Hello Reader,
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No, it's not the next Hollywood sequel—though I'll take a cut if they make it. It's a real-life battle over Ukrainian skies, waged by young men who grew up on Roblox and Fortnite. But this time, the nerds are lethal.

The Global Fight for Freedom

1. Revenge of the (Ukrainian) Nerds
2. Canada Tacks Toward Economic Freedom
3. American "Ally" Funds Al-Qaeda Siege
4. Keep Dreaming, Kyrgyzstan!
5. Tyranny on Top of the World

Country names are followed by their 2025 freedom scores according to Freedom House. Not a ranking.
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A Russian drone hovered above the wounded Ukrainian soldier, ready to deliver the death blow. Miles away, 24-year-old Kratos—flute beside his laptop—locked on. His interceptor smashed into the Russian craft. The soldier lived.
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Named after the videogame "God of War," Kratos claims over 380 confirmed drone interceptions since January—Ukraine's highest tally for destroying Russian Mavics. In October, he received Ukraine's prestigious Cross of Combat Merit. "It is the stuff that happens in movies and books," the former game developer says, "but here we are, in life and death situations."
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He's part of a Ukrainian revolution in drone-on-drone warfare. In September, the 3rd Assault Brigade intercepted 886 Russian drones, up from 507 in June. Success rates jumped from 5 to 50% in twelve months.
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Supplying the fighters is former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who visited Zelenskyy in July to formalize a partnership promising hundreds of thousands of interceptor drones. Schmidt's Swift Beat produces Merops—AI-powered interceptors traveling 180 mph that devastate Russian Shaheds at $5,000 per unit, a fraction of Patriot missile costs.
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But Ukraine's masterstroke wasn't technology—it was gamification. Minister Mykhailo Fedorov created the "Army of Drones" program, awarding points for kills: 40 for tanks, 50 for rocket launchers, 6 for soldiers. Top teams redeem points for advanced gear—market incentives driving innovation faster than any central planner ever could.
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After Fedorov increased soldier kills to six points, monthly kills doubled.
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Many pilots are video game veterans—their young reflexes put to lethal use. "If they have PlayStation experience, that's a big plus," one commander explained, vindicating every teenager who ignored Mom's nagging.
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Russia offers crude cash bonuses. Ukraine offers incentivized innovation—and the nerds are finally winning.

The world is bifurcating. As the left increasingly embraces socialist economics, climate extremism, and bureaucratic control, the right descends into nationalism, xenophobia, and disregard for checks and balances.
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So it's cause for celebration when reason and pragmatism break through. This week, liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney and conservative Alberta Premier Danielle Smith put prosperity ahead of ideology—approving a million-barrel-per-day pipeline to Asia, suspension of emissions caps, clean electricity exemptions, and carbon capture investment.
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For Albertans, Justin Trudeau’s decade-long pipeline blockade wasn't abstract policy. It meant watching oil sit landlocked while paychecks shrank. Alberta unemployment eclipsed 7% as energy companies cut jobs and Ottawa captured provincial revenues for programs elsewhere.
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Alberta and Saskatchewan produce 71% of Canada's primary energy. When Trudeau killed Energy East, Northern Gateway, and Keystone XL, Smith backed a sovereignty referendum as separatist sentiment soared to 36%. She branded Trudeau "the worst Prime Minister in Canadian history."
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No argument here.
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Few global leaders have been willing to defy their tribes, but recent events yield hope. In October, Dutch voters chose Rob Jetten's pragmatic centrism over Geert Wilders' right-wing populism. Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum took a "business-friendly" approach with Plan México. Britain's Keir Starmer recently declared Labour "pro-business just as much as pro worker.”
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When electoral pressure forces leaders to abandon ideological rigidity, freedom wins. As Smith put it, this prime minister "is willing to work with me and Alberta's government to accomplish that shared goal. And that, my friends, is something that we have not seen from a Canadian prime minister in over a decade"
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A justified dig at Trudeau, and a victory for economic freedom everywhere.

America's "ally" just wrote a $20 million check to al-Qaeda—and the terrorists cashing it are on the verge of seizing their first country.
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This week, the Wall Street Journal revealed the United Arab Emirates paid over $20 million in ransom to free an Emirati prince kidnapped by JNIM—al-Qaeda's most aggressive franchise. The chief beneficiary: former rocker-turned-jihadist Iyad Ag Ghaly, the 70-year-old warlord whose forces now besiege Mali's capital of Bamako (see full Ghaly story here).
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Since September, JNIM has strangled the city of four million—ambushing fuel convoys, torching tankers, kidnapping truck drivers. Blackouts plague neighborhoods. Gas stations sit empty. Schools have shuttered. In November, the U.S., France, and UK urged their citizens to flee as a complete JNIM takeover became possible. The Emiratis just refilled the war chest funding that siege.
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Trump's October praise of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed as "a great leader" promoting "peace and stability" now rings hollow. This is the same regime shipping weapons to Sudan's RSF militia—accused by the U.S. of genocide in Darfur for massacring men, women and children. Emirati officials deny it; UN investigators deemed the allegations credible.
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The UAE hosts American warplanes and brokered peace with Israel. Yet they finance jihadists and arm genocidal militias—enabled by America’s strategic blindness.
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Al-Qaeda's Sahel insurgency has killed tens of thousands since 2012. Now America's "ally" ensures the slaughter continues.

