Walgreens Boots Alliance on Tuesday reported earnings that tumbled from the same time a year ago amid softening consumer spending and a pullback in demand for Covid vaccines.

President Joe Biden on Monday caused a stir when he appeared to breach royal protocol by touching King Charles III during an arrival ceremony at Windsor Castle, while the King appeared to lose his cool after one of the Welsh Guards at the castle seemed to spend too much time engaging the president in conversation. Mr Biden, who’d arrived in the UK late on Sunday and spent the night at the US Embassy in London, closed out the day’s engagements by meeting with the King and a group of business leaders alongside several US and UK officials. After arriving on the Windsor grounds by helicopter for their first one-on-one meeting since Charles became King last year, Mr Biden raised eyebrows among longtime palace observers by placing his hand on the monarch’s elbow as the two men shook hands. Following that warm greeting, the president placed his hand on the King’s back as they reviewed the assembled Welsh Guards on the Windsor quadrangle, with the monarch reciprocating in a similar gesture a short time later. Both men appeared to be smiling and in good spirits as they ambled about the castle grounds, with Charles attempting to hurry Mr Biden along at one point as they reviewed the Guard of Honour. Mr Biden, who was engaged in conversation with one of the soldiers he was reviewing, failed to heed the monarch’s polite suggestion to keep moving, with the King appearing to snap and gesture at the guard after the president moved along. Although protocol states that the monarch is generally not to be touched, a Buckingham Palace source told People that Mr Biden did not breach protocol and said the King was “entirely comfortable” with the encounter. "What a wonderful symbol of warmth and affection it was between both the individuals and their nations," they said. The King and Mr Biden have met multiple times during their time in public life, with their two most recent meetings coming during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow and a Buckingham Palace reception during the 2021 G7 summit. Both of those times, the subject at hand was their respective efforts to battle climate change, and the same topic was on the agenda during Mr Biden’s visit with the King. Both men participated in what the White House described as a ”climate engagement” featuring His Majesty and a number of “philantrophists and investors,” including the chief executives of Bank of America, Prudential, and BlackRock, as well as US climate envoy John Kerry and Grant Shapps, the British Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. Mr Shapps told reporters that British officials are “enormously pleased” that the Inflation Reduction Act signed by Mr Biden last year “advanced clean energy goals”. Mr Biden’s audience with the King came immediately following a 42-minute visit to Number 10 Downing Street for tea with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. As he sat in the back garden with the PM, Mr Biden said the relationship between the US and the United Kingdom continues to be “moving along in a way that is positive” and “rock solid”. The US president, who has met with his British counterpart five times in the last five months, quipped that it was “good to be back” and commented that he and Mr Sunak have “only been meeting once a month”. For his part, the British Prime Minister said he and Mr Biden would use the brief bilateral meeting to discuss “how do we strengthen our cooperation” and “joint economic security to the benefit of our citizens”. “We stand as two of the firmest allies in that alliance and I know we’ll want to do everything we can to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security,” he said. Following the meeting with the King, Mr Biden departed London for Vilnius, where he will participate in the Nato leaders’ summit before travelling to Helsinki for a meeting with Nordic leaders. Read More King and President Biden’s meeting reinforces US-UK special relationship People defend Joe Biden after reporter claims he wore sneakers without socks during trip to UK: ‘Impeach!’ Biden’s biggest gaffes: Muddling up wars, dozing off mid-event and a series of tumbles Budget 2022: Hunt says UK in recession as he announces huge tax rises Jeremy Hunt increases energy windfall tax in budget Jeremy Hunt freezes tax allowances and hits 45p rate payers

Alina Habba alleged that Judge Engoron had already made up his mind about Trump's involvement in fraud before the proceedings even began

