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4 takeaways: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dominates Thunder-Suns Game 3 & OKC nears sweep

The Oklahoma City Thunder defeat the Phoenix Suns, 121-109, to take a 3-0 series lead.

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The Oklahoma City Thunder are one one of the most dominant, two-year runs in NBA history, and the dominance continued with a 121-109 victory in Game 3 of their first round series with the Phoenix Suns on Saturday afternoon.

The Thunder were without Jalen Williams, who suffered a hamstring strain three days earlier. But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t need much help.

The reigning MVP scored a career-playoff-high 42 points, shooting an amazing 15-for-18 from the field and 11-for-12 from the free throw line, adding eight assists. The Thunder continue to score efficiently against what was a top-10 defense in the regular season, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance was just the seventh 40-point playoff game in NBA history where the player had a true shooting percentage over 90%.

Playing at home for the first time, the Suns led by nine points late in the first quarter. But the Thunder closed the period on an 18-4 run and were in control most of the way after that.

Here are some notes, numbers and film as the champs improved to 11-0 in first-round games over the last three years:

1. Gilgeous-Alexander is too much from mid-range

Even when he won the Kia MVP award last season, Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t as good of a mid-range shooter as he was this year, when he shot an incredible 197-for-359 (54.9%) between the paint and the 3-point line. That was the fourth-best mark for a player with at least 300 mid-range attempts in the 29 seasons for which we have shot-location data; the only three better ones are held by Kevin Durant.

On Saturday, Gilgeous-Alexander was 6-for-7 from mid-range, and his best work was done over the last six minutes of the second quarter, when the Thunder took full control of Game 3.

Collin Gillespie has been Gilgeous-Alexander’s primary defender for most of this series, but he was getting the business. So the Suns actually assigned starting center Oso Ighodaro to the MVP for a stretch late in the second.

Gilgeous-Alexander proceeded to target Devin Booker in the pick-and-roll, getting to his mid-range pull-up:

On the next possession, he rejected a screen, beat Ighodaro off the dribble, and drew a foul on Booker. Then, attacking Booker again, he got an open 3 for Jaylin Williams.

Grayson Allen made his series debut on Saturday and was not spared. Gilgeous-Alexander attacked him to generate a layup for Alex Caruso and to get to another mid-range pull-up:

Finally, the Suns sent a double-team at Gilgeous-Alexander in the middle of the floor. The result was an open corner 3 for Caruso.

Again, the Suns ranked ninth defensively, and the Thunder have scored at least 120 points per 100 possessions in all three games of this series. Overall, they’ve scored 10.9 per 100 more than Phoenix allowed in the regular season.

2. Thunder handle the pressure

The biggest strength of the Suns’ defense was forcing turnovers. They ranked third in opponent turnover rate, forcing 16.5 per 100 possessions, having seen the biggest jump (by a wide margin) from last season.

But now they’re facing the team that has committed the fewest turnovers per 100 possessions in each of the last two seasons. And the Thunder have been even better at taking care of the ball in this series.

Over the three games, the champs have committed just 8.9 turnovers per 100 possessions, what would be tied for the third-lowest rate for any team in any playoff series in the 30 years for which we have play-by-play data. They’ve taken their opponents’ biggest strength and turned it into a major weakness.

According to tracking data, the Suns rank fourth in these playoffs in average pick-up distance, so they’re applying pressure. But it’s not working on the Thunder, who had just two live-ball turnovers in Game 3 on Saturday.

Shooting is the most important thing in this game, but you there are other ways to boost your efficiency and the Thunder have done it by taking care of the ball.

3. Best bench in basketball

It was a little bit of a surprise that Ajay Mitchell started in place of Jalen Williams on Saturday, given that Cason Wallace started 42 more games than Mitchell (58-16) in the regular season. Mitchell was the Thunder’s second leading scorer (15 points) in Game 3, but shot just 5-for-20, forcing some tough shots along the way.

The Thunder’s new starting lineup had played just 37 total minutes (over seven games) together in the regular season and was outscored by four points on Saturday. But the champs outscored the Suns by 16 points with at least one reserve on the floor.

Even without Williams to run the second-unit offense, the Thunder outscored the Suns by two points (20-18) in Gilgeous-Alexander’s 10 minutes on the bench. The shooting wasn’t great (8-for-22, including 1-for-7 from 3-point range), but they didn’t commit any turnovers when the MVP sat.

They used the same five-man unit (Mitchell, Wallace, Jared McCain, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein) for those entire 10 minutes. Mitchell scored seven of his 15 points and McCain scored all of his seven in those no-SGA minutes, with a couple of SGA-esque buckets included.

