I’m A Celebrity South Africa 2026 delivered one of its most chaotic moments ever at tonight’s live final, as a fiery row between Jimmy Bullard, David Haye and Adam Thomas erupted on air.
The explosive clash unfolded live from London, leaving hosts Ant and Dec struggling to regain control as tensions spiralled.
At one point, Sinitta and Gemma Collins even walked off set as the argument escalated.
Adam was later crowned the winner of the series, but the tense atmosphere meant the moment felt far from celebratory.
Jimmy Bullard sparked chaos after kicking off at tonight’s I’m A Celebrity live final (Credit: ITV)
I’m A Celebrity live final: Jimmy, Adam and David on-air row
The dramatic scenes began when Ant and Dec invited Jimmy to address his earlier fallout with Adam in camp.
Viewers had seen the pair clash earlier in the week when Jimmy quit a trial without attempting it, initially sending them both home.
Although Adam was later allowed to remain, Jimmy did not speak publicly at the time. That changed during the 10pm live show.
“Let me run you through what happened,” he said. “When we went down for the trial it was originally for stars so I chose Adam.”
Turning to the hosts, Jimmy added: “Then you sprung a lightbulb moment on me that the bottom two got to go home. I didn’t choose Adam because of this.”
Adam insisted he has repeatedly apologised to Jimmy (Credit: ITV)
Jimmy went on to claim he had spoken to a producer named Olly and referenced discussions around his contract.
“I spoke to Olly, talked through contract and said I’m going to have to pull the plug,” he said.
He continued with a detailed explanation about pay arrangements, saying: “If I go home and call Adam back, I get full pay.
“If I go home, stay in and go back, I get a small per centre of that. It’s a job. I have to go home for person reasons. That’s why I took Adam.”
However, the situation quickly escalated.
David Haye wades in and Sinitta walks off
“You can all be upset with me. I threw him under the bus,” Jimmy said, before raising his voice and alleging that key moments had been edited out.
He claimed Adam had been “abusive, aggressive and intimidating”, prompting David Haye to step in and accuse Adam of “playing the victim”.
David isn’t the biggest fan of Adam, after they also clashed in South Africa.
“I don’t stand on someone being abusive, aggressive and intimidating!” Jimmy shouted. “You showed none of the C bombs.”
Ant pushed back, saying he did not view Adam’s behaviour as intimidating and reminding Jimmy: “I was there.”
Adam responded by insisting he had apologised several times, saying: “I’ve apologised to Jimmy on many occasions. That’s how I’ve ever shown myself off. I apologise and I am sorry.”
Sinitta stormed off, followed by Gemma Collins (Credit: ITV)
David continued, claiming the edit had not reflected everything that happened, while Jimmy called for unseen footage to be shown.
As tensions peaked, Sinitta stood up and walked off, with Gemma Collins following shortly after.
Once calm was restored, Ant and Dec revealed Adam as the winner. Despite the victory, he appeared eager for the night to end.
Viewers reacted in disbelief, with many describing the live final as chaotic viewing.
One wrote on X: “Absolute Car Crash TV this.” Another added: “Ahahaha proper car crash I love it!”
And a third wrote: “Best and worst 30 mins of British tv this year so far.”
Read more: I’m A Celebrity fans slam ITV over major Celebrity Cyclone blunder
What do you think of this story? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page
Although Final Fantasy XIV’s time on the PlayStation 4 might soon be coming to an end, the critically acclaimed MMO RPG will soon show up on a new console: the Nintendo Switch 2. But while the prospect of grinding through raids and dungeons from the comfort of your own bed is certainly enticing, it turns out that this port comes with a strange caveat.
Shortly after Square Enix CEO Takashi Kiryu announced Final Fantasy XIV would be coming to Switch 2 during the game’s North American Fan Festival, Kiryu launched into an explanation of how subscriptions will work on the console. Whereas PC, Xbox, and PlayStation will all work with a standard Final Fantasy XIV subscription, the Nintendo Switch 2 requires players have a distinct subscription for just that console. Thankfully, players will not need a Switch Online subscription to play–though Kiryu did add that Final Fantasy XIV subscribers can get one for 50% less. Additionally, those with an active PC, Xbox, and PlayStation subscription will get 50% off a Switch 2 subscription.
“After discussions with Nintendo, it was decided that the Switch 2 version of Final Fantasy XIV would require a separate subscription,” Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida added. “This was decided after many months of discussions with Nintendo and we understand this is different to how we’ve done things before.”
Brazil blocked access to prediction market platforms including Kalshi and Polymarket, citing investor protection concerns.
Finance Minister Dario Durigan said the platforms violated betting regulations approved by Congress and lacked proper regulatory oversight.
The central bank prohibited derivatives contracts based on sports, gaming, political events, and other non-economic benchmarks.
Brazil’s Finance Ministry blocked access to prediction market platforms Thursday, targeting major platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi that traders use to bet on outcomes.
Finance Minister Dario Durigan said the platforms violated betting regulations approved by the Brazilian Congress, and that prediction markets weren’t legal or regulated in the country. He added that blocking them would protect citizens’ savings amid government efforts to reduce debt levels.
