HOT POINT

The incident occurred at Esselunga mall in Bergamo on Saturday, Feb. 14, Storyful reported.

Surveillance footageshared by the Italian State Policecaptured the alleged attacker grabbing the girl before trying to flee, resulting in a violent physical confrontation between the man, the child's parents and other witnesses on the scene.

"The woman's resistance prevented the worst from happening until her father, the security guards, and the bystanders stopped the attacker until the police arrived," police said in the press release translated to English.

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Watch video of the attempted kidnapping

See Lunar New Year celebrations around the world full of color, tradition

Man arrested, charged following attempted kidnapping

According to the Italian State Police, the victim was transported to the hospital and was determined to have a fractured femur.

More news:Gisèle Pelicot's rape trial captivated world. Her memoir tells the story.

The unidentified man was arrested. Following an investigation, he was charged "with attempted aggravated kidnapping, as it was committed against a minor, and aggravated bodily harm," the news release from Italian police stated.

Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at tardrey@usatodayco.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Man tries to snatch child in attempted kidnapping at supermarket

Missing Fishing Boat

The 72-foot (22-meter) vessel Lily Jeanwas returning to portearly Jan. 30 to repair fishing gear when it sank in frigid Atlantic waters off the historic fishing port of Gloucester. Multiple agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Massachusetts Environmental Police, are cooperating to try to find the wreck of the ship and potentially recover the bodies of the deceased, officials said Wednesday.

The Lily Jean sank in waters that were more than 300 feet deep and very inhospitable in winter. Environmental police have deployed side-scan sonar to try to gather data and detect anomalies on the ocean floor, officials said. They said they also hope to be able to send a remotely operated vehicle to the site to gather photos and video, but seas have thus far made that challenging.

Officials will provide updates to the community that is still grieving the loss of the victims, said Massachusetts Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Republican of Gloucester.

"One of the most haunting things about grief or loss at sea is the not knowing," Tarr said during a news conference on Wednesday. "Answering those questions requires a tremendous amount of effort."

The Coast Guard initially launched a search and rescue mission after receiving an alert from the vessel about 25 miles (40 kilometers) off Cape Ann. Searchers found a debris field near where the alert was sent along with a body in the water and an empty life raft, the Coast Guard said. The search wassuspendedthe following day, and the community has rallied around the families of the victims since.

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Gloucester is America's oldest seaport and is well known for its close-knit fishing community. The book and movie "The Perfect Storm" were inspired by the FV Andrea Gail, which went missing at sea in 1991.

Coast Guard officials identified the victims of the sinking of the Lily Jean as captain Accursio "Gus" Sanfilippo and crew members Paul Beal Sr., Paul Beal Jr., John Rousanidis, Freeman Short and Sean Therrien. Also aboard was Jada Samitt, a fisheries observer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Ricky Beal, brother of Paul Beal Sr., said during Wednesday's news conference that he is hopeful the investigation will help families in the community better understand what happened. He also encouraged anyone following the investigation not to spread false information about it.

"As of now, hopefully in the future, the investigation will give us some light on what happened. But as of now, only God knows what happened that fateful morning," Beal said.

The Lily Jean, Sanfilippo, and his crew were featured in a 2012 episode of the History Channel show "Nor'Easter Men." The captain is described as a fifth-generation commercial fisherman, out of Gloucester, in the Georges Bank. The crew is shown working in dangerous weather conditions for hours on end, spending as many as 10 days offshore catching haddock, lobster and flounder.

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

The second day of peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Geneva ended abruptly Wednesday morning, after just two hours of discussions.

Ahead of the sit-down, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hadremarkedupon the "difficult" first day of negotiations, which lasted six hours, and accused Russia of stalling progress.

"We can state that Russia is trying to drag out negotiations that could already have reached the final stage," he said. "I set a clear task for the Ukrainian delegation—to do everything possible so that the negotiations are nonetheless productive and increase the chances for peaceful solutions."

After the talks ended, Zelenskyreportedlytold members of the press over WhatsApp: "We can see that progress has been made, but for now, positions differ because the negotiations were difficult."

Rustem Umerov, head of the on-site Ukrainian delegation, also delivered a briefstatement, describing the discussions as "intensive and substantive."

