• The number of states affected by a huge outbreak of cyclosporiasis has risen to nine, health officials said.
• People got sick after eating lettuce sold by Taylor Farms in: IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, OH, OK, PA, and WV.
• We made two maps to show the states with the most reported cases, and where food has been recalled.

The Midwest remains the hotspot of a major outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection that can trigger weeks of watery diarrhea.

On Friday, federal health officials said what was previously a five-state outbreak, with most cases reported in Michigan and Ohio, now involves nine states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

According to the CDC, 1,947 cyclosporiasis cases have been linked to iceberg lettuce distributed by Taylor Farms to Taco Bell locations in the nine states. A total of 98 people are known to have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported. People started falling ill between June 22 and July 20.

Cyclospora season in the US typically runs between May 1 and August 31, according to the CDC, and the multi-state outbreak is a subset of illnesses reported nationwide in 41 states. Cases could continue to rise until September.

Katelyn Jetelina, assistant professor adjunct of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, wrote in her public health newsletter, Your Local Epidemiologist, on July 21 that several outbreaks are running at once, including one suspected to be caused by cilantro in New York. She described the Midwest outbreak as “its own beast.”

On July 17, Taylor Farms voluntarily recalled iceberg lettuce from the US that was sourced from central Mexico, as shown below.

Taylor Farms told shoppers who had bought iceberg lettuce distributed June 29th through July 16th in the following states to not consume it and throw it out: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

However, other foods can’t be ruled out.

(As Business Insider’s Dan DeFrancesco explained in an edition of the Business Insider Today newsletter, the situation is a little more complex than we get into here.)

Jetelina said iceberg lettuce was recalled in 27 states “due to a combination of the complexity of food distribution networks and continued uncertainty around where people are most impacted.”

Posing the question, “When will this end?” Jetelina said, “No one knows. Either the contaminated food works its way out of circulation, or it takes a few weeks, the temperatures get cool, and the parasites no longer mature on produce (basically killing themselves off). It’s hard to tell from the data alone if this outbreak is coming to a close given that it’s significantly delayed.”

Why states and the CDC have different case counts

There are a number of potential sources of confusion in this outbreak, including differing state and federal case counts, and how the FDA and Taylor Farms have shared information on the suspected source of infections.

As of July 21, at least 11,276 cases of cyclosporiasis had been reported across 46 states in 2026, according to Georgetown University’s Health Security Operations Center, which is tracking state and national-level data. Some state health departments are tallying cases as part of the ongoing outbreak, while others include all cases reported in 2026 in their figures.

In contrast to Georgetown’s count, the CDC said in its cyclosporiasis update on July 24 that it had confirmed 4,173 domestic cases of cyclosporiasis, and was aware of more than 7,400 cases that need further analysis to confirm.

How to avoid cyclospora

Cyclospora spreads through contaminated food and water, and symptoms, including watery diarrhea, nausea, and stomach cramps, can take up to two weeks to show, making it difficult to trace back to a definitive source. The parasite is resistant to disinfectants, and washing food doesn’t guarantee its removal, as it is particularly good at sticking to produce.

Health authorities say in order to definitively kill the parasite, cook foods to at least 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Buying whole heads of lettuce and peeling back the outer layer of leaves rather than choosing pre-washed, bagged, or pre-mixed salads is also a good move, if you are more risk-tolerant.

• Facebook is going to start testing a version of the app that just gives users a steady stream of full-screen videos.
• That is: It’s going to try turning itself into TikTok.
• It’s just a test! And “classic” Facebook isn’t going away. But this is where everything is headed.

Facebook helped make TikTok huge by showing its users tons of ads for the Chinese video company.

Now Facebook may end up becoming something that … looks and feels a lot like TikTok.

That’s the takeaway from a product update Meta’s social network provided Friday: Starting this fall, it is going to start testing a version of the Facebook app that essentially turns it into a TikTok-like video player, as a default setting.

Per Tom Allison, the Meta executive who oversees Facebook, the test will provide a “reimagined experience that puts a subset of people who we think want more video on Facebook into full-screen video the moment they open the app,” which is exactly what you get when you open TikTok.

Allison says people in the test will be able to opt out of the new setting and return to classic Facebook — and that people who stick with the video-first option can always toggle back and forth to see a traditional Facebook feed.

The company plans on rolling out the test in some “video-heavy countries” this fall and may bring it to the US in 2027, Allison writes. A Meta rep didn’t offer more details about timing or anything else.