The Thunder have had the league’s No. 1 bench in each of the last two seasons, and though their versatility is a little compromised with the absence of Williams, they’re never dependent on the success of any particular lineup. Still, it will be interesting to see if Mitchell remains the starter going forward.

4. Booker still can’t get going

Dillon Brooks (33 points) and Jalen Green (26) were again the Suns’ leading scorers on Saturday, and that’s by the Thunder’s design. The league’s No. 1 defense has made Devin Booker its No. 1 priority, making sure he plays in a crowd and has a hard time finding open shots.

For this entire series, Booker’s best looks at the basket have come in transition or after offensive rebounds.

When he’s used a ball-screen, he hasn’t seen any kind of advantage for himself:

The Suns have bee able to leverage the attention on Booker to get good shots for his teammates. Early in the third quarter on Saturday, there was no weak-side help on an Ighodaro roll to the rim, because Dort stayed attached to Booker in the corner:

But the Suns haven’t been able to find enough of those kinds of openings to keep up with the Thunder. And at 20.3 points per game, this is the lowest-scoring playoff series of Booker’s career. His true shooting percentage of 55.1% would be his third worst mark of the 10 series that he’s played in.

The Suns first chance to avoid a sweep is Game 4 on Monday (9:30 ET, Peacock).

* * *

John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.

April 26, 2026
Iran war: What’s happening on day 58 as Tehran-Washington talks stall?
US President Donald Trump calls off a planned trip to Pakistan by his envoys, in the latest setback to efforts to end the war with Iran.

Published On 26 Apr 2026
Prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough in the US-Israeli war with Iran appear to have dimmed, with negotiations to end the two-month conflict stalled as both Tehran and Washington show little sign of easing their positions.

US President Donald Trump cancelled a planned visit to Islamabad by his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, dealing blows to peace prospects, while Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, left Pakistan at the weekend. There, he presented mediators with a potential framework for ending the conflict.

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The US president has said that Washington has received a new peace proposal from Tehran, but it has already been rejected.

The conflict has already pushed energy prices to multi-year highs, stoked inflation and darkened global growth prospects.

Here is what we know on day 58 of the conflict:

In Iran
- Araghchi left for Oman, saying he would return to Pakistan again on Sunday before heading to Russia, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.
- According to a statement posted on X by US Central Command (CENTCOM), US forces intercepted a sanctioned ship linked to Iran’s so-called “shadow fleet”.
- The ship, identified as the Sevan, was part of a 19-vessel “shadow fleet” transporting Iranian oil and gas products to foreign markets, the US military said.
- Iran executed a man convicted of being a member of the armed group Jaish al-Adl and carrying out attacks on Iranian security forces, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
War diplomacy
- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif by phone that Tehran would not enter “imposed negotiations” under threats or blockade, an Iranian government statement said.
- Pezeshkian said the United States should first remove “operational obstacles”, including its blockade on Iranian ports, before negotiators can lay any groundwork to resolve the conflict.
- Iran’s IRNA news agency is reporting that Araghchi and his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty, “discussed and exchanged views on issues related to diplomacy and ceasefire, as well as the latest regional developments”.
- Araghchi also had a call with Turkiye’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, but the agency did not provide further details.
In the US
- Trump told reporters in Florida that he scrapped the envoys’ visit because the talks involved too much travel and expense to consider an inadequate offer from the Iranians. After the diplomatic trip was called off, Iran “offered a lot, but not enough”, Trump said.
- On Truth Social, he wrote that there was “tremendous infighting and confusion” within Iran’s leadership.
- “Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” he posted. “Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!”
- Trump said that the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday was unrelated to the Iran war. “It’s not going to deter me from winning the war in Iran. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, I really don’t think so, based on what we know,” Trump told reporters.
In Lebanon
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered troops to attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, his office said, further testing the three-week ceasefire.
- Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health’s emergency operations centre said two Israeli raids on a truck and a motorcycle in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqif in Nabatieh district killed four people, the Lebanese National News Agency reported.
- Also in southern Lebanon, Israeli soldiers reportedly blew up buildings in the city of Bint Jbeil.
April 26, 2026
Washington shooting: Is Trump safe? What we know so far

Donald Trump has been rushed out of the White House correspondents’ dinner at a hotel in Washington, DC, after a gunman fired shots and tried to breach security.

The US President, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and cabinet members were unharmed following the shooting at the Washington Hilton hotel.

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A security service agent was hit – but protected by a bulletproof vest. Trump said he was in ‘great shape’.

