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)

Kha Tu Ngoc rests in her two- square- meter house in Ho Chi Minh City on May 2, 2018. The “micro- house” dwellings are dotted throughout Vietnam' s bustling southern hub, occupied by families clinging to postage stamp- sized plots a city developing at breakneck pace. Tucked away in winding alleys, nestled under new condo developments or sandwiched between street food stalls and shops, the tiny houses are easily missed by the unattentive passerby. (Photo by Thanh Nguyen/AFP Photo)

People, carry food and water, past a tractor stuck in mud, stones and debris that were piled in a flood in the mountain village of Sipkovica, just above the town of Tetovo, in northwestern Macedonia, on Tuesday, August 4, 2015. A small number of people including children have died in floods that erupted after an hour of heavy torrential rains and strong winds that hit Tetovo and northwestern region of Macedonia late on Monday. (Photo by Zoran Andonov/AP Photo)

George R.R. Martin, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner, and other cast and crew of Game of Thrones have faced the winds of winter – or anyway, a bucket of ice water – with the popular charity challenge. HBO’s Game of Thrones gives fans chills in every episode. But as the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS research has exploded across the internet, the cast and crew of the shocking show gave themselves goosebumps as they stepped up to get soaked.

Fishermen move a fishing boat to a safer place along the shore ahead of cyclone Hudhud at Ganjam district in Odisha October 11, 2014. The India Meteorological Department described Cyclone Hudhud as a “very severe” storm that could pack winds of 195 kilometers (120 miles) per hour and cause torrential rains when it makes landfall near the port city of Visakhapatnam around noon Sunday. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A couple walk on a catwalk in a flooded Saint Mark Square during a period of seasonal high water in Venice on October 29, 2018. Venice frequently floods when high winds push in water from the lagoon, but Monday's levels are exceptional and forecast to rise even higher, to 160 centimeters (nearly 63 inches) by mid-afternoon. (Photo by Manuel Silvestri/Reuters)

Villagers from Jiexi Jiantan village perform a ritual of “Zha Laoye”, or “Cracking local spirits”, in Chaoshan, Guangdong Province, China, 10 February 2019. Jiexi Jiantan Village celebrates the annual custom of “Zha Laoye” where Laoye are local spirits. Every third day of the lunar New Year, statues of local spirits known as the “Thousand-mile Eye” Laoye and “Ear Following the Wind” Laoye are brought out to the village committee to receive incensed tea offered by believers. (Photo by EPA/EFE/ZNSEN)

A couple kiss as strong waves hit the coast in Saint-Benoit, on the east of the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, on February 2, 2022, ahead of the passage of tropical cyclone Batsirai. La Reunion goes on red alert at 7 pm on February 2, to prepare for the likely passage of cyclone Batsirai overnight. The cyclone already left at least 7,500 homes in nearby Mauritius without power, after it brought heavy downpours and winds of around 120 kilometres per hour, knocking down trees onto electricity lines, according to the local electricity board. (Photo by Richard Bouhet/AFP Photo)