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  • Trump claims on Iranian concessions trigger questions, rejections in Tehran

    Trump claims on Iranian concessions trigger questions, rejections in Tehran

    Tehran, Iran – United States President Donald Trump’s announcements about securing major concessions from Tehran have riled supporters of the Iranian establishment, prompting rejections and clarifications from the authorities.

    Several current and former senior officials, state media and the Islamic Republic’s hardcore backers expressed anger, frustration, and confusion after the US leader made a series of claims, with days left on a two-week ceasefire reached on April 8.

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    Trump on Friday said Iran and the US would jointly dig up the enriched uranium buried under the rubble of bombed Iranian nuclear sites, and transfer it to the US. He claimed Iran had agreed to stop enriching uranium on its soil.

    He also said the Strait of Hormuz had been opened and would never be closed again, while the US naval blockade of Iran’s ports remained in place, and sea mines were removed or were in the process of being removed.

    Trump also emphasised that Iran would not receive billions of dollars of its own frozen assets abroad due to US sanctions, and that the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was completely unrelated to Iran.

    Amid Pakistan’s ongoing efforts to mediate another round of negotiations, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the Iranian delegation to the Islamabad talks earlier this month, rejected all of Trump’s claims.

    “With these lies, they did not win the war, and they certainly will not get anywhere in negotiations either,” he posted on X early on Saturday.

    By Saturday noon, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released a statement, saying the Strait of Hormuz is once again heavily restricted and under “strict management” of the armed forces. It cited continued “acts of piracy and maritime theft under the so-called label of a blockade” by Washington as the reason.

    ‘Haze of confusion’

    In the hours it took between Trump’s flurry of announcements on Friday and official responses from Iranian authorities, supporters of the establishment voiced serious concerns about any major concessions.

    “Is there no Muslim out there to talk to the people a bit about what is happening?!” Ezzatollah Zarghami, a former state television chief and current member of the Supreme Cyberspace Council that controls the heavily restricted internet in Iran, wrote on X.

    Alireza Zakani, the hardline mayor of Tehran, said if any of Trump’s claims are true, then the Iranian establishment must beware “not to gift the vile enemy in negotiations what it failed to achieve in the field”.

    A fan account on X for Saeed Jalili, an ultrahardline member of the Supreme National Security Council who has opposed any deals with the US for decades, said “dissent” may be at play. It said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard from outside of several written statements attributed to him, must release a voice or video message to confirm what is happening.

    Jalili’s main account distanced itself from the comment, saying the fan account – which was subsequently deleted – was a sign of “infiltration” by enemies of Iran who were trying to sow discord.

    Iranian state media released another written statement attributed to Khamenei on Saturday to mark Army Day, but made no mention of the political drama unfolding hours earlier, or the negotiations with the US.

    The dissonance was clearly on display on state television and other state-linked media on Friday, especially those affiliated with the IRGC.

    Multiple state television hosts and analysts harshly attacked Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi because he tweeted on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was “declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation”.

    One of the hosts demanded Araghchi must immediately clarify. Another said the top diplomat’s tweet was in English, and since the Iranian people do not have access to X due to the state-imposed near-total internet shutdown for seven weeks, the message was not directed at the people.

    With a huge Hezbollah flag in the background, a furious presenter on state television’s Channel 3 claimed that Araghchi was somehow “the representative of the people of Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq” because they are a part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” of armed forces, so he should demand concessions on their behalf from Trump.

    Morteza Mahmoudvand, a representative for Tehran in the Iranian parliament, went as far as saying Araghchi would have been impeached had it not been for “the excuse of war”.

    The Fars and Tasnim news sites, which are affiliated with the IRGC, also heavily criticised Araghchi and called for further explanations on Friday evening, with Fars arguing that “Iranian society was plunged into a haze of confusion.”

    Armed supporters in the streets

    Critical comments from supporters of the Iranian government also flooded social media, including local messaging applications and the comments section of state-run sites.

    “We took to the streets every night with clear demands, but you shook hands with the killer of our supreme leader and handed our strait to the Zionists,” one user wrote on Friday in the local app Baleh, in reference to Israel.