“We have advocated for stricter enforcement and very rigorous regulation, which will continue to advance, so that we can curb the negative externalities and social harm that unregulated gambling causes to the Brazilian population,” Durigan said.
Reuters reported that both Polymarket and Kalshi were inaccessible in the country as of Friday afternoon.
Banco Central do Brasil issued a resolution prohibiting derivatives contracts based on sports events, virtual gaming, political outcomes, and other non-economic benchmarks. The central bank cited risks to investor protections and market integrity.
Chief of Staff Miriam Belchior said the measure aims to “protect income, prevent financial losses, and reduce families’ exposure to unsafe practices.”
The Brazilian crackdown reflects mounting global pressure on prediction markets. Portugal restricted Polymarket access in January, while multiple U.S. states have taken action. Most recently, Wisconsin filed lawsuits against Kalshi, Robinhood, Coinbase, Polymarket, and Crypto.com on Friday, alleging their sports event contracts violate the state’s commercial gambling ban.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
When Michael first hit Rotten Tomatoes with a brutal 27 percent critics score, it looked like another high profile biopic was about to crash under the weight of expectations. Then audiences showed up. And everything changed.
The film has now surged to a staggering 96 percent audience score, instantly flipping the narrative and putting Michael in rare territory as one of the highest rated musical biopics ever from a fan perspective.
So what happened?
Critics vs Audience A Familiar Divide
Early critic reactions focused on pacing, tone, and the film’s approach to controversial moments in Michael Jackson’s life. Some reviews called it uneven, others said it played things too safe. But audiences saw something completely different.
Fans praised the performance, the music, and most importantly, the emotional connection. Social reactions have been flooded with comments about how the film captures the energy, pressure, and genius of Jackson in a way that feels authentic and powerful. For many viewers, it is not about perfection. It is about feeling. And Michael delivers that in a big way.
The Power of Music and Nostalgia
Musical biopics live and die by one thing more than anything else. Connection.
From the moment the first iconic track hits, audiences are pulled into a shared experience. With a catalog as legendary as Michael Jackson’s, Michael had a built in advantage that critics may have underestimated.
The film leans heavily into that legacy. The performances, choreography, and stage recreations are being called some of the best ever put on screen in this genre. That alone is driving repeat viewings and word of mouth momentum.
Jafaar Jackson, Michael [credit: Lionsgate]
Audience Scores Are Becoming the Real Indicator
We have seen this trend before. Critics analyze. Audiences react.
And in the era of social media and instant feedback, audience scores are increasingly shaping a film’s reputation in real time. A 96 percent score is not just good. It signals strong emotional resonance and mass appeal.
That kind of response can extend box office legs, boost streaming performance, and even reshape award season conversations.
One of the Biggest Turnarounds in Recent Memory
Going from 27 percent to 96 percent is not just a rebound. It is a complete narrative reversal.
For Michael, it means the film is no longer defined by its early reviews. It is being defined by the people actually watching it. And right now, they love it.
The Bottom Line
Michael may not be a critic darling, but it is becoming a fan phenomenon.
And in today’s landscape, that might matter more than ever.
Tennessee has become the second U.S. state to impose a sweeping ban on Bitcoin ATMs, which is set to take effect in July.
In March, Indiana imposed a ban on the machines, which federal authorities have identified as a vector committing fraud against the elderly.
The FBI reported that Americans aged over 60 lost $257 million to scams involving Bitcoin ATMs last year.
Tennessee has become the second U.S. state to outlaw Bitcoin ATMs, making it a criminal offense in the Volunteer State to own or operate the machines that federal authorities have identified as a vector committing fraud against the elderly.
Whether operators’ kiosks allow customers to purchase Bitcoin or other digital assets with cash, they have until July 1 to pull the plug under House Bill 2505, which Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed into law on April 13 following the legislation’s introduction earlier this year.
The legislation was co-sponsored by Republican state representatives Cameron Sexton and Jay Reedy. In a March statement, Sexton said the kiosks “have become a gateway for scammers to exploit Tennesseans, especially our seniors.”
Sexton noted that victims defrauded while using Bitcoin ATMs often have little hope of recovering their money once it’s gone. That was around the time that local authorities warned of a scam where victims had lost $4 million to overseas scammers posing as law enforcement.
Reedy, a certified master beef producer, said “Crypto ATMs have given scammers a fast and easy way to target our citizens and scare them into draining their savings.”
The two-page bill, which was introduced in February, classifies violations as a Class A misdemeanor, on par in Tennessee with simple drug possession and domestic assault.
In total, Tennessee hosts 651 Bitcoin ATMs, with a majority of them clustered around Nashville, the state’s most populous city and capital, according to Coin ATM Radar. The locations range from gas stations and smoke shops to liquor stores.
According to FBI numbers released this month, Americans aged over 60 lost $257 million to scams involving Bitcoin ATMs last year, a 58% increase year-over-year. Citizens under 30, for comparison, lost $6.6 million to that type of scam in 2025.
In March, Indiana became the first U.S. state to impose a sweeping ban on Bitcoin ATMs, per WLFI. The publication cited one law enforcement official who said, “The number of reports has doubled each year for the last four years.”