Here, we need to note that a test is a test, not a final product decision. On the other hand, Meta and other platforms test stuff all the time, and don’t always go out of their way to tell you about it in advance. So I’m taking this as a serious signal.

Allison dropped the news about the new format in a longer announcement highlighting other changes on the service, including a stand-alone app for Facebook Marketplace power users. So this one hasn’t gotten much attention yet. I expect we’ll hear more about it this fall.

But this is also not surprising. It’s the logical endpoint to a direction Meta, and many social media platforms, have been moving toward for years: away from seeing posts and updates from your friends and people you know, and toward an always-on video experience that just shows you an endless stream of clips it thinks you might like. “Everything is television,” as writer and podcaster Derek Thompson put it last year.

There are a couple different reasons why everyone is headed this way. For starters, the platforms would like users to stick around the platforms, so that the platforms can show them more ads. And they’d love a way to show them more video ads, so they can grab some of the giant ad business that still exists on traditional TV.

But it’s also an acknowledgment that social media isn’t really “social” anymore and hasn’t been for a while: Most people who use the platforms are passive consumers, not active posters. So the companies can’t rely on a stream of things from your friends and family to keep you engaged. They have to find stuff from strangers instead.

“We show recommendations because you might follow 200 accounts, and one in 10 of them posted. So we’ve got 20 things [to show you]. And we can reorder those 20 things 20 factorial ways, but that’s only so much upside,” Instagram boss Adam Mosseri told me last year. “Whereas if we look at the billion things posted in a given day, and we find something you’re interested in, there’s more upside.”

It’s also why the platforms are so eager to keep showing you more video given any opportunity: Click on a video post in Instagram and the app immediately starts showing you a TikTok-style never-ending stream of videos; Elon Musk’s X does the same thing.

So what Facebook is testing is the logical next step: just giving you all the video it thinks you want — and which it definitely wants you to see — from the start.

• I moved across the country to Los Angeles for a relationship that ended less than a year later.
• Instead of moving back home, I stayed, networked, and built a life for myself in California.
• I made connections that helped me find my footing as a journalist and meet my now-husband.

Five months after packing two giant suitcases and boarding a one-way flight from Wisconsin to Los Angeles, my boyfriend told me he was leaving the city I had relocated to for him.

In just a moment, I realized I was alone in one of America’s biggest cities, wondering if I had made the right choice.

After securing a job, I moved to Los Angeles for my first love

As cliché as it sounds, I was a small-town Midwesterner who had dreams of moving to the big city after growing up watching TV shows that glamorized Hollywood.

I finally got a taste of this fantasy when I took summer classes in Los Angeles. It was during one of these visits that I met someone there … my first love.

This relationship gave me the final push I needed to move to my dream city. But before making that plunge, I thought it best to have a job lined up.

After months of applying for LA-based positions, I finally landed my dream role in music and programming at a radio station I admired.

At last, I felt ready to pack up my things, move to California, and begin a new chapter with my boyfriend by my side.

He moved out of LA a few months after I arrived, and everything changed

As I was getting established at work, learning how to drive in LA traffic (and find parking!), and navigating life more independently, my boyfriend was studying and preparing for his own career.

Nearly half a year after I’d moved, his career path led him to relocate outside Los Angeles. This was not the way I had expected things to go.

We had both longed to date in the same city to get a truer sense of our compatibility. Now, I was filled with doubt. I wondered if he was as committed as I thought, since he was willing to relocate so soon after we’d finally ended up in the same place.

The relationship was over. And, disheartened by how things turned out, I had two options: move back home or stick around and try life in LA on my own.

I decided to stay and invest in my career, friendships, and passions to keep my mind off the ways my new reality differed from the vision I’d had when I moved.

Staying was one of the best decisions I made, and it changed my life

With much more time to myself, I turned to creative outlets to help process the loss of the life I had imagined. Music had always been a passion of mine.

As a musician and composer, I knew a friend who played guitar, so I asked him to collaborate on a piece to perform later that year for our church. It was an easy way to make a new friend while getting to pursue a hobby I loved.

I also decided to fully commit to my professional development. Though I was in broadcast media at the time, I discovered I had a stronger passion for print journalism.

I quickly learned how important networking was in LA, and how it could lead to even bigger opportunities. My roommate connected me with someone who gave me my highest-paying freelance writing job, which helped launch my freelance career.