    “After all these years of sanctions and war and costs imposed on the people, if you are to give up the uranium and the strait, then why did you play with the people’s livelihoods and the blood of the martyrs for so long?” another user wrote.

    A large number of analysts and media personalities, including Hossein Shariatmadar, the head of the Kayhan newspaper, who was appointed by late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also voiced criticism and demanded answers on Fars and other outlets.

    Regardless of whether there will be more mediated negotiations in Pakistan or whether the war will continue, Iran continues to encourage and arm backers to take to the streets to maintain control.

    State media on Friday aired footage of more armed convoys moving through the streets of Tehran while waving the flags of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi and other groups. The video below shows women and children crewing heavy machineguns mounted on the back of pick-up trucks during a rally in downtown Tehran.

    With no end in sight to the state-imposed internet shutdown that has wiped out millions of jobs in Iran, in addition to steel factories and other infrastructure that were destroyed, the Iranian economy continues to suffer.

    The timing of the back-and-forth between Trump and the Iranian officials meant that oil prices dropped before Western markets closed on Friday, and the Iranian currency experienced more volatility.

    The rial was priced at about 1.46 million against the US dollar on Saturday morning, the first day of the working week in Iran. But it shot back up to about 1.51 million after the IRGC announced the repeated closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

  • Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin warns of the dangers of AI being controlled by a few big tech firms

    Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin warns of the dangers of AI being controlled by a few big tech firms

    Crypto’s next major inflection point is coming from artificial intelligence (AI).

    That’s according to Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin. He told CoinDesk that autonomous or semi-autonomous agents can transact, coordinate and verify one another on decentralized networks, using crypto rails as a foundation for machine-driven activity.

    Lubin, who will be speaking at Consensus Miami 2026 next month, said he is “sympathetic to the idea that blockchain is for machine intelligences,” but does not see humans being displaced. Instead, increasingly intelligent interfaces will abstract away complexity, allowing users to interact with crypto systems through intent rather than manual inputs. In that model, AI becomes the intermediary layer between people and protocols.

    That vision comes with risks. If AI infrastructure remains concentrated among large technology firms, “we could be in trouble,” Lubin warned. He argued that decentralized systems and cryptography will be essential in ensuring accountability, enabling machines to “check on one another” in transparent, verifiable environments.

    Within that broader shift, products like MetaMask — a Consensys product — are evolving to reflect the change. Lubin said the wallet is being rebuilt as “a new kind of neobank that you own and control,” part of a transition toward what he described as a “personal money operating system.” AI-powered agents could act on behalf of users, managing assets, executing transactions and navigating a growing decentralized economy. “You can walk around with your personal financial system in your pocket,” he said.

    The rise of corporate chains on Ethereum

    Beyond interfaces, Lubin pointed to structural changes across the Ethereum ecosystem. The architecture of the blockchain is also shaping how institutions approach adoption. Lubin expects “corporate chains” to become more common as companies seek higher throughput and greater control over their infrastructure. Still, he argued that assets are best issued on Ethereum’s base layer, saying “the best way to ensure that an asset is durable… is to mint it on Ethereum layer one,” even if the asset is later used across other networks.

    Stablecoins, one of crypto’s fastest-growing sectors, are part of that transition, but not the endpoint. Lubin described them as a “stepping stone” toward more fully decentralized financial systems, noting that current models remain heavily reliant on centralized issuers. Over time, he expects growth in decentralized collateral to enable more robust, crypto-native forms of money.

    On tokenization more broadly, Lubin suggested that traditional finance and decentralized finance are entering a period of convergence, combining centuries of financial innovation with newer blockchain-based systems. The result, he said, will be a more granular and programmable global economy.

    Even as these shifts accelerate, Lubin struck a measured tone on longer-term technical risks like quantum computing. While not an immediate concern, he said Ethereum developers have been preparing for years.

    “A lot of us just see it as being folded into the natural evolution of Ethereum,” Lubin said.

    Read more: Joe Lubin claims DeFi is as safe as traditional finance, adding that bitcoin is in crisis

  • Wrapped XRP goes live on Solana, broadening DeFi access for Ripple-linked token

    Wrapped XRP goes live on Solana, broadening DeFi access for Ripple-linked token

    Wrapped $XRP went live on Solana on Friday, issued by custodian Hex Trust and bridged through LayerZero, making the token available inside Solana’s DeFi apps for the first time.