Amid an uptick in scams, several states have passed legislation imposing transaction limits and mandating refunds for victims. In Minnesota, lawmakers are weighing legislation that would follow Tennessee’s lead and ban Bitcoin ATMs across the state.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Bold and the Beautiful has a stack of plots that is irritating viewers right now. And I tend to agree with most of the fan opinion on this. From RJ Forrester‘s (Brayan Nicoletti) abrasive attitude to Taylor Hayes (Rebecca Budig) happily never after just evaporating and a few other things on B&B that are just not proper. Not proper at all. And we’re going to discuss five of the worst plots on the CBS soap right now.
So, I see a lot of fans ranting on soap social media every day about the nonsense that we’re seeing on Bold. Some viewers are extremely ticked off. So, we’re going to talk about RJ, Electra, Taylor, Steffy, Hope, and some others.
Electra And Will’s Letter Situation on Bold and the Beautiful
So, the first thing we’re going to talk about is this whole thing with Electra Forrester (Laneya Grace) and Will Spencer (Crew Morrow) and the whole letter situation. And honestly, the whole scope of this storyline. We’ve seen how pouty that Electra has been. How she has no problem with somebody that she says is her friend living on the street eating out of dumpsters. And also, we’ve just seen her and Will and others that just won’t communicate clearly. And of course, we got RJ’s holier than thou bullcrap.
This could have all been cleared up if Electra had just asked Will why he ignored her letter or sent an email or a text or just had a conversation face to face or if Electra had actually listened when Will tried to explain that Ivy was lying about him. But Electra gave him no oxygen to even hear him. None of the people speak plainly and none of them listen. And on top of that, it feels like, and this is not just for this storyline, but across the board, almost every episode repeats the same exact conversation we heard the last time those people were on screen.
If they’re on Monday, and then we see them Monday, we see them Wednesday, same conversation again. And the main criticism I see about Bold is storylines don’t move forward. It’s repeat, repeat, repeat. And then every three episodes or maybe once a week, something moves forward a little.
We’ve been on the same calendar day on Bold for a week of episodes. If you look at the outfits that Electra and Daphne and others are wearing, it is literally not moving forward. I see this same criticism on most plots on B&B. Repeat conversations day after day and then you pile in unneeded flashbacks to make it even more stagnant.
Ivy’s “Not Proper” Thing on B&B
Another thing really bugging fans for a while now has been Ivy and her whole “It’s just not proper” thing. Brad Bell has done some bizarre rewrite on her. This is nothing like Ivy ever was before on Bold and the Beautiful. I don’t ever recall her even using the word proper before all the years she was on.
Ashleigh Brewer’s character has been twisted around to make her an uptight helicopter aunt manipulating Electra. And frankly, it’s not a well-written storyline. If you have to have a character acting totally out of character to make it work, that’s not good writing.
The whole storyline was not only dragged out, but after all this time, it’s frustrating to get a character that people actually used to like, Ivy, back on the scene, only to have her behave like an uptight, controlling weirdo. They brought her back, but made Ivy entirely unlikable. We were supposed to be getting her back to, you know, do something with Liam, maybe even with Thomas because they’re not related, something interesting.
Instead, she’s stalking Will and Dylan when she was supposed to be sick while Electra was out of town. And even now, Ivy remains unapologetic. She’s still rambling, hoping Electra doesn’t go back to Will. That’s on Friday’s episode after Ivy’s basically agreed it’s time for her to leave Forrester.
Everything With RJ Forrester
So, the next hot mess plot to talk about is everything with RJ Forrester since the recast with Brayan Nicoletti. It’s nothing to do with the actor. He’s fine. Handsome young guy. It is how Brad Bell is writing RJ. He used to be a much more likable young man. And he’s been a jerk from about five minutes after he walked through the door.
He was nice to Will for like a second and said, “Let’s not act like our dads Bill and Ridge. Let’s put that animosity behind us.” Will agreed. And then what does RJ do? He actually immediately started acting like his dad, Ridge Forrester (Thorsten Kaye).
Because RJ latched on to the idea of being with Electra. And that was back when she and Will were doing great. They were totally happy. And Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang) even told him, “Don’t go there. She’s with Will.” But RJ did.
And then he is just doubled down and tripled down. He’s 100% unlikable. He has not been a big hit with the fans. I think he’s the worst nepo baby that Bold and the Beautiful has ever had. And honestly, I think the writers need to completely rehab RJ if they ever want fans to like him.
Bold and the Beautiful: RJ Forrester – Taylor Hayes
Bold and the Beautiful Fans in an Outrage
Some recent comments on soap social media about him. This one I like. Can they please ship RJ overseas and bring back Thomas? Another said, RJ and Ivy are total garbage. And another said, RJ’s such a weirdo. Other comments flat-out call him a dumbass. Somebody else posted a long line of laughing face emoji’s over RJ saying his life hasn’t been as easy as Dylan thinks. RJ actually told that to a young woman who lived in her car and ate from a dumpster. What? Did he not get the jacket he wanted from Neiman Marcus? Come on.
Where are Deacon & Taylor on Bold?
