| George on Wednesday: U.S., Israel Planned to Install Former President as Iran’s Leader; Senate Passes Iran War Powers Resolution; Chicago Jury Awards $49.5 Million to Family of Boeing 737 Crash Victim; Bitcoin Depot Shuts DownFrequent Business Traveler

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, the 20th of May, 2026 and this is the Wednesday Morning Edition of GEORGE.

“When war breaks out people say: ‘It won’t last, it’s too stupid.’ And war is certainly too stupid, but that doesn’t prevent it from lasting.” —Albert Camus

If awards were given by the Camus Foundation for the most stupid war, there is little doubt that the current war in Iran would be a top contender. And if absurdity is taken into consideration, the idea that the United States and Israel wanted to install the hardline, anti-Israel and anti-American former president of Iran as the country’s leader, as today’s GEORGEreveals in @The War Room,  should cause it to merit high consideration.

Our @The War Room columnist highlights the absurd situation one of hundreds of ships and crews currently stuck in the Persian Gulf found itself in, namely being under pressure by the ship’s owner to make the treacherous six-hour journey through the strait, and risking potential attacks and even death by doing so. Joseph Heller brilliantly highlights such absurdities in war in his highly acclaimed 1961 satirical novel, “Catch-22,”  by reducing patriotism and dying for one’s country to a matter of arbitrary lines drawn on a map. In fact, Mr. Heller describes the absurdity so well that the title of the book has become a part of the English language that describes a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations.

Also in today’s issue of GEORGE, exclusive reports on how almost 80 people and organizations are being charged with criminal offenses over the 2017 Grenfell Tower blaze, news about a settlement for a victim of the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crash, and how Hawaiian Airlines is reducing air and noise pollution by electrifying its ground service equipment.

Some readers have asked how our @The Sketch editorial cartoon columnist determines his subject for the day. The answer is quite simple: The cartoons are based on a news story in that day’s issue of GEORGE, one that is typically highlighted in this very section.

Meanwhile, don’t miss any of these stories in our Wednesday Morning Edition.

— How undersea fiber-optic Internet cables are being affected by the war in Iran

— A unit of the Department of Homeland Security exposed a very large cache of plaintext user names and passwords, many with classified access

— Why Bitcoin Depot is going out of business

In addition, GEORGE has other exclusive news in today’s edition so don’t touch that dial. Simply scroll down and read more GEORGE, starting with today’s editorial cartoon in The Sketch. GEORGE will be back tomorrow with a brand-new editorial cartoon, even more news, and stories you won’t find elsewhere.

Until then, remain curious!

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A stack of newspapers in Vienna’s Café Prúckel, each in an Original Wiener Zeitungshalter

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VOLUME VI… № 1,718

WELCOME (above)

@THE SKETCH (above)  No soup for you!

IN THIS ISSUE

@INTERMEZZO I  Another satisfied Lincoln customer

@THE WAR ROOM

@INTERMEZZO II  1995 Mercedes-Benz S500 

@PHILO ON TELEVISION SNL’s Bids Bowen Yang Adieu

@INTERMEZZO III  1980 BMW 320

@TODAY IN BRIEF

@INTERMEZZO IV Audi A4

@RECENT DISPATCHES OF NOTE

@INTERMEZZO V  VW Golf TDI

@ABOUT GEORGE      

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Another satisfied Lincoln customer gives the brand a thumbs-up.

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— In the earliest days of the war in Iran, the United States and Israel had agreed on what some considered a surprising choice to head a new Iranian government: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country’s president. According to a New York Times report, Mr. Ahmadinejad held hardline, anti-Israel and anti-American views and had become known for his calls to “wipe Israel off the map” during his tenure as president, which was from 2005 to 2013. The plan didn’t quite work out as planned. Even though Mr. Ahmadinejad had been consulted about it, he was also injured on 28 February, the war’s first day, by an Israeli strike at his home in Tehran that had been intended to free him from house arrest. He survived the attack but become disillusioned with the plan.

— The U.S. Senate advanced the first steps in passing an Iran War Powers Act resolution although the measure would still face considerable hurdles before it becomes law. Four  Republicans – Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,  and Bill Cassidy Louisiana –  joined Democrats in voting to discharge a war powers resolution from committee, the first step toward forcing Mr. Trump to end a war that Congress never authorized. One Democrat, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, was the lone Democrat to vote against the discharge.

— The crew of the Epaminondas, a Greek-owned container ship operated by MSC, risked transiting the Strait of Hormuz. For their trouble, they met with a hail of bullets. The move came after ship and crew spent a month stranded in the Gulf. Under mounting pressure, the ship’s Filipino crew voted to risk the perilous six-hour journey, made even more perilous by the mines the Iranians had laid throughout the strait. As the vessel continued through the strait, starting to make its way through on 7 April, bullets fired by men on small skiffs shattered the ship’s windows and dented the hull. The ship also appears to have suffered bridge damage. Despite these attacks, ship and crew made it out safely.

