South Korean politics took another dramatic turn as a Seoul court sentenced former president Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison over a 2024 drone operation prosecutors say was designed to provoke North Korea and manufacture a pretext for martial law. The ruling deepens Yoon’s legal collapse after his earlier life sentence tied to the insurrection case, and underscores how seriously the courts are treating the crisis that shook South Korea’s democracy. Elsewhere, Washington is projecting optimism abroad, with President Trump claiming a U.S.-Iran peace deal could be signed within days and potentially reopen the Strait of Hormuz, though Tehran is pushing back, saying nothing has been finalized. Taken together, the day’s political headlines reflect a familiar tension in global affairs: leaders making high-stakes moves in the name of security, while courts, rivals, and publics test whether those claims hold up.