The White House says the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen from California, is in custody. Trump said he was heavily armed and appeared to be acting alone.

The White House correspondents’ dinner will be rescheduled in 30 days.

Here’s what to know about the shooting and the suspect.

What happened to Trump?

The president was hosting the White House Correspondents’ Association ‌dinner at the Hilton Hotel on Saturday night.

The dinner is an annual tradition, where journalists who cover the White House celebrate the First Amendment and raise money for journalism scholarships, together with the president and other US leaders.

But the gala event was interrupted by the sudden sound of gunfire, and Secret Service agents rushed the president out.

A man armed with a shotgun had fired at a Secret Service agent, an FBI official told the Reuters news agency. The agent was hit, but in an area ⁠covered by protective gear and was unharmed, the official said.

Reporting from Washington DC, Al Jazeera’s Chris Sheridan said everyone was eating and socialising, and suddenly, shots were heard.

“I thought it sounded like it came from behind where we were sitting, but it was quite loud. It was an echo. Quite a loud boom of at least five shots, which resonated throughout the ballroom just outside where we were,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher noted the very unusual night at the White House.

“We don’t often get the president stepping from an assassination attempt, which is what it appears like on the face of it now, into the briefing room to give the media an update, with everyone in their finest clothes,” he reported from Washington DC.

The Hilton hotel is no stranger to assassination attempts and has also been nicknamed the Reagan hotel – after John Hinckley Jr’s attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan there in 1981. That event is perhaps what the hotel is most famous for, and not the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Al Jazeera’s Fisher said that Trump seemed quite taken aback by the news.

“He himself initially had thought a tray had been dropped, or it was gunfire, and the Secret Service agent spirited him out of the hall along with the first lady and other members of the Cabinet,” he said.

He noted that Trump had made it clear that he wanted to continue the event, but the Secret Service wouldn’t allow it.

Is Trump safe?

All US federal officials, including Trump, have been declared safe.

About an hour after Trump was rushed from the event, he posted on Truth Social that a “shooter had been apprehended.”

“Quite an evening in DC, Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job,” Trump added.

Trump said he had been asked to leave the dinner and said it will be rescheduled.

“The First Lady, plus the Vice President, and all Cabinet members, are in perfect condition,” he said. “I have spoken with all the representatives in charge of the event, and we will be rescheduling within 30 days”.

Addressing reporters in the US shortly after, Trump lauded the bravery of the Secret Service agent who he said “was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job”.

“I just spoke to the officer, and he’s doing great. He’s in great shape. He is in very high spirits, and we told him we love him and respect him,” he said.

Who is the suspected gunman?

The New York Times and CBS News identified the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen.

Reporting from Washington DC, Al Jazeera’s Richard Gaisford said authorities have not released the name of the suspect in custody, but various news reports have identified him.

“It appears this was gleaned from the information he gave when he checked into the Washington Hilton before this event. He had a room at the hotel and is being named as Cole Tomas Allen from a place called Torrance in California. He is 31 years old,” he said.

“We saw that video of him rushing that police line, in effect to try and get into the ballroom, where, of course, Donald Trump was sat close to his wife, Melania, and other members of the cabinet and all of the members of the press who were gathered for the White House Correspondents Dinner there,” he added.

Gaisford noted that in some of the pictures, the gunman is almost half-naked because he’d been stripped by police to ensure he wasn’t carrying any form of explosive device.

Trump described him as a “sick” man.

“The man has been captured. They go into his apartment. I guess he lives in California, and he’s a sick person. A very sick person. And we don’t want things like this to happen,” the US president told US media.

He added that the events were traumatic for the first lady and that the response from the law enforcement agencies was “really incredible”.

“We’re going to reschedule. We’re gonna do it again. We’re not gonna let anybody take over our society. We’re not gonna cancel things out.”

Todd Blanche, acting attorney general, told US journalists that the investigation “is ongoing”.

“I expect you will see charges filed shortly. The charges should be self-evident, given the conduct, but as you’ll hear, there will be multiple charges surrounding the shooting, the possession of firearms, and anything else that we can get on this guy,” Blanche said.

How many Trump assassination attempts?

Trump has faced numerous assassination attempts and death threats throughout his years as president and candidate.

The closest call came in July 2024, at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman got onto a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to then-candidate Trump as he spoke on stage. A bystander was killed, and Trump’s ear was wounded in the attack. Agents shot dead the suspect, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, at the scene.