— Multiple undersea-cable projects have become victims of the war in Iran and all such projects in or near the Strait of Vermouth are currently on hold. If construction were to ever resume in the Persian Gulf, undersea-cable companies will have a new headache to deal with: unexploded missiles and mines. Work on three high-capacity fiber-optic cables, including the installation of a section of a 28,000-mile (45,000-km) undersea Internet cable to link Europe to Asia via the Persian Gulf, have been indefinitely paused. If these projects are to be continued – and that is a very big “if“ at the moment – work will not be able to continue once there is a peace agreement in place. Those installing the cables will have to contend with unexploded missiles and mines that litter the seabed along or near their planned routes. Undersea cable contractors will need to rescan parts of the seafloor with magnetic and acoustic sensors to make sure everything is safe, and plans for such Internet cables will likely be rethought, eliminating heavy reliance on maritime choke point in favor of overland and hybrid routes.

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1995 Mercedes-Benz S500 Sedan

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1940’s Philco black-and-whtie television set

SNL Says a Tearful Goodbye to Bowen Yang

The 51st season of Saturday Night Live wrapped on 16 May and was one for the history books. The past season was defined by major cast overhauls, massive historic milestones including the 1,000th episode, and a transition period following the show’s massive 50th-anniversary celebration the previous season.

Saturday Night Live made its debut on late-night television in the United States on 11 October 1975 on the NBC network and its unique formula of an ensemble cast, guest host, musical guest, and live studio audience forever changed television. It continues to be broadcast from Studio 8H at NBC’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Center and its formula has been exported to over a dozen countries ranging from Brazil to Germany to Russia to South Korea, all tweaking the formula to local tastes.

Numerous now-famous SNL cast members simply failed to reappear the following September after being fired, quitting, or in some cases being quietly phased out before the season even ended. Needless to say, none of these cast members – the list includes Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Norm Macdonald, Damon Wayans, and Jay Pharoah – ever had a chance to have a “goodbye” moment on the show.

This was not the case, however, with Bowen Yang, who was leaving after almost eight years. Mr. Yang – known for his impressive caricature of disgraced former Congressman George Santos – was the subject of a skit that placed him as a soon-to-be retiring eggnog attendant at a Delta Air Lines airport lounge. The sentimental yuletide-themed sendoff, was applauded by castmates and gave him an opportunity to sing with Ariana Grande and be told by Cher, playing the role of Delta’s CEO of Eggnog, that he was “a little bit too gay.”

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1980 BMW 320 6-cylinder coupe

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Securitywhich is responsible for coördinating cybersecurity programs with U.S. states, and improving the government’s cybersecurity protections against private and nation-state hackers, exposed plaintext credentials listed in spreadsheets, which had been made publicly accessible in a GitHub repository by an employee working for a CISA contractor. Only thanks to a GitGuardian security researcher named Guillaume Valadon was a sizable and embarrassing security breach avoided, after Mr. Valadon told an independent security journalist, Brian Krebs what he had found. The exposed credentials were used for accessing systems belonging to CISA and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security

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In London, the Metropolitan Police said that it is asking prosecutors to charge 57 people and 20 organizations with criminal offenses over the Grenfell Tower blaze , almost a decade after the deadliest fire in Britain’s modern historykilled dozens. Police said the offenses being considered include corporate gross negligence manslaughter, fraud, and health and safety breaches. A spokesman for the Met said files of evidence will be submitted to prosecutors by the end of September, with charging decisions expected by 14 June  2027, the tenth anniversary of the London tragedy, in which 72 people perished.

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Delta Air Lines, which officially announced its partnership with Amazon’s Leo satellite network for in-flight Wi-Fi on 31 March 2026, is taking pains to justify its decision after uninvited gadfly Elon Musk heavily criticized the decision. Mr. Musk controls Starlink, which competes with Amazon in the in-flight Internet market, saying: “Delta wanted to make it painful, difficult and expensive for their customers.” In an interview with Bloomberg on 18 May 2026, Delta CEO Ed Bastian justified his decision, maintaining that Amazon Leo was cheaper than its competitor Starlink and came with added benefits that include retail capabilities, Amazon Prime access, and video gaming technologies. “I think the opportunities, in terms of the improved bandwidth with a much lower price point than what we’ve ever seen from Starlink, will make a big difference,” Mr. Bastian said.

