Hello! It’s Thursday, June 11, and I’m embarrassed to say that I missed Fast Forward’s birthday. She turned 10 on June 1, and is entering puberty and getting sassy to boot. (You don’t want to know.) Thanks to all of you who subscribe, especially those who have been here from the very beginning! If you’re a free subscriber, here’s a special Birthday offer for you:
The sun rose in Boston at 5:07 a.m. and set at 8:21 p.m. for 15 hours and 14 minutes of sunlight. The waning moon is 14% full.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac says there are at least 214 known moons in our solar system, and given how obsessed we’ve become with the NASA missions to our one and only moon, it’s interesting to find out more about its relatives. Here’s more.
🔥 What’s it like outside?
⚽️ Hey, sport: The men’s soccer World Cup officially kicked off (so to speak) today with two matches in Mexico: In the first, Mexico defeated South Africa, 2-0. Next up: South Korea vs. Czechia at 10 p.m. ET. The first match for the US, which is in Group D, is Friday against Paraguay at 9 p.m. ET in Los Angeles.
Here’s the full schedule from FIFA.
The first match in Foxborough at the renamed Boston Stadium is Saturday, when Haiti meets Scotland at 9 p.m. Here’s the Globe’s list of the Boston matches. (🎁)
All of the matches are broadcast on Fox or FoxOne or FS1 or Peacock or Telemundo or a few other channels. But if you prefer to watch with a rowdy group, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has extended bar and restaurant alcohol serving hours by one hour through the end of July. (This will also accommodate celebrations for our 250th.) There are community watch parties all over the state, and most of them are free. Here’s a list.
Viruses, parasites, infections … things aren’t looking great on the public health front. Here’s an update.
SCREWWORM: When I first heard this term, I couldn’t figure out if it was referring to Trump the Serial Abuser or Pistol Pete Hegseth. Then I found out it is an actual worm. Well, sort of. The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly that lays its eggs on any open wounds and other body cavities (eyes, nose, mouth, ears) of warm-blooded animals like cattle, deer, horses, goats — even dogs. About 12 to 24 hours later, those eggs become maggots that burrow into and feed on that healthy tissue. They rip and devour the tissue, causing so much destruction, blood loss, and infection that the animal can die within a week.
It is a dangerous, insidious, deadly parasite.
Some background: Although New World screwworms are native to South America, parts of Central America, and the Caribbean, their natural range has extended into the southern and southwestern US. It’s been seen in the US off and on since the mid-1800s, but in 1966, the government declared that the screwworm was eradicated here.
In 2023, the screwworm apparently broke through a biological barrier in Panama that had successfully kept them out of Central and North America for decades, and started heading north. In November of 2024, the Biden administration enacted a ban on live cattle and livestock imports from Mexico to stop the advance.
Ah, but then the merry band of nincompoops took over.
Not long after Trump’s second inauguration in January of 2025, Elon Musk’s DOGE bros slashed USAID to bits, including eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars that had been allocated to monitor and contain — you guessed it — New World Screwworm, as well as avian flu here and in Asia, swine fever, and more nasty stuff.
Then Trump inexplicably lifted Biden’s ban on live cattle and livestock imports from Mexico. And sure enough, the little screwworm found its way to Texas and New Mexico this month, where there have been at least seven cases involving cattle, goats, and a pet dog. The move has been aided by cattle being smuggled into the US.
So Trump scrambled to re-impose Biden’s ban, and now his minions are trying to blame Biden for the outbreak. But not the Texas agriculture secretary, who is quite unhappy with the Trump administration’s moves so far.
Anyway, this parasite can infect humans. Treatment for animals involves sprays, powders, and injections; for humans, it can involve surgery to manually remove and kill each egg or maggot. Officials are releasing millions of sterile flies in an attempt to stop the reproductive cycles.
There’s another big concern: Livestock numbers are already down, and if this turns into a bigger outbreak and causes those numbers to drop more, the already high cost of beef could skyrocket. It’s not just the dead cattle; cattle that are underweight can’t be brought to market either. Plus the government could be forced to impose quarantines.
TICKS: Blame Biden the super El Niño we’re experiencing for this one. This climate pattern creates unusually warm ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean near the equator, and that warm water moves east toward the Americas. That disrupts global weather patterns by making winters milder and longer-lasting — meaning a longer tick season. In fact, researchers are finding them from mid-March through mid-October, and have even found some that survived the winter in southern Canada. They’re also being found in new places because of planetary warming.
The most common illness that ticks can carry is Lyme disease, but there’s been a surge of alpha-gal syndrome transmitted by lone star ticks. That bizarre syndrome makes you allergic to red meat, possibly for the rest of your life.
Experts recommend that you don’t go for a walk in the woods or grassy areas. In your own yard, keep grass and bushes trimmed back. Every time you go out, thoroughly check yourself, your kids, and your pets for ticks. Wear long pants and sleeves that are light-colored so you can spot the critters. Consider applying a repellant like permethrin to your clothes. (It’s effective against mosquitoes, too.)
By the way, if you do find a tick that has embedded itself, after you pull it off, save it in a sealed bag or container in the freezer so that if the person or animal develops symptoms, you can bring the tick to the doctor for identification.
