Maine residents are growing frustrated as diners increasingly favor the richer, butter-forward Connecticut lobster roll over the state’s traditional preparation.

Visitors from around the globe flock to Maine for its famous lobster rolls, but many locals object to the way out-of-state guests expect the dish to be served.

At the heart of the dispute is a single ingredient: butter. Mainers have long championed chilled lobster dressed with mayonnaise, while Connecticut-style rolls feature warm meat and melted butter—and that version is rapidly gaining ground.

Peter Bissell, co-owner of The Highroller Lobster Co., said the restaurant sold 70,000 lobster rolls this summer. Half were ordered with butter, and half of those customers paid extra to have the lobster warmed, according to the Portland Press Herald

A classic cold lobster roll usually combines chilled meat with mayonnaise, lemon juice, lettuce and simple seasonings, all tucked into a split-top bun.

The result is cool and creamy, allowing the lobster’s natural sweetness and delicate texture to remain the focus.

Connecticut-style lobster rolls take a different approach. The meat is served warm in a toasted bun after being sautéed in butter or lightly covered with melted butter.

That added heat creates a deeper, richer buttery flavor and gives the lobster a noticeably different texture.

Unlike Maine’s chilled lobster dressed with mayonnaise, visitors from elsewhere often arrive expecting warm meat served with plenty of butter.

According to the Sun Journal, that preference is tied largely to the way tourists imagine luxurious lobster should be prepared: seasoned and dipped in butter.

To meet that demand—and avoid poor reviews—local lobster shacks have increasingly added the warmer style to their menus.

One Maine resident recently shared their irritation with the trend on the Portland Press Herald’s website.

“Tourists give negative reviews to spots that serve cold lobster. But warm lobster means it was heated up, altering its taste,” they wrote.

They continued: “Lobster shouldn’t be served warm, and it’s seafood, so you shouldn’t just leave it out all day to warm up naturally.”

“Tourists are used to bad lobster and envision it as the norm.”

Another commenter looked back fondly on a time when Maine’s traditional lobster roll was more widely served.

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‘I remember eating lobster rolls with butter or mayo throughout Maine as a kid, albeit the meat was always cold,’ they said.

‘I’m talking about bean suppers, birthdays, weddings, you name it. To me, “warm” lobster is CT style,’ the user added.

Despite the pushback from some, for local business owners, catering to out-of-state preferences is simply good business even if it rustles a few feathers.

For instance, when Eventide Oyster Co first opened they didn’t even offer a butter option for their lobster rolls, the Portland Press Herald reports.

Their options were simple: one with tarragon hollandaise and one with dill and mayo. However, the increasing demand for butter-style rolls made the owners rethink their offerings, prompting them to add a brown butter option to the menu, which quickly became a best seller.

Others have resisted the change, however.

At Bayley’s Lobster Pound, the co-owner Susan Bayley Clough says the original version is still the standard.

Over 80 percent of their lobster roll orders are Maine style whereas close to 15 percent of customers request butter.

The debate has extended beyond physical stores, however, with one TikTok user raging in response to the question: ‘Are you team mayo or butter?’

‘Real people from Maine like mayo and not added B.S.,’ they said.

In the interest of neutrality, one user said: ‘Cold meat needs mayo, warm meat deserves butter.’

As Maine Lobster Week showcases the best of the state’s culinary skills, the playful rivalry adds to the experience.

Whether you stand firmly with team mayo or side with team butter, there is no denying that fresh Maine lobster reigns supreme.

Faraji Hannah-Jones, the husband of controversial New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, compared his wife to civil-rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday as he defended the couple’s decision to enroll their daughter in struggling public schools—a choice he described as a necessary sacrifice in the fight against racism. His comments came after Nikole acknowledged that their daughter had been “cheated” by the decision.

