The GOP debate field was asked about Trump. But most of the stage's attacks focused on Nikki Haley

Chris Christie is doubling down on his criticism that his fellow Republican presidential candidates are too timid to take on Donald Trump and his legal troubles. The former New Jersey governor said after Wednesday’s debate that the other three candidates on stage in Tuscaloosa were “pretending we’re the only four candidates in the race.” Christie noted that Nikki Haley remained silent through an extended discussion of Trump’s fitness for office. Christie said if Haley, Ron DeSantis and others are afraid to take on Trump, they aren’t up to being head of state and sitting across the table from other world leaders.

The four Republican presidential candidates debating Wednesday night mostly targeted each other instead of Donald Trump. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley took the brunt of the attacks as she gets more interest from donors and voters. The former president was again absent from the stage. But with six weeks to go before the 2024 primary calendar begins, the debate demonstrated how firm his grip remains on the party. Trump, who had held counterprogramming rallies during the first three GOP debates, didn’t bother this time and instead held a fundraiser.

The center of Gaza’s second-largest city has seen fighting amid Israel’s widening air and ground offensive in the southern part of the territory that has displaced tens of thousands more Palestinians and worsened dire humanitarian conditions. Distribution of food, water and medicine have been prevented outside a sliver of southern Gaza. And new military evacuation orders are squeezing people into ever-smaller areas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his Security Cabinet has approved small deliveries of fuel into the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry says the territory's death toll has surpassed 16,200. Around 1,200 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly of them civilians killed during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that triggered the war.

Authorities in Oregon are investigating the deaths of two people whose bodies were found in creeks this week as an atmospheric river brings heavy rain, flooding and unseasonably warm temperatures to the Pacific Northwest. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued five people from flooded areas on Tuesday and the conditions also closed rail links, schools and roads in some areas and shattered daily rainfall and temperature records in Washington state.  Amtrak says no passenger trains will be running between Seattle and Portland, Oregon, until Thursday because of a landslide. The wet weather conditions have also brought warm temperatures to parts of the region.