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Hawaiian Airlines announced that it is transitioning its ground support equipment fleet from diesel-powered equipment to fully electric at Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. The airline held a traditional Hawaiian blessing for the new fleet of electric baggage tractors, belt loaders, and aircraft pushback tractors now in service at the airport, 112 new lithium-battery-powered vehicles in all. The move comes as the airline works to eliminate fossil fuel use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The move to electric GSE will also eliminate the noise, fumes, and potential for spills from the older diesel and propane powered units. “By investing in cleaner, quieter and more efficient equipment, we’re reducing our environmental impact, enabling safe and reliable operations, and improving the workplace for our teams and the travel experience for our guests,” said Ryan Spies, managing director of sustainability initiatives for Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines.

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Arsenal won the Premier League title for first time in 22 years following Manchester City’s 1-1 draw away to Bournemouth. Champions in six of the previous eight seasons, Man City needed to win to narrow the gap on Arsenal to two points and take the race to the final day of the season Sunday, but that was not in the cards. This is the 14th English title for Arsenal, putting the team behind Liverpool and Manchester United at 20. It was their first win since 2003-2004 when the “Invincibles” went unbeaten under Arsene Wenger. Next on Arsenal’s calendar is the UEFA Champion’s League final with Paris Saint-Germain.

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The Broadway production of “The Book of Mormon,” which been forced to close on 4 May after an electrical fire in the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, has delayed the date on which performances will resume from 21 May to 27 May, after being shuttered for three weeks and four days. The theater’s owner, ATG Entertainment, and “The Book of Mormon” staff “are working diligently to ensure that the theatre will be safe and comfortable for the cast and company, the building’s staff, and audiences,” the two parties said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. The show is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year.

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A federal jury in a civil suit in Chicago on Monday awarded a $49.5 million verdict to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash, which involved a Boeing 737 Max. The trial was conducted under strict evidentiary rules and Boeing had previously admitted liability in the tragedy. As a result, the trial focused solely on compensatory damages for the victim’s estate. Ralph Nader, an American lawyer and political activist involved in consumer protection, said in a statement: “Boeing should be concentrating on the need for greater quality and safety control of its passenger aircraft, while respecting its technical experts’ right to directly contact the company’s top executives with their production or design concerns.“

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Bitcoin Depot, an operator of crypto automated teller machines in North America, said it is shutting down. The company said on Monday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is presently winding down its operations. The move comes amidst tremendous legal scrutiny over allegations that the company’s ATMs were used to facilitate fraud.

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The head of the Hotel Association of New York ​City, Vijay Dandapani, said on Tuesday that New York ‌City hotel operators and unions have reached an eight-year labor deal that covers ca. 25,000 workers. The agreement will avert a strike over wages, workloads, and staffing levels that had threatened to disrupt the Big Apple ahead of ​the FIFA World Cup. Mr. Dandapani said that the mood amongst owners was “overall positive” following weeks of negotiations, although the hotel owners ​made significant concessions that added costs in order to win the workers over.

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An Audi A4 at Audi headquarters in Ingolstadt

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In deliberations that lasted less than two hours, a jury sided with artificial-intelligence company OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, and rejected Elon Musk’s claims against the company. It found that Mr. Musk had brought his lawsuit against the two parties after the statute of limitations had expired. Mr. Musk had alleged in testimony that the startup behind the world’s most popular chatbot “stole a charity” when it converted into a for-profit company in October of last year.

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The World Health Organization kicked off the annual meeting of its decision-making assembly in Geneva on Monday amidst great uncertainty in the world. In recent weeks there has been news of Ebola, and the hantavirus, funding cuts, and the U.S. and Argentinian withdrawals from the group. “We are stable now and moving forward,“ WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asserted at the end of April. If anything, the timing of the hantavirus has raised the group’s profile. The hantavirus found on the MV Hondius cruise ship has been identified as the Andes virus, which is primarily found in South America. It is notable because it is the only known hantavirus capable of spreading directly between people. The virus is “a clear illustration of why the world needs an effective, trusted, impartial, reliably-funded WHO,” Surie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told AFP.

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2015 Volkswagen Golf TDI

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George: How to Consume News in a World of Information Overload

George delivers news for curious thinkers in a world of shortened attention spans.

Decades of research on how readers consume information when faced with Information Overload – led by George co-founder Jonathan Spira, one of the foremost authorities on the subject – ensures that each article gets straight to the point with no fluff and no bias.

George presents important news and events of the day clearly and concisely in a format better suited to the modern reader’s limited time and focus, without forsaking the founders’ traditional commitment to fact-driven news, commentary, and dispatches – all prepared by curious thinkers, for curious thinkers.

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George was conceived by the late Greg Andrew Spira,

Jonathan Spira, and the late Basilio Alferow.

Jonathan Spira, Alexander Khusid, Tim Perry, Christian Stampfer, Kurt Stolz, Anna Breuer, and Paul Riegler contributed to this issue of George.

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