FRANKFORT, United States: At least one student was killed and another was critically wounded in a shooting at a residence hall at Kentucky State University on Tuesday (Dec 9), and a suspect was in custody, officials said.

Police in Frankfort, the state's capital city, said the campus was on lockdown. Video from WLKY-TV in Louisville showed multiple police vehicles outside a cluster of dormitories and crime scene tape in a courtyard.

One student who was shot at the residence hall, Whitney M Young Jr. Hall, is in critical condition but is stable, according to the university. The school is not immediately releasing the names of the students.

“We are in close contact with the families and are providing every available support to them,” the school said in a statement, adding that counselling and support services are available.

Frankfort police said they responded to an incident involving “an active aggressor” and that the campus was secured. Authorities planned to release more information at an evening news conference.

Govenor Andy Beshear said in a video message posted on the social media site X that the shooting “appears to be an isolated incident" and that "there is no ongoing threat".

“Violence has no place in our commonwealth or country. Let’s please pray for the families affected and for our KSU students. Let’s also pray for a world where these things don’t happen," he said.

Kentucky State University is a public historically Black university with about 2,200 students. Lawmakers authorised the school’s creation in 1886.

The school sits about 3.2km east of the Capitol building.

LONDON: Britain on Tuesday (Dec 9) sanctioned entities it accused of distorting information in favour of Russia as well as two Chinese companies for alleged cyber activities against the United Kingdom and its allies.

"Across Europe, we are witnessing an escalation in hybrid threats - from physical through to cyber and information warfare - designed to destabilise our democracies, weaken our critical national infrastructure, and undermine our interests, all for the advantage of malign foreign states," said a Foreign Office policy paper released along with the list of new sanctions.

Among those sanctioned is Russian media outlet Rybar, "whose Telegram channel and network of affiliates in 28 languages reaches millions worldwide", said Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.

It used "classic Kremlin manipulation tactics, including fake 'investigations' and AI-driven content to shape narratives about global events in the Kremlin's favour," she said.

"Masquerading as an independent body", Rybar is partially funded by Russia's presidential administration, receives funding from state corporations and has worked with Russian intelligence, she said.

Also sanctioned is the Pravfond Foundation, which has been accused of being a front for Russian GRU foreign intelligence agency.

"Leaked reports suggest that Pravfond finances the promotion of Kremlin narratives to Western audiences as well as bankrolling legal defences for convicted Russian assassins and arms traffickers," Cooper said.

Also hit was Alexander Dugin, a nationalist Russian philosopher widely thought to have influenced much of President Vladimir Putin's thinking, and his think tank, the Centre for Geopolitical Expertise.

Dugin has most notably championed "neo-Eurasianism", a doctrine that says Russia must liberate the world from Western excesses by building an empire stretching from Europe to Asia.

London also targeted Chinese-based "i-Soon and Integrity Technology Group, for their vast and indiscriminate cyberactivities against the UK and its allies", Cooper said.

"Attacks like this impact our collective security and our public services, yet those responsible operate with little regard for who or what they target," she said. "And so we are ensuring that such reckless activity does not go unchecked."

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump blasted Europe as "decaying" and "weak" on immigration and Ukraine in an interview published on Tuesday (Dec 9), deepening a rift between the United States and some of its oldest allies.

Speaking to Politico, Trump also called on war-battered Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to hold elections despite Russia's invasion and said that Moscow had the "upper hand".

Trump's comments doubled down on extraordinary criticism of top US partners in his administration's new national security strategy last week, which recycled far-right tropes about civilizational "erasure" in Europe.

"Most European nations, they're decaying," Trump told Politico in the interview, conducted on Monday.

The 79-year-old billionaire, whose political rise to power was built on inflammatory language about migrants, said that Europe's policies on migrants were a "disaster".

"They want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak. That's what makes them weak," Trump said, adding that there were "some real stupid ones" among Europe's leaders.

Trump also criticised European nations over Ukraine, amid growing differences over a US plan to end the war that many in Europe fear will force Kyiv to hand over territory to Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.

"NATO calls me daddy," Trump said, referring to comments by the military alliance's leader Mark Rutte at a summit in June when leaders backed Trump's call to raise defence spending.