Faraji, 50, rejected claims that he and his wife, the creator of The 1619 Project, had failed as parents. Their daughter reportedly entered high school significantly behind her classmates, and Nikole expressed regret over the decision in a lengthy Times Magazine essay published Sunday.

“When history looks back on this, she’s going to be one of our civil-rights leaders,” Faraji told The Post outside the couple’s home, valued at more than $1.5 million, in Brooklyn’s trendy Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. He was referring to his wife, who is also 50.

“She’s going to be one of the very individuals who stood up,” he said.

“You have to be in it, and it requires risk. Martin Luther King, James Baldwin and Ruby Bridges—all of it required them to be involved, and as a result, things happen,” Faraji said.

“There are wins and losses. So, when you look at it from that perspective, there were no mistakes made. It’s necessary work,” he added.

Great leaders, Faraji argued, are rarely celebrated while they are taking controversial stands. “It’s never at the present, the most popular time,” he said. “No one said, ‘You know, Muhammad Ali, he’s a great man now.’ Back then, he was an enemy of the state.”

“Martin Luther King is a great man now, but he was an enemy of the state,” he continued.

The couple enrolled their daughter in Brooklyn public elementary and middle schools despite having the means to pursue some of the city’s most selective educational options. By the time she reached high school, the now-16-year-old was reportedly struggling with reading, writing and basic mathematics.

Nikole wrote that her daughter understood the consequences of the decision and was “boiling” with anger over what she viewed as her parents’ choice to “sacrifice” her education.

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The couple said they made the decision because they believed their professional connections and social standing could help strengthen underperforming schools.

Nikole is the journalist behind The 1619 Project, a controversial reframing of American history that places slavery and its legacy at the center of the nation’s story.

Faraji said Monday that responsibility for the educational shortcomings rested not with him or his wife, but with the institutions themselves. “Irresponsibility is not on the parents,” he said. “The irresponsibility is on the institutions that never integrated their schools to begin with.”

He dismissed critics as people who, in his view, did not understand the complexity of racism.

“Nikole covered schools for two decades. We knew exactly what we were getting into when we did this. We knew exactly,” he said.

Faraji also insisted that neither he nor his wife regretted the choice, despite Nikole’s admission in her essay: “I feel that I failed both my values and my child.”

“We don’t regret the choice. I think as she gets older, I think she will appreciate it,” he said of their daughter. “We knew that my daughter would be fine because she has parents who know how to advocate and intervene on her behalf.”

“In terms of us being bad parents, get the f–k out of here. Bad parents? Please. I raised an extraordinary daughter who is going to do extraordinary things,” he said.

Faraji, who has been with Nikole since they were both 23, portrayed his wife as the central hero of the story.

“I think she’s one of the greatest writers of our time,” he said. “She’s a very important piece to our American story.”

A series of unexplained SpaceX launches this month has led to an extraordinary confirmation from the US military: weapons designed for use in space are now operating in orbit around Earth.

SpaceX had described the missions only as classified launches for the US Space Force. The company sent two rockets into orbit from its California facility within a span of just days, offering no details about their secret cargo.

General Douglas Schiess, chief of space operations and the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the newest branch of the US military, told the Daily Mail that orbit has quietly become a contested military arena. He said the United States is locked in a strategic rivalry with other major powers over control of space.

“Space is both a battlefield and the backbone of our Joint Force,” Schiess said.

He warned that the United States faces determined and capable adversaries that are rapidly developing counterspace technology intended to undermine America’s advantage in orbit.

“Let me be clear: Today, Guardians [Space Force personnel] operate on-orbit weapons that can defend the Joint Force against space-enabled attacks,” Schiess added.

A Space Force spokesperson identified Russia and China as key concerns, saying both countries have spent roughly two decades testing and advancing systems that could be used in military operations beyond Earth.

The Pentagon has not said what the September 2026 missions delivered to orbit. However, the White House has made clear that one priority is President Donald Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” — a global network of sensors and missile-interceptor satellites intended to detect and stop incoming threats.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said on September 14 that the interceptors had advanced from the design stage to “flight-ready hardware” in under a year, a rapid development timeline that surprised defense observers.