"Within the delegation, both political and military tracks were engaged, and security parameters and mechanisms for implementing possible decisions were discussed. A number of issues were clarified, while others remained under additional coordination," he said.

Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, similarly described the talks as "difficult, but businesslike," adding that "the next meeting will take place soon."

During a White House press briefing Wednesday afternoon, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said "meaningful progress" had been made and reiterated that "another round of talks" will take place in the future. An exact date was not given.

TIME has reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministries for further comment.

Alexander Kazakov—Getty Images" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Security guarantees andproposed land concessionsremain at the heart of the Ukraine-Russia stalemate. Moscow is fighting for Ukraine to give up parts of the Donbas region that Ukrainian forcesstill control. Ukraine has repeatedly rejected any such land concessions.

The U.S. mediation team—led by Special EnvoySteve Witkoffand Jared Kushner,President Donald Trump's son-in-law—are expected to largely focus on these territorial disputes when talks resume.

The Geneva negotiations had already been somewhat overshadowed byrenewedfighting. Zelensky said Russia launched a missile strike on the same day talks began.

"Russia greets with a strike even the very day new formats begin in Geneva—trilateral and bilateral with the United States. This very clearly shows what Russia wants and what it is truly intent on," he said, urging U.S. officials to press Moscow to refrain from further attacks.

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Meanwhile, ZelenskytoldAxios on Tuesday that it was "not fair" for Trump to have publicly called on Ukraine to make concessions for peace. He said he hoped those remarks were "his tactics and not the decision."

By contrast, Zelensky said his conversations with Kushner and Witkoff do not involve that kind of pressure. "We respect each other," Zelensky said, adding that he is not a person who folds easily.

When asked about Zelensky's remarks at the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Leavitt said: "I think the President would respond to that by saying he does not think it's fair that thousands of Ukrainians are losing their lives, and Russians too, in this deadly war... the President views this entire situation as very unfair."

Zelensky's comments came after Trumptoldreporters at the White House on Feb. 13: "Russia wants to make a deal and Zelensky is going to have to get moving. Otherwise, he's going to miss a great opportunity."

On Feb. 16, the day before the peace talks in Geneva, Trump revisited the topic once more,tellingreporters aboard Air Force One: "Ukraine better come to the table, fast. That's all I'm telling you. We are in a position, we want them to come."

Progress stalls as fourth anniversary of Russian invasion looms

Next week marks the fourth anniversary ofRussia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. With another round of peace talks ending abruptly, and little sign of compromise over key issues such as land concessions, a stable peace agreement remains elusive.

Ahead of returning to the White House, Trump vowed to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict on his first day back.

In an April 2025 interview with TIME marking his first100 daysback in office, Trump said the24-hour timelinehad been "said in jest" but emphasized the war "will be ended." Trump added that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had shared "very good talks" and a deal was "very close." That deal has yet to materialize.

While the U.S. has stayed on as mediators between the two warring countries, tensions between the Trump Administration and Ukrainian leadership have, at times, proved distracting.

During aheated Oval Office exchangein February last year, Vice President J.D. Vance accused Zelensky of being ungrateful. Trump seemingly agreed, telling the Ukrainian leader: "You don't hold the cards… You're gambling with World War III!"

In a March 2025interviewwith TIME, Zelensky suggested the moment reflected a broader pattern and claimed that U.S. officials had begun taking Putin at his word. "I believe Russia has managed to influence some people on the White House team through information," Zelensky said. "Their signal to the Americans was that the Ukrainians do not want to end the war, and something should be done to force them."

Since then, significant shifts have taken place.Trump urged Ukraine to abandonit's long-sought efforts to join NATO, Kyiv signed anagreement granting the U.S. preferential accessto new Ukrainian minerals, and the Trump Administration shared a28-point planfor peace. The widely-leaked proposal reportedly included calls for Kyiv to reduce its army and make territorial concessions—terms Ukraine swiftly rejected, as they have done before. It has since been revised following talks with both camps.

Trump, in January, also invited Russia to join his Gaza Board of Peace—a move that sparked concernamong European leaders. Notably, when Trump previously floated the idea of allowing Russia to rejointhe G7, Zelensky warned it would lift the most concrete punishment Putin has faced since the invasion: isolation. "That's a big compromise," Zelensky told TIME last year. "Imagine releasing Hitler from his political isolation."