But he added: "They talk but they don't produce. And the war just keeps going on and on".

European leaders have been trying to woo Trump since his return to office in January, especially on maintaining US support for Ukraine against Russia.

Trump's interview will intensify the alarm in European capitals sparked by the US security strategy last week, with its calls for "cultivating resistance" in Europe on migration and warnings of so-called "civilisational erasure."

Experts have said parts of it echo elements of the "great replacement theory" promoted by the far-right - and Trump's former ally Elon Musk - which alleges a conspiracy to replace white populations.

"NOT A DEMOCRACY ANYMORE"

In contrast to the savaging of close US allies, Russia and China got off relatively lightly in the US strategy. The Kremlin said the US document aligned with its own worldview.

A French minister, Alice Rufo, said Tuesday that the US security strategy was an "extremely brutal clarification of the ideological stance of the United States".

In his Politico interview, Trump said countries including Britain, France, Germany, Poland and Sweden were being "destroyed" by migration.

He also launched a new attack on "horrible, vicious, disgusting" Sadiq Khan, London's first Muslim mayor. Khan told Politico that Trump was "obsessed" with him and said US citizens were "flocking" to live in London.

LEIDEN, Netherlands: The White House has released its national security strategy, a document put out by every United States presidential administration in order to spell out its foreign policy priorities. These documents are legally required to be released by Congress and are typically written by a committee. Still, they bear the president’s signature and usually serve as a distillation of how the current commander-in-chief views the world.

This latest document is no exception. But perhaps even more so than any previous national security strategy, it reflects a focus on the views and activities of the current president. It touts supposed achievements of the Trump administration in a way that would be more appropriate in a campaign speech. And at numerous points, it lavishes praise on President Donald Trump for upending conventional wisdom and setting US foreign policy on a new course.

So what can we learn from this document about how Trump views the world? Three themes stand out.

TRUMP IS NOT AN ISOLATIONIST 

The first is that, contrary to some claims, Trump is not an isolationist. He doesn’t want to pull the US back from foreign entanglements completely. If he did, it would hardly make sense to boast of having brokered eight peace deals or of having damaged Iran’s nuclear programme.

Like more traditional national security strategy documents, the latest one still portrays the US as having a responsibility for global peace and prosperity. But within that broad remit, it has a new set of priorities.

The most striking is the focus on the western hemisphere. Whereas recent administrations have identified the containment of China as their key priority, Trump vows he will “restore American pre-eminence in the western hemisphere”. Yet the only concrete “threats” the document identifies as originating in the region are drug cartels and flows of irregular migrants.

Viewed from the standpoint of previous administrations, this makes little sense. US foreign policy has usually been concerned mainly with grave security threats, particularly from Russia and China. Drugs and migrants were less important than nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers.

Trump views things differently. From his perspective, dangerous narcotics and migrants who he has previously said are “poisoning the blood” of the US are much more direct threats to the American people. Putting “America First”, to use Trump’s favourite phrase for describing his own foreign policy, means focusing on them.

But this does not mean Trump is isolationist. Protecting the American people, even in the way Trump understands it, means having an active foreign policy.

“WESTERN CIVILISATION” UNDER ATTACK

The second key theme of the document is its attitude towards “civilisation”. In it, Trump has returned to a central aspect of his political rhetoric – that “Western civilisation” is under attack from a combination of hostile migrants, spineless liberals and cultural degeneracy. Just as Trump appears to see himself as leading the fightback against these forces in the US, he wants others to do the same.

In passages that have sent shockwaves through Europe’s political establishment, the national security strategy lambasts European governments for allegedly welcoming too many migrants, persecuting far-right political parties and betraying the west’s civilisational heritage.

Again, these are not the words of an isolationist. They are the words of someone who, as I have concluded in my own research, views themselves as the protector of a racially and culturally defined civilisation that covers both the US and Europe.

The particularism here is striking. Whereas past US national security strategies spelled out a desire for Washington to spread liberal democracy throughout the world, Trump’s document says this is an unachievable goal. Instead, he seems to be interested primarily in the destiny of white Europeans – and in shaping their democracy and values to conform with his own.

