A boy fires blanks from a Kalashnikov rifle, during Maslenitsa celebrations, or Shrovetide, to say farewell to winter in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Maslenitsa is a traditional Russian and Belarusian holiday marking the end of winter that dates back to pagan times. (Photo by Sergei Grits/AP 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)

A girl sticks out her tongue during snowfalls on a street in Hefei, Anhui province February 13, 2014. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Lioness and hyena posture to one another, in Masai Mara, Kenya, August 2015. A photographer captured one of the oldest rivalries in the animal kingdom as a pair of lions went head to head with a pack of hungry hyenas. (Photo by Ingo Gerlach/Barcroft Images)

A young girl splashes through a waterfall at a park in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2021, as a heatwave moves over much of the United States. Swathes of the United States and Canada endured record-setting heat on June 27, 2021, forcing schools and Covid-19 testing centers to close and the postponement of an Olympic athletics qualifying event, with forecasters warning of worse to come. The village of Lytton in British Columbia broke the record for Canada's all-time high, with a temperature of 46.6 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit), said Environment Canada. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP Photo)

People visit a cemetery during the celebrations of the Guede, the traditional festival of the dead and one of the main festivities of voodoo, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 01 November 2020. (Photo by Jean Marc Herve Abelard/EPA/EFE)

An internally displaced Afghan girl plays outside her shelter, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 7, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

A model is photographed as she gets her make up done backstage prior to Dino Alves's runway show during the 51st Lisbon Fashion Week, in Lisbon, Portugal, 14 October 2018. (Photo by Jose Sena Goulao/EPA/EFE)