Contact usatletters@time.com.

The nine-time All-Star, who had surgery last March to repair a torn left ACL, is expected to return in 2026-27.

Irving, who turns 34 next month, is making "steady progress in rehabilitation and will remain actively engaged with the team through the remainder of the season," the Mavericks said.

"This decision wasn't easy, but it's the right one," Irving said in a statement. "I am grateful for the Mavericks organization, my teammates and our fans for their continued support throughout the process. I am looking forward to coming back stronger next season. The belief and drive I have inside only grows.

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"And I wanted to send a huge shoutout to ALL of my brothers and sisters out there who've torn their ACL or gotten injured doing what they love to do every day. THANK YOU for the inspiration. No fear!"

Irving missed the final 20 games of the 2024-25 season after the injury. He averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.3 steals in 50 games (all starts).

The Mavericks are 75-53 with Irving in the lineup since he joined the team in a February 2023 trade. They are 42-75 without him, including 19-35 this season.

Irving has averaged 23.7 points, 5.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 779 career games (all starts) with the Cleveland Cavaliers (2011-17), Boston Celtics (2017-19), Brooklyn Nets (2020-23) and Mavericks. He was the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and the 2011-12 NBA Rookie of the Year and won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2015-16.

--Field Level Media

"Just on a personal level I think we're all fairly devasted by things that have happened in the last 48, 72 hours," deputy executive director Bruce Meyer said Wednesday. "I'm not going to go beyond that in terms of personal feelings, but it's fair to say that we were all personally upset, concerned about Tony. But I think this was something that the players determined had to happen at this particular point in time."

A former All-Star first baseman who headed the union since 2013,Clark resigned Tuesdayjust months ahead of the expected start of bargaining for alabor contract to replace the deal that expires Dec. 1.

He was asked to resign by the union's eight-man executive subcommittee after an investigation by the union's outside counsel discovered evidence Clark had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, a union employee since 2023, a person familiar with the union's deliberations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that was not announced.

"The information that really led to this came out within the last ... 72 hours or so," Meyer said. "So this is not something that has been kind of sat on. When the information came out the players on the subcommittee made their feelings known. And Tony, to his credit, he's always been about the players first and Tony decided to take the action he did in the interest of the players."

Clark did not respond to a text seeking comment.

The start of annual tour of spring training camps by union officials was pushed back a day and began Wednesday with the Kansas City Royals.

The union's executive board was to meet online for the second straight day and Royals player representative John Schreiber said he expects a decision late Wednesday on a successor to lead the union through collective bargaining.

"We'll see how the meeting goes today," Schreiber said. "We're going on the right path and we'll have a decision shortly."

Meyer, hired by Clark in 2018, headed the 2021-22 negotiations that led to an agreement on March 10 that ended a 99-day lockout. Meyer was promoted to deputy executive director in July 2022.

"I don't anticipate that anybody's going to be leading negotiations other than me," Meyer said.

Clark's departure took placeduring a probeby the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, New York, into OneTeam Partners, a licensing company founded by the union, the NFL Players Association and RedBird Capital Partners in 2019.

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"There have been some issues hanging over, as you know, and in some respects it's good to get them out of the way sooner rather than later," Meyer said.

Meyer said the union's entire executive board of 72 players is eligible to vote for executive director: the executive subcommittee, 30 major league team player representatives and 34 minor leaguers, who have beenrepresented by the union since 2022.

MLB appears on track to propose a salary cap, which possibly could lead to a work stoppage that causes regular-season games to be canceled for the first time since 1995.

"We don't expect anything to change in terms of bargaining," Meyer said. "We've been preparing for bargaining for years. Players have been preparing. Players know what's coming. At the end of the day leadership is important and leadership comes and goes, but what remains is the players. At the end of the day, it's the players who determine the direction of the union. At the end of the day, it's the players who determine our priorities and bargaining. Those priorities obviously have not changed and will not change."

The union said it will resist a salary cap.

"Our position and the historic position of this union for decades on a salary cap is well known," Meyer said. "It's the ultimate restriction. It's something that owners in all the sports have wanted more than anything and in baseball in particular there's a reason for that, because it's good for them and not good for players."

