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State and federal prosecutors have charged more than 320 people and uncovered nearly $15 billion in false claims in what they described Monday as the largest coordinated takedown of health care fraud schemes in Justice Department history.

Law enforcement seized more than $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency, and other assets as prosecutors warned of a growing push by transnational criminal networks to exploit the U.S. health care system.

As part of the sweeping crackdown, officials identified perpetrators based in Russia, Eastern Europe, Pakistan, and other countries.

From 22 Chinese women detained in 1874 for being ‘lewd and debauched’, experts point to a grim US tradition

One day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, five pregnant immigrant women – led by an asylum seeker from Venezuela – sued over the president’s executive order limiting automatic birthright citizenship, out of fear that their unborn children would be left stateless.

The case went before the supreme court, which sided with the Trump administration Friday by restricting the ability of federal judges to block the order.

The legal drama recalls a scene a century and a half earlier, when a different cohort of immigrant women went to the country’s highest court to challenge a restrictive California law. In 1874, San Francisco officials detained 22 Chinese women at the port after declaring them “lewd and debauched” – a condition that allowed for denial of entry.

Record-breaking heat continues to scorch most of Western Europe. Spain broke its June heat record, and extreme temperatures are expected to move toward Germany by midweek.

Authorities in Spain on Monday confirmed the country's highest-ever June temperature, as an ongoing heat wave pushed the mercury at one point on Saturday to 46 degrees Celsius (115 F).

The record was set in Huelva, near the border with Portugal, topping the previous record of 45.2 C set in 1965 in the nearby city of Seville.

The record-breaking temperatures come as a "heat dome" continues to sit over Western Europe, a weather phenomenon during which a high-pressure system holds dry, hot air in place over an extended period of time.

International police body Interpol says scam centers that use human trafficking victims to carry out their crimes have gone global. Once limited to Southeast Asia, the criminal model is spreading — and uses AI.

Human trafficking-fueled scam centers have significantly expanded their operations worldwide, according to a crime trend update released on Monday by the international police agency Interpol.

Hubs where trafficking victims are forced to take part in online fraud first emerged in a few Southeast Asian nations, but investigators are now also uncovering similar fraud centers in other regions.

The abrupt cutoff of satellite data crucial for hurricane forecasting is delayed by one month, until July 31, according to a message posted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Monday.

The impending data loss from a Department of Defense weather satellite system was announced on June 25 and slated to take place “no later than” Monday, according to an earlier NOAA announcement.

The decision, which was initiated by the Defense Department, caused an uproar among meteorologists, public officials and the media in the midst of hurricane season. The fear is that the missing information could degrade the accuracy of hurricane forecasts. The move comes in the wake of steep personnel cuts at the National Weather Service and other parts of NOAA.

As we reported earlier this month, many ChatGPT users are developing all-consuming obsessions with the chatbot, spiraling into severe mental health crises characterized by paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality.

The consequences can be dire. As we heard from spouses, friends, children, and parents looking on in alarm, instances of what's being called "ChatGPT psychosis" have led to the breakup of marriages and families, the loss of jobs, and slides into homelessness.

And that's not all. As we've continued reporting, we've heard numerous troubling stories about people's loved ones being involuntarily committed to psychiatric care facilities — or even ending up in jail — after becoming fixated on the bot.

"I was just like, I don't f*cking know what to do," one woman told us. "Nobody knows who knows what to do."

The Justice Department is aggressively prioritizing efforts to strip some Americans of their U.S. citizenship.

Department leadership is directing its attorneys to prioritize denaturalization in cases involving naturalized citizens who commit certain crimes — and giving district attorneys wider discretion on when to pursue this tactic, according to a June 11 memo published online. The move is aimed at U.S. citizens who were not born in the country; according to data from 2023, close to 25 million immigrants were naturalized citizens.

The focus on denaturalization is just the latest step by the Trump administration to reshape the nation's immigration system across all levels of government, turning it into a major focus across multiple federal agencies. That has come with redefining who is let into the United States or has the right to be an American. Since his return to office, the president has sought to end birthright citizenship and scale back refugee programs.

Speaking ahead of his 90th birthday, the Dalai Lama has indicated that the Tibetan Buddhist institution could continue after his death after all.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet's Buddhists, on Monday gave his strongest indication yet that the centuries-old institution could continue after his death.

Speaking at prayer celebrations ahead of his 90th birthday on July 6, Tenzin Gyatso told followers that "there will be some kind of a framework within which we can talk about its continuation."

Tibetan Buddhists believe that the Dalai Lama can choose the body into which he is reincarnated, as has happened on 14 occasions since the creation of the institution in 1587. But the current Dalai Lama has suggested in the past that he could potentially be the last.

Three prominent researchers warn about the current existential threat in the United States

Helmut Schwarz has been reading about what happened to science during the rise of Adolf Hitler, almost a century ago.

The German chemist just received the Frontiers of Knowledge Award from the BBVA Foundation in Spain, due to his contributions to the field of catalysis. For him, there are parallels between the situation in Nazi Germany and Trump’s United States.

“From 1900 to 1932, a third of all Nobel Prizes went to Germany, more than to the U.S. and the U.K. combined,” he tells EL PAÍS. He and two other scientists sat down with EL PAÍS in Bilbao, where they received their awards.

“When Hitler came to power,” he continues, “German science — which led the world — completely disintegrated. But Hitler thought that wouldn’t be a problem,” he continues. Now, Donald Trump’s administration views universities — supposed hotbeds of progressive ideology — as the enemy. He wants to bring them under his control. “In my opinion, the threat isn’t immediate, but it’s very important in the long term,” Schwarz adds.

"I've been warned not to talk about it," the woman wrote, before revealing snippets of the day she says she was arrested for publishing gay erotica.

"I'll never forget it - being escorted to the car in full view, enduring the humiliation of stripping naked for examination in front of strangers, putting on a vest for photos, sitting in the chair, shaking with fear, my heart pounding."

The handle, Pingping Anan Yongfu, is among at least 8 in recent months which have shared accounts on Chinese social media platform Weibo of being arrested for publishing gay erotic fiction. As authors recounted their experiences, dozens of lawyers offered pro bono help.

At least 30 writers, nearly all of them women in their 20s, have been arrested across the country since February, a lawyer defending one told the BBC. Many are out on bail or awaiting trial, but some are still in custody. Another lawyer told the BBC that many more contributors were summoned for questioning.

Dozens of people have been detained in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, and police blocked key parts of the city as the LGBTQ+ community attempted to hold a Pride parade.

Police in Istanbul on Sunday blocked attempts to hold a banned LGBTQ+ Pride demonstration, detaining more than 50 people who tried to march, according to activists and an opposition politician.

Istanbul Pride has been banned annually by Turkish authorities since 2015, including this year.

The governor of Istanbul had earlier banned the LGBTQ+ community from holding a Pride Parade, saying it "undermines social peace, family structure, and moral values."

A strong police presence in key areas of the city prevented large gatherings. Officers were seen clashing with activists holding rainbow flags in the city center.

Germany's Social Democratic Party says first legal steps should be taken to ban the far-right AfD party as unconstitutional. Conservative lawmakers are less keen on the idea.

A number of Germany's conservative lawmakers have called for a cautious approach after the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior coalition partner, on Sunday passed a motion calling for preparations to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The debate on whether to ban the AfD, which forms the strongest opposition force in parliament, has gained momentum after it was reclassified by Germany's domestic intelligence agency in May as a "confirmed right-wing extremist" group — an assessment that is now under court review after a legal challenge by the party.