Uncategorized
Jews ‘own everything,’ sports commentators Shannon Sharpe and Chad Ochocinco claim
(JTA) — The co-hosts of a popular sports podcast declared on a recent episode that Jews “own everything” and are “the most powerful community in the world.”
Shannon Sharpe and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, both former National Football League stars, directed the comments at a popular Jewish livestreamer.
“This is the most powerful community in the world,” Sharpe said on a Dec. 1 episode of his podcast “Night Cap.” When Ochocinco asked which community Sharpe was referring to, he clarified by describing the Israeli flag: “There’s another country that has a white and blue flag with a star on it.”
In response, Ochocinco said, “Oh, they own every damn thing,” to which Sharpe agreed: “Exactly.”
“They own everything. You hear me? Boy, if you were to peel back the layers,” Ochocinco continued.
A former tight end, Sharpe had a long career in sports broadcasting following his NFL retirement, with another one of his podcasts, “Club Shay Shay,” winning an NAACP Image Award earlier this year. The show frequently goes viral: Sharpe’s interview with comedian Katt Williams last year has racked up nearly 100 million views and inspired a “Saturday Night Live” sketch.
ESPN abruptly cut ties with Sharpe this summer following a sexual assault investigation, but he continues to be a popular Internet personality. His podcasts are defined by a loose, freeform approach that uses sports as a jumping-off point for a range of other topics.
The two men were taking on Jewish video-gaming livestreamer Adin Ross, himself a polarizing personality who hosted Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. Ross has interviewed and/or maintained friendly relationships with openly antisemitic figures including Nick Fuentes, Andrew Tate and fellow livestreamer Sneako. On a recent livestream of his own, Ross had admitted that he sings the N-word when singing along to rap music.
This remark offended Sharpe and Ochocinco, who used their show to claim that public figures refuse to make derogatory comments about Jews in the same way they might use the N-word.
“It’s funny how they pick and choose,” Sharpe said. “I’m old enough to remember when Jesse Jackson was running for president, and he said something, he called New York, he called it a derogatory term, had to apologize. Michael Jackson used the term once upon a time, had to apologize.”
In 1984, Jesse Jackson apologized on the campaign trail after referring to New York as “Hymietown.” In 1995, Michael Jackson apologized after releasing a single containing the line, “Jew me, sue me, everybody do me/ Kick me, kike me, don’t you black or white me.” After initially agreeing to change the lyrics he later released a music video of the song with the original lyrics, over Jewish groups’ objections.
It was initially unclear if Sharpe and Ochocinco were aware that Ross is Jewish, though Sharpe later acknowledged this after reading messages in his chat. The pair did take time to praise “Inglorious Basterds,” the Quentin Tarantino movie about Jewish World War II soldiers taking revenge on Hitler, as a “great movie.”
On his own stream, Ross briefly took time out from playing video games to laugh off the remarks.
“I’m a fan of you, Shannon. I like you. I think you’re a hell of a guy,” he said, adding, “Nick Fuentes got something in the air, bro” — referring to the openly antisemitic livestreamer’s recent political ascendancy.
Ross disputed Sharpe’s claim that Jews aren’t subject to antisemitic terms on a regular basis, listing all the derogatory names his own followers routinely call him. As he talked, he repeatedly laughed at his friend Sneako posting antisemitic content in the chat.
“I get called a kike every day,” Ross said. “Nobody’s safe out here.” He concluded by inviting Sharpe and Ochocinco to work with him.
“I want to do a stream with these two guys, bro,” he said. “It’d be a fun time.”
The post Jews ‘own everything,’ sports commentators Shannon Sharpe and Chad Ochocinco claim appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Ukraine Has ‘Irrefutable’ Evidence of Russia Providing Intelligence to Iran, Zelenskiy Says
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (not pictured) and European Council President Antonio Costa (not pictured) on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Ukraine‘s military intelligence has “irrefutable” evidence that Russia continues to provide intelligence to Iran, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after meeting the head of military intelligence.
“Russia is using its own signals intelligence and electronic intelligence capabilities, as well as part of the data obtained through cooperation with partners in the Middle East,” he said on X.
Kremlin last week dismissed a Wall Street Journal report that Russia was sharing satellite imagery and improved drone technology with Iran as “fake news.”
Uncategorized
Belgium Deploys Soldiers to Reinforce Security at Jewish Sites
Belgian army personnel patrol a street as part of a deployment of soldiers outside Jewish institutions in Antwerp and Brussels following attacks at Jewish sites in Belgium and other European countries, in Antwerp, Belgium, March 23, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
Soldiers were deployed on the streets of leading Belgian cities on Monday to bolster security for the Jewish community, after what officials said were antisemitic attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The move follows an explosion this month at a synagogue in Liege that authorities called an antisemitic act.
“From today we’re putting soldiers back on the streets in Brussels and Antwerp because safety is a basic right,” Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken said in a post on X on Monday.
The deployment, in collaboration with federal police, will provide security at Jewish sites including synagogues and schools, Belgian authorities said in a press release last week.
Antwerp “is again a little safer … the Jewish community too. We say NO to antisemitism!” Francken said on Monday.