EBOLA: Congo officials say the country is up to 598 confirmed Ebola cases with 115 deaths, and the outbreak is expanding rapidly. The Lancet estimates that the actual number of cases is more than 1,300, and the World Health Organization’s latest assessment says the risk of transmission in Congo, Uganda and neighboring countries is high. Money is being thrown at three promising vaccines to fast-track them.
RAW MILK: C’mon, people — where is your common sense? It’s legal to sell unpasteurized milk directly to consumers in Idaho, so guess what — 60 people have gotten sick just since May 19, and 45 of those got campylobacteriosis, a bacterial infection.
Let’s be clear: Raw milk does not solve lactose intolerance, asthma, or allergies and is not nutritionally superior. There’s a reason manufacturers heat it up: It kills pathogens. Duh.
HANTAVIRUS: Looks like the outbreak on that cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean that killed three of the eight infected passengers has been contained, with no cases reported among people who were not on the ship.
But Trump is still in office and RFK Jr. is still in charge of our public health, so things can only get worse.
Speaking of keeping US residents unhealthy, the House passed an agriculture funding bill that slashes $200 million from the nutrition program (WIC) that’s designed to help pregnant women and children buy healthy food. That includes a $141 million reduction in the amount of money that can be spent only on fruits and vegetables.
Nearly 5.4 million children and pregnant and postpartum women are enrolled in WIC, and with food prices continuing to rise, this cut is a kick in the gut.
Currently under WIC, kids from birth until they turn 5 get $26 a month ($6.50 a week) for fruits and vegetables. (Babies who are 6 to 11 months can get baby food.) Pregnant and postpartum participants receive $48 ($12 a week), and breastfeeding participants receive $52 ($13 a week).
A pregnant woman who has a toddler or preschooler today receives about $18.50 to spend on fruits and vegetables for herself and her child for a week. You have to be really poor to get WIC, so depending on the household income, she could also be getting SNAP (food stamps). But SNAP is general food dollars for the entire household, whereas WIC targets very young kids because they are at a critical developmental stage, and pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding adults because the added nutrition is critical.
If the family shops at affordable grocery stores, watches for sales, and uses coupons, that $18.50 can be stretched. This week at Market Basket in Massachusetts, for example — renowned for its low prices — they could buy a 5-pound bag of russet potatoes (about 10 medium potatoes), 2 pounds of fresh broccoli (that’s about 4-5 cups of cooked florets), a 16-ounce bag of frozen peas, a 10-ounce bag of frozen chopped spinach, 7 bananas, 3 or 4 Fuji apples, and a pint of blueberries.
Sleazy Republicans who are constantly on the lookout for ways to screw people who are too poor or too smart to give them campaign donations claim that program participation has dropped, and fewer people=less money needed. There was a month-over-month drop in participation in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 (which started Oct. 1, 2025), but advocates say that’s because there was a partial government shutdown last fall that shuttered some offices and led to confusion about what programs were operating and what benefits were available.
Also, many recipients are automatically enrolled in WIC via SNAP or Medicaid, and the GOP is messing with those two anti-poverty programs so much that enrollment in WIC is being affected.
Given Trump’s breathtaking incompetence in economic policy and an inflation rate that’s higher than it’s been in three years (4.2%), it’s almost certain there will be more WIC enrollees.
By the way, the Hamburglar in the Oval Office wanted to cut WIC benefits by far more than the House ended up doing: He proposed taking away $1.4 billion for fruits and vegetables. That would have reduced the money for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers from $26 a month to $10, for pregnant and postpartum participants from $48 a month to $13, and for breastfeeding participants from $52 to $13.
So that hypothetical pregnant mother with a toddler who goes to Market Basket wouldn’t have $18.50 to spend on fruits and vegetables for a week. If Trump got his way, she’d have $5.75. For that, she could buy 4 medium russet potatoes, a 10-ounce bag of frozen chopped spinach, and 6 or 7 bananas.
But not to worry: The Orange Menace could still buy a Big Mac for that.
Steven Goldin, a faithful Fast Forward subscriber, needs a kidney, and I told him I would help spread the word.
He describes himself as an active 76-year-old with end-stage renal disease and no qualified donors among relatives and friends. His passions begin with family and end with skiing, and in between are flying, sailing, and pickleball.
You can undergo screening to see if you are healthy enough to donate a kidney (fun fact: it’s safer than giving birth), and then testing to see if you are a match to Steven or anyone else desperate for a kidney.
And Steven makes an interesting point: The free physical exam is so thorough that it could uncover something you were unaware of in yourself.
He says that at the very least, please help spread the word: “By sharing my story to your group of family and friends, you help to increase the number of people who may consider kidney donation. Just by sharing my story, you’ll help to save my life.”
There’s more of Steven’s story and details about screening and testing on his National Kidney Registry page here.
Please post on any social networks you’re on, be that Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X … Let’s help Steven find his match.
The Atlantic: “The Men Who Want Women To Be Quiet” / A virulent form of misogyny has become the single most important force holding together the American right. (🎁)
Chicago Reader: “It’s All In The Game” / On the court everything comes into focus: the guys I’m up against, the struggle to dominate, the asphalt, the net – and my life.
The Borowitz Report: Iranian Navy Humiliates Trump by Closing Reflecting Pool
Hang in there, my friends.
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