Names and faces

In this May 8, 2007 file photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she is greeted by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, via video conference, during her visit to NASA's Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md..  O
In this May 8, 2007 file photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she is greeted by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, via video conference, during her visit to NASA's Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.. O

• Buckingham Palace is reporting that Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is devastated by the loss of her beloved corgi Willow, the last in a royal line of loyal, nippy dogs who have kept the monarch company during her entire reign. The Daily Mail said that the 91-year-old queen was hit "extremely hard" by the death of Willow, 14, who was put down Sunday after suffering a bout of cancer. A Buckingham Palace source said the queen "has mourned every one of her corgis over the years, but she has been more upset about Willow's death than any of them. ... It is probably because Willow was the last link to her parents and a pastime that goes back to her own childhood. It really does feel like the end of an era." For more than 80 years, the queen has been surrounded by Pembroke Welsh Corgis. There is barely a family portrait that does not include a couple of the tawny red, white-pawed, short-legged pooches under foot. The queen has not had just a corgi -- she has had 30 of them as companions over the years. From the queen's breeding program at the Kennels of Windsor, hundreds of royal corgis have been whelped. Elizabeth never sold them but instead gave them to family friends. The British press reports that the breeding program quietly ended a couple of years ago. The queen did not want to leave behind dogs for others to care for. For company, Elizabeth still has her dogs Vulcan and Candy, both "dorgis," a corgi-dachshund mix. The Guardian went with the headline: The Queen's corgis are dead: long live the 'dorgis.'

• President Donald Trump said Wednesday that a porn actress is pulling "a total con job" by promoting an artist's sketch of a man she says threatened her to keep silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump years ago. The sketch depicts a white male in his 30s or 40s and carries a description of him as "lean but fit." Stormy Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, told ABC's The View on Tuesday that it's the man who menaced her and her young daughter and warned her in 2011 to stay quiet about a 2006 tryst with Trump. In an early morning tweet from his Palm Beach estate, Trump said: "A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!" It appeared to be the first time Trump tweeted directly about the porn actress. The White House has consistently said Trump denies the affair. Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has increased a $100,000 reward to $131,000 for information leading to the man's identification. The figure could be a reference to the $130,000 that Daniels says she received from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen just before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence on her alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Trump has said he had no knowledge of the payment made by Cohen.

A Section on 04/19/2018

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