Day: May 1, 2026

Meta should not have removed advertisements from attorneys seeking clients that claim they were harmed by social media platforms, two U.S. senators said on Friday in a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, News.Az reports, citing CNN.
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Here are some details:
• Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn and Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar wrote a letter to Zuckerberg criticizing his company’s choice to purge the ads from its platforms after Axios first reported it and Meta confirmed it.
• The attorneys were trying to recruit new plaintiffs for ongoing lawsuits over social media addiction.
• “We’re actively defending ourselves against these lawsuits and are removing ads that attempt to recruit plaintiffs for them,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. “We will not allow trial lawyers to profit from our platforms while simultaneously claiming they are harmful.”
• Meta, Google, Snapchat and TikTok are facing thousands of lawsuits accusing the companies of designing platforms that are fueling a youth mental health crisis.
• The removal of the advertisements is “nothing more than an attempt to preserve a harmful business model at all costs,” the senators wrote in the letter.
• Blackburn is running for governor in Tennessee and often touts her work on social media regulation to voters. Klobuchar is running for governor of Minnesota.

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights identified the target as Farhan Mansour, a member of the Shiite religious authority and a Friday preacher. The Britain-based monitor said unknown assailants attacked Mansour near the Safir al-Zahraa hotel after he left the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, leaving him severely wounded. His condition remained unclear, the group said, News.az reports, citing Xinhua.
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Syrian security authorities, cited by the state-run SANA news agency, said the blast was caused by a hand grenade but did not confirm the reported target or provide casualty figures. Security forces cordoned off the area and increased their presence to keep civilians away, while specialized teams examined the scene, authorities said.
There was no immediate official statement on Mansour’s condition.
Sayyida Zeinab, home to one of Shiite Islam’s most revered shrines, has been attacked multiple times during Syria’s more than 14-year civil war. Friday’s incident occurred against a backdrop of heightened sectarian tensions as the country emerges from the conflict. 

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Sovereignty and Partnership in Energy Corridors: A Strategic Roadmap for the South Caucasus and Europe

#Turkic_States #Türkiye #Azerbaijan #Armenia #Germany #France #EU #SouthCaucasus #EnergySecurity #EnergyCorridors #StrategicAutonomy #WinWin pic.x.com/JGlWmmRzxk

— 🇹🇷Sinan Göktürk (@Gokturk0034) May 1, 2026

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Friday a Cessna 421C crashed around 11:25 p.m. local time Thursday (0425 GMT Friday), with five people on board, News.az reports, citing Xinhua.
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Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra confirmed all five occupants died in the crash, adding in a post on social media that preliminary information indicates the aircraft was traveling at high speed at the time of impact.
Emergency responders were dispatched Thursday night to Wimberley, a city roughly 64 kilometers southwest of Austin.
FAA said the agency and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash.

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According to the agency, two brothers from the Kharrazi family, under a different surname—Aghamir—founded the exchange Nobitex in 2018, which became a central hub in a parallel financial system and allowed money transfers despite US sanctions, even during the current war, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
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The Kharrazi clan occupies important positions in Iran’s ruling elite. Members of this family have advised the supreme leaders for generations, holding important positions. The clan is related to all the supreme leaders of the Islamic Republic.
According to Reuters, Nobitex processed hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions linked to sanctioned entities, including the Central Bank of Iran and the IRGC. The company itself quickly integrated into the Iranian economy. Nobitex claims to have 11 million users—more than 10% of the country’s population. After the imposition of sanctions, many Iranians used the exchange to buy and store cryptocurrency. According to Reuters, it handles approximately 70% of cryptocurrency transactions in Iran. Evidence linking Nobitex to sanctions evasion was provided by a convicted Iranian billionaire. In December, he published wallet addresses on his social media accounts, which allowed crypto analysts to uncover a sanctions-evasion scheme involving the company.
The agency discovered that Nobitex serves as Iran’s “bridge” to global markets. According to an analysis of blockchain records by Crestal Intelligence and interviews with four private financial investigators, Iran uses the exchange to funnel funds to allies without access to the banking system. Former exchange employees told Reuters that it also handles government funds subject to sanctions.
The company denies any direct ties to the government or providing assistance to the state, claiming that any illegal transfers that did occur were carried out without the approval or knowledge of management.
Reuters notes that Nobitex has done business with major players in the global cryptocurrency industry. In 2022, Binance transferred $7.8 billion to Nobitex, circumventing US sanctions against Iran. Sanctions, which have deprived Iranians of access to the global financial system, have significantly increased Nobitex’s appeal to Iranian clients.
In April, The Telegraph, citing transfer documents submitted to the US Treasury, reported that five major banks—HSBC, Standard Chartered, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, and Bank of New York Mellon—would be investigated for involvement in Iranian money laundering.

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