Addressing the Air, Space and Cyber Conference, Meink said the United States was preparing for “evolving threats.” He did not explain the weapons’ offensive potential or disclose when they may have been deployed in orbit.

Established in 2019, the US Space Force was initially tasked with defending the satellites that support military communications, navigation and surveillance operations.

But a military spokesperson told the Daily Mail that the threat has expanded, with hostile satellites potentially capable of attacking American assets from orbit. The official compared the space surrounding Earth to a battlefield located just miles above the planet’s surface.

“The US has warned about Russian and Chinese weapons testing and operationalization since 2007,” the spokesperson said. “Due to their actions, it is no longer a question that space is a warfighting domain.”

The official added that publicly demonstrating America’s ability to defend against space weapons could help deter aggression. With orbit increasingly contested, the spokesperson said, the Space Force was created as the nation’s sixth military service to protect US interests in space.

Officials have not disclosed the capabilities of the newly deployed systems, the dates they entered orbit or the way they are designed to operate.

The dangers of military hardware in orbit were underscored in 2021, when Russia demonstrated the destructive potential of an anti-satellite missile by successfully carrying out a hit-to-kill test.

The device obliterated a defunct, Soviet-era spy satellite launched in 1982, sparking condemnation from around the world.

It is believed that the Golden Dome, which the White House wants completed by the end of the decade, will consist of sensors and tracking satellites, ground and sea-based missile platforms and a planned ‘constellation’ of space-based interceptors.

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Similar to the defense missile used by Israel, the ‘dome’ would act like a layered shield meant to detect and shoot down missiles and other airborne attacks on the American homeland.

The interceptors in space would sit in orbit and, if used, try to ram an enemy missile early in flight before it can drop warheads or decoys.

Besides the interceptors, Golden Dome is also expected to feature sensor and enemy tracking platforms sitting in orbit.

Those satellites would watch for missile launches from foreign nations or other adversaries, follow the threat across the sky and feed targeting data to the interceptors on land, at sea or in space.

Officials want them there because a missile can appear with only minutes of warning, and space is the only place that can see almost the entire surface of the Earth at one time.

While the Pentagon has not revealed the specifics of these new systems moving into the ‘flight-ready’ status, lawmakers in Washington have already done the math on how many interceptors will need to be launched to complete Trump’s plan.

According to a May 2026 report from the Congressional Budget Office, the US would need approximately 7,800 interceptor satellites in low Earth orbit to effectively defend the country.

That estimate came from an assessment of what it would take to stop ten long-range missiles, possibly nuclear-capable ICBMs, which were fired at America at the same time.

The CBO report also laid out a jaw-dropping $1.2 trillion price tag for the Golden Dome. This would cover the development, deployment and operation of these satellites for the next 20 years.

There is one type of weapon that the US has agreed to not launch into space – nuclear missiles or other weapons of mass destruction. These typically include chemical and biological weapons.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which the US signed and ratified, states that countries may not place nuclear devices or other similar weapons into Earth orbit, on the Moon or elsewhere in outer space.

However, that does not ban conventional weapons, signal jammers, missile interceptors or military satellites. 

There are more than 110 ‘states parties’ – meaning countries which are legally bound to obey it – that have signed the agreement over the years.

All major countries which have ventured into space are parties, including Russia and China.

Despite that, US lawmakers, including Republican Mike Turner, the former head of the House intelligence committee, have claimed that Russia is prepared to violate that agreement and take the space arms race nuclear.

In 2024, Turner demanded that the Biden Administration declassify all intelligence on a ‘serious national security threat’ that was believed to involve Russian President Vladimir Putin seeking to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite weapon in space.

Moscow denied the claim. Putin said Russia opposed nuclear weapons in space, and then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said there were ‘no such projects.’