    $XRP holders can now use the wrapped asset on Jupiter, Phantom, Titan Exchange, and Meteora without selling their underlying position.

    Each wXRP is backed 1:1 by native $XRP held in segregated custody accounts and is redeemable at any time, according to Hex Trust.

    The Solana launch is one leg of a broader rollout Hex Trust disclosed in December 2025, which also targets Ethereum, Optimism, and HyperEVM. The move fits a pattern that has accelerated through 2025 and 2026, where tokens that started their life on one chain are being bridged to others to capture yield and liquidity that did not exist at launch.

    $XRP has historically functioned as a payment-rail token settled directly on the $XRP Ledger. Solana has built the opposite use case, a throughput-optimized smart contract platform where the DeFi and memecoin activity actually lives.

    The piece of infrastructure underneath this deal is LayerZero, the cross-chain messaging protocol that has quietly won most of the bridge volume that used to flow through Wormhole, Nomad, and Ronin before those protocols were exploited for more than $1 billion combined between 2022 and 2024.

    Whether $XRP generates meaningful DeFi volume on Solana is a separate question. The wrapped asset is live, but the test is whether holders actually use it.

  • Anthropic’s Alarming Mythos Findings Replicated With Off-the-Shelf AI, Researchers Say

    Anthropic’s Alarming Mythos Findings Replicated With Off-the-Shelf AI, Researchers Say

    In brief

    • Researchers show Anthropic-style exploits can be reproduced with public AI, report claims.
    • Study suggests vulnerability discovery is already cheap and widely accessible.
    • Findings indicate AI cyber capabilities may be spreading faster than expected.

    When Anthropic unveiled Claude Mythos earlier this month, it locked the model behind a vetted coalition of tech giants and framed it as something too dangerous for the public. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Fed Chair Jerome Powell convened an emergency meeting with Wall Street CEOs. The word “vulnpocalypse” resurfaced in security circles.

    And now a team of researchers has further complicated that narrative.

    Vidoc Security took Anthropic’s own patched public examples and tried to reproduce them using GPT-5.4 and Claude Opus 4.6 inside an open-source coding agent called opencode. No Glasswing invite. No private API access. No Anthropic internal stack.

    “We replicated Mythos findings in opencode using public models, not Anthropic’s private stack,” Dawid Moczadło, one of the researchers involved in the experiment, wrote on X after publishing the results. “A better way to read Anthropic’s Mythos release is not ‘one lab has a magical model.’ It is: the economics of vulnerability discovery are changing.”

    The cases they targeted were the same ones Anthropic highlighted in its public materials: a server file-sharing protocol, the networking stack of a security-focused OS, the video-processing software embedded in almost every media platform, and two cryptographic libraries used to verify digital identities across the web.

    Both GPT-5.4 and Claude Opus 4.6 reproduced two bug cases in all three runs each. Claude Opus 4.6 also independently rediscovered a bug in OpenBSD three times straight, while GPT-5.4 scored zero on that one. Some bugs (one involving the FFmpeg library to run videos and another involving the processing of digital signatures with wolfSSL) came back partial—meaning the models found the right code surface but didn’t nail the precise root cause.

    reproducing Mythos' results with mainstream AI.Image: Vidoc Security
    Image: Vidoc Security

    Every scan stayed below $30 per file, meaning researchers were able to find the same vulnerabilities as Anthropic while spending less than $30 to do it.

    “AI models are already good enough to narrow the search space, surface real leads, and sometimes recover the full root cause in battle-tested code,” Moczadło said on X.

    The workflow they used wasn’t a one-shot prompt. It mirrored what Anthropic itself described publicly: give the model a codebase, let it explore, parallelize attempts, filter for signal. The Vidoc team built the same architecture with open tooling. A planning agent split each file into chunks. A separate detection agent ran on each chunk, then inspected other files in the repo to confirm or rule out findings.

    The line ranges inside each detection prompt—for example, “focus on lines 1158-1215″—weren’t chosen by the researchers manually. They were outputs from the prior planning step. The blog post makes this explicit: “We want to be explicit about that because the chunking strategy shapes what each detection agent sees, and we do not want to present the workflow as more manually curated than it was.”

