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Boston’s World Cup party is officially over. The nearly monthlong affair began with the welcome invasion by the Tartan Army and ended yesterday with France’s 2-0 quarterfinal win over Morocco at Gillette Stadium. (Now they can send someone out to peel the tape off all 64,628 seats.)
Let’s kick it:
Buggin’ :We know many of you read this newsletter over breakfast, so maybe put the cereal spoon down while we tell you about the latest food-borne illness making headlines. Cyclospora is a tiny one-cell parasite having a big impact. Massachusetts is one of 17 states with a documented case of cyclosporiasis. Eighteen people have been sickened so far this year, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The DPH said that’s a normal seasonal amount of cyclosporiasis, though other states have had larger outbreaks. Michigan has reported more than a thousand cases.
- What is it? The parasite spreads when people eat food (often fresh produce) that’s come into contact with infected feces. It’s not likely to spread from person to person.
- What are the symptoms? Well … (last chance to stop eating) the most common symptom is watery diarrhea for a few days. But other symptoms include weight loss, bloating, nausea and vomiting. Without treatment, illness can last for weeks, and some people can get sick again. It can take five to seven days for symptoms to set in after eating contaminated food.
- How to avoid it? Fresh imported produce (that is often eaten raw) is most risky, such as raspberries. Wash fruits and vegetables with water and a brush. Cooking will also kill the germs, and peeled fruits and veggies should be safe.
Screen time:The Massachusetts Senate passed a bill yesterday that would require social media companies to block certain “addictive” features for teens. The legislation passed 38-2 and comes after the House passed its own take on the issue back in April. Next, the two chambers will have to negotiate on how to try to address the many negative effects of smartphones and social media on teens’ mental health and development. State House News Service has more on the Senate bill here
- What’s different? The House bill would ban social media for kids under the age of 14 — a proposal that has faced pushback from some privacy and LGBTQ advocates, and gotten stuck in court in other states. The Senate bill does not go that far. Instead, it adopts some similar ideas from Gov. Maura Healey’s proposal this spring, like requiring social media platforms to have default settings for minors that block addictive feed features, autoplay and overnight notifications. But unlike Healey’s bill, the Senate proposal would not allow any minors to turn off the settings.
- What they’re saying: State Sen. Julian Cyr, a self-described “geriatric millennial” (same, Julian) called the bill a return to “OG social media.” “Facebook for me in college, in the early aughts, was a way to keep in touch with high school friends who went to other schools, was a way to stay connected with new people I’d met, it was a way to learn about someone I maybe had a crush on,” he said. “It wasn’t an endless loop of algorithmic doom scrolling of self doubt and a misinformation trap.”
- Relatedly: The city of Boston this week sued several social media giants, including Meta (operator of Instagram and Facebook), TikTok and Snapchat, over what it calls “addictive design features” on the companies’ platforms.
On the picket line:Striking workers for Merrimack Valley Transit have offered up a deal that could end the now 10-day work stoppage. Teamsters with Local 170 submitted to the transit authority a one-year pre-ratified agreement, WBUR’s Andrea Perdomo-Hernandez reports. The union says the extension includes health care improvements already negotiated. The transit authority said yesterday that they’re reviewing the proposal
- Shop steward Michael Durso said the proposal is the union’s way to “make things work here because we know that the public needs us out there. And we need to be out there because nobody wins in a strike.”
- Bus service in 16 communities, including Lawrence, Haverhill and Newburyport, has been offline since July 1. About 13,000 people use the service daily.
P.S. — Which yearly measurement at the Blue Hills Observatory has been recorded for more than a century to track climate shifts? Take our Boston News Quiz and test your knowledge of this week’s stories
WBUR’s Nik DeCosta-Klipa contributed to this report.
Clarification: A previous version of this post noted that bus service in Lowell was also affected due to the strike. While Merrimack Valley Transit buses travel to Lowell, the city is mostly served by the Lowell Regional Transit Authority, which is unaffected by the strike.
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