Events

Sir Keir Starmer MP (Lab.-Holborn & St Pancras) met with King Charles at 11:30 BST this morning and formally tendered his resignation as Prime Minister. A few minutes later, the King asked Andy Burnham (Lab.-Makerfield) to form a new government in his name.

The smoke that went away yesterday has returned:

She doesn't look like a middle-aged lady, does she?

The air quality in Chicago has cleared up to near-normal levels—or, at least, levels that would have been normal in the 1980s:

The AQI has dropped to 204 at Mayfair, Chicago reporting station, just barely in the "very unhealthy" category and almost down to "unhealthy." For the first time in two days, I can see the beach 1,300 meters away:

It looks like the Canadian Smoke Monster will move off to the east in a couple of hours:

The miserable air quality I mentioned earlier has somehow gotten worse. At 3pm, the AQI hit 817 in the northern suburb of Northbrook, Ill.:

Manitoba and Minnesota have massive wildfires right now, the smoke from which has covered much of the northeastern US including Chicago: