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The Daily Wire Parts Ways With Candace Owens After Months-Long Flirtation with Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories
Candace Owens speaks at CPAC on March 2, 2023. Photo: Lev Radin via Reuters Connect
Right-wing podcast host Candace Owens is no longer employed by The Daily Wire following a months long row with co-founder Ben Shapiro over Israel’s war with Hamas and other controversial incidents in which Owens appeared to promote neo-Nazism.
“Daily Wire and Candace Owens have ended their relationship,” the company’s chief executive officer, Jeremy Boreing, said on X/Twitter on Friday, setting off a torrent of comments views retweets. Within an hour, it had been viewed by over 2 million users. Owens later confirmed the news on the platform, saying, “The rumors are true — I am finally free…There will be many announcements in the weeks to come.”
After Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, Owens’ relationship with her colleagues — especially with The Daily Wire’s founder, Ben Shapiro, who is Jewish — became increasingly strained. After Israel launched a military operation to expel Hamas from the Gaza Strip, Owens accused the country of committing genocide and of subjecting Palestinians living in Israel and the Palestinian territories to apartheid. In the process she betrayed deficiencies in her knowledge of the Middle East and Israel, once describing the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem as a racially segregated area in which Israel forces Muslims to live, a grossly false characterization.
Shapiro found her comments highly offensive.
“I think her behavior during this has been disgraceful,” Shapiro can be heard saying in footage of a private event that emerged online in November. “Her faux sophistication on these particular issues has been ridiculous…everybody can see the moves that she’s making and the things that she’s saying, and I find them disreputable.”
Owens responded on X/Twitter by weaponizing passages of the Christian New Testament, with which she suggested that defending Israel was a matter of choosing between “God and money.” Shapiro said that she should “by all means quit” if she felt so conflicted. Soon after, Owens’ show “Candace” went on hiatus while she took maternity leave.
After returning in January, Owens introduced more fringe themes to her show and endorsed for president a candidate who called for eliminating US aid to Israel. By March, she was feuding with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, an author and Jewish civil rights activists who has written about sex between married couples and founded with his daughter a company that sells intimacy products. Owens derided Shmuley for this, calling him an “unholy rabbi” and his daughter a “hag.” At other times, she insinuated that Shmuley and a “mafia” of Jews had been involved in the death of Michael Jackson, whom Shmuley had befriended on-and-off before the singer’s death in 2009.
“Are you going to kill me? Are you going to kill me, because I refuse to kowtow to you and I think it’s weird that you and your daughter are promoting and selling sex toys, that’s why I deem you an ‘unholy rabbi’?” Owens said about Shmuley in one episode. “You gross me out. You disgust me. I am a better person than you, and I do not fear you.”
Jewish community leaders called on Shapiro and The Daily Wire to terminate Owens’ employment, noting that she had gone so far as to imply that Nazi fascists are wrongly condemned for “burning books that they deemed to be Marxist and that they deemed to be overtly sexual.” For many, Owens — who began posting ominous condemnations of “merchants of smear” and had liked a tweet accusing Shmuley of drinking the blood of Christians — had signaled to the world that she was embracing neo-Nazism.
Neo-Nazis on the internet thought so too, and throughout the month of March, Nick Fuentes — who has referred to African Americans as “n—gs” and called for dissolving the American government and replacing it with a patriarchal theocracy based on the Catholic religion — commended Owens on his show, which streams on “Rumble,” for saying “there is a Jewish mafia, they hide behind antisemitism.” On March 9, he proclaimed that he is a “stan” of hers.
Fuentes continued his praising of Owens on Tuesday, as first reported by Media Matters, commenting on an interview Owens conducted with Rabbi Michael Barclay, a Jewish author and conservative activist who agreed to appear on Owens’ show to discuss why he wrote an article describing her as antisemitic. Throughout the discussion, Owens insisted that there is nothing unique about anti-Jewish hatred and attacked the world’s leading definition of antisemitism, calling it an instrument of censorship.
On March 20, Owens released her final episode for The Daily Wire, titled “Why Does Everyone Think I Am Going to Be Killed?” In it, she suggested that she will be murdered and said that she has been targeted for rejecting racial “supremacy,” an apparent allusion to neo-Nazi conspiracies of “Jewish supremacy” and Jewish control. Signing off, she promised to return with a new episode the following day. It never came, and on Friday, after the announcement of her departure from The Daily Wire, she solicited cash donations from her social media followers.
Owens’ exit is a shock to the system of alternative conservative media, which has received massive investments for the creation of online content that bypasses traditional news outlets and reaches audiences through platforms such as YouTube and X/Twitter. The Daily Wire, which offers viewers original documentaries, films, and talk shows, has been a shining success story of this venture, and since joining the company in 2020, Owens has been one of its most recognizable — and controversial — stars, amassing tens of millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers allured by her popularizing of complex political issues.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post The Daily Wire Parts Ways With Candace Owens After Months-Long Flirtation with Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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