    The study doesn’t claim public models match Mythos on everything. Anthropic’s model went further than just spotting the FreeBSD bug—it built a working attack blueprint, figuring out how an attacker could chain code fragments together across multiple network packets to seize full control of the machine remotely. Vidoc’s models found the flaw. They didn’t build the weapon. That’s where the real gap sits: not in finding the hole, but in knowing exactly how to walk through it.

    But Moczadło’s argument isn’t really that public models are equally powerful. It’s that the expensive part of the workflow is now available to anyone with an API key: “The moat is moving from model access to validation: finding vulnerability signal is getting cheaper; turning it into trusted security work is still hard.”

    Anthropic’s own safety report acknowledged that Cybench, the benchmark used to measure whether a model poses serious cyber risk, “is no longer sufficiently informative of current frontier model capabilities” because Mythos cleared it entirely. The lab estimated comparable capabilities would spread from other AI labs within six to 18 months.

    The Vidoc study suggests the discovery side of that equation is already available outside any gated program. Their full prompt excerpts, model outputs, and methodology appendix are published at the lab’s official site.

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  • Cyberpunk platformers, gallivanting geckos and other new indie games worth checking out

    Welcome to our latest roundup of what’s going on in the indie game space. Once again, there are some neat new games for you to check out this weekend. We’ve got a bunch of updates and announcements for upcoming titles to tell you about too.

    There have been a bunch of solid indie showcases lately (and highlights from another one to tell you about below). If you want to learn about a ton of other games ASAP, you might want to set your alarm pretty early on April 25.

    Starting at 5AM ET that day, the latest edition of Indie Life Expo takes place on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Bilibili and elsewhere. This one will feature more than 200 games! A rapid-fire Indie Waves segment will power through 160 of them. Organizers received 1,100 submissions for this installment, so hats off to them for featuring a sizable percentage of those.

    Before that, you can check out another showcase on April 21. Top Hat Studios Presents: Spring Showcase 2026 will start at noon ET on the publisher’s YouTube and Twitch channels.

    The stream will feature Motorslice, Well Dweller and survival horror game Becrowned, as well premieres and other Top Hat games. I’ve been looking forward to Motorslice, which has a May release window. I wager we’ll get a precise release date for that during this stream.

    Meanwhile, there’s an interesting Steam event taking place soon. InterfaceX26 will run from April 27 until May 4. This one is focused on games that deal with made-up operating systems and other custom interfaces. Organizers have brought together more than 150 developers and publishers, who are asking Valve to introduce an official “Fake OS” tag for games on Steam.

    Some neat games will be included in a sale and a showcase on May 2, including Blippo+, TR-49 and The Roottrees are Dead. Expect demos and relevant new releases too. Speaking of which…

    New releases

    We’ve been waiting a very long time for Replaced. This cyberpunk adventure from Sad Cat Studios and publisher Thunderful finally landed this week on Steam, GOG, Xbox on PC and Xbox Series X/S. It’s on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Otherwise, the base game costs $20. A supporter edition that includes the soundtrack is $25. It’ll hit the Epic Games Store at a later date.

    The game was initially supposed to arrive in 2022. It certainly didn’t help that Sad Cat Studios was forced to relocate from Belarus to Cyprus after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the game is finally here and it debuted to generally positive reviews.

    Replaced is a 2.5D action platformer set in an alternate version of 1980s America, in which you play as an AI trapped in a human body that may or may not dream of electric sheep. I haven’t yet had a chance to properly jump into this gorgeous-looking game, but I’m hoping to do so this weekend.

    Speaking of games I’ve long had on my wishlist, Gecko Gods arrived this week. I think I first clapped eyes on this around 2022. Various trailers charmed me with the idea of a puzzle exploration platformer that casts you in the role of a gecko that’s able to run along walls and ceilings.

    I’ve played around 90 minutes of this one so far. I dig the look and the gecko is very cute (being able to customize its appearance is a nice touch). I love that you “collect” different types of bugs by eating them. It’s a fairly relaxing game, which is broadly what I need at the minute.