The upgrade in security also follows an arson attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam and an explosion at a Jewish school in Amsterdam in neighbouring The Netherlands.
Dutch police have arrested five suspects, aged 17 to 19, over the synagogue attack in Rotterdam.
The US embassy in Oslo was also targeted in a bombing earlier this month branded by Norwegian investigators as an act of terrorism. None of the attacks caused injuries.
A Belgian defense ministry spokesperson said on Monday that soldiers would be deployed in three different phases: First in Brussels and Antwerp, later in Liege.
Rights advocates have raised concerns about possible attacks against Jewish communities around the world following the launch of the US and Israeli war with Iran. Four ambulances belonging to a Jewish community organisation in north London were set ablaze on Monday.
Uncategorized
Trump Puts Off Threat to Bomb Iran Power Grid; Tehran Denies Talks Taking Place
Streaks of light illuminate the sky during an interception attempt amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Tel Aviv, Israel, March 23, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he had given orders to postpone for five days the attacks he had threatened against Iranian power plants, and said the US was in talks with Tehran about ending the US-Israeli war on Iran.
However, Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, mooted to be the leader representing Iran in contacts with the US, posted on social media that no talks had been held with the US.
As reciprocal airstrikes continued, financial markets had broadly welcomed the reports of efforts to negotiate an end to the war. Even after Qalibaf’s comments, the Brent crude oil benchmark was down around 8% to about $103 a barrel.
Iran has effectively closed the key Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows.
Trump wrote early in the US morning on his Truth Social platform that the US and Iran had had “very good and productive” conversations over the past two days about a “complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East.”
OIL DROPS, STOCKS RECOVER ON PROSPECT OF PEACE TALKS
He later told reporters that his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had been negotiating with Iran before the war, had had discussions with a top Iranian official into the evening on Sunday, and would continue on Monday.
“We have had very, very strong talks. We’ll see where they lead. We have major points of agreement, I would say, almost all points of agreement.”
“All I’m saying is, we are in the throes of a real possibility of making a deal,” he told reporters before departing Florida for Memphis.
He declined to say who the US was speaking to in Iran but said it was not Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was wounded in the Israeli attack at the start of the war that killed his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Washington.
“We’re dealing with the man who I believe is the most respected and the leader,” Trump said.
An unnamed Israeli official and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Qalibaf, increasingly influential, was representing Iran and that talks on ending the war could be held in Islamabad as soon as this week.
A reporter for the US news outlet Axios also said mediating countries, which he named as Egypt, Turkey, and Pakistan, were trying to convene an Iranian-US meeting in Islamabad this week including Witkoff, Kushner, and Vice President JD Vance.
Trump said he had spoken with Israel, which he said would be “very happy with what we have.”
Although Mojtaba Khamenei holds the ultimate authority in Iran, and the foreign ministry led past negotiations with the US, Iran experts say the realities of wartime decision-making have effectively shifted control to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which now exerts decisive influence over key areas including foreign policy.
A source briefed on Israel’s war plans said Washington had kept it informed of its contacts with Tehran, and that Israel was likely to follow Washington in suspending any targeting of Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on talks or on Washington’s decision to suspend strikes on some targets.
Global markets rose sharply, with US stocks up more than 2%.
On Saturday, Trump had warned that Iranian power plants would be destroyed if Tehran failed to “fully open” the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping within 48 hours. Trump set a deadline of around 7:44 pm EDT (2344 GMT) on Monday.
The IRGC threatened retaliation, saying it would attack Israel’s power plants and those supplying US bases if Trump followed through with his threat.
MARKETS AND ECONOMIES IN TURMOIL
Iranian media reported that they had on Monday attacked targets in Israel and US bases in the region.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in the war the US and Israel launched on Feb. 28, which has devastated Iran’s leadership and military capabilities while driving up fuel costs and accelerating global inflation fears.
However, the threat of strikes on Gulf electricity grids raised fears of mass disruption to desalination for drinking water, and further rattled oil markets.
While attacks on electricity could hurt Iran, they could be catastrophic for its Gulf neighbors, which consume around five times as much power per capita.
Electricity makes their gleaming desert cities habitable, in part by powering the desalination plants that produce 100% of the water consumed in Bahrain and Qatar. Such plants use seawater to meet more than 80% of drinking water needs in the United Arab Emirates, and 50% of the water supply in Saudi Arabia.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said the resulting energy crisis was worse than the two oil shocks of the 1970s and the gas shortage connected to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine put together.
Iran‘s Defense Council escalated its threatened retaliation on Monday, prior to Trump‘s delay, saying Tehran would cut all Gulf routes by laying sea mines if Trump followed through, state media reported.
The Israeli military said early on Monday it had begun its latest broad wave of strikes on infrastructure in Tehran.
Iranian news agencies said six people had been killed and 43 injured in strikes in the western city of Khorramabad.
The Iranian Red Crescent posted a video of a residential building in affluent northern Tehran with most of its facade destroyed and emergency staff rescuing someone on a stretcher from the upper floors.
Across the Gulf, the Saudi defense ministry said two ballistic missiles had been launched towards Riyadh. One was intercepted while the other fell in an uninhabited area.