It is over and everything is lost. This is the refrain repeated by Armenian families as they take that final step across the border out of their home of Nagorno Karabakh. In just a handful of days more than 100,000 people, almost the entire Armenian population of the breakaway enclave, has fled fearing ethnic persecution at the hands of Azerbaijani forces. The world barely registered it. But this astonishing exodus has vanished a self-declared state that thousands have died fighting for and ended a decades-old chapter of history. Today, along that dusty mountain road to neighbouring Armenia, a few remaining people limp to safety after enduring days in transit. Among them is the Tsovinar family who appear bundled in a hatchback littered with bullet holes, with seven relatives crushed in the back. Hasratyan, 48, the mother, crumbles into tears as she tries to make sense of her last 48 hours. The thought she cannot banish is that from this moment forward, she will never again be able to visit the grave of her brother killed in a previous bout of fighting. “He is buried in our village which is now controlled by Azerbaijan. We can never go back,” the mother-of-three says, as her teenage girls sob quietly beside her. “We have lost our home, and our homeland.” “It is an erasing of a people. The world kept silent and handed us over”. She is interrupted by several ambulances racing in the opposite direction towards Nagorno Karabakh’s main city of Stepanakert, or Khankendi, as it is known by the Azerbaijani forces that now control the streets. Their job is to fetch the few remaining Karabakh Armenians who want to leave and have yet to make it out. “Those left are the poorest who have no cars, the disabled and elderly who can’t move easily,” a first responder calls at us through the window. “Then we’re told that’s it.” As the world focused on the United Nations General Assembly, the war in Ukraine and, in the UK, the felling of an iconic Sycamore tree, a decades old war has reignited here unnoticed. It ultimately heralded the end of Nagorno Karabakh, a breakaway Armenian region, that is internationally recognised as being part of Azerbaijan but for several decades has enjoyed de facto independence. It has triggered the largest movement of people in the South Caucasus since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan has vehemently denied instigating ethnic cleansing and has promised to protect Armenians as it works to re-integrate the enclave. But in the border town of Goris, surrounded by the chaotic arrival of hundreds of refugees, Armenia’s infrastructure minister says Yerevan was now struggling to work out what to do with tens of thousands of displaced and desperate people. “Simply put this is a modern ethnic cleansing that has been permitted through the guilty silence of the world,” minister Gnel Sanosyan tells the Independent, as four new busses of fleeing families arrive behind him. “This is a global shame, a shame for the world. We need the international community to step up and step up now.” The divisions in this part of the world have their roots in centuries-old conflict but the latest iterations of bitter bloodshed erupted during the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh Armenians, who are in the majority in the enclave, demanded the right to autonomy over the 4,400 square kilometre rolling mountainous region that has its own history and dialect. In the early 1990s they won a bloody war that uprooted Azerbaijanis, building a de facto state that wasn’t internationally unrecognised. That is until in 2020. Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, launched a military offensive and took back swathes of territory in a six-week conflict that killed thousands of soldiers and civilians. Russia, which originally supported Armenia but in recent years has grown into a colder ally, brokered a fragile truce and deployed peacekeepers. But Moscow failed to stop Baku in December, enforcing a 10-month blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh, strangling food, fuel, electricity and water supplies. Then, the international community stood by as Azerbaijan launched a 24-hour military blitz that proved too much for Armenian separatist forces. Outgunned, outnumbered and weakened by the blockade, they agreed to lay down their weapons. For thirty years the Karabakh authorities had survived pressure from international powerhouses to give up statehood or at least downgrade their aspirations for Nagorno-Karabakh. For thirty years peace plans brokered by countries across the world were tabled and shelved. And then in a week all hope vanished and the self-declared government agreed to dissolve. Fearing further shelling and then violent reprisals, as news broke several Karabakh officials including former ministers and separatist commanders, had been arrested by Azerbaijani Security forces, people flooded over the border. At the political level there are discussions about “reintegration” and “peace” but with so few left in Narargno-Karabakh any process would now be futile. And so now, sleeping in tents on the floors of hotels, restaurants and sometimes the streets of border towns, shellshocked families, with a handful of belongings, are trying to piece their lives together. Among them is Vardan Tadevosyan, Nagorno Karabakh’s minister of health until the government was effectively dissolved on Thursday. He spent the night camping on the floor of a hotel, and carries only the clothes he is wearing. Exhausted he says he had “no idea what the future brings”. “For 25 years I have built a rehabilitation centre for people with physical disabilities I had to leave it all behind. You don’t know how many people are calling me for support,” he says as his phone ringed incessantly in the background throughout the interview. “We all left everything behind. I am very depressed,” he repeats, swallowing the sentence with a sigh. Next to him Artemis, 58 a kindergarten coordinator who has spent 30 years in Steparankert, says the real problems were going to start in the coming weeks when the refugees outstay their temporary accommodation. “The Azerbaijanis said they want to integrate Nagorno Karabakh but how do you blockade a people for 10 months and then launch a military operation and then ask them to integrate?” She asks, as she prepares for a new leg of the journey to the Armenian capital where she hopes to find shelter. “The blockade was part of the ethnic cleansing. This is the only way to get people to flee the land they love.” “There is no humanity left in the world.” Back in the central square of Goris, where families pick through piles of donated clothes and blankets and aid organisations hand out food, the loudest question is: what next? Armenian officials are busy registering families and sending them to shelters in different corners of the country. But there are unanswered queries about long-term accommodation, work and schooling. “I can’t really think about it, it hurts too much,” says Hasratyan’s eldest daughter Lilet, 16, trembling in the sunlight as the family starts the registration process. “All I can say to the world is please speak about this and think about us. “We are humans, people made of blood, like you and we need your help. “ Read More More than 70% of Nagorno-Karabakh's population flees as separatist government says it will dissolve ‘Centuries of history lost’: Armenians describe journey to safety after fall of Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh: Tearful 16-year-old describes ‘bombing’ while she was in school Why this week's mass exodus from embattled Nagorno-Karabakh reflects decades of animosity