The 64-year-old Meyer spent 30 years at Weil, Gotshal & Manges before joining the NHL Players Association in 2016 as senior director of collective bargaining, policy and legal. He wouldn't say whether he wants to succeed Clark as union head.

Meyer wouldn't directly address whether the union intends to restrict the hiring of family members.

"I think it's fair to say there are issues that will be addressed," he said. "There are various issues that will be evaluated, re-evaluated with the advice of counsel and, as always, at the direction of players."

AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.

AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Starting pitchers in fantasy baseball are similar to running backs in fantasy football. The position will generally be riddled with injuries. We'll want to have several speculation plays on our bench, guys who just need one thing to click. And getting this position right — or running lucky at this position — is probably the most important part of your fantasy season.

[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]

In past years, I would often be the last manager to address starting pitching, blanching at the uncertainty. Occasionally, I had success with this concept (one year I won the Yahoo Friends & Family League despite not drafting a starter; I did build a staff later) but I've since discarded the idea as a -EV strategy.

I want to proactively build my staff, like most of my competitors, at the draft. And I'll have to live with the variance like anyone else.

The numbers are unscientific in nature and meant to reflect where talent clusters and drops off. Assume a 5x5 scoring system, as usual, and away we go.

More Tiered Rankings

• Catcher

• First Base

• Second Base

• Shortstop

• Third Base

• Outfield

• Starting Pitcher

• Relief Pitcher

The Big Tickets

• $43 Tarik Skubal

• $41 Paul Skenes

• $39 Garrett Crochet

• $36 Cristopher Sánchez

• $35 Yoshinobu Yamamoto

• $35 Hunter Brown

• $34 Logan Webb

• $32 Logan Gilbert

• $31 Jacob deGrom

• $30 Chris Sale

If you're open to a high-priced ace but would prefer to start with a hitter, pray that Crochet slips to the second part of your draft. He's in the prime of his career, tied to a team expected to contend for the playoffs and not reliant on a max-velocity fastball. Crochet will also be helped by his defense — the infield might be in flux, but the outfielders are all excellent, and the catching is also above average. Crochet was a little homer-prone at Fenway but still dominant there, and no one touched him on the road (2.25/1.00). The Red Sox were right to go all-in on Chris Sale once upon a time, and history repeated itself when it cleared out the prospect chest for Crochet last year.

Because the Dodgers already have nine toes in the playoffs, I'm going to be careful with workload projections for everyone on staff. Los Angeles will basically run a six-man rotation all year, and anytime a pitcher has the slightest hiccup with their arms and elbows, a rest is to be expected. Yamamoto is the only L.A. pitcher who's qualified for the ERA title over the last three years (162 innings), and he's also the only returning Dodger starter who logged more than 91 innings last year.

Webb is 60 innings ahead of the field over the past three years and working in San Francisco mitigates some of his mistakes. With a good-but-not-elite strikeout clip and a ground-ball bias, we have to accept that in some starts, Webb will get crushed by BABIP misfortune. And you have to be okay with his fastball checking in at an ordinary 92.6 mph. But Webb looks like a perfect fourth-round target to me.

DeGrom's inning count has turned into an unsolvable SAT question. Starting in 2021 and cutting off the partials, this is what we're looking at: 92, 64, 30, 10, 172. He's moving into his age-38 season. Maybe it's a fool's errand to suppose any pitcher has a legitimate floor, but I know deGrom at this stage doesn't have one. My heart will always be invested in deGrom, so I'll avoid doubling down with fantasy investment. You have to decide for yourself.

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Legitimate Building Blocks

• $28 Bryan Woo

• $27 Hunter Greene

• $26 Max Fried

• $25 Cole Ragans

• $25 Joe Ryan

• $25 Freddy Peralta

• $23 Framber Valdez

• $23 Jesús Luzardo

• $22 George Kirby

• $22 Dylan Cease

• $20 Blake Snell

• $19 Kyle Bradish

• $18 Nick Pivetta

Rotator cuff problems cost Ragans more than half of his season, but the rest of his results were a cause of bad luck — everyreasonable ERA estimatorsays he should have been in the mid-2s, not the 4.67 number on the back of his card. Ragans gave us a reminder of his upside with 13 return innings in September, striking out 22. There's no reason why he can't return to his 2024 level of production (3.14/1.14, fourth in Cy Young voting).