The national security strategy warned that several countries risk becoming “non-European” due to migration, adding that if “present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognisable in 20 years or less”. This is a stance that some observers say echoes the racist “great replacement theory”, a comparison the White House has branded as “total nonsense”.

INTENSE ECONOMIC FOCUS

The third and final theme that stands out from the document is its intensely economic focus. The most detailed parts of the document relate to economic statecraft – how to reshore industries to the US, reshape the global trading system and enlist US allies in the mission of containing the economic rise of China.

Regional security matters, by contrast, receive much less attention. Russia’s ambitions in Europe are barely mentioned as a problem for the US, and Taiwan merits only a paragraph. Indeed, the Kremlin has said the new strategy is “largely consistent” with its vision.

Rarely has a US national security strategy been so transactional. In its discussion of why the US will support Taiwan, the document only invokes the island’s semiconductor industry and strategic position as reasons. Not a word is said about the intrinsic worth of Taiwanese democracy or the principle of non-aggression in international law.

The impression this leaves is that, in foreign policy, Trump prioritises economics over values. He views leaders such as China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin not as implacable dictators hell-bent on regional domination, but as possible business partners. He seems to believe the focus of foreign policy ought to be to maximise profits.

For US allies in Europe and Asia, this raises an uncomfortable question: What if the profitable thing to do turns out to be to abandon them and strike a grand bargain with Russia or China? Based on this document, they have little reason to think Trump will do anything else.

Andrew Gawthorpe is Lecturer in History and International Studies at Leiden University. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.

WASHINGTON: The US Navy admiral who is retiring early from command of the campaign to destroy vessels allegedly carrying drugs near Venezuela spoke to key lawmakers Tuesday (Dec 9) as Congress seeks more answers on President Donald Trump's mission, which, in one instance, killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of an initial strike.

The classified video call between Admiral Alvin Holsey, who will be retiring from US South Command in the coming days, and the GOP chairs and ranking Democrats of the Senate Armed Services Committee represented another determined step by lawmakers to demand an accounting from the Department of Defence on the threats against Venezuela and the strikes, especially after a report that two survivors were killed during one operation in September.

US Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, declined to discuss the specifics of the call, but described Holsey as a “great public servant.”

Congress is also demanding that the Pentagon turn over unedited video of the strikes, as well as the orders authorising the attacks, as part of its annual defence authorisation bill. Wicker said that the Pentagon is weighing whether the video had “classified sections.”

The demands were evidence of the intense scrutiny being placed on the Sep 2 strike, which legal experts say may have violated the laws governing how the US military uses deadly force. Congressional leaders will also receive a wider foreign policy and national security briefing from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday afternoon.

“They are using expensive, exquisite American military capabilities to kill people who are the equivalent of corner dealers and not making progress interdicting the trafficking by the cartels,” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat.

Congress press for more information

What lawmakers learn from Holsey could shed new light on the purpose and parameters of Trump's campaign, which has struck 22 boats and killed at least 87 people since it started in September. Trump has also been making threats against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, sending a fleet of warships near the South American country, including the largest US aircraft carrier.

Holsey became the leader of US Southern Command just over one year ago, but in October, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Holsey would be retiring early from his post. As commander of US forces in the region, Holsey oversaw a command structure that has in recent years been mostly focused on building stability and cooperation across much of the region.

Trump's drug boat campaign, however, has added a new, deadly dynamic to its mission. Rather than trying to interdict drug-carrying vessels, as forces like the US Coast Guard have traditionally done, the Trump administration asserts that the drugs and drug-smugglers are posing a direct threat to American lives. Officials say they are applying the same rules as the global war on terror to kill drug smugglers.

Lawmakers are also questioning what intelligence the military is using to determine whether the boats' cargo is headed for the US As they have looked closer at the Sep 2 strike, lawmakers learned that the destroyed boat was heading south at the time of the attack and that military intelligence showed it was headed toward another vessel that was bound for Suriname.

Still, it remains to be seen whether the Republican-controlled Congress will push back on the Trump administration's campaign.

“I want a full set of data to draw my conclusions from,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who had previously demanded accountability after it was revealed that two survivors had been killed.

