Israeli prime minister refuses Gaza withdrawal until Hamas is fully disarmed as Washington confronts simultaneous crises involving Iran, the Strait of Hormuz and renewed Houthi attacks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected President Donald Trump's 15-point Gaza peace proposal Sunday, opening a rare and potentially consequential disagreement between two leaders who have otherwise remained closely aligned throughout the widening Middle East conflict.

"Israel rejects the 15-point document," Netanyahu told his Cabinet, according to the Associated Press, while making clear that Israeli forces will not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas has been fully disarmed.

The rejection puts Netanyahu directly at odds with a central provision of the Trump administration's latest Gaza proposal, which calls for a phased Israeli withdrawal alongside the dismantling of Hamas' military capabilities and a transition to a new Palestinian governing structure backed by international security forces.

Netanyahu's objection appears to center largely on sequencing.

Trump's proposal envisions Israeli forces pulling back as Hamas disarms.

As the UMaine Black Bears get ready to kick off their fall football season, they’ve got a leg up on the competition.

When it comes to mascots, that is.

The Maine college football team shares with Cornell University the black bear mascot.

Cornell hasn’t yet adopted the black bear as an official mascot, but its administrators aren’t taking any chances.

The school administration has now banned bear carcasses from the dorms at the New York school.

Last September, two Cornell students plopped a bear carcass on a table in a communal dorm kitchen and began carving it up.

They planned to make "black-bear pastrami," as one of them described their plans later.

But soon after they put the raw meat in the freezer, a picture of the animal laid out with its hide stripped began to circulate on social media.

A complaint

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The offer includes two premium lower-level season tickets for 32 years, a signed and game-worn Flagg rookie jersey, and a postgame photo with the Mavericks star from Newport, Maine.

The package also includes a trip to see the Mavericks play the Boston Celtics, a private photo shoot with the Rookie of the Year and Larry O'Brien trophies, and a VIP tour of Dallas' practice facility with a team meet-and-greet, according to i95rocks.com's Jordan Verge.

The offer also features a private basketball experience for up to 10 guests at American Airlines Center and remains subject to a final written agreement.

Flagg signed the highly anticipated card at Fanatics Fest last month, where Fanatics Collectibles CEO Mike Mahan called it one of the most anticipated basketball cards in years.

The NBA phenom from Maine suggested the eventual owner hold on to it as his career progresses, while Sports Cards Investor founder Geoff Wilson said the card could be worth millions.

This Maine shark thing is starting to get, like, serious.

A shark here or there, OK.

But now marine patrol is saying the number of great whites seen off Scarborough in the past week is up to maybe a dozen.

A dozen.

At first a fisherman in a kayak spotted two, on Tuesday. In the video he shot you could hear the terror in his voice.

But within 48 hours Scarborough Police say they received reports of seven and maybe even a dozen.

SHARK SPOTTING 🦈: Incredible drone footage captured two great white sharks cruising through the waters close to shore in Scarborough, Maine, on August 5. pic.twitter.com/QzTe1ZygPL

— FOX Weather (@foxweather) August 9, 2026

The sharks were estimated to be as long as 12 feet, CBS News reports.

They were observed off Pine Point about a mile north of Old Orchard Beach.

Amity you have met your match.

Maine politicians mobilized after an ICE shooting and the detention of a Portland nurse. A Maine Wire review found a dramatically different public response when victims were killed or allegedly assaulted in cases involving people federal authorities say were unlawfully present in the United States.

Within hours of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shooting Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford last month, hundreds of people were gathering in the streets.

Candles were lit.

Flowers were placed near the site where the 25-year-old Colombian national died.

Hundreds gathered for a vigil in Biddeford and another demonstration in Portland. Elected officials demanded answers. Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain later met with Durán Guerrero’s family and publicly called for justice and a transparent investigation into the shooting.

The political response was immediate, visible and sustained.

But a five-year review by The Maine Wire raises a more uncomfortable question about Maine’s immigration debate:

Where was the same public outrage when the

The Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department arrested a Portage man on Saturday after he allegedly used heavy logging machinery to tear apart a Portage Lake home.

[RELATED: Two Aroostook County Men Arrested after Severely Beating Man in Madawaska…]

At approximately 4:40 p.m., deputies received a report of a grapple skidder—a large vehicle used in logging—obstructing Route 11 in Portage Lake.

Callers also reported that the driver was behaving strangely and claimed that a nearby house appeared to have been torn apart.

Deputies arrived to discover the skidder’s male operator standing on the roof of the vehicle.

They were able to coax the man off the roof and take him into custody without further incident.

Investigators found that there was significant damage to the residence and located a large propane leak.