Cease was a frustrating case last year, as he piled up 215 strikeouts but gave us hurtful ratios (4.55/1.33). Toronto's defense should help him turn more batted events into outs. Maybe he's not going to challenge for the Cy Young again, but normalized sequencing should give him a mid-3s ERA, and he's proven to be durable. Don't let his standard stats scare you off.

Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down

• $17 Nolan McLean

• $17 Tyler Glasnow

• $15 Kevin Gausman

• $14 Eury Pérez

• $13 Sonny Gray

• $13 Luis Castillo

• $13 Trey Yesavage

• $13 Robbie Ray

• $13 Cam Schlittler

• $13 Zack Wheeler

• $13 Spencer Strider

• $13 Nathan Eovaldi

• $13 Michael King

• $12 Brandon Woodruff

• $12 Shane Bieber

• $12 Sandy Alcantara

• $12 Jacob Misiorowski

• $12 Gavin Williams

• $12 Chase Burns

• $12 Trevor Rogers

• $12 Shota Imanaga

• $12 MacKenzie Gore

• $12 Andrew Abbott

• $11 Emmet Sheehan

• $11 Nick Lodolo

• $11 Bubba Chandler

• $11 Ranger Suárez

• $11 Shohei Ohtani

• $11 Cade Horton

• $10 Ryan Pepiot

• $10 Tanner Bibee

• $10 Carlos Rodón

• $10 Jack Flaherty

The Brewers have become the new Rays, the low-market team that makes better decisions than just about everyone else and winds up in the tournament every fall. Thus, I want to be proactive with their high-upside arms like Misiorowski and Henderson, while fully understanding that the team will be careful with workloads and pitch counts. If Misiorowski even gets to 24 starts, he probably returns his spring draft cost.

The early market is not bullish on Abbott, which means he can actually be worse than last year and still return a profit. Regress-and-win players are my jam. The strikeouts will play, andfly-ball pitchersare misunderstood — at least they're showing control of their outcomes.

The Marlins are ready to take the training wheels off with Pérez, and it's hard to unsee that tidy 0.96 WHIP he had over his final 16 starts. With the Tommy John surgery firmly in the background, Pérez is poised for a possible breakout. Hopefully, he doesn't feel like he needs to strike out the world — the Marlins have a problematic defense.

Some Plausible Upside

• $9 Drew Rasmussen

• $9 Shane McClanahan

• $9 Matthew Boyd

• $8 Merrill Kelly

• $8 Zac Gallen

• $7 Shane Baz

• $7 Edward Cabrera

• $6 Bailey Ober

• $6 David Peterson

• $6 Joe Musgrove

• $6 *Gerrit Cole

• $5 Aaron Nola

• $5 Tatsuya Imai

• $5 Bryce Miller

• $5 Jameson Taillon

Peruse theBoyd splitsand you might abandon the case — 12 of his wins were at home but he was a mess on the road, and his breakout stopped in the second half (4.63/1.19). And last season was his first full year starting out of six. But the Cubs have a top-five defense and a top-five lineup to support Boyd, and Yahoo rooms are giving you a reasonable 197.6 ticket. I can sign off.

Ober has always been a curious case, a 6-foot-9 righty withbelow-average velocity. A hip problem was probably responsible for his messy 2025; his three years prior gave us a 3.66 ERA and 1.03 WHIP. He's well priced for profit, even if the Minnesota defense is no longer an asset.

Nola routinely comes upshort of his expected statsto the point that you have to accept it as part of his profile. And even if that horrible 6.01 ERA was reduced to his 4.58 FIP, it's not like either stat helps you. His fastball has lost velocity for four straight seasons and homers, always a problem, hit a new low last season. Nola might seem like a tantalizing name pick at a reduced ADP, but I'm not chasing him on the back-9 of a slowly-fading career.

