GBH Daily: The 4th in photos

Group of young adults sitting on picnic blanket in the middle of roadway — A group of young adults sit on a picnic blanket in the middle of Storrow Drive following the conclusion of the Boston Pops July 4 Fireworks Spectacular on Saturday, July 4 at the Esplanade in Boston.

Gal Tziperman Lotan is a digital producer for GBH’s Morning Edition.

July 06, 2026

This is a web edition of GBH Daily, a weekday newsletter bringing you local stories you can trust so you can stay informed without feeling overwhelmed.

🌂Finally cooler and partly sunny with a chance of showers, with highs in the 70s. Sunset is at 8:23 p.m.

GBH’s Dan Murphy captured the stormy celebrations on the Esplanade this weekend. Keep reading for more.

Hope you all had a good, safe, and restful July 4 weekend. If you’re a Celtics fan, the holiday weekend was probably tinged with some frustration: the team traded Jaylen Brown, a forward, shooting guard and philanthropist, to the Philadelphia 76ers last week. Brown spent 10 years with the team and, off the court, led efforts to strengthen Black wealth and entrepreneurship in Boston ESPN reported that, in exchange for Brown, the Celtics will get forward Paul George, plus two first-round picks and two second-round picks.

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“I’ve been a Celtics fan for like over 30 years. And this is the worst thing I’ve ever [expletive] seen in my life,” Celtics fan Holly Ruprecht told GBH’s Genevieve Morrison.

Four Things to Know

1. Let’s do the math on the budget the state Legislature passed last week: it is $63.42 billion, an increase of $2.37 billion (3.9%) over last year’s state budget. You won’t see any new taxes or fees in it. And, perhaps fittingly, about 4% of it — $2.7 billion — comes from the 4% tax the state charges households with more than $1 million in income.

“It’s always hard to predict what’s going to happen in the future, you know, particularly around revenues and things of that nature,” House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz told the State House News Service. “But I think the budgets that we’ve done over the last number of years here have been pretty sustainable.”

2. Beaches along the North Shore are once again open after a sewer main burst in Haverhill, dumping about 8 million gallons of sewage per day into the Merrimack River. Workers in Haverhill completed a bypass pipe that redirected the sewage away from the river, sending it instead to the Haverhill treatment plant.

Still, if you’re heading to the beach this week, check the state’s beach dashboard here before you leave.

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3. Project managers for the new Bourne and Sagamore bridges can check a big item off their to-do lists. The Federal Highway Administration gave the project its highest level of environmental review approval. It’s a process that took two years and is reserved for larger infrastructure projects. The last Massachusetts project to require it was our old friend, the Big Dig.

“It’s been circled on our calendar that June 26 was the date we expected we’d receive that approval, and it arrived on time,” Paiewonsky said. “So we’re going to take a little pause to enjoy the moment and then get right back to work.”

4. Cape Verde’s first-ever World Cup run is over: the team lost 3-2 to Argentina Friday. The team tied its first three games, advancing out of the group stage after keeping teams from bigger countries from beating them.

“But I think that shows a lot about what Cabo Verdeans are all the time,” said Elsa Gomes Bondlow. “It’s who they are. That’s how my parents were, my grandparents were. My grandmother died at 106 in Cabo Verde two years ago. So, I know they can be resilient. And that’s really beautiful.”