A few months later, in September, an armed man hid near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course in Florida with the intent to kill him, according to officials. Prosecutors said Ryan Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks, before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as he played golf. A Secret Service agent spotted Routh before he was able to open fire on Trump, and he was soon arrested nearby. Routh was found guilty last year of attempting to kill the president and was sentenced to life in prison in February.

Also, in February, a 21-year-old man, Austin Tucker Martin, was shot dead after entering Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with a shotgun, but the President was not there.

April 26, 2026
Has the Hacker the Crypto World Fears Returned? He Was in Jail, but Was Active in the Latest Attack

Blockchain analytics platform Arkham announced that an address believed to be linked to Avi Eisenberg, the attacker who profited approximately $110 million from the 2022 Mango Markets attack, has started showing on-chain activity again.

According to information shared by Arkham, the address in question is linked to a past attack that exploited a security vulnerability at Mango Markets, resulting in approximately $110 million in profits. Furthermore, it is known that Eisenberg threatened further actions against the Aave platform after the attack, and previously suffered losses in a liquidation process related to Curve Finance, subsequently receiving a prison sentence as a result of legal proceedings.

Related News How Will the Suspension of the Investigation Against Fed Chair Jerome Powell Affect Interest Rate Decisions?

Recent on-chain data reveals that this address has signed transactions again. This development has increased concerns in the markets that the address may have become active again. However, based on the available data, it cannot be definitively confirmed whether the address is still directly under Avi Eisenberg’s control.

*This is not investment advice.

April 26, 2026
Ron Leshem at Canneseries: ‘There Are So Many Reasons Why Today Must Be the Golden Age of Global Drama’

Oscar-nominated for “Beaufort” and co-creator of the original Israeli series which inspired Sam Levinson’s “Euphoria,” the second most-watched series in HBO history, writer-creator Ron Leshem ranks as one of the highest-profile standard bearers of a local-to-global drive that has counted for a significant part of the most inspiring TV made over the last 20 years.

So one large question, as global streaming services focus on local for local and TV operators worldwide play far safer, where does that leave Leshem now?

The short answer is that Leshem is “excited,” he tells Variety before a Canneseries masterclass. “There are so many reasons why today must be the Golden Age of global drama, and why indie can save TV drama just as it saved cinema multiple times,” he enthuses with typical passion.

Leshem is serving by example. He has “never been so excited” about a project since the first season of “Euphoria” and “Beaufort’s” Academy Award recognition than by “Paranoia,” which is heading into production in Brazil with Globoplay and Janeiro Studios.

Though based in Los Angeles in partnership with CAA, his label Crossing Oceans primarily produces globally. Set up with longtime co-scribes Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, currently, beyond “Paranoia,” Crossing Oceans has an upcoming series in Australia; “Pegasus,” a European co-production; “Revolution” a France Télévisions series created in collaboration with Iranian filmmakers, and an additional season of “Bad Boy,” which is also being adapted into an American remake.

“Global drama is perceived as a cheap budget solution, plus an exotic niche, and as Hollywood’s R&D lab,” Leshem reflected to Variety just before Canneseries. “But the power of global drama isn’t just contained in budgets (where in many countries you can indeed produce six seasons of high-end drama for the price of one American single episode sometimes). But more importantly, it opens the door to new setups, new worlds and journey, new energy. It can reinvent the screen. Dare. Surprise,” he adds.

That does’t mean losing the audience, Leshem argues.

“We need to tell “edgy mainstream,” sharp, daring, risky, boundary-pushing stories, with mass appeal, built to feel like an event. The next mainstream won’t come from playing safe. We need to act as a community of writers and producers. I’ve made it my personal mission to help global writers in this field and to help elevate the sense of global community among drama creators.”

“Amit and I split our time between projects where we write every word ourselves and projects we produce across four continents these days,” Leshem says.

“These are projects we develop with deep creative involvement together with local creators,” he adds.

One case in point: “Paranoia.” It was described when announced at October’s Mipcom as “bringing to screen unsung characters from all around Brazil, taking place in a contemporary and vibrant Rio de Janeiro, exposed as never seen before.”

“Working with the drama team at Globoplay in Brazil has turned out to be the most inspiring, intelligent, and genuinely heartwarming creative dialogues of my life,” said Leshem. “Also, the first time I walked into their studios in Rio, I found facilities more impressive than anything in Hollywood, not just technologically, but workplace culture, the human atmosphere.”

Leshem came to Cannes with tips about how to attract global partners. “Generally, I would say: Every show today has to feel electric,” he tells Variety. “There are four elements, and at least two must feel genuinely new for it to break through and become an event: a world we haven’t seen before on tv, a protagonist with a voice or journey we haven’t seen, a cross-genre that hasn’t been done in series, or a cinematic language that invents something. And that means we must be bold and take risks.”

