Smoke from Canadian wildfires has carried another day of poor air quality south of the border to the American Midwest. Conditions in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were rated "very unhealthy" on Tuesday. The smell of smoke hung over the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Tuesday morning. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday. Canada is having another bad wildfire season, and more than 27,000 people in three provinces have been forced to evacuate. The smoke is even reaching Europe, where it is causing hazy skies but isn't expected to affect surface-air quality,

Pope Francis has participated remotely in the Vatican's spiritual retreat after getting good news from his doctors. They upgraded his prognosis and say he is no longer in imminent danger of death as a result of pneumonia. The 88-year-old pope isn't out of the woods yet, however. Doctors are still cautious and have decided to keep him hospitalized for several more days to receive treatment, not to mention a period of rehabilitation he will likely need. The Vatican said Francis woke up Tuesday morning just after 8 a.m. after a quiet night.

Doctors said Pope Francis is no longer in imminent danger of death as a result of pneumonia but have decided to keep him hospitalized for several more days to receive treatment. In a late update, the doctors said on Monday the 88-year-old pope remains stable and has consolidated improvements in recent days, as determined by blood tests and positive responses to drug treatments. Francis followed the Vatican's weeklong spiritual retreat via videoconference as he continued his recovery from double pneumonia and looked ahead to the 12th anniversary of his election amid questions about what the future of his papacy might look like.

The Vatican says that Pope Francis has suffered two new episodes of acute respiratory crises and has been put back on noninvasive mechanical ventilation. Doctors extracted "copious" amounts of mucus from his lungs in another setback in what has become a more than two-week battle to overcome a complex respiratory infection and pneumonia. In a late update Monday, the Vatican said the episodes were caused by a "significant accumulation" of mucus in his lungs and bronchial spasms. "Two bronchoscopies were performed with the need for aspiration of copious secretions," the Vatican said. Francis remained alert, oriented and cooperated with medical personnel. The prognosis remained guarded.

The Vatican says Pope Francis has shown further slight improvement as he battles double pneumonia, but doctors still say his prognosis is still guarded. A CT chest scan taken Tuesday evening showed the "normal evolution" of an infection as it is being treated. Blood tests have confirmed an improvement, according to the Vatican's late update. The slight kidney insufficiency detected a few days ago has receded, and Francis is continuing to receive respiratory physiotherapy. It was the first time the Vatican has said Francis was receiving physiotherapy to help him expel fluid from his lungs. Francis resumed work in the afternoon, after receiving the Eucharist in the morning.