40 million Americans under heat alerts

Amid a scorching heat wave, the US National Weather Service (NWS) has issued heat alerts for 40 million Americans across at least a dozen states, from Montana to Texas and Florida. Scorching temperatures will linger in the US Southwest while intensifying in the Midwest this week, Xinhua news agency quoted the NWS update issued on Monday as saying.

14 people, mostly Indian-origin, charged in $53 mn Covid relief fraud

Fourteen people, mostly of Indian-origin, have been charged for allegedly bilking a Covid-era financial program, and numerous financial institutions out of more than $53 million in loan proceeds. The defendants were arrested last week in Texas, California, and Oklahoma in one of the largest cases investigated by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) Fraud Task Force to date, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas announced.