Another thing bugging fans is the lack of follow-through, next steps, or any kind of closure on Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan) and Taylor. Everybody’s asking, “Where’s Deacon and Taylor? What happened?” Last we saw, they’re at Deacon’s place. They’re kissing. Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) is stalking and smirking, saying she’ll be back.
You know, we had Deacon and Taylor finally get together, but they still didn’t actually get together. They didn’t make love. You know, they were interrupted before when Sheila came in with the knife. And then we had that, you know, them kissing on the sofa and then the Sheila cliffhanger. Will she kill them or won’t she? And then all of them disappeared.
So, are we going to circle back around to Taylor and Deacon? Has Taylor moved into Deacon’s little apartment? Did they get a house? You know, they didn’t even get a big pinnacle moment. Like, here we are. We can be together. He picks up Taylor in his arms, carries her to the bedroom, nothing. We got a very lackluster climax and then no climax. And they’re just on the back burner. Fans aren’t loving that.
Steffy And Hope Are MIA on B&B
The last thing to talk about is the fact that Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Hope Logan (Annika Noelle) are pretty much MIA these days. Bold fans are ticked about this, too. After Hope reconciled with Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton), we never see them. Basically, they show up to make commentary on other storylines, like talking about Taylor and Deacon or the Logan Fashion House. I was hoping to see Hope and Liam expanding their family, getting a place of their own. They don’t even show them in the cabin anymore. It’s Brooke’s living room.
Then, we got Steffy and Finn Finnegan (Tanner Novlan). We see them every once in a while, usually for sofa sex, and that’s it. They also were mostly side items in the Taylor, Deacon and Sheila drama and then they evaporated. I saw a comment on social media where a fan asked if anybody remembers Steffy and Hope. One fan asked, “Where is Steffy? She needs to kick her loser brother RJ’s ass.” That made me laugh.
So, I understand that Bold wants younger folks center stage trying to bring in a younger demo, but they also don’t need to neglect their other fans and their other characters. You know, Hope and Steffy and that generation should be center stage, not the barely out of their teens crew.
Young and the Restless spoilers for next week reveal Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow) overdosing while Matt Clark (Roger Howarth) watches and laughs like the twisted maniac that he is.
We also have Chelsea Lawson (Melissa Claire Egan) terrified. Noah Newman and his mom Sharon Newman (Sharon Case) are panicked, and Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford) is scrambling. We’re going to get into the latest Y&R spoilers for the week of April 27th.
Young and the Restless Spoilers: Phyllis May Have To Give Everything Back To Victor
All right, so first of all, we got to talk about Phyllis Summers. She may have no choice but to give everything back to Victor Newman (Eric Braeden). So, at the end of this week that we’re in, Phyllis is in her office at the Newman Tower, vowing to her own portrait that she will never give up and smack talking about Victor having met his match in her.
And then while Phyllis is, you know, villain monologuing, Victor and Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle) walk in and they both laugh at her. They tell Phyllis that they have a deal for her that she cannot refuse, and she reminds Victor that he screwed her over the last time she made a deal with him. That is accurate.
Y&R Spoilers: Phyllis Faces Prison Time
So, that’s when Victoria drops the bombshell that Christine Williams Romalotti (Lauralee Bell) is the district attorney again. And we know how she feels about Red. And Victor had his AI invent some fairly compelling evidence against Phyllis that they’re ready to hand over to Christine so that Phyllis can be prosecuted for criminal charges. So, Victoria shows Phyllis the evidence and she says, “Okay, it looks fake.” But Victoria thinks Christine will be happy to prosecute Phyllis and will see what she wants to see.
So, Phyllis is calling them hypocrites after them stealing the company from Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn) and then kidnapping and drugging Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) and just all the horrible stuff that Victor was doing with the AI. And then they showed the second part of the plan. So, Victor has bribed a bunch of managers to say that Phyllis confessed to these criminal acts.
So, they have the trumped up evidence and then some trumped up witness statements. And she tells Victor and Victoria that she’s going to call their bluff. She’ll see them in court. And Victor threatens and says, “Phyllis better drop the papers to give it all back.” They storm out. Michael Baldwin (Christian LeBlanc) and Lauren Fenmore (Tracey E. Bregman) comfort Phyllis, who of course wants to fight. Michael thinks it’s not going to go well.
Young and the Restless Spoilers: Phyllis Grows Desperate
So, next week’s Young and the Restless spoilers have Phyllis scrambling to keep what she stole because the last thing that she wants is to admit defeat and cave to Victor freaking Newman and give him back anything. I mean, it’s kind of a toss-up for me because they’re both villains and I’d like to see somebody else wind up with all this stuff.
So, if Phyllis doesn’t give Victor what he wants, then Phyllis could face prison time. And Christine might actually enjoy threatening to prosecute Phyllis, although I’m not sure that Cricket would actually move forward if she heard the rumor that it was AI evidence based on what’s happening. Michael could probably, you know, talk to her about it.
Matt Clark Versus The Newmans on Y&R
So, let’s talk now about the May sweeps dust-up with Matt Clark versus Adam Newman (Mark Grossman) and Nick Newman and their family and this tragic overdose. So, at the end of this week, Adam and Nick and Chelsea are trying to convince Riza Thompson (Tina Casciani) to turn on Matt and help them. So, they promise Riza millions of dollars. She’s interested, but she’s upset that Adam was using her, so she wants cash up front. And he reminds Riza of their past. That kind of bothers Chelsea. And finally, Riza tells them Matt’s going to be at this old abandoned gas station where he keeps his drug inventory.