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The wife of Ukraine’s intelligence chief has been diagnosed with heavy metals poisoning and is undergoing treatment in hospital, it emerged on Tuesday. Meanwhile, deadly winter weather has hit the front lines of the conflict with Russia. Marianna Budanova is the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency known by its local acronym GUR. Her condition was confirmed to AP by Andriy Yusov, the agency’s spokesman. He did not provide more details about the alleged poisoning, nor did he say if it was believed to have been intended for Mr Budanov or whether Russia was thought to be behind it. Earlier this year, he told Ukrainian media that the military intelligence chief had survived 10 assassination attempts carried out by the Russian state or federal security services. There was no immediate comment from the Russian government, which has long been suspected of poisoning opponents. The exact nature of the heavy metals that caused the poisoning has not been made public. However, local media said the metals were not used domestically or in military equipment, so the GUR representatives presume the poisoning was carried out intentionally, possibly through food or drink. Several GUR personnel were also diagnosed with the same poisoning, according to the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda. More than 100,000 people were still without power on the Crimean peninsula and some still had no water supply, the Russia-installed governor said on Tuesday, after a winter storm that brought blizzards from Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova across Ukraine and into central Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky said at least five people died in the Odesa region of southern Ukraine, and that engineers were working to restore electricity. Crimea, which was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, is a key military and logistics hub for Russia as it pursues its war in Ukraine. The damage caused by the storm affected “the tempo of military operations along the frontline in Ukraine” but has not stopped military activity entirely, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said. In the Vologda region, about 310 miles northeast of Moscow, more than 10 days worth of snow – about 25cm (10in) – fell in one day. The Moscow region was also blanketed with snow, piling drifts up to 25cm deep. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has cast Moscow’s military action in Ukraine as an existential battle against purported attempts by the West to destroy Russia in a ranting speech. Mr Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades, is expected to declare his intention to seek another six-year term in a presidential election next March. “We are defending the security and wellbeing of our people, the highest, historical right to be Russia - a strong, independent power, a country-civilisation,” Mr Putin said, accusing the US and its allies of trying to “dismember and plunder” Russia. “We are now fighting for the freedom of not only Russia, but the whole world,” Mr Putin said. Associated Press contributed to this report Read More Fake babies, real horror: Deepfakes from the Gaza war increase fears about AI's power to mislead Greece pushes back against claims its leader broke assurances over Elgin Marbles Ukraine spy chief's wife undergoes treatment for suspected poisoning with heavy metals Baltic nations' foreign ministers pull out of OSCE meeting over Russian foreign minister attendance Cameron to urge Nato allies not to waver in support for Ukraine Greek officials angry and puzzled after UK's Sunak scraps leaders' meeting over Parthenon Marbles

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