    I think there are some issues here, though. I’ve explored two of the main five islands in the open world and it feels a bit sparse so far. The joy of being able to clamber up and around any object complicates things when it comes to more precise platforming sections. While the sailing sections are pretty, the boat is clunky to control on the choppy water. I ran into some mild technical issues as well on PS5 with occasional framerate dips and objects popping in. Hopefully, that’s something the developers at Inresin are able to address.

    Gecko Gods — from publishers Super Rare Originals and Gamersky Games — is available now on Steam, PS5 and Nintendo Switch. It’s normally $20, but there’s a 10 percent launch discount until April 30 (on PS5, this only applies to PlayStation Plus members)

    Another highly anticipated game landed this week in the form of Mouse: PI for Hire. We’ve had our eyes on this first-person shooter/detective game with sumptuous rubberhose-style animation for quite some time. Reviews have been generally positive so far, and it seems that there’s enough substance here to live up to those stellar visuals.

    Mouse: PI for Hire — from Fumi Games and publisher PlaySide — is out now for $30. It’s available on PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

    Thirsty Suitors developer Outerloop Games and co-publisher Outersloth served up the cooking-themed Dosa Divas this week. It tells the story of two sisters who set out on a journey with their mech to take down a fast food empire and reconnect communities through cooking.

    It caught my eye when I saw it during a showcase a while back and it has a great concept, though I don’t exactly love turn-based combat. I’ve read a few lukewarm reviews of the game, and the consensus seems to be that the cooking mechanics and combat perhaps needed some more time to simmer.

    If you’d like to try Dosa Divas yourself, you can pick it up on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. It’ll usually run you $20, but there’s a 10 percent launch discount until April 28.

    If you’re looking for a puzzle game that can be relaxing or rather dark, depending on your mood, it might be worth checking out A Storied Life: Tabitha. As you pack up the home of a late loved one, you’ll need to decide which items to keep in the limited storage space you have and discard the rest. You’ll need to wrap fragile items in bubble wrap and vacuum pack soft items to save room in the boxes.

    As you save items, you’ll unlock words that you can use to fill in the blanks of your loved one’s life and tell their story, Mad Libs-style. Given that you’ll find items like a blackmail letter and a shirt with lipstick on the collar, it seems like there’s a lot of variety to the kinds of stories you can tell.

    A Storied Life: Tabitha is available on Steam now. It’ll normally run you $15, but you can save 10 percent if you buy it before April 28.

    To round out this section, I’ll quickly note that Hades 2 is out now on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S for  $30, with a 20 percent launch discount. It’s on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass too.

    I bought Hades 2 when Supergiant Games brought it to Steam early access two years ago, telling myself I’d wait until the full game was out. But I still haven’t gotten around to it yet. There are always too many games tugging at my fragile attention span and Hades 2 faded into the background for me. I really ought to play it, I know!

    Upcoming

    I’m keeping an eye out for Agefield High: Rock the School from Refugium Games. This spiritual successor to Rockstar’s Bully is set to arrive this summer on Steam. It emerged this week that it will hit PS5 and Xbox Series X/S later in the year.

    It’s a coming-of-age adventure in which you play as Sam, a young lad who has moved to a new school in the early 2000s. He wants to make his last few months of high school a time to remember.

    There’s a branching narrative with multiple endings here — you can opt to go to classes and be a good student, or skip school and cause trouble. As a mostly rule-abiding student way back when, I’d be tempted to go for the latter. This seems like a bit of a life sim with a broad array of activities and ways to get into bother. I’m looking forward to it.

    The latest edition of the Galaxies Showcase — yet another indie spotlight event — took place this week and The Backworld caught my attention. This is a Mother-inspired RPG from Numor Games and publisher Top Hat with charming art direction (yes, I did see that one character doing a Naruto run), an intriguing mix of characters and…

    Oh no, why did the music stop? Why did it get so dark all of a sudden? What are these horrifying beasts that are chasing my character? Yup, there’s a heavy horror element here. Numor took inspiration from The Backrooms as well.

    The Backworld will be released later this year. A demo just hit Steam.

    A Study in Blue, from Relate Games, was another highlight of the Galaxies Showcase, thanks in large part to that impressive animation. This is a point-and-click adventure in which you play as two characters with complex pasts: private detective Kenneth and runaway Blue.