So, Nick’s worried that Sharon and Noah are walking into a trap because Matt took their phones. And I don’t know why those people that know that didn’t call Sharon like on Chelsea’s phone or you know a hotel phone or buy a burner phone and call Sharon, call Noah, tell them. Anyway, they got Riza calling Matt and they want her to tell him that Adam and Nick have given up and just went back to Genoa City. So, Adam and Nick take off for the gas station while Riza makes the call.
Young and the Restless Spoilers: Matt Snatches Sharon & Noah
Meanwhile, Matt creeped up on Sharon and Noah at the old gas station. Just slid into their car. I guess they don’t keep the doors locked. And Matt pulls a gun and he forces Noah and Sharon into the dusty old garage. And Matt promises it’s going to be a nightmare. Noah’s trying to talk them out of it, offering bribes, yada yada. Riza calls Matt. He’s pretty sure she’s lying about Nick and Adam leaving town. And then Chelsea and Riza are kind of having a tense conversation about Adam.
Young and the Restless Spoilers: Nick Newman – Matt Clark
Adam Worried about Nick on Y&R Next Week
So, in the car, we’ve got Nick and Adam speeding to the old gas station to save Noah and Sharon. Adam thinks Nick is looking rough, and he’s let him get behind the wheel. And then Adam confronts his brother about lying and says he’s seen his bags of pills and he thinks Nick needs to admit that he’s messed up. But of course, he’s not going to do it. And Adam keeps at it and tells Nick that he’s putting them all in danger. Meanwhile, things get deadly in the garage as Matt tells Sharon and Noah one of them will die while the other watches. So, that’s where this week’s cliffhanger leaves off.
Matt knows from Riza’s clumsy phone call that Nick and Adam are still around, probably getting closer to him, and there’s going to be more danger before they even make it to Noah and Sharon. So, next week’s Young and the Restless spoilers have Nick finally in the passenger seat. So, clearly he’s in worse and worse shape. He’s twitchy.
He’s sweaty with withdrawals because he’s been doing cocaine and fentanyl. So, Adam’s driving, but he worries about his brother and tells Nick it’s obvious he needs his drugs. And Adam tells Nick, just go ahead, do what you got to do. So Adam is encouraging Nick to take a hit so that at least he’s functional and not in DTs while they are confronting Matt.
Young and the Restless Spoilers: Nick Overdoses
So, looks like that he’s going to lure Nick and Adam into the same garage where he’s got Sharon and Noah pinned in. And it looks like Sharon and Noah are still handcuffed and chained together up against a big metal beam. Next week things turn really bad because Nick and Adam wind up locked in with Sharon and Noah and Matt takes off and leaves them there.
And Nick, of course, has taken more of the drugs he got from Matt’s dealer to take the edge off. But it goes really badly and Adam rushes to help Nick who is overdosing next week. He’s on the floor. He’s in distress. Adam’s trying to help him while Sharon and Noah desperately try to get loose of their handcuffs so they can try and help Nick.
Young and the Restless Spoilers: Does Psycho Matt Get Away with It?
Meanwhile, horrible, horrible Matt is watching all of this go down. He left surveillance cameras in there. So, he’s on the road in his car watching this go down and he’s mocking Nick’s overdose. He says little rich boy Newman finally hit on the bag with the bad batch. Remember he had tainted fentanyl so he obviously had his dealer give a tainted baggie hoping Nick would overdose. Matt already told Nick he planned on him to overdose.
So, it looks like things get sorted to some extent because next week Adam makes it back to Chelsea at the hotel. Now Adam’s looking scruffy and a little worse for wear and Chelsea’s freaking out saying thank god you’re okay but she wants to know where’s Nick and Adam looks very upset about that question. So, I’m guessing Nick is at the hospital with Sharon and Noah hovering over him. But the question is, does Matt Clark live to fight another day?
In the span of just 18 days in April 2026, decentralized finance (DeFi) lost more than $606 million to hacks and exploits across at least a dozen incidents. Two attacks alone—the $285 million breach of Solana-based perpetuals DEX Drift Protocol on April 1 and the $292–293 million drain of Kelp DAO’s rsETH on April 18–19—accounted for roughly 95% of the month’s total losses.
What started as a targeted social-engineering operation snowballed into a systemic contagion: unbacked liquid restaking tokens (LRTs) flooded lending markets, triggered 100% utilization spikes and bad debt estimated between $124 million and $230 million, forced massive withdrawals exceeding $6–13 billion in DeFi TVL, and prompted emergency freezes across protocols. By April 23, even the world’s largest stablecoin wasn’t spared—Tether froze $344 million in USDT on Tron at the request of U.S. law enforcement.
April 2026 has already surpassed any prior month for DeFi losses since February 2025’s Bybit breach, with total 2026 year-to-date hacks now approaching $772 million. This wasn’t a random streak of misfortune. It was a textbook cascade exposing the interconnected risks of cross-chain bridges, LRT composability, human-operated governance, and the uncomfortable reality that “decentralized” systems often fall back on centralized emergency powers when the stakes are existential.
