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Louise Haigh says taxpayer money must benefit local communities amid backlash from environmental groups

Ministers will scrap the requirement for companies to prove their green and progressive values before they are awarded government contracts, and instead ask firms to prove they will help young people back into work.

As part of a government push to reduce the number of people not in education, employment or training (Neets) in the UK and boost regional growth, public sector buyers will double the consideration they give to whether companies will get more people into jobs, rather than if they can show they are improving social and environmental wellbeing. Government procurement contracts account for about £90bn of taxpayers’ money spent each year.

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.

Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump’s renovation mania is reaching new heights. 

What’s happening? Not satisfied with a paved Rose Garden, lavish amounts of gold, and a granite walkway paid for with national parks money, Trump is currently adding a helipad to the White House lawn. Construction, begun in June, has been running 24/7, with the goal of finishing the project before a visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping in late September. 

But all is not well: As the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, contractors are now undoing their work as Trump demands a perfectly level helipad (on a South Lawn that is anything but).

It’s the latest evidence of something that New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman recently described in a podcast with Ezra Klein: By her estimate, around 70 percent of Trump’s “mind share” is tied up not with the Iran war, affordability, or the upcoming midterms, but “on his renovations,” which she describes as a “legacy thing.”

What else does Trump have in the works? In addition to the helipad, Trump is currently working on renovating Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House; on Monday, he mused about his “big decision” on whether to change the park’s pavers from red brick to granite.

He’s also re-gilding four statues near the Lincoln Memorial in vivid 23.75-karat gold; repairing the re-drained Reflecting Pool, which was the victim of a rush job the first time around; and moving ahead with his plan for a 250-foot arch, which could be approved by early next month and which the National Park Service recently concluded would have “adverse effects” on more than three dozen historic sites in the DC area.

What’s the big picture? Trump’s construction fervor has only accelerated since he returned to office last year, especially as other agenda items have eluded him. A midterms loss will further curtail his options for the final two years of his presidency, so don’t expect it to stop here.

And with that, it’s time to log off…

Here’s a stat I did not know, courtesy of my colleague Bryan Walsh: Traffic injuries are “the leading cause of death for everyone between the ages of 5 and 29 — ahead of malaria, ahead of war and homicide, ahead of every disease we spend more time worrying about.” 

That’s pretty grim, and not very Logoff-y. But there’s good news, too: As Bryan reports, between 2011 and 2025, global road deaths have fallen by 21 percent, even as more vehicles take to the roads — thanks in large part to a change in how we think about traffic accidents. You can read Bryan’s full story about what changed — and what we still have to work on — here with a gift link.

Have a great evening, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow!

Ruling vacates convictions of founder Stewart Rhodes and other militia members who took part in 2021 Capitol attack

A US judge on Tuesday granted the justice department’s bid to dismiss cases against ‌members of the rightwing Oath Keepers militia who took part in the January 6 2021 attack ​on the US Capitol, according to a ​court filing.

The ruling from Washington-based US district judge Amit Mehta tosses out convictions ​of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and other ​members of the group who were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting to stop the transfer of ​power after Donald Trump lost the ​2020 election.

Ruling vacates convictions of founder Stewart Rhodes and other militia members who took part in 2021 Capitol attack

A US judge on Tuesday granted the justice department’s bid to dismiss cases against ‌members of the rightwing Oath Keepers militia who took part in the January 6 2021 attack ​on the US Capitol, according to a ​court filing.

The ruling from Washington-based US district judge Amit Mehta tosses out convictions ​of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and other ​members of the group who were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting to stop the transfer of ​power after Donald Trump lost the ​2020 election.

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Almost every house sold in first six months of the year made a profit

The vast majority of homeowners are selling their properties for more than they bought them for, even as house prices enter a tailspin, AAP reports.

Я несколько месяцев измеряю, как ChatGPT, Perplexity, Алиса AQI и GigaChat называют бренды в своих ответах: прогоняю контрольные промпты и смотрю, кого модель упомянула, а кого — нет. За этими прогонами всплыла цифра, которая ломает привычную логику SEO, — и заставила меня поменять то, что я вообще отслеживаю у клиентов. Разбираю по порядку.

S&P 500 shot up 1.8% and the main measure of Wall Street’s health topped its prior all-time high set a few months ago

The US stock market rallied to records on Tuesday as profits kept piling up for companies and as oil prices eased.

The S&P 500 shot up 1.8%, and the main measure of Wall Street’s health topped its prior all-time high set a couple months ago. The Dow Jones industrial average added 907 points, or 1.7%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.6%.