Bargain Bin

• $4 José Soriano

• $4 Roki Sasaki

• $4 Noah Cameron

• $4 Quinn Priester

• $4 Logan Henderson

• $4 Clay Holmes

• $4 Seth Lugo

• $3 Connelly Early

• $3 Ryne Nelson

• $3 Kris Bubic

• $3 Mitch Keller

• $3 Casey Mize

• $3 Michael Wacha

• $3 Sean Manaea

• $3 Shane Smith

• $3 Chris Bassitt

• $3 Brayan Bello

• $3 Ryan Weathers

• $3 Zebby Matthews

• $3 *Corbin Burnes

• $2 Yusei Kikuchi

• $2 Jack Leiter

• $2 Zach Eflin

• $2 Brady Singer

• $2 Reynaldo López

• $2 Parker Messick

• $2 *Hurston Waldrep

• $2 Ian Seymour

• $2 Brandon Pfaadt

• $2 Kodai Senga

• $2 José Berríos

• $2 Justin Verlander

• $2 Max Meyer

• $2 Lucas Giolito

• $2 Braxton Garrett

• $2 Dustin May

• $2 Cody Ponce

• $2 Matthew Liberatore

• $2 Dean Kremer

• $1 *Spencer Schwellenbach

• $1 *Grayson Rodriguez

• $1 Cade Cavalli

• $1 Jeffrey Springs

• $1 Joey Cantillo

• $1 Troy Melton

• $1 Will Warren

• $1 Braxton Ashcraft

• $1 Michael McGreevy

• $1 Luis Severino

• $1 Slade Cecconi

• $1 Mike Burrows

• $1 Chad Patrick

• $1 Jonah Tong

• $1 Zack Littell

• $1 Eduardo Rodríguez

• $1 Tyler Mahle

• $1 Payton Tolle

Senga has a wide range of outcomes — you could imagine him being in a playoff rotation come October, but he's also not guaranteed to make the Mets out of training camp. Maybe Senga's second-half collapse was mostly about hamstring problems, but keep in mind he's 33 and we're three years removed from his last full season.

With someone like Matthews, we follow the strikeout rate and the prospect pedigree and hope he can improve the control. His ultimate success will come down to finding a solution against lefties, who slashed .316/.372/.572 against him last year.

Climate Wildfire Weather

And more than half of that increase is caused byhuman-caused climate change, researchers calculated.

What this means is that as the world warms, more places across the globe are prone to go up in flames at the same time because of increasingly synchronous fire weather, which is when multiple places have the right conditions to go up in smoke. Countries may not have enough resources to put out all the fires popping up and help won't be as likely to come from neighbors busy with their own flames, according to the authors of a study in Wednesday's Science Advances.

In 1979 and for the next 15 years, the world averaged 22 synchronous fire weather days a year for flames that stayed within large global regions, the study found. In 2023 and 2024, it was up to more than 60 days a year.

"These sorts of changes that we have seen increase the likelihood in a lot of areas that there will be fires that are going to be very challenging to suppress," said study co-author John Abatzoglou, a fire scientist at the University of California, Merced.

The researchers didn't look at actual fires, but the weather conditions: warm, with strong winds anddry air and ground.

"It increases the likelihood of widespread fire outbreaks, but the weather is one dimension," said study lead author Cong Yin, a fire researcher at University of California, Merced. The other big ingredients to fires are oxygen, fuel such as trees and brush, and ignition such as lightning or arson or human accidents.

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This study is important because extreme fire weather is the primary — but not only — factor in increasing fire impacts across the globe, said fire scientist Mike Flannigan of Thompson Rivers University in Canada, who wasn't part of the study. And it's also important because regions that used to have fire seasons at different times and could share resources are now overlapping, he said.

Abatzoglou said: "And that's where things begin to break."

More than 60% of the global increase in synchronous fire weather days can be attributed to climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, Yin said. He and his colleagues know this because they used computer simulations to compare what's happened in the last 45 years to a fictional world without the increased greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

The continental United States, from 1979 to 1988, averaged 7.7 synchronous fire weather days a year. But in the last 10 years that average was up to 38 days a year, according to Yin.

But that is nothing compared to the southern half of South America. That region averaged 5.5 synchronous fire weather days a year from 1979 to 1988; over the last decade, that's risen to 70.6 days a year, including 118 days in 2023.

Of 14 global regions, only Southeast Asia saw a decrease in synchronous fire weather, probably because it is getting more humid there, Yin said.

The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP'sstandardsfor working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas atAP.org.