The Opening Salvo: Drift Protocol and Lazarus Group’s Long Game (April 1)
The month opened with what many initially dismissed as an April Fools’ prank. On April 1, Drift Protocol—a leading Solana perpetual futures exchange—lost approximately $285 million in roughly 12 minutes. Attackers drained multiple vaults holding USDC, WETH, JLP tokens, and other assets through compromised administrative privileges and pre-signed durable nonce transactions. No core smart contract bug was exploited; instead, the breach stemmed from a six-month social-engineering campaign traced to North Korea’s Lazarus Group (also known as UNC4736 or TraderTraitor).
Lazarus operatives reportedly infiltrated Drift’s contributors via fake identities, conference meetups, and malware targeting cloud infrastructure and personal devices. Once inside, they leveraged multisig governance weaknesses to execute the drainage. Drift immediately paused deposits and withdrawals, and on-chain analysts like PeckShield and Elliptic quickly flagged the North Korean connection—patterns consistent with prior state-sponsored operations, including the use of Tornado Cash for laundering.
The hack set a grim tone, but few anticipated the domino effect it foreshadowed. It highlighted a persistent DeFi vulnerability: even audited protocols with strong on-chain security remain exposed to off-chain human and operational risks.
Just twelve days after the Drift incident, another bridge vulnerability surfaced that, while smaller in realized losses, sent shockwaves through the interoperability space and foreshadowed the larger rsETH disaster to come. On April 13 at approximately 03:55 UTC, an attacker exploited a vulnerability in Hyperbridge’s Token Gateway contract on Ethereum—the interoperability layer connecting Polkadot to EVM chains. The root cause was a missing bounds check in the Merkle Mountain Range (MMR) proof verification logic within the two-year-old HandlerV1 contract. This flaw allowed the attacker to forge a cross-chain message that bypassed state-proof validation.
The forged message granted the attacker administrative control over the bridged DOT (ERC-6160) token contract. In a single atomic transaction, they minted 1 billion bridged DOT tokens—vastly exceeding the legitimate circulating supply of roughly 356,000 at the time. The attacker then routed the tokens through Odos Router and Uniswap V4 pools, extracting approximately 108.2 ETH (initially valued at ~$237,000–$272,000).
Hyperbridge initially reported ~$237,000 in losses but later revised the figure upward to approximately $2.5 million, accounting for additional drains from incentive pools across Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum, plus a separate ~245 ETH siphoned directly from the Token Gateway. Operations were paused immediately, and the incident remained isolated to bridged representations—native DOT on Polkadot was unaffected.
The exploit carried ironic weight: just two weeks earlier on April 1, Hyperbridge had posted (and later deleted) an April Fools’ joke claiming it was “unhackable” and even teasing a fake Lazarus attack. The real incident highlighted how even “trust-minimized” bridges relying on state proofs and message verification can fail catastrophically when verification logic has subtle implementation gaps.
This mid-month event served as a clear warning about bridge fragility. It demonstrated that forged cross-chain messages could lead to unlimited minting of bridged assets, a pattern that would repeat on a much larger scale just five days later with rsETH.
The Contagion Trigger: Kelp DAO’s rsETH Bridge Exploit (April 18–19)
Seventeen days later, the crisis escalated dramatically. On April 18 at approximately 17:35 UTC, attackers exploited Kelp DAO’s LayerZero V2-powered cross-chain bridge for rsETH (Kelp’s liquid restaking token). Using a combination of RPC node compromise, DDoS distraction, and a forged cross-chain message on a poorly configured 1-of-1 decentralized verifier network (DVN), the attacker tricked the bridge into releasing 116,500 rsETH—roughly 18% of total supply—without any corresponding burn on the source chain. The stolen tokens were worth approximately $292–293 million at the time.
LayerZero later attributed the attack to a highly sophisticated state actor—again pointing to Lazarus Group subunits. The attacker wasted no time: the freshly minted unbacked rsETH was deposited as collateral primarily on Aave V3 (and to a lesser extent Compound and Euler), allowing the borrowing of roughly $236 million in wETH and other assets.
Kelp DAO’s emergency multisig paused rsETH contracts 46 minutes later, but the damage was done. Multiple protocols—including Aave, SparkLend, Fluid, and others—rushed to freeze rsETH markets. Ethena, Curve, ether.fi, and even Tron DAO preemptively halted LayerZero OFT bridges as a precaution.
Aave’s Liquidity Crunch and the $13 Billion TVL Exodus
The rsETH collateral abuse turned a bridge exploit into a full-blown lending crisis. Aave, DeFi’s largest lending platform with over $20–26 billion in TVL pre-incident, faced massive bad debt estimates ranging from $124 million to $230 million depending on loss socialization. Utilization rates in core markets (USDT, USDC, WETH) spiked toward 100%, creating withdrawal bottlenecks. Over $6 billion fled Aave alone in the following days, with broader DeFi TVL dropping $7–13 billion in 24–48 hours across top chains. AAVE token price plunged more than 18%.