StringBuilder делит текст на чанки по 8000 символов — вчетверо ниже порога кучи больших объектов. Запас такой, что попасть туда невозможно.

Но чанк на 400 КБ в этой куче возможен и получить его можно разными способами.

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.

The Spokane, Washington wildfires have destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced 65,000 people from their homes — and with high winds forecast for later this week, the crisis probably isn’t over. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, three separate blazes were still burning uncontained to the north and west of the city center, according to a data clearinghouse managed by the US Forest Service. And heavy smoke from the blazes continued to spill across Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. 

Meanwhile, investigators appear to have made progress in determining the cause of the largest fire: On Tuesday, local sheriff’s deputies arrested a 37-year-old Arizona man on charges of first-degree arson. The vast majority of US wildfires are started by humans…but typically through carelessness or by accident.

Go a little deeper

I was struck by an observation that one longtime Spokane resident made to NPR this week: “Obviously, we’ve had wildfire seasons,” she said. But she “never, ever imagined” having to evacuate, because she lived so deep inside of the city. 

Living in a city is no protection from climate change, though. And the destruction caused by wildfires in cities and suburbs is very much on the rise. Consider the devastation caused by recent fires in Colorado (2021), Hawaii (2023), and Los Angeles (2025). 

Why are wildfires causing more damage in cities and suburbs? It’s not because they’re new. One recent study found urban wildfires have remained a fairly stable share of all US fires over the past generation. 

What has changed is the scale of their damage, thanks to factors like climate-driven increases in extreme fire weather and human incursion into forests and grasslands. As a country, we are increasingly building homes and other structures in the “wildland-urban interface” — a liminal zone where neighborhoods and nature overlap. 

While housing isn’t dense in these areas, the buildings that exist can serve as tinder that helps fires spread. And putting more people, roads, and power lines into these zones creates more opportunities for ignitions.

All this means that city-dwellers and suburbanites will likely face more wildfire risk in years to come. And for those of you in the Midwest or on the East Coast, like me, don’t assume that wildfires are someone else’s problem. “Every single state” with wildland-urban interfaces also holds the potential for fire disaster, one pyrogeographer told Vox in 2023. That includes communities like Spokane, sure — but also Florida, Minnesota, and Mississippi.

One link for later

➨ Go ahead, save that tiny glass jar! It’s apparently a bona fide pop culture craze. But don’t bother doing it for the environmental benefits: One policy professor (disappointingly!) tells Vox that consumer decisions like choosing glass over plastic “do not matter in a meaningful way.”

Before you go…

• Did you know…that there’s a special branch of medical science devoted to the physiology of space travel? It’s appropriately called “space medicine.” (Alas, practitioners aren’t called Space Doctors.) 
• Today’s trivia: How many US states have legalized marijuana? (You can find this and other brain puzzles in Vox’s daily crossword. Look for the answer in tomorrow’s edition.)
• Yesterday’s trivia: Yesterday we asked you for the name of the Pennsylvania-based singer/songwriter who’s sometimes called the godmother of punk. That would be Joan Jett, who shares the contested honorific with (New Jersey-born) Patti Smith and (German-born) Nina Hagen. 

Как выбрать биржу для алгоритмической торговли: latency, matching engine и реальная ликвидность

Я несколько лет занимаюсь алгоритмической торговлей и за это время прогнал через свои алгоритмы десятки криптобирж.

Я подключал биржи к своим ботам, торговал через API и проверял то, что действительно важно алгоритмическому трейдеру: стаканы, latency, WebSocket, исполнение ордеров, ликвидность, ошибки и поведение рынка в момент реальной сделки.

В результате я протестировал около 40 бирж.

И оказалось, что биржа, которая выглядит отлично на CoinMarketCap, в рекламе обещает миллиарды объема и показывает красивый глубокий стакан, совсем не обязательно является хорошей биржей для алгоритмической торговли.

Иногда всё наоборот.

• Freedom 250 staged on White House South Lawn

• Invitation-only event cost an estimated $60m in all

• Gaethje won title on night marred by Obama smear

The UFC staging its Freedom 250 card on the South Lawn of the White House in June led to losses of around $30m (roughly £22m), the company’s owners announced.

US president Donald Trump, a longtime fan of the UFC, and vice-president JD Vance were in attendance for the event which marked celebrations for 250 years of American independence.

In mid-coast Maine a grassroots coalition is fighting to prevent the proposed closure of Miles Hospital's labor and delivery center.