    You’ll explore a semi-open world and solve crimes by collecting clues and calling out characters’ lies. There are three intertwined story acts and multiple endings. A Steam demo featuring a side quest from the main game that’ll take around two hours to complete is available now.

    I’m always going to be interested in any game that riffs on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. On the face of this trailer, Elementallis developer AnKae Games seems to borrow quite a bit of the design language and other ideas from the SNES classic. Still, if you’re going to crib from anything, it may as well be the best game of all time.

    This 2D action RPG, which is also published by Top Hat and has a heavier focus on elemental powers than A Link to the Past, looks very much like my kind of jam. It’s coming to Steam, GOG, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One on April 28. Per the eShop listing, it’ll cost $18.

  • Will Bitcoin’s Major Rally Continue? Here’s What the Experts Say

    Cryptocurrency analysis platform Santiment assessed Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent rise to the $77,000 level and the overall market sentiment.

    Santiment, an analytics company that closely tracks Bitcoin’s price movements, examined Bitcoin’s rise to the $77,000 level in its latest market assessment. Despite the price increase, the prevailing skeptical approach among investors is noteworthy.

    According to the analysis, Bitcoin’s push to new highs hasn’t generated as much enthusiasm in the market as expected. On the contrary, many traders are skeptical about the sustainability of this rise. Santiment notes that this skeptical atmosphere in the market could actually create a healthy foundation for the continuation of the rally.

    The question of “Has the bottom been reached?” remains a major topic of discussion among market participants. Santiment experts state that conversations on social media platforms and on-chain data indicate that investors are still expecting a major correction. Historically, periods of skepticism often coincide with phases of sustained price increases.

    Related News A Big XRP Surprise from Solana – They’ve Officially Announced It

    It is noted that the continued low supply of Bitcoin on exchanges is reducing selling pressure. In particular, the fact that whales are not aggressively selling at current levels is interpreted as a signal that long-term confidence is being maintained.

    According to Santiment, this “skepticism” that emerged during Bitcoin’s $77,000 rally indicates that the market hasn’t overheated yet. If this cautious stance continues among investors instead of FOMO (fear of missing out), Bitcoin’s potential to test higher levels could strengthen.

    *This is not investment advice.

  • Iran closes Strait of Hormuz again over US blockade of its ports

    Iran closes Strait of Hormuz again over US blockade of its ports

    Reports of Iranian gunboats opening fire on a tanker in strait, after Tehran said it is closing the waterway until the US lifts the blockade of its ports.

    Published On 18 Apr 2026

    Iran says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz again, calling the decision a response to a continued blockade of its ports by the United States.

    The Iranian military on Saturday said control of the strategic waterway, through which 20 percent of the global oil flows, has “returned to its previous state”, with reports saying Iranian gunboats fired at a merchant vessel as it attempted to ‌cross.

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    The closure of the strait came hours after it was reopened, with more than a dozen commercial ships passing through the waterway, after a US-mediated 10-day ceasefire deal was reached between Israel and Lebanon.

    The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saturday said in a statement, cited by the Iranian media, that the ongoing US blockade of Iranian ports represented “acts of piracy and maritime theft”, adding that the control over Hormuz is “under the strict management and control of the armed forces”.

    “Until the US restores full freedom of navigation for vessels travelling from Iran to their destinations and back, the status of the Strait of Hormuz will remain tightly controlled and in its previous condition,” it said.

    By 10:30 GMT on Saturday, no fewer than eight oil and gas tankers had crossed the strait, but at least as many ships appeared to have turned back, having begun to exit the Gulf, the AFP news agency reported.

    The toing and froing over the strait cast doubt on US President Donald Trump’s optimism the day before, that a peace deal to end the US-Israel war on Iran was “very close”.

    Trump had celebrated the reopening of the strait on Friday, but warned the US attacks would resume until Iran agreed to a deal, which included its nuclear programme.

    “Maybe I won’t extend it,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One about the temporary ceasefire agreement in place. “So you’ll have a blockade, and unfortunately we’ll have to start dropping bombs again.”

    Asked whether a potential deal could be made in this short timeframe, Trump said: “I think it’s going to happen.”