‘Euphoria’ and the Journey

From 1998, in Israel, Leshem worked as a journalist, rising to deputy editor-in-chief and head of the news division at Maariv in 2001. He transitioned to TV in 2005, working in content development for Keshet Broadcasting, where he became chief of content and programming at the network, picking up development on shows such as “False Flag” and “Prisoners of War.” The latter went on to be adapted into “Homeland” in the U.S.

As a writer, however, “I felt I wouldn’t be able to write a word until ‘Euphoria’ was cracked. Inspired in part by “Skins,” it was a portrait of Israel’s new youth. Amit Cohen and Leshem “wrote on a white board: ‘Age 17 is the new 25, but 40 is also the new 25. You’re stuck.’ Stories that seem to belong to age 25, but when they are fitted onto a high schooler’s body, childishness erupts and it’s disturbing. We wrote: ‘Sex is easier than a kiss,’ ‘Wanting is stronger than achieving, searching is more thrilling than finding.’ ‘Heroes who live everywhere except reality; reality has been exhausted; chasing euphoria through drugs and screens, porn and illusions, looking for purpose in an ocean of emptiness. A generation that feels everything and struggles to contain it.’”

Set in 2012 and written with Daniel Amsel and Daphna Levin, “Euphoria” “didn’t try to be realistic. It was just a broken fantasy with emotional truth about freedom poisoning, about love as an answer to meaninglessness, and about how youth trauma shapes the entire course of a life,” Leshem recalls.

But when it came out, Leshem was deeply frustrated by the results. “For the price of a single American drama episode, we could produce seven seasons, 60 episodes of a high-end drama. The toll is heavy: We had to settle for fewer than 20 scenes per episode sometimes, not a pace that would illustrate the attention deficit of that age.

“The HBO version would have 100 scenes in some episodes. We filmed magical realism scenes, but with the meager money we had, they came out crooked and we threw them to the editing room floor.”

When the original “Euphoria” launced on Israel’s HOT in 2012, “we felt misunderstood, and since we couldn’t fulfil most of the vision and ideas because of budget constraints,” Leshem tells Variety.

So Leshem and Hadas Lichenstein spent six years “knocking on every door in L.A.”—going back again to all twenty networks that had passed on “Euphoria” and had analytically explained why the show will never be made.

“The iron rule in television, unlike cinema, stated that if the main hero is a teenager, it is necessarily a youth drama that won’t bring an adult audience, not even 20-somethings. Our friends behind ‘Stranger Things’ went through the same thing – 20 networks also passed on it, for that very reason,” Leshem remembers.

Yet, as Hadas Lichtentstein and Leshem went around with a presentation for an American series, the youth experience was changing in the background.

Finally, Leshem met with Casey Bloys and Francsca Orsi who suggested “Euphoria” to Sam Levinson. “Sam is truly a rare genius, who manages to lead 600 crew members like an genuine leader and still remain a lonely artist with exposed nerves, a painter and composer in his soul,” says Leshem.

“Frannie asked him to weave in his own personal wound as a teenager. Rue’s addiction began with the painkillers of her father, who was dying of cancer. The opioid epidemic, which claimed 800,000 victims in the US, and sometimes dozens of children from the same community, felt like a burning scar, yet ground that had not been treated in series.”

With Levinson on board as showrunner, Leshem, who took a writer credit for the pilot episode, was free to focus on new shows, which he has done with extraordinary energy.

Leshem’s Life Journey

Based since 2013 out of the U.S., Leshem’s life odyssey has been lived with passion and sometimes deep regret. Leshem and Cohen first met as members of the Israeli military’s elite 8200 intelligence unit.

“I was the head of the intelligence unit [overseeing] the Palestinian peace talks. We were aware that so many powers, on both sides, were trying to sabotage it,” Leshem has recalled.

“When hope collapsed, I was already a journalist, spending every evening looking at photos of dead bodies. I felt like I was carrying this tragedy on my shoulders, inhaling every casualty and every name of a kid that was killed.”

Leshem’s wartime experience inspired “Beaufort” and “Valley of Tears” and the emotional throughline of his whole career: the need for empathy with the “other.”

In “Valley of Tears,” which won Series Mani’s 2020 top Grand Prix, a young Israeli intel officer, Avinoam Shapira, encounters a wounded Syrian, supposedly the enemy. He starts talking with him and discovers things in common. Then one of Shapira’s fellow soldiers turns up and shoots the Syrian dead.