Soon, I was contributing to national publications, beginning with Business Insider, something I never imagined when I first moved to LA. Those early assignments laid the foundation for the journalism career I still have now.

Some of my closest relationships today are with people I met in the city, and the friend I played music with ended up becoming my husband. We now have a toddler son who loves banging on the piano and drums.

Moving to LA for someone else certainly didn’t turn out how I had expected, but I wouldn’t change a thing. After all, it led me to the beautiful life I’ve created for myself years later.

• Elon Musk thanked Samsung, TSMC, and Micron on Wednesday’s earnings call.
• It was a particularly 2026-like moment — companies are trying to supply chips as prices go wild.
• “They’ve got to make some very tough decisions on memory allocation,” Musk said.

Elon Musk took a moment during Tesla’s earnings call on Wednesday to thank three companies that have little to do with traditional automaking.

Musk praised Samsung and TSMC during the call, and then turned to another company that manufactures semiconductor chips. “I’d also like to thank Micron for giving us a memory allocation,” he said. “They’ve got to make some very tough decisions on memory allocation.”

It was perhaps the most 2026 moment of the call.

Micron and Samsung are two of the world’s largest manufacturers of DRAM, the short-term memory that allows computers to rapidly access and process data. The chips have become one of the AI boom’s hottest commodities — and increasingly difficult for companies to secure at reasonable prices.

The rapid construction of AI data centers has consumed huge amounts of memory. Manufacturers have also shifted production toward high-bandwidth memory, a more advanced and profitable form of DRAM used with AI processors, leaving less capacity for conventional chips.

The shortage has pushed manufacturing prices higher as companies compete for limited allocations.

And the consequences have spread to regular shoppers: Computer and video game makers have announced price increases, while smartphone manufacturers like Apple have announced higher prices.

That makes Musk’s coziness with the three companies all the more important.

The automaker needs memory throughout its vehicles — but its appetite is poised to grow as it shifts its business and spends billions of dollars on AI infrastructure, robotaxis, and its Optimus humanoid robots.

Musk said Micron had allocated a “significant” amount of memory to the company under reasonable terms, though neither company has publicly detailed the products, prices, or length of the arrangement.

In the past month, Micron has also partnered with General Motors and Ford to continue supplying automotive chips.

• Google’s parent company, Alphabet, grew its head count by 11,830 between June 2025 and June 2026.
• The tech giant reported blockbuster second-quarter earnings, revealing revenue of $119.8 billion.
• The update comes as Google workers rallied for layoff protections last week.

As companies make rounds of job cuts and double down on AI spend, Google’s parent company Alphabet is expanding its workforce.

Alphabet reported blockbuster second-quarter earnings, with revenue climbing 24% year over year to $119.8 billion. The company revealed in its earnings report that it increased head count by 11,830 employees, from 187,103 to 198,933, between June 30, 2025 and June 30, 2026.

The chart below shows how Alphabet’s workforce has grown from the end of the first quarter of 2025 through the end of the second quarter of 2026.

The biggest jump in Alphabet’s head count of the last couple of years came in the second quarter of 2026, when the company added over 4,000 workers, accounting for more than one-third of net hiring over the past year.

Since 2022, companies including Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have cut thousands of jobs. Google laid off 12,000 employees in 2023 and has conducted several smaller rounds of cuts since, impacting thousands of employees in total.

Google employees from around the country rallied last week to demand stronger protections against layoffs. Roughly 4,500 employees signed a petition about job security addressed to CEO Sundar Pichai and three senior executives at the tech giant.

While Google didn’t share which roles it has hired more of over the last year, the company said in its earnings on Thursday that it’s prioritizing long-term AI growth and doubling down on its AI buildout.

The tech giant raised its 2026 capital expenditure outlook to between $195 billion and $205 billion, up from a previous estimate of up to $190 billion. The company said its demand for AI infrastructure continues to outpace available capacity.

• I went on a trip to the Amalfi Coast in Italy with my husband and parents, who are in their 60s.
• Spending more time in Capri instead of Sorrento, which felt a bit busy, would’ve been nice.
• I wish we’d made fewer dinner reservations and booked more cooking classes, which we loved.

Italy stole my heart over a decade ago, when I spent a semester of college studying abroad there.