Trump this week justified the strike by claiming that the two suspected drug smugglers were trying to right the part of the boat after it had capsized in the initial attack. 

However, Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the special operations commander who ordered the second strike, told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing last week that he ordered the second strike to ensure that the cocaine in the boat could not be picked up later by cartel members.

BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday (Dec 9) that the Trump administration's new national security strategy underscores the need for Europe to become “much more independent” from the United States in terms of security policy.

Merz also pushed back against the notion that European democracy needs saving.

The US strategy, published Friday, paints European allies as weak, while offering tacit support to far-right political parties, and was critical of European free speech and migration policy. 

On Monday, European Council President António Costa warned the US against interfering in Europe’s affairs and said only European citizens can decide which parties should govern them.

Merz, the leader of the European Union's most populous nation and its biggest economy, said he wasn't surprised by the substance of the strategy as it was largely in line with a lecture US Vice President JD Vance gave to European allies in Munich in February.

Parts of the document are understandable, but “some of it is unacceptable for us from the European point of view,” he told reporters in the western German city of Mainz.

“The Americans want to save democracy in Europe now, I don’t see any need for that,” Merz said. “If it needed to be saved, we would manage that alone.”

He added that the new US document “confirms my assessment that we in Europe, and so also in Germany, must become much more independent from the US in terms of security policy. This is not a surprise, but it has now been confirmed again. It has been documented.”

Merz said that Vance's speech earlier this year had “set off something in me as well, and you can see that today in our defence spending.”

Merz’s government, in office since May, has enabled higher spending by loosening strict rules on incurring debt - adding to an effort to bolster Germany's military that has been underway since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine started in 2022.

Under pressure from US President Donald Trump, NATO members, including Germany, agreed in June to a massive hike in the alliance's defence spending target.

“In my talks with the Americans, I say: ‘America first is fine,’ but ‘America alone’ can’t be in your interest. You need partners in the world too,” Merz said Tuesday. “And one of the partners can be Europe. And if you can’t do anything with Europe, then at least make Germany your partner.”

WASHINGTON: Ukraine should hold elections, Donald Trump said in an interview published on Tuesday (Dec 9), calling into question whether the country is truly democratic, as he reiterated his sharp criticism of the Ukrainian leader. 

Speaking to Politico, the US president accused Kyiv of "using war" to avoid elections which have been postponed under the imposition of martial law since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"I think it's an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election, but I would think the Ukrainian people would ... should have that choice," Trump said.

"You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore."

Without martial law, a Ukrainian presidential election would have been due in March 2024.

Trump reiterated the criticisms he made on Sunday about Volodymyr Zelenskyy, claiming that the Ukrainian president had not read the US plan to end the war. 

Days of negotiations between US and Ukrainian officials, including Zelenskyy, ended Saturday without an apparent breakthrough, though Zelenskyy committed to conducting further talks toward "real peace."

"Maybe he’s read it over the night. It would be nice if he would read it. You know, a lot of people are dying," Trump said.

The US president asserted that Moscow has the "upper hand" in the conflict by virtue of being "much bigger."

Pressed on whether he thought Ukraine had lost the war, Trump replied: "Well, they’ve lost territory long before I got here," and adding their losses have continued in the past 10 months.

His comments came as Ukraine's European allies expressed solidarity with Kyiv in London on Monday, with Zelenskyy maintaining Ukraine has "no right" to cede the territories claimed by Moscow to Russia.

According to Trump, “part of the problem” is that Zelenskyy and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “really hate each other” and that it is therefore "it's very hard for them to try and make a deal."

Trump also criticised the role of Europe in trying to bring an end to the war.

"Europe is not doing a good job in many ways," he said.

"They talk but they don’t produce. And the war just keeps going on and on. I mean, four years now it’s been going on, long before I got here," Trump said.

ZELENSKYY "READY" FOR ELECTIONS

In response, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he was "ready" to hold new elections if security was ensured for the poll in the war-torn country.

His comments came after US President Donald Trump accused Kyiv of "using war" to avoid elections, which have been postponed after martial law was imposed in the country following Russia's invasion in February 2022.

"I am ready for the elections," Zelenskyy told journalists, during a virtual media briefing.