Lindsay Clancy’s defense team is seeking an investigation into the holdout juror who wanted to convict her of murdering her three young children by strangulation.

Clancy attorney Kevin Reddington has asked a Massachusetts judge to preserve records involving all 12 jurors and six alternates. The requested materials include juror questionnaires, hallway surveillance footage recorded outside the deliberation room and cellphone sign-in sheets.

Reddington is requesting a “limited inquiry” into the holdout juror, along with information about any background checks connected to a February motion by Plymouth County prosecutors seeking access to prospective juror records.

The defense also wants the holdout’s juror questionnaire, supplemental filings, probation records and “Juror Doe’s record from the statewide domestic violence registry.” Reddington is asking the judge to require prosecutors to disclose whether they have had contact with the juror as a defendant, complainant or subject since January 2021.

In addition, Reddington is seeking the juror’s phone records from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on each day of deliberations. He also wants the court to order an independent review of the juror’s phone activity during that period.

The defense further wants the holdout questioned about the accuracy of his answers on the juror questionnaire and during voir dire, his statements to the court on Sept. 3, and whether he used a phone or relied on outside information during deliberations.

“The court may also hear from Juror No. 10 limited to what he observed of Juror Doe’s phone use,” Reddington wrote in the filing.

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Clancy’s trial ended in a mistrial on Sept. 4, after the jury reached an 11-1 deadlock in favor of finding her not criminally responsible because of mental illness or defect. Her attorneys argued that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis and had repeatedly sought help without receiving adequate assistance.

Prosecutors, however, contended that Clancy acted intentionally and understood that strangling her children one at a time with exercise bands was wrong.

The sole holdout is identified as “Juror Doe” in the motion because a court impoundment order protects the identities of the jurors.

Prosecutors have not officially said whether they will seek a new trial for Clancy, who faces three first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months.

Clancy’s attorney has also asked the court to override the holdout juror and enter a not-guilty verdict. Although such a motion is routine, legal experts have said it rarely succeeds.

Motaz Azaiza, a Gaza-based journalist who has met New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, received a Nobel Peace Prize nomination and was named to the TIME100 list, says he chose not to publish footage showing Israeli hostages being beaten by a Palestinian crowd because he feared exposing those involved to deadly reprisals.

The photographer also alleged that Hamas controls Gaza’s media through a single WhatsApp group and that journalists who publish criticism of the group risk being targeted.

Azaiza, one of the best-known journalists to emerge from Gaza during the war, was in the territory on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas brought hostages captured in Israel through the streets. He said he witnessed crowds surrounding and attacking them.

“People came out, watched them, beat them and struck them. I followed them and filmed,” Azaiza told the Taqarrab podcast.

“But I did not release those videos.”

He explained that he wanted to protect the people visible in the footage rather than expose them publicly.

“I knew Israel could use the videos to identify everyone who was there and eliminate them,” the photographer said.

“I did not want to bear even indirect responsibility for their deaths just for a few likes and views online,” he added.

Azaiza said “every journalist in Gaza” belongs to a Hamas-operated WhatsApp group called “Smart,” which is used to coordinate media coverage across the territory. According to his account, the group was managed by a Hamas media director stationed near the Rafah crossing.

He said Hamas-aligned media outlets also turned against him after he shared video of a Gaza resident openly cursing Hamas.

“Photographers in Gaza have learned to lower their cameras as soon as someone says anything critical of Hamas,” he said, adding that journalists who show what is happening on the ground face relentless persecution.

Azaiza said he ultimately had to leave Gaza after publishing footage of residents criticizing Hamas. He now lives in Qatar.

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Although Azaiza withheld his own footage of the hostage abuse, several survivors who were paraded through Gaza on Oct. 7 later described what they endured.

Itay Regev, who survived the Nova Music Festival massacre, said Hamas transported him and other hostages through Gaza and displayed them to hostile crowds as human “trophies.”

