News Wrap: Navalny’s body returned to his mother, Western leaders meet with Zelenskyy

John Yang:

Good evening. I'm John Yang. South Carolina voters went to the polls today in the Republican presidential primary. Former President Donald Trump, looking for his fourth straight primary season win, and former governor Nikki Haley, trying to avoid a home state embarrassment.

After Haley voted with her family on Kiawah Island this morning, reporters pressed her on the future of her campaign.

Nikki Haley, Republican Presidential Candidate:

So we'll keep taking it one state at a time. That's our goal. It's just one state at a time. I know everybody else wants to look ahead. That's not how I've done any of this. In the past year we've taken it one state, one month at a time and focused on that. That's what's gotten us to this moment.

John Yang:

This afternoon, Trump spoke at annual conservative conference in the Washington, DC area. Last night in South Carolina, at an event for black conservatives, Trump likened his four criminal indictments to the historic discrimination black people have faced in the justice system.

It is, he said, a reason for his support among black voters. Nikki Haley called the remarks disgusting, and the Biden campaign called Trump a proud poster boy for modern racism.

Several western leaders were in Kyiv today as Ukraine's war with Russia entered its third year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed bilateral security agreements with the prime ministers of Italy and Canada.

They also laid wreaths to honor Ukraine's war dead. Meanwhile, the fighting persists unabated. Ukraine's forces are on the defensive, short of both troops and ammunition.

In Russia, an aide to Alexei Navalny said the late opposition leader's body has been turned over to his mother. Navalny's family said Russia threatened to bury him at the Arctic prison where he died unless they agreed to a secret funeral. The Navalny aides said it's still not clear whether the government will allow a public funeral as the family wishes.

A South Carolina man has been convicted of the 2019 murder of a transgender woman known as Dime Doe. It was the first federal gender identity based hate crime trial. The maximum possible sentence for Daqua Ritter is life in prison without parole.

An angry, jeering farmers greeted French President Emmanuel Macron at the opening of a Paris Agriculture Fair. The farmers forced their way through security barriers, and many clashed with police.

For months, French farmers have demanded better living conditions, simpler regulations and protection from what they say is unfair foreign competition.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, the growing crisis of loneliness in America and Ukraine marks a somber anniversary in the war against Russia.