Names and faces

Meghan Markle  smiles during a visit with Prince Harry to the  Eikon Exhibition Centre in Lisburn, Northern Ireland where they attended an event to mark the second year of youth-led peace-building initiative Amazing the Space Friday March 23, 2018.
Meghan Markle smiles during a visit with Prince Harry to the Eikon Exhibition Centre in Lisburn, Northern Ireland where they attended an event to mark the second year of youth-led peace-building initiative Amazing the Space Friday March 23, 2018.

• The question of whether Meghan Markle's father will walk his daughter down the aisle to marry Britain's Prince Harry or attend the wedding persisted Wednesday as royal representatives remained tight-lipped on possible changes to the program. Harry's press office declined to comment on a celebrity news website's report that Thomas Markle, 73, needed a heart procedure and would not be well enough to fly to England. The uncertainty over his health and attendance at Saturday's wedding came from comments TMZ said the father made exclusively to the site. His condition has not been independently confirmed. Thomas Markle, a retired Hollywood cinematographer who lives in Mexico, told TMZ he would receive a stent and other treatment for blocked coronary arteries on Wednesday morning. Stent procedures done on a non-emergency basis typically do not require long hospital stays, but the recovery guidance likely would rule out a lengthy plane trip to England right after surgery. The bride's parents divorced when she was a child. Her mother, Doria Ragland, is traveling from Los Angeles to England for the wedding and is scheduled to ride with her daughter to St. George's Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle before the ceremony. Ragland is also scheduled to visit with Queen Elizabeth II and other senior royals this week. Thomas Markle also had been expected to spend the days before the wedding meeting members of his daughter's future family. The palace has not announced any alternative plans for Thomas Markle's role of accompanying his daughter through the chapel to meet the groom.

• Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took a veiled shot at President Donald Trump on Wednesday, warning that a growing national crisis of ethics and integrity has put American democracy at risk. In remarks to graduates of the Virginia Military Institute, Tillerson lamented assaults on facts that he said would lead to a loss of freedom if not countered. And he said that only societies able to pursue the truth and challenge alternate realities can be truly free. "When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth, even on what may seem to be the most trivial of matters, we go wobbly on America," Tillerson said. "If we do not as Americans confront the crisis of ethics and integrity in our society among our leaders in both public and private sector, and regrettably at times in the nonprofit sector, then American democracy as we know it is entering its twilight years." Tillerson, who was asked to be the institute's commencement speaker before Trump fired him by tweet in mid-March after months of tension between the men, also said the U.S. can't take long-held allies for granted or deny that free trade is an engine of global growth.

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AP file photo

Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is shown in this file photo.

A Section on 05/17/2018

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