Shortly after 3 am, protesters smashed through Bishkek's prison, freeing Sadyr Japarov—a nationalist serving 11 years for kidnapping. By dawn, as hundreds of injured flooded hospitals, his supporters installed him prime minister. Ten days later, he declared himself president.
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It was October 2020, and Central Asia's sole democracy had committed suicide.
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Former President Jeenbekov's corruption had fueled the inferno. GDP plunged 12% as COVID ravaged the nation. The 2020 elections were a farce—only four parties cleared the threshold, all backing Jeenbekov or Raimbek Matraimov, who'd laundered $700 million. Despite Washington's Magnitsky sanctions, Matraimov's party captured 24% through vote-buying.
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5,000 furious Kyrgyz filled the streets. Protesters stormed the Kyrgyz "White House".
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Japarov promised salvation: "Power to the people, thieves to prison." What followed was democracy's dismantling. Two 2021 referendums returned Kyrgyzstan to presidential rule, shrinking parliament from 120 to 90 seats. "False information" laws, "foreign agents" registration, and legislation blocking outlets followed.
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The crackdown was brutal. Security forces raided Temirov Live—which investigated Japarov's family—arresting eleven journalists. Its Founder was stripped of citizenship. Its director received six years. Courts declared Temirov Live and Kloop "extremist." Kyrgyzstan plunged 50 positions in press freedom rankings.
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Last week, a snap election completed the transformation—no formal opposition, just self-nominated candidates loyal to Japarov. Kyrgyzstan lost its status as Central Asia’s only democracy as turnout cratered to 36%. Japarov boasts he'll win 90% in 2027:
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"You will see coups in your dreams,” he said. Please keep dreaming, Kyrgyzstan.

In October 1950, the People’s Liberation Army crossed the Jinsha River under Mao Zedong’s command, “liberating” Tibet. The invasion would dismantle a sovereign nation and redraw the map of South Asia. The following year, the Tibetan government-in-exile was forced to sign the Seventeen-Point Agreement.
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Tibet was officially part of China.
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By 1956, discontent exploded into armed resistance as Chinese forces imposed "reforms," destroying monasteries and arresting monks. The crackdown killed thousands, culminating in 1959 when over 10,000 Tibetans died in three days as forces shelled the Dalai Lama's palace, forcing his escape to India.
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Now, China is transforming Tibet into a fortress.
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This week, a Wall Street Journal analysis revealed China's massive buildup across the Tibetan plateau—airports at altitudes exceeding 14,000 feet. Workers at one airfield suffered severe altitude sickness. At another, teams battled dizziness and nosebleeds while moving 2.8 billion cubic feet of dirt.
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These "dual-use" facilities also sit within striking distance of India. Satellites show attack helicopters, drones, and fighters deployed. Eight airports cluster near the India border, enabling rapid deployment—terrifying considering their 2020 Galwan Valley clash killed 20 Indian soldiers.
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In August, a senior Tibetan monk killed himself after facing Chinese authorities’ interrogation, intimidation, and intrusions into his monastery. His death followed heightened surveillance around the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday, mandatory ideological indoctrination, and the forced expulsion of young monks. The Dalai Lama insists his successor will be born in the "free world"—as China prepares to install its own candidate.
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For 75 years, Tibet has endured occupation. Now Beijing cements its stranglehold with concrete and steel at altitudes that would kill most men—ensuring the roof of the world remains under tyranny's boot.

Freedom Fighter of the Week: Zarifa Ghafari

The Taliban tried to erase her once. Then they killed her father. Then they came for her again. But Zarifa Ghafari refuses to disappear.
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In 2019, at just 26, she became one of Afghanistan’s youngest mayors—and an instant target. Gunmen ambushed her repeatedly. A suicide bomber nearly killed her. Months later, Taliban assassins murdered her father, General Abdul Wasi Ghafari, on his way home from work. They left his body in the street as a warning. “A message to silence me,” she said.
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It didn’t work.
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Today, from exile in Germany, Ghafari is orchestrating a different kind of offensive. Working with underground educators and women’s networks still operating in Kabul, she helps smuggle at-risk women abroad, secure emergency visas, and document abuses the regime denies exist. Those abuses are accelerating: in the past two months the Taliban have expanded their Vice and Virtue patrols, launched house-to-house searches for women who defy the hijab decree, and arrested female students caught attending secret classrooms. Families who question these disappearances are warned they will “lose another daughter.”
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In recent weeks, Ghafari has publicly warned European governments that Taliban agents are now pressuring families back home to force exiled dissidents into silence. Instead of retreating, she has intensified her campaign, urging the world to confront what she calls “gender apartheid, implemented with absolute impunity.”
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The Taliban stripped millions of girls of education, forced women out of public life, and built the world’s most suffocating prison without walls. Yet Ghafari keeps carving escape routes through it—one rescued life at a time.
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At every step, they expected her to yield. But their “message” has fallen on deaf ears.

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