Brown-throated sloth called “43”, rescued by Juan Carlos Rodriguez and his wife Haydee in a residential area, waits in the kennel getting prepared for being released, at the couple's shelter for sloths, in San Antonio, Venezuela on July 30, 2021. (Photo by Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)

A Taliban fighter poses for a picture holding a flower before offering Friday noon prayers in Kabul, Afghanistan on October 1, 2021. (Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP Photo)

An Afghan woman carries bread on a tray, along a street in Kabul on January 3, 2023. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

A runner participates in the Santa Run 10K race in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, December 19, 2021. This is the first Santa Run since the start of the pandemic. (Photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

A girl watches as a man jumps to cool off at a swimming pool in the village of Zllakuqan near the town of Klina on July 9, 2024. (Photo by Armend Nimani/AFP Photo)

Instructor Raquel Potí leads a stilt walking workshop at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, January 27, 2024. Potí is chiefly responsible for the explosion of stilt walking in Rio, having trained more than 1,000 kids and adults over the past decade. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

In this photograph taken on January 19, 2012, Indonesian schoolchildren hold on to iron cables as they cross a nearly-collapsed suspension bridge at Sanghiang Tanjung village in Indonesia's Banten province to reach their school. (Photo by Kris Aria/AFP Photo)

The northeastern United States sweltered this week in a scorching summer heat wave, complete with stagnant, sticky air and no winds for relief, forecasters said. Even in a summer already filled with stretches of very hot weather, this week will be stubbornly brutal, with no relief in sight until the weekend brings thunderstorms to the region, they said. "Plain and simple, this week may feel the worst of any week for this summer in the Northeast," said Accuweather.com meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. (Reuters)