This beautiful country is where I cliff-jumped into the Mediterranean Sea, toured wineries throughout Tuscany’s rolling hills, tossed coins into the Trevi Fountain in Rome, and perused chic boutiques in Milan.

Although I was sad to leave, I knew I would return someday. The Amalfi Coast, in particular, sat at the top of my bucket list, as I was only there for a day.

This past year was the perfect opportunity to make that dream a reality, since we wanted to celebrate my dad’s retirement after 45 years of hard work.

So, my parents, who are both in their 60s, and my husband and I, who are in our 30s, packed our bags and jetted off to explore the Amalfi Coast.

The first big decision we made was choosing Positano as our “home base” for the week due to its central location, jaw-dropping cliffside views, and plethora of restaurants and shops.

From there, we took day trips to the surrounding towns. We planned everything from a private boat ride along the coast to a hike on Sentiero dei Limoni, “the Path of the Lemons,” in Minori.

For our first family trip to the Amalfi Coast, I was genuinely happy with where we stayed and everything we experienced. But the next time I go, I may do a few things differently.

Staying in a less touristy town might’ve been nice

My family agreed that staying in one hotel — and avoiding the hassle of checking in and out with oversized luggage — was a wise choice.

After all, there’s something refreshing about returning to the same home base after a full day exploring. For us, that was Hotel Conca D’Oro.

Regular ferries also made traveling to the surrounding destinations quite simple. During our next coastal getaway, I would still choose one home base, but I’d consider staying in a lesser-known town like Minori.

The unique, harder-to-get-to activities we enjoyed during this vacation — like sipping cliffside limoncello at Agricola Ruocco’s, a family-run lemon farm in Minori — showed us how much we enjoyed embracing the road less traveled.

I wouldn’t stress about dinner reservations so much

Going into our vacation, I had a laundry list of restaurants I wanted to visit, and I booked reservations at several of them. But by the time my family and I tackled the 25-minute walk from the ferry back up to our hotel each evening, we were exhausted.

And, in reality, we would’ve been just as content grabbing the ingredients for a charcuterie spread, paninis, and a bottle of wine from one of the many mouthwatering local markets for a no-fuss dinner on our hotel’s rooftop.

Next time, instead of loading my itinerary up with reservations, I would make just a couple in advance and leave the rest of the week open to spontaneity.

Our local cooking class was so fun that I’d book at least 2 of them next time

One of our most memorable experiences was an outdoor cooking class at Amalfi Heaven Gardens, perched high above bustling downtown Amalfi, with panoramic views of the Mediterranean.

We learned how to prepare a traditional Italian feast, complete with fried ricotta and anchovy-filled zucchini flowers, smoked mozzarella grilled in lemon leaves, and gnocchi alla Sorrentina.

Then, we sipped homemade peach wine and enjoyed each course at a farm table under the vines with our classmates.

My mom and I did a ton of research beforehand to find the right cooking class, and we made a perfect choice.

Since we loved the authentic, hands-on class so much, I would definitely consider booking not just one but two culinary experiences next time, perhaps in another town.

It would’ve been nice to indulge in more slow mornings on our hotel room balcony

When in Rome — or shall I say, Positano — I’d like to live a bit more like the locals next time. It was easy to rise early and book up every second of our sightseeing getaway … but why rush?

My family wished we had taken a few of our mornings slower, enjoying treats like ricotta cheesecake, sipping our espressos, and soaking up the sweeping views from our balconies.

After all, one of the biggest selling points of our hotel was its pristine vantage point of Positano, overlooking the pastel-colored buildings nestled into the cliffs and the sparkling waters below.

Next time, I would skip Sorrento and spend more time in Capri

Navigating the vibrant alleyways of Sorrento — and digging into a delightful lemon pasta dish for lunch — made for a fun experience, but next time, I’d skip it and spend extra time in Capri.

Sorrento offered more of a city environment than the peaceful coastal escape I’d envisioned. On the contrary, Capri was coastal bliss.

We took the chairlift up to Monte Solaro and strolled through the Gardens of Augustus with homemade fig and honey slushies in hand.

We even stumbled upon a seaside bistro that was quaint, quiet, and delicious. A round of espresso martinis and linguini with clams ensued.

There’s much more to explore in Capri beyond a day’s visit.

Still, we had so much fun. Any Amalfi Coast itinerary is a dream come true — and I’m eager to plan our next trip. In fact, if you’re visiting the region and find yourself off the beaten path, you may find me there.