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Domino’s Pizza is finally releasing its own version of stuffed crust on Monday, aiming to win over the customers who are willing to spend more on the pricey pizza customization. 

Thirty years ago, Yum Brands’ Pizza Hut debuted the cheesy stuffed crust, marketing the launch with a television commercial starring Donald Trump. As years passed, rivals Papa John’s and Little Caesars eventually followed with their own takes. Trump went from hawking pizza to sitting in the Oval Office.

Generations of consumers have grown up with stuffed crust, including the increasingly important Gen Z diners, who are entering the workforce and buying their own pizzas now. The addition is critical for Domino’s, the top U.S. pizza chain, to compete with rivals Pizza Hut and Papa John’s, which have ceded market share to Domino’s in recent quarters but still steal the pizza chain’s customers.

“Nearly 13 million Domino’s customers each year are buying stuffed crust from our competitors, and these are our customers who have to leave our brand because we’re the only national pizza brand that doesn’t offer it,” Domino’s Chief Marketing Officer Kate Trumbull told CNBC.

Domino’s has taken so long to release stuffed crust that a survey of its customers found that 73% already believed that the chain offered it on the menu, according to Trumbull.

That all changes on Monday, when Domino’s launches its Parmesan Stuffed Crust. The menu item is included in the pizza chain’s $9.99 carryout deal.

When Pizza Hut originally launched stuffed crust, Domino’s viewed the menu item as gimmicky, according to Trumbull. Plus, the company heard that stuffed crust caused bottlenecks and slowed down service, leading to unhappy customers and workers.

But Domino’s perspective changed after more national competitors followed Pizza Hut’s lead. The chain committed to launching its own version in 2022, when its sales were faltering in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic pizza boom.

“It has been one of the longest development efforts in the company’s history,” Trumbull said.

The process began with extensive market research. Findings included that stuffed crust customers tend to buy pizza more frequently and often spend more per transaction.

Eight potential iterations followed before Domino’s landed on the right recipe for its Parmesan Stuffed Crust, made with mozzarella and topped with garlic seasoning and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

At the same time, Domino’s was improving its restaurants’ overall operations, retraining its employees across the system on making its crust and rolling out a custom dough spinner to restaurants. If the pizza chain hadn’t made its kitchens more efficient, it wouldn’t have been able to launch stuffed crust, according to Trumbull.

Ahead of the launch of Parmesan Stuffed Crust, the pizza chain spent 12 weeks training franchisees and 7,000 stores on how to make it properly.

“We’re not going to leave anything to chance after taking three years,” Trumbull said.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Sonic the Hedgehog may be able to run faster than the speed of light, but his film franchise nearly came to a screaming halt in 2019.

A less-than-three-minute trailer released early that year to tease the film’s release, which was just six months away, was widely panned by fans who took to social media to rail against Paramount’s character design. Dubbed “Ugly Sonic,” the blue creature that appeared on film was a far cry from the iconic video game speedster.

Cinematic Sonic, version 1, had more realistic facial features, including human-like teeth, and his body proportions were deemed inconsistent with the character fans grew up with in the ’90s.

“The trailer goes out, and I think it became the most viewed trailer in the history of Paramount Pictures. Which is amazing,” said Toby Ascher, who acquired the rights to Sonic and produced the film franchise. “The only problem was that 90% of people hated the trailer because of the design of Sonic.”

“All of a sudden we went from trying really, really hard to make a really, really faithful video game adaptation to being next in line of the people who had ruined video games for everyone. It just was a disaster of epic proportions,” Ascher added.

The studio pivoted, opting to redesign the title character and push the film’s release back three months to February 2020. The fix cost Paramount around $5 million but resulted in a franchise that has generated nearly $1.2 billion at the global box office. The studio hopes to build on that momentum with a fourth installment in the film franchise, set to debut in 2027.

“The Sonic franchise owes its box office success and longevity to a monumental decision early in the development of the first films’ marketing campaign,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “A re-design of a main character is no small thing. … These decisions can make or break what is every studio’s dream of having a single film turn into a long-term revenue generating franchise. The return on investment by turning an ‘ugly’ Sonic into a beautiful revenue generating franchise is undeniable.”

Ascher first acquired the rights to Sonic the Hedgehog in 2013, a time in Hollywood when video game-inspired films had failed to resonate with audiences.

“When we first started working on Sonic, making a video game adaptation was, like, a really bad idea,” he told CNBC.

No film based on a video game property had, to that point, managed to earn a positive rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It wasn’t until 2019 that a video game-based film generated a “fresh” rating on the site, indicating more than 60% positive reviews.

“I don’t think anyone in town really thought making a Sonic movie was a good idea,” Ascher said. “But, I think our strategy was that we had grown up with these games. We’ve grown up with these characters, and we wanted to treat them like any other character. We wanted to give them real emotional arcs, and real emotional stories where you could relate to them.”

Ascher noted that previous video game adaptations typically focused on worldbuilding rather than character development.

“What we’ve been able to do is inject into the franchise heart, and I think that that’s what’s made it different,” said Neal Moritz, Ascher’s producing partner and producer of franchises like “The Fast and the Furious” and “21 Jump Street.”

Both Ascher and Moritz noted that while the filmmaking team behind the first “Sonic the Hedgehog” film overhauled the main character’s design, the story remained pretty much the same.

The filmmaking team was blindsided by audiences’ reactions to the first trailer