    But Iran says no date has been agreed for another round of peace talks, accusing the US of “betraying” diplomacy in all negotiations.

    The conflicting and changing reports about the strait and how much freedom ships have to transit through it have deterred many vessels from crossing, according to John-Paul Rodrigue, a maritime shipping specialist at Texas A&M University.

    “Ships have been attempting transit since the announcement, but it looks like many of them are heading back because the situation is unclear,” Rodrigue told Al Jazeera. “There is contradictory information being issued by all parties.”

    Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said “uncertainty is the name of the game” as far as the Strait of Hormuz is concerned.

    “Iran is looking for a comprehensive end to the war across the region, security assurances, sanctions relief, the unfreezing of frozen assets, regional relations – and on top of all of that – the nuclear dossier and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium,” he said.

    “But right now, uncertainty is the name of the game. The fragile situation makes it hard to talk about the possibility of successful negotiations down the road.”

  • Sabrina Carpenter Goes Full ‘Thelma & Louise’ at Coachella Weekend Two With Geena Davis Monologue

    Sabrina Carpenter Goes Full ‘Thelma & Louise’ at Coachella Weekend Two With Geena Davis Monologue

    Sabrina Carpenter leaned into a “Thelma & Louise” theme with her weekend-two Coachella appearance Friday by featuring Geena Davis reading the mid-show monologue as an older “Aunt Sabrina,” succeeding last weekend’s guest Susan Sarandon.

    The monologue was half the length of Sarandon’s uncomfortably overlong version last weekend, lending credence to rumors that Sarandon had been asked to stretch and improvise due to a technical delay.

    Her appearance was doubly a surprise as it came amid hurricane-force rumors that Madonna will be joining Carpenter during the show, which led many to wonder if she would perform the monologue instead of Sarandon, only to find that she was being saved for an actual musical appearance later in the show.

    Sitting in one of the 1950s cars that are a theme of Carpenter’s set, amid a makeshift drive-in theater lot in the middle of the field, Davis read through a monologue that preceded largely along the lines of last weekend’s script. However, the young drive-in carhop, played by her former “Girl Meets World” TV costar Corey Fogelmanis, arrived after three and a half minutes instead of seven to help her settle up her tab.

    Even though the monologue hit many of the same beats as last week’s, it was paraphrased throughout. Sarandon opened with: “What a moron I was. Running around like nobody’s going to judge you, just bippity boppity boo. When of course, everybody’s judging you.” Davis’ opening: “What a moron. I was running around like that carefree, all hippity, skippity…”

    The many trims that cut the speech in half included losing somewhat audience-confusing references to a fictional sister, Laurie, who Sarandon-as-Sabrina said “was always really uncomfortable whenever I was the center of attention. Sometimes she would just ignore what I was doing or other times she would shit on me. And probably she’s putting down my career right now…” Also dropped was the whole wistful/inspirational final part of the monologue, in which Sarandon had spoken of “that little voice (where) you say, fuck it, I can do this. I can do whatever I put my mind to… Why do people stop saying that to themselves when they become 12 years old?”

    Later in the set, Will Ferrell was succeeded in his comedic role as an electrician by Terry Crews, playing the same part, but with different dialogue, and without the failed attempt to light a cigarette.

    Of course, Madonna ultimately provided the mother of all cameos with a medley/duet of her hits… and extended astrology talk that threatened to erase the memory of any filibustering that might have gone on during Sarandon’s speech the previous week.

  • Polkadot recovers 17% after Hyperbridge exploit: Will DOT’s gains continue?

    Polkadot recovers 17% after Hyperbridge exploit: Will DOT’s gains continue?

    The Hyperbridge exploit caused Polkadot [$DOT] to lose a significant portion of its market cap, but it has since fully recovered.

    The altcoin’s price crashed after a hacker minted 1 billion $DOT tokens on Ethereum [$ETH] but only sold them for $237K due to lack of liquidity. The team clarified that the actual loss had ballooned to $2.5 million as the team made efforts to recover the funds.

    However, the assurance that Polkadot’s core network security remained intact fueled a 17% price recovery.

    What drove $DOT’s price recovery?

    A statement released by the team after the exploit assured users of security, as the core network had not been affected. It’s the bridged $DOT tokens on Ethereum.