The suspect was identified as Gary Belanger of Portage and was

Paradise Residential Services CEO Jocelyne Ininahazwe and her family enjoyed luxury Mercedes brands while the disabled Mainers who relied on the Medicaid agency for 24/7 care were living in squalor, subject to abuse and neglect by non-English speaking staff, including some who were untrained and never subjected to background checks.

That's the chief takeaway from documents released Friday by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), including a termination letter to Paradise that cited "violations [that] place the health and safety of MaineCare Members in immediate jeopardy."

"[Paradise Residential Services] failed to ensure individuals are protected from abuse, neglect, and exploitation, specifically, lack of food, spoiled food, unsanitary conditions in the home, broken glass throughout basement, individuals have been repeatedly left without staff, staff not supervising or providing services," according to the DHHS letter.

The Robinson Report reported exclusively on Paradise's termination back

Another adult autism MaineCare company was terminated in March — on the same day Gov. Janet Mills attacked Dr. Mehmet Oz's Medicaid fraud crackdown as a political stunt — according to records released Friday by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

Like Paradise Residential Services, Beyond Residential Care (BRC) was run by an African migrant and operated with the massive MaineCare Section 21 program that is designed to provide 24/7 residential care for disabled Mainers.

Both companies are now accused of Medicaid fraud.

Unlike Paradise, BRC was run by an alleged attorney who had his law license suspended following a Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar complaint for misconduct.

The complaint alleges that

Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) suspended Community Home Health Care, Maine’s largest home health care biller, from MaineCare in late June, months after The Maine Wire visited their office and their owner, Noora Abd, promised reporters that they were legitimate.

[RELATED: President of Five-Star Homecare Ordered to Repay Nearly $400K Worked at Three Other Home Healthcare Providers Before Moving to Turkmenistan…]

The DHHS issued its suspension notice on June 30, informing Abd that her lucrative business, which drew in a staggering $47,986,855 in taxpayer funding from 2019-2025, would no longer be receiving MaineCare funds.

The Office of MaineCare Services’ Program Integrity unit reviewed allegations that Community Home Health was billing for services that it never provided.

Investigators found the fraud allegations credible enough to warrant suspending their ability to bill MaineCare until such time as investigators or legal proceedings find

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) suspended MaineCare payments to the allegedly fraudulent Maine Connect Care just days after The Maine Wire published an article detailing its ties to a money transfer station and other allegedly fraudulent home health care billers.

[RELATED: Portland Office Becomes a Hub for Medicaid "Home Health" and Somali Money Transfers…]

A Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request last week revealed that the DHHS suspended payments to Maine Connect Care on January 30, shortly after The Maine Wire visited its office at 203 Anderson Street in Portland, and just eight days after the publication of an article highlighting its ties to a money transfer station.

The notice of suspension accuses Maine Connect Care of billing for services not rendered, billing for services while unlicensed, and billing for services provided by an individual excluded from the MaineCare program.

The notice required

The Maine Wire’s Joe Sokol: Christian Journalist Exposing Darkness

Maine Wire journalist Joe Sokol sits down in the Pastor’s Office to talk faith, cameras, and the fight for the soul of Bangor. Known across Maine as the reporter people “love or hate,” Joe explains why a Bible-believing, Jesus-loving journalist walks straight toward the drug crisis, homelessness, and open-air needle markets that the mainstream media won’t touch — and why he believes shining light on darkness is worth being called every name in the book.

In this episode, Joe and Pastor Travis go from the streets of Bangor to the deepest questions of faith. Joe turns the tables and puts Pastor Travis on the spot with unscripted, no-holds-barred questions on abortion, capital punishment, pornography in the church, marijuana, Israel, and more. It’s part testimony, part street report, part theology — completely unfiltered.

From Florida addiction and the penal system to a camera and a calling in central Maine, this is Joe Sokol’s story

Twelve maternity units have closed since 2015. As Hannah Pingree calls for a moratorium, her six years inside the Mills administration — along with Maine’s spending on reproductive health and its troubled child-welfare record — are coming under new scrutiny.

For generations of families in Lincoln County, having a baby could begin and end close to home.

That is about to change.

On Thursday, MaineHealth’s Board of Trustees voted to close the labor and delivery unit at Lincoln Hospital in Damariscotta, ending months of uncertainty, community opposition and pleas to preserve one of the increasingly scarce places in rural Maine where women can deliver their babies.

The unit is scheduled to close Dec. 18.

After that, expectant mothers who once counted on their community hospital will have to look elsewhere, with deliveries expected to shift primarily to MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick.

Lincoln isn’t an isolated case.

Its closure will mark