Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ 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 told TMZ he would receive a stent and other treatment for blocked coronary arteries on Wednesday morning. The bride’s parents divorced when she was a child. Her mother, Doria Ragland, is traveling from Los Angeles to England for the wedding.
■ 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.”