    As a result, the community sentiment returned to 82% bullish from 954.1K voters, as per CoinMarketCap. Consequently, the price of the altcoin rallied from $1.146 to $1.354.

    The relief brought about a rebound in network activity. As per Artemis data, the number of transactions increased by 1,400, from 10.5K to 11.9K, in just a day.

    Additionally, daily active users (DAU) increased by 1.67x even though the figures remained relatively low. DAU rose from 3,000 to 5,000, indicating users were gradually returning to the network.

    Source: Artemis

    The Total Value Locked (TVL) also experienced a surge of about 11.29% in a day, while the stablecoin market cap grew to $77.83 million after the massive drop.

    Moreover, the altcoin commanded a significant amount of daily trading volume of about $403 million. However, the revenue of the network remained low as it attempted to get back on its feet.

    Can Polkadot break past key resistance levels?

    On the charts, Polkadot price action had invalidated the breakdown below the sideways consolidation. Initially, before the exploit, $DOT had been bouncing between $1.20 and $1.35 levels since late March.

    While the altcoin fully recovered and even surged to the range’s high, it failed to surpass the $1.35 zone. It briefly broke above the resistance due to a cool-off in buying activity after the price failed to stay above the sideways channel.

    Surpassing this resistance level would put $DOT on course to $1.50, while failure may take the altcoin back to $1.20 or lower.

    The Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) confirmed this as it declined from a daily peak of 1.60 million $DOT tokens to 60K when writing.

    Source: $DOT/USDT on TradingView

    Notably, the security compromise on bridged $DOT on the $ETH network made the altcoin lose its correlation to Ethereum. In fact, their correlation coefficient (CC) fell from a peak value of 0.86 to negative 0.55.

    Final Summary

    • Polkadot fully recovers after the Hyperbridge exploit, with network activity rebounding.
    • $DOT is facing resistance at $1.35, which suggests the price may fall back to $1.20 or head to $1.50 if the level is breached.
  • Former UK Prime Minister sees economy on ‘very negative trajectory,’ indicates support for bitcoin

    Former UK Prime Minister sees economy on ‘very negative trajectory,’ indicates support for bitcoin

    Liz Truss, the U.K.’s shortest-serving prime minister, said the country’s economy has been stagnating for decades and many of the problems result from a lack of sound money and the debasement of the currency, an erosion in the value of sterling caused by inflation and the printing of new banknotes.

    Truss, who led a Conservative government for 45 days in 2022, said the financial situation strengthened her interest in bitcoin , which some observers see as a tool against debasement. She said she’s “very interested” in the cryptocurrency, which she first encountered when working at the Treasury and mentioned it there “to shake things up.” Truss was Chief Secretary to the Treasury for about two years until July 2019.

    “A lot of the problems we have are due to debasement of our currency and lack of sound money,” Truss said in an interview with CoinDesk. The absence of serious debate around money in academia and government had become “quite sinister,” and discussions about monetary policy had become “a taboo” within government, despite its central role in driving economic outcomes.

    For Truss, bitcoin sits alongside a wider concern about centralization and control. She warned the current system is geared toward increasing “centralized control” and limiting financial independence, particularly through regulation and taxation, and positioned bitcoin as part of a pushback against that trend.

    The economy is on a “very negative trajectory,” she said, warning the country faces long-term decline driven by weak growth, rising state control and what she sees as a failure of monetary policy.

    “We are getting relatively poorer, very quickly,” she said, pointing to high taxes, regulation and energy costs that make “the risk often not worth the reward” for entrepreneurs. “There’s a massive disincentive to work in this country.”

    Reflecting on the fallout from Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s 2022 mini-budget that characterized her premiership, she maintained the resulting market turmoil exposed hidden fragilities rather than caused them. “There was a tinderbox in the system that people didn’t know about,” she said, pointing to leveraged pension strategies.

    CPAC UK

    Now outside government, Truss is focused on building a political movement, including CPAC UK, a three-day conference aimed at bringing together activists, entrepreneurs and voices from across the “sovereignty and liberty” movement. “We need a movement of people who understand what the problem is,” she said.

    Framing the stakes bluntly, she added: “There are two choices, either we’re finished or we change it.”