Hulu/Arte series “No Man’s Land,” which remarkably played in the same main competition at Series Mania in 2020, has Antoine, a construction engineer corroded by guilt at his sister’s death in a terrorist attack, who thinks he glimpses her in TV footage of the Kurdish YPG militia.

Minutes later in series terms, he has made it over the border from Turkey into Syria and into an extraordinary, if highly grounded true-facts-based world where he is transformed, finding a sense of belonging, fighting alongside women soldiers in the YPG.

‘No Man’s Land’

SIFEDDINE ELAMINE

Most of “Bad Boy,” which scored a 2025 International Emmy nomination, turns on young teenager Dean (Guy Menaster), who spends much of his teen years in a juvenile detention facility for peddling drugs. It’s not an adolescence most of the series’ audience would readily identify with.

“Much like in ‘Euphoria,’ I was very drawn to exploring the impact of trauma or childhood mistakes on a person’s trajectory and on the ability to heal and conquer your own destiny,” Leshem has told Variety.

“But what changed in me since ‘Euphoria’ is that it seems the human capacity to feel compassion and empathy for those who are different is dying, it is an epidemic, and drama is the only tool I know to fight and believe that we can transform the world,” he added.

“With all due respect to ‘local for local,’ we need much deeper, earlier collaboration, across writing, packaging, and production – not just hope stories will travel,” Leshem told Variety just before Canneseries.

“Especially since the world is spinning out of control, and turning away from globalization and empathy – creating together as global community of drama is also the right thing to do.”

Expect announcements on more Crossing Oceans series soon.

‘Bad Boy’

Courtesy of Sipur

April 26, 2026
HYPE Price Surges 80%, But Hyperliquid Growth Shows Signs of Cooling

The Hyperliquid network’s $HYPE token has seen a strong rally in recent months, surging nearly 80% over the past 90 days. The impressive $HYPE price jump comes at a time when the broader crypto market is dealing with uncertainty. This makes the Hyperliquid crypto stand out in the broader crypto market.

However, the underlying growth story looks less convincing. Even as the token price climbs, several key metrics show that user activity and revenue are not growing at the same rate.

$HYPE Price Surges, But Growth Concerns Emerge

It is worth noting that the $HYPE price has been facing a positive period over the past few weeks. The token has reportedly seen a sharp surge of 80% over the past 90 days. This growth is significantly noteworthy as it has clearly outpaced Bitcoin and other major altcoins. It grabs particular attention as the growth comes amid the broader crypto market slowdown.

As of press time, theHYPE price is valued at $41.31, with a marginal surge of 0.26% in a day. Despite a 4.7% drop in a week, the token has seen a monthly hike of about 7%. This indicates that the token is able to hold its positive sentiment despite the broader negative trends.

But despite the sharp rise in the $HYPE price $HYPE0.35%, the underlying data tells a more cautious story. Investors are now paying much more for each dollar of revenue. The token’s fully diluted price-to-sales ratio has climbed to 47.3, up 67% quarter over quarter. This suggests that the token’s valuation may be running ahead of its actual performance.

Trading activity also shows mixed signals. The platform generated $153.8 million in fees over the last 90 days, down 13%. The average daily volume rose by 6%. While volumes have slightly increased, key indicators like open interest have dropped significantly from their peak. The open interest dropped sharply to $7.6 billion, down 51% from its peak. At the same time, a large amount of capital, about $730 million, has flowed out of the network in recent months.

Some parts of the network are still growing, such as frameworks and stablecoin supply. Active addresses have grown to 46,000 per day, showing a 6.6% surge. HIP-3 volumes soared by an impressive 973%. Stablecoin supply has also grown to $1.83 billion. However, overall usage and revenue are not keeping pace with the token’s price. This raises concerns that the rally may not be fully supported by fundamentals.

Hyperliquid Price Outlook Remains Uncertain Amid Mixed Signals

Although the present condition of the $HYPE price looks appealing, the market sentiment around the token remains divided. While some traders remain confident about a strong move, others turn cautious based on technical indicators.

In a recent X post, analyst ryandcrypto stated that the $HYPE price is poised to hit a high of $75 if this momentum continues.

At the same time, not all signals are positive. Another analyst, BATMAN, revealed recently that $HYPE has broken below its bullish trendline and is now attempting to retest it. This is often seen as a key moment. It is because a successful reclaim could support further upside, but failure may confirm a shift in trend.