Aave TVL Exodus | Source: DefiLlama
Aave’s governance and risk teams acted decisively: the Protocol Guardian froze all rsETH and wrsETH reserves across V3 and V4 deployments on Ethereum and multiple L2s, setting loan-to-value (LTV) to zero. This contained the immediate bleed but left suppliers temporarily locked and reignited debates about collateral risk models in an era of composable LRTs.
Also Read: A $292 Million Wake-Up Call: Inside KelpDAO Hack That Exposed DeFi’s Fragility
The Centralization Reckoning: Arbitrum’s Security Council Steps In
As funds flowed across chains, Arbitrum’s Security Council— an elected body with emergency powers—intervened on April 21. Using an atomic upgrade to the inbox contract, they froze 30,766 ETH (approximately $71 million) tied to the exploitor on Arbitrum One and moved it to a governance-controlled wallet (0x…0DA0) pending further DAO approval.
The move was praised by some as responsible stewardship that prevented further laundering, especially against a suspected Lazarus actor. Others decried it as proof that even mature L2s like Arbitrum remain multisig-governed at heart. Justin Sun and others contrasted the swift L2 council action with Tron’s L1 “decentralization,” fueling a broader philosophical debate: when does emergency intervention cross into centralized control?
The Stablecoin Hammer Drops: $344 Million USDT Frozen on Tron (April 23)
The month’s chaos peaked on April 23 when Tether, in coordination with U.S. law enforcement and OFAC, blacklisted and froze $344 million USDT across two Tron wallets—one holding ~$213 million and the other ~$131 million. The addresses were linked to illicit activity and sanctions evasion. It was one of Tether’s largest single enforcement actions and underscored how regulatory pressure intensifies during periods of heightened exploit activity.
A Parallel Warning: The eth.limo DNS Hijack ( April 18)
While the DeFi ecosystem reeled from the rsETH exploit on April 18, another incident underscored the fragility of Web3’s off-chain infrastructure. The popular ENS gateway eth.limo—a free, open-source service that translates Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains into accessible HTTPS URLs via IPFS and other decentralized storage—suffered a domain hijack.
Attackers used social engineering to impersonate an eth.limo team member and trick the domain registrar EasyDNS into initiating an account recovery process. They gained temporary control, altered nameservers (switching them to Cloudflare and later Namecheap), and could have redirected traffic from wildcard *.eth.limo domains—including high-profile sites like vitalik.eth.limo—to phishing pages or malware.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin issued an urgent public warning, advising users to avoid all eth.limo URLs and providing direct IPFS links as safe alternatives. DNSSEC protections ultimately limited the damage by rejecting unsigned malicious responses, and the domain was recovered within hours. No major fund losses were reported, but the incident exposed how centralized DNS dependencies and social-engineering vectors can threaten user access to decentralized websites.
The eth.limo breach, occurring on the same day as the rsETH exploit, served as a stark reminder that DeFi’s front-end and infrastructure layers remain soft targets. It echoed similar past incidents (such as domain hijacks affecting other protocols) and amplified the month’s overarching theme: even non-smart-contract components of the ecosystem are vulnerable to human and operational failures.
Why This Month Was Different: Systemic Lessons from the Cascade
April 2026’s perfect storm revealed three structural weaknesses that no amount of isolated audits can fully mitigate:
Bridge Fragility and Single Points of Failure: From Hyperbridge’s MMR proof bypass and unlimited minting to LayerZero’s configuration (single DVN verifier) exploit highlights the weak link in crypto security. Cross-chain messaging remains a high-value target, especially for LRTs that promise seamless liquidity.
Composability Risks with LRTs: Liquid restaking tokens like rsETH were designed for yield maximization, but when unbacked supply floods lending markets, the dominoes fall fast. Aave’s experience shows how quickly “over-collateralized” positions can turn toxic.
State-Sponsored Professionalization: Lazarus Group’s involvement in both mega-hacks—months of preparation for Drift, sophisticated infrastructure compromise for rsETH—demonstrates how nation-state actors are scaling their operations. Estimates suggest the group has stolen $6–7 billion historically, with April adding hundreds of millions more to North Korea’s coffers.
Protocols That Hit Pause and the Road to Recovery
Beyond the majors, several protocols paused or froze operations: Kelp DAO across chains, SparkLend, Fluid, Upshift, and smaller players caught in the rsETH contagion wave. Aave’s “Umbrella” module and governance proposals for bad-debt handling are now under urgent discussion. Kelp DAO faces pressure to socialize losses or backstop rsETH holders.
Recovery remains uncertain. Funds laundered through mixers or bridges may prove difficult to claw back, especially from Lazarus-linked wallets. Insurance protocols and on-chain coverage may see renewed demand.
Also Read: DeFi United: How Crypto Projects Came Together to Plug a $292M Hole
Forward Outlook: Maturity or Mass Exodus?
Black April forces a reckoning. DeFi builders must prioritize MPC wallets, improved verifier diversity, ZK-based bridging, reduced over-composability, and clearer loss-socialization rules. Regulators will likely point to these events as justification for tighter oversight on bridges and stablecoins.
Yet the bull case persists: crises accelerate maturation. Protocols that survive and transparently recover will rebuild trust. Capital may shift toward more conservative tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), but the core innovation of permissionless finance endures.