He added that he was asking lawmakers to prepare "proposals regarding the possibility of amending the legislative foundations and the law on elections during martial law".

Still, for any vote to happen, security must be provided first, he said, asking the US to help ensure it.

"I am now asking, I declare this openly, for the United States of America to help me, possibly together with European colleagues, to ensure security for holding elections," he said.

Ukraine's martial law, effective since Feb 24, 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion, prohibits holding elections during wartime.

Ukrainian cities are pounded by Russian drones and missiles almost daily, while hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are fighting at the front.

Zelenskyy also said that the initial US plan for ending the war has been broken down into three documents - a framework 20-point agreement, and two separate papers, one on security guarantees and another one on Ukraine's post-war recovery.

"There are three. Yes, that's true. We are discussing them with the Americans and have already started discussions with the Europeans," Zelenskyy said, adding that he was hoping to send the updated version of the plan to the US on Wednesday.

Zelenskyy also said the US and some other NATO countries don't see Ukraine in the alliance.

"Look, we are realists, we truly want to be in NATO. In my opinion, this is fair. But we know for sure that neither the United States of America nor a few other countries, to be frank, see Ukraine in NATO at this time," Zelensky told journalists.

NEW DELHI: India has ordered IndiGo to cut 10 per cent of its planned flights after the airline scrapped at least 2,000 services last week due to poor pilot roster planning, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded.

The cut, raised from an earlier 5 per cent, was announced by civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu on X after a meeting with IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, who cancelled a high-profile appearance at an industry event in London to deal with the crisis.

The move will remove at least 220 daily flights from IndiGo’s network, based on the number of services India’s largest airline operated before new pilot rest and duty rules took effect on Nov 1.

"The Ministry considers it necessary to curtail the overall IndiGo routes, which will help in stabilising the airline’s operations and lead to reduced cancellations," Naidu said on X.

IndiGo cancelled more than 1,000 flights on Friday alone to reboot its network. Elbers said earlier on Tuesday (Dec 9) that operations were "fully stabilised".

The airline has faced criticism for failing to plan for the new rest periods and duty rules, leaving planes grounded and disrupting travel plans.

In a notice earlier on Tuesday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked IndiGo to cut 5 per cent of its winter schedule and submit a revised plan by Wednesday.

The regulator told IndiGo to reduce flights on routes where rivals operate and avoid those where it holds a monopoly. No end date was specified for the cuts.

IndiGo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The DGCA had approved 15,014 IndiGo departures per week for the winter season, when travel demand rises in India. The airline cancelled 951 flights in November out of 64,346 approved for the month.

IndiGo shares ended 0.9 per cent higher at 4967.5 rupees on Tuesday, their first gain in eight sessions. They have fallen 15.8 per cent since Dec 1.

GENEVA: International airlines expect to transport a record 5.2 billion passengers in 2026 despite global headwinds affecting the sector, the industry's trade association said on Tuesday (Dec 9).

Carriers also expect higher profits than previously forecast for 2025, and predict earnings at a comparable level next year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) added.

IATA, which groups around 360 carriers representing 80 per cent of global air traffic, said 2025 profits are projected to reach US$39.5 billion, up from the US$36 billion they predicted at the body's annual general meeting in June.

IATA director general Willie Walsh said the improved performance was "welcome news considering the headwinds the industry faces".

He said challenges included rising costs from bottlenecks in the aerospace supply chain, geopolitical conflict, sluggish global trade, and growing regulatory burdens.

Walsh attributed the improved outlook to air freight's better performance, achieved despite trade disputes triggered by US tariffs.

"Airlines have successfully built shock-absorbing resilience into their businesses that is delivering stable profitability," he was quoted as saying in an IATA statement.

Profits in 2026 are projected at US$41 billion, with persistent aircraft availability problems putting a cap on performance, IATA said.

Profitability projections differ markedly, however, between regions. Middle East-based airlines are expected to register a net profit per passenger of around US$28.60, compared to US$10.90 in Europe, US$9.80 in North America, US$3.20 in the Asia-Pacific and US$1.30 in Africa.

Global passenger numbers this year are expected to be just shy of the five-billion figure, at 4.98 billion, up from 4.77 billion in 2024, the previous record figure.