April 26, 2026
AAVE Price Drops as Altcoin Rotation Weighs on Market Sentiment

The $AAVE price is currently experiencing a negative trend, underperforming Bitcoin, which remains relatively stable. While the drop is not very sharp, it gains particular attention as it reflects the ongoing weakness across the altcoin market. As Bitcoin continues to dominate the broader crypto market, many altcoins are struggling to maintain momentum.

This decline is not tied to any major negative news around Aave itself. Instead, it appears to be part of a broader market trend, where investors are gradually shifting funds away from altcoins and into safer or more dominant assets like $BTC. As a result, even strong DeFi projects like Aave are feeling the pressure. Lower demand and reduced trading activity are weighing on the $AAVE price action.

Altcoin Rotation Weighs on $AAVE Price

As per CoinMarketCap data, Avalanche crypto is facing significant downward pressure. At press time, the $AAVE price $AAVE-0.16% is valued at $93.71, with a 1.02% plummet in a day. The token has more notable declines of 2% and 11% over the past week and month, respectively. This indicates that the overall sentiment of the $AAVE price is largely negative.

This negative momentum is also reflected in the traders’ sentiment. As the 24-hour volume has declined by a massive 17% to $229.8 million, it shows that traders remain inactive. They are neither buying nor selling their tokens.

This is because they may be waiting for some strong catalysts that could push the $AAVE token price in either direction. Thus, the current figures indicate that the latest drop is not driven by strong selling, but rather a lack of buyers stepping in to support the price.

Notably, the recent drop in the $AAVE price is largely tied to a broader shift happening across the crypto market. Investors are gradually moving their funds out of altcoins and into assets like Bitcoin. This has put significant pressure on alternative coins like Avalanche.

This trend is often seen when market confidence becomes uncertain. Instead of taking risks on altcoins, traders tend to prefer safer options. This leads to reduced demand for DeFi tokens. As a result, prices struggle to maintain upward momentum,

It is also worth noting that the $AAVE price’s performance recently has been much weaker compared to Bitcoin. While $BTC has remained relatively stable, $AAVE has declined noticeably, signaling lower buying pressure.

Unveiling Key Support Levels to Watch

As per experts, the key level to watch now is $90. This level acts as akey support for $AAVE. It is also acting as a major psychological and technical zone.

If $AAVE price manages to stay above the $90 level, the token could move sideways for a while, likely trading between $90 and $100. This kind of consolidation usually means buyers and sellers are in balance, with no strong trend on either side.

However, if the $AAVE price drops below the $90 level, it could signal further weakness. In that case, the token may quickly move toward the next support around $85. Here, buyers may step in again.

Overall, the short-term outlook remains slightly bearish for the $AAVE crypto. But it is not strongly negative. Much depends on the broader altcoin market and especially Bitcoin’s performance. If Bitcoin weakens, it could increase selling pressure on altcoins like $AAVE.

April 26, 2026
Stagecoach Festival Issues Emergency Evacuation Due to High Winds — Only to Reopen Less Than Two Hours Later

There were thousands of unhappy Stagecoach festivalgoers on Saturday night, as the approximately 75,000-80,000 guests were forced to evacuate due to high winds.

At 7:46 p.m., the Stagecoach app shared an update: “Due to severe weather, please exit the event site and move to your vehicles or protected areas outside of the event site for safety. Stay tuned for updates.”

At the time, Marshmello was 15 minutes into his DJ set at the Honkeytonk tent. The lights were turned on, and an announcement came over the speaker to immediately exit. Meanwhile, the crowd outside the T-Mobile Mane Stage, waiting for Journey to come on, was alerted by massive “EMERGENCY EVACUATION” signs.

At that time, employees instructed every attendee to proceed to the nearest exit. Some were placed onto shuttles, while others walked off the premises and were told they had to leave for the evening.

Variety

About 30 minutes later, a new update was sent out: “Please continue to shelter in place. Stand by for the next update.”

At 9:37 p.m., exactly one hour after the last update, Stagecoach revealed, “We’re back in the saddle,” and posted updated times for Lainey Wilson and Pitbull; the festival will now go until 1 a.m. instead of the originally planned 11:55 p.m. Journey will no longer play.

On the Stagecoach Instagram account, hundreds of comments shared their anger over the way the festival handled the announcements and ushered people out. Many wrote they were encouraged to get on shuttles to go home, but then they wouldn’t be able to get back in time.

April 26, 2026
Olenox Announces Merge With CS Digital to Develop Low Cost, Off-Grid Bitcoin Mining Opportunities
The two companies would agree to merge, with CS Digital receiving $55 million in an all-share transaction, to combine Olenox’s energy expertise with CS Digital’s expertise in bitcoin mining. The combined company would seek to develop off-grid mining and AI data center initiatives close to generation sites.