Further outrage followed reports that the body of slain hostage Shani Louk was desecrated, while crowds in Gaza allegedly celebrated and spat on her remains.

Azaiza also condemned Hamas for helping plunge Gaza into a war that has devastated large areas of the enclave and, according to estimates, claimed roughly 73,000 lives.

He criticized the group’s treatment of local journalists who documented the humanitarian crisis, saying the pressure and threats forced many reporters—including himself—to leave Gaza during the opening months of the war.

“You took us back to the Middle Ages,” Azaiza said of Hamas. “You left women in Gaza urinating into plastic buckets. That does not trouble you, but the moment someone criticizes you, that becomes the problem?”

Azaiza was named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2024 for his nearly four month coverage of the war, where he highlighted civilian deaths and the destruction caused by the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

He has also met with with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and even attended his election night watch party last November.

Despite the acclaim, he said he is haunted by what he saw in the Gaza Strip during the war.

“Gaza is the most toxic place in the world. You love it, but at the same time you hate it. You love it, but it hurts you and destroys you,” he said.

“The reality there forced things upon me that I never wanted — the price we pay to satisfy leaders who do not count us is simply unimaginable.”

Jennifer Eckhart, a former Fox News producer who accused one of the network’s former anchors of rape, has died by suicide at her Florida home, six years after filing the lawsuit.

Eckhart, 36, was found at her home in Hobe Sound on Saturday, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Monday.

Law enforcement sources told TMZ that the former producer and podcaster took her own life.

Officers were seen outside the residence on Saturday morning, according to TMZ.

An incident report obtained by the outlet said Eckhart’s mother made the discovery after arriving at the home and finding her daughter in the bathtub of the main bedroom, with a knife nearby.

Eckhart was pronounced dead at 11:57 a.m., according to the report.

The Daily Mail has contacted the Martin County Sheriff’s Office for additional information.

Eckhart accused former Fox anchor Ed Henry of raping her in 2020. An outside investigation commissioned by the network subsequently led to Henry’s dismissal.

The lawsuit alleged that Henry restrained and raped Eckhart at a Manhattan hotel in 2017. Henry has maintained that their relationship was consensual.

The case was settled in June 2025, one day before it was scheduled to proceed to federal court.

Henry now works for Newsmax as the network’s head anchor.

Eckhart launched a podcast in 2021, describing the move as her “second act” in an August 2021 interview with Variety, days before the show’s debut.

“I did not have an immediate desire to run back into the arms of corporate media… I’m not beholden to any investor or network,” she said at the time.

The last recorded episode was uploaded in March, weeks after a federal appeals court declined to consider a follow-up filing from Eckhart seeking to revive a dismissed portion of her lawsuit.

In that filing, Eckhart alleged that Fox had known about Henry’s behavior for years and failed to discipline him properly or protect her.

A panel of three 2nd Circuit judges ruled against her, stating that Eckhart had not shown that “Fox knew of Henry’s conduct towards her” or failed to take “appropriate corrective action” before her lawsuit was filed in June 2020.

‘Eckhart undisputedly never told anyone at Fox about any of her sexual encounters with Henry while she was an employee. 

‘And it is undisputed that Henry never told any Fox employees about their encounters until he was interviewed after Eckhart lodged her sexual harassment complaint,’ the 13-page ruling read.

Eckhart’s podcast was called REINVENTED with Jen Eckhart.

Others interviewed included Sean Paul, wrestler Chris Jericho, TV host Melissa Rivers, actress, Patricia Heaton, and former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson.

‘Reinventing yourself, whether personally or professionally, is something so many of us can relate to,’ she told the Hollywood trade paper of the show’s premise.

 ‘My hope is that this show will inspire anyone who wants to reinvent themselves to take that first step… to let every person out there know it is never too late to reinvent your life.’ 

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or actions, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 988.