“South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a seven-year prison sentence for former President Yoon Suk Yeol in the first case to reach the country’s highest court from his several criminal trials related to his brief imposition of martial law in 2024. The court upheld an April ruling by the Seoul High Court that found Yoon guilty of infringing on Cabinet members’ right to deliberate before he declared martial law, falsifying the official proclamation to cover up the lapse before later destroying the document, and deploying presidential security forces to illegally resist law enforcement efforts to arrest him weeks after his impeachment.” (07/09/26)
“Mark is joined by his wife Laura for a special conversation sparked by his recent interview with Lauren Noone (go check that one out) on what freedom really means, and how choice sits at the center of it. Here’s the question that started it: if you have to pay property tax, do you really own your property, or are you just a serf paying quit rents to a modern lord?” (07/08/26)
“Back in 2018, when I was with the Washington Post, I put together a collection of academic studies, media reports and investigations, and other resources on racism in the criminal justice system. The idea, which the paper supported at the time, was to post all of this data in one place and keep it updated as a one-stop resource and repository. In the years since, I’ve heard from academics, journalists, policymakers, and teachers who have relied on the collection in their research, reporting, and class assignments. I’ve also received requests to take it out from behind the paywall. I was never able to convince the Post to do that. … So I’m going to reproduce it here at The Watch.” (07/08/26)
“Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office formally accused former U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar of violating his diplomatic duties by allegedly misleading Mexican authorities about the 2024 capture of alleged Sinaloa cartel co-founder Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada. The accusation alleges that Salazar knowingly made false statements when he said U.S. agencies had not participated in the operation that led to Zambada’s capture and transfer in July 2024. The complaint followed reports by Mexican media outlets Milenio and Azteca Noticias that the FBI recently displayed the aircraft used in the operation at the War Eagles Air Museum in Santa Teresa, N.M., describing it as an FBI success.” (07/09/26)
“I am not an expert in AI, but I have seen a lot of waves software-based productivity innovations in my lifetime, and have developed some intuition as to how fast or slow they can penetrate corporate America. I think the impact of AI over the next 5 years, particularly on productivity, has been exaggerated. Which should be no surprise as the impact of PC’s and later the Internet also undershot their productivity expectations for the first 5 years.” (07/08/26)
“There is a crisis of trust in America’s governing institutions. We see it in the numbers. In 1964, for example, 77 percent of Americans said they trusted the federal government to do the right thing most of the time. Today, that number is 17 percent. The trust deficit represents more than dissatisfaction with policies or leaders. Democratic governance is increasingly experienced as something done to people by faraway elites, rather than something done for and by the people. Public remedies too often fail to address citizens’ concerns, or worse, inhibit their ability to act, adapt, and solve problems on their own. As trust erodes, respect for democratic norms wanes, and strongman politics gains ground. And all this creates the conditions in which a polarized media stokes the flames that have Americans actively fearing and hating one another.” (07/08/26)
“Five Weapons. One Target: Your Freedom. Washington, Webster, Paine, Madison, and more – they saw every one of them coming and warned us, but ‘we the people’ didn’t listen. It’s the top tools of tyrants: what they use against us and what’s self-inflicted.” (07/08/26)
“Facebook and Instagram parent Meta said Wednesday it will invest more than US$9.1 billion to build its first artificial intelligence data center in Canada and its largest outside the United States. The facility will be built in Sturgeon County, Alberta, and powered by a natural gas-fired plant being developed by a consortium that includes Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Ltd. … Alberta has been courting hyperscale data centers as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure surges. But the rapid growth of AI has fueled concerns about the vast amounts of electricity and water such facilities require, as well as their strain on power grids and nearby communities. Because Alberta’s electricity grid cannot support multiple large AI data centers, the province is prioritizing projects that build or secure their own power generation, as Meta plans to do.” (07/08/26)