Key Takeaways:
- Olenox announced a possible $55M merger with CS Digital Ventures to scale off-grid bitcoin mining.
- The deal targets a 3rd era of bitcoin mining, using off-grid data centers to hit $0.02 per kWh.
- In 2026, the merged entity would integrate Olenox’s energy tools to lead off-grid Bitcoin mining.
Olenox To Merge With Brazilian CS Digital, Targeting Low-Cost Bitcoin Mining and AI Data Center Opportunities

Bitcoin mining might experience a resurgence as companies adopt new, non-conventional approaches to maximize the performance of their investments while lowering operational costs.

Olenox, a Nasdaq-listed company providing oil and gas energy services and other energy technologies, has announced a possible merger with CS Digital Ventures, a company that offers custom bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.

The merger, which values CS Digital Ventures at $55 million, would be completed in several tranches and would anticipate what CS Digital’s CEO Bernardo Schucman has called “the third era of Bitcoin mining.”

Explaining the meaning of the term, he declared:

“I believe 2026 may mark the beginning of a new phase: the large-scale development of off-grid data centers built closer to the point of energy generation, where, under certain conditions, it may be possible to generate and utilize power at costs approaching $0.02 per kWh.”

These affordable energy fees would be attainable as the resulting company operates in environments where energy is curtailed and in sites where there is no transmission infrastructure available to transport it to the grid.

“Our combination with Olenox is intended to pursue that opportunity and build what we believe can become a leading platform in scaling off-grid mining. Our ambition is significant, and so is the opportunity in front of us,” Schucman concluded.

These kinds of initiatives are now surging, with Itau, one of Brazil’s largest banks, recently investing in Minter, which also designs and operates mobile bitcoin mining solutions located at energy generation locations. But the merged company between Olenox and CS Digital would have an advantage, as it would integrate the energy generation task of the equation by combining Olenox’s energy platform with CS Digital’s capabilities.
April 26, 2026
US CLARITY Act will ‘get done’ in May, says Mike Novogratz

THE US CLARITY Act, which aims to provide the US crypto industry with more regulatory clarity, will likely be finalized in May, according to Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz.

“So this is going to get done. It probably gets done in May. I would say the first week of May is when it goes to the committee, and then, you know, soon after Trump will be signing this thing in June,” Novogratz told SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci on a podcast published to YouTube on Friday.

“It’s wildly important for it to get done for both Democrats and Republicans,” Novogratz added, following a disappointing week for the crypto industry after the Senate Banking Committee did not schedule a markup hearing by Friday, as many in the industry had expected.

Novogratz reiterated that the legislation will allow large institutions, such as SpaceX and Google, to be “tokenized and sold to people around the world.”

CLARITY Act could open the US economy to over 5 billion people

“There are eight and a half billion people, probably five and a half billion don’t have access to our financial products,” Novogratz said, adding:

“This phone with a crypto wallet is going to be the way the kid in Bhutan or Batswana or Bolivia or Paraguay, you name it, is participating in the American economy.”

The passage of the US CLARITY Act is seen as a major potential catalyst not just for the crypto market, but for broader innovation in the country, especially after a number of firms left the US during the previous Biden administration due to an unfavorable regulatory environment.

Source: Nic Puckrin

Many crypto market participants had expected the CLARITY Act to clear Congress earlier this year, particularly after it passed the House in July 2025 with bipartisan support.

However, ongoing disputes have slowed down the progress, most notably a clash between the banking sector and the crypto industry over whether stablecoin yields could undermine banks’ competitiveness.

US Senator Cynthia Lummis warned on April 10 that the window to pass the bill may be closing.

“This is our last chance to pass the Clarity Act until at least 2030. We can’t afford to surrender America’s financial future,” Lummis said in an X post.

Some industry execs are skeptical of the CLARITY Act timeline

Others in the industry are more skeptical of its chances of passing this entire year.

Related: Coinbase says capital access beats income in wealth creation

Galaxy Digital head of firmwide research Alex Thorn said in an X post on Wednesday that he puts the current odds of the CLARITY Act passing in 2026 at 50%.

Source: Leo Lanza

Thorn said in a report on the same day that the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee (SBC) is expected to announce a markup hearing this week, likely for the last week of April, however that did not happen.

“If markup slips past mid-May, odds will drop sharply,” Thorn added.

Magazine: AI-driven hacks could kill DeFi — unless projects act now

April 26, 2026