising. “A few billionaires have already committed tens of millions of dollars,” he said. “They have a responsibility to give their funds with clear eyes about their candidate’s prospects.” Mr Romney is the only Republican Senator who voted to convict Mr Trump for both of the former president’s impeachments in 2020 and 2021. The former Massachusetts governor said donors who back a candidate with a slim chance should receive a hard pledge that they will drop out and back the candidate with the best chance of beating Mr Trump by 26 February. “Donors may think that party leaders can narrow the field,” he wrote. “Not so. Candidates don’t listen to party officials, because voters don’t listen to them either. And the last people who would ever encourage a candidate to withdraw are the campaign staff and consultants who want to keep their jobs for as long as possible.” Polling in early states showed Mr Trump continues to hold a commanding lead in many of the early states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. “Our party and our country need a nominee with character, driven by something greater than revenge and ego, preferably from the next generation,” he said. “Family, friends and campaign donors are the only people who can get a lost-cause candidate to exit the race. After Feb. 26, they should start doing just that.” Read More Trump news – live: Trump shares QAnon post on Truth Social as ex-NYPD boss hands evidence to Jan 6 probe Watch: Jill Biden meets France’s first lady to celebrate US rejoining Unesco Hunter Biden's guilty plea is on the horizon, and so are a fresh set of challenges Judge vacates desertion conviction for former US soldier captured in Afghanistan Putting a floating barrier in the Rio Grande to stop migrants is new. The idea isn't.

With a flood of visitors and tourists expected, officials in the nation’s capital are mobilizing additional police officers and dozens of teams of civilian peacekeepers in an attempt to keep rising violent crime rates from marring the holiday weekend

Amy Sedaris recently appeared on Seth Meyers' show, where she delighted the audience with her signature charm and eccentric style

The Cincinnati Reds lost their third straight game and dropped 2 1/2 games behind Arizona for the last NL wild card berth as Willson Contreras homered for the third straight game and drove in three runs in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 4-3 victory

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team suffered a setback on Tuesday as a federal judge commented that his argument for moving a trial on 34 counts of falsifying business records out of state court was “far-fetched”. The comments from Judge Alvin Hellerstein were reported by NBC 4; the criminal prosecution is one of two the former president is now embroiled in as his legal entanglements continue to worsen. Mr Trump is accused in New York of falsifying business records dozens of times with the purpose of hiding a well-reported hush money scheme in which he supposedly paid his former attorney to recompense payments that the attorney, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and other women with tales of alleged extramarital affairs with his boss. The former president has denied both the allegations of extramarital affairs as well as his own supposed role in covering them up; his ex-attorney Cohen, however, has explained his boss’s role in the scheme. Mr Trump’s attorneys had sought to see the case moved from court in New York state to a federal jurisdiction, as part of an effort to see the case dismissed on grounds that he supposedly made the payments in 2017 as part of his work as president. On Tuesday, Mr Hellerstein appeared to scoff at that argument. “It sounds a little far fetched, but that's the argument,” Mr Hellerstein reportedly said. He is set to make a final ruling on this matter within two weeks. He also added that as of yet, the Trump attorneys had provided “no reason to believe that an equal measure of justice could not be rendered by the state court”, and given no convincing evidence or arguments to support the idea that there was a “relationship to any official act of the president” and the payments. Mr Trump’s attorneys are defending him from more than 60 felony counts over two indictments; the ex-president is also accused of illegally retaining classified materials and other presidential documents at his resort at Mar-a-Lago. The ex-president continues to insist that the prosecutions are part of a political effort against him even as that argument appears to be losing traction among some establishment Republicans. Read More Biden touts his economic record in fiery speech: ‘Guess what – Bidenomics is working’ Trump’s latest defence in the classified documents case: ‘Bravado’ Chris Christie attacks Trump for diverting campaign funds to legal battles: ‘Cheapest SOB I’ve ever met’ DeSantis supporter blames Trump camp for leaking racist and antisemitic messages ‘Any Republican not named Trump’: Paul Ryan says former president is only candidate who would lose to Biden Liz Cheney lays out damning problem with US politics: ‘We’re electing idiots’

Three AL West contenders and only two spots remain. What do the Astros, Mariners and Rangers need to clinch a playoff berth this week?

From arts and education to coups and annexations, there’s no doubt that Catherine the Great did more than history gives her credit for.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred will consider increasing time on the pitch clock for the postseason but is reluctant to adjust an innovation the sport considers a great success

US antitrust agencies stepped up the Biden administration’s crackdown on mergers and acquisitions with a sweeping overhaul of