For users and protocols alike, the message is clear: assume composability risk, verify governance assumptions, and never underestimate state-level adversaries. April 2026 wasn’t the end of DeFi—it was the loudest warning yet that security, decentralization, and usability must evolve together.
Also Read: Crypto’s $606M April Nightmare: 12 Hacks, 18 Days, Worst Month Since Bybit Heist
The Neighbourhood‘s Jordan Lozman has opened up about the shocking moments that triggered his PTSD, including a harrowing incident involving a 20-year-old soldier in Afghanistan.
Jordan speaks about his battle with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) in tonight’s opening episode of The Neighbourhood, which is hosted by Graham Norton.
The oil rig worker is taking part in the ITV series alongside his wife Katie, his mum Christine and her husband Dave, who is Jordan’s step dad.
Jordan Lozman is starring in The Neighbourhood with his mum Christine, stepdad Dave and wife Katie (Credit: YouTube/ ITV)
He also reveals how he later turned to stand up comedy after serving in the forces, using humour as a way to cope with the trauma he carried.
The Neighbourhood’s Jordan Lozman
Jordan lays bare his battle with PTSD during a visit to The Neighbourhood’s local cafe.
“I had quite a bit of a rough time when I left the military,” he tells fellow competitor Rosie, who is from the Scouse Haus.
“Events happened over in Afghan where people unfortunately didn’t come back. Years later, I got hit by PTSD.
“Although it had a detrimental effect on me afterwards, it also turned me from an 18 year old school boy into a 19 year old man very quickly.
“It makes you appreciate every single day more. I had to write a letter when I was 18 to say I might not come back. And then you see people complaining about the price of eggs.”
Jordan turned to comedy during his recovery. He now performs stand up gigs to raise money for men’s mental health charities.
In 2024, the former RAF serviceman spoke openly about his time in the forces and his mental health struggles on the People Like Us podcast.
Jordan described a particularly horrific memory from Afghan, and also revealed he later reached a point where he wanted to take his own life.
Thankfully, his wife Katie, who stars alongside him on The Neighbourhood, helped save him.
He explained how he served on the Medical Emergency Response Team, which was responsible for evacuating wounded servicemen and women in Chinook helicopters.
“We would land where someone had, say, lost their legs or lost their life and have to put them into the back of the helicopter and try a and keep them alive on the way back to Camp Bastion,” he recalled.
“As soon as we’d land, the Taliban would start shooting at us.
“We had 7 people on that helicopter at one point with legs missing and stomaches blown open, kids and everything. It was [bleeping] horrendous.”
Jordan ‘shut down emotionally in Afghan (Credit: YouTube/ People Like Us)
Jordan’s ‘biggest regret’
Aged just 18, Jordan was faced with a moment that has stayed with him ever since.
“One of my biggest regrets is when we picked this lad,” Jordan said.
“He was only 20 and he had both his legs missing. He reached out and held my hand and looked at me and I started crying.
“My job was just to hold the blood to feed into him and I started crying, looking at him and knowing he was going to die.
“As I started crying, he started crying. And that’s something I can never forgive myself for.
“I felt like I should have been stronger. That poor lad was there with no legs and I couldn’t hold myself together.
“I started crying while looking at him and he must have thought, ‘Well, I’m [bleep-ed] here’. That’s one thing that bothers me. After that, I switched off and didn’t show any emotion.”
Jordan left the RAF after four years. He believes his decision to close himself off emotionally had a lasting impact on his mental health, which eventually led to his PTSD.
Jordan credits Katie with helping him get through it all.
“I wouldn’t be here without her,” he admitted. “She kept me going through all the [bleep], like when the PTSD started and I didn’t trust her.
“Katie took me to hospital when I got put in there when I was trying to kill myself.
“She took me to all my sessions, took knives off me when I tried to harm myself. She was everything.”
Read more: Graham Norton gives a tour of his new ‘street-sized popularity contest’ The Neighbourhood
What do you think of this story? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page
Retro racing fans have a rare opportunity to experience a piece of “lost” Amiga history with the latest demo 5 download of SpeedManiaX, a Super Cars like racer, that Luigi Recanatese says “is intended to represent the evolution of the game 30 years after its conception”. While Aminet currently hosts the most recent version, Demo 5, which was uploaded in late April 2026, provided below is a bit of back story, as well as some gameplay footage from Saberman.
According to Gamesthatweren’t who mentioned this game back in 2021-2023. SpeedManiaX (once known simply as Speed Mania) was a highly ambitious project that eventually evolved into a title called Brutal Speed. In issue 65 of Italian Games Machine, the game was previewed as an AGA chipset powerhouse featuring 8-directional scrolling and a vibrant palette of 128 colours, drawing comparisons to classics like Super Cars 2 and Neo Drift. Despite its promise, the original project was cancelled after the development team suffered a devastating hardware failure on their A4000 hard drive, resulting in the loss of nearly all data.
This version only works on any Amiga with 2 Mb of ram chip. This limitation is because this is a demo. Not all features are available. The developer, now primarily working at XTeam Software, notes that this release is strictly a demo intended to showcase the game’s growth since its 1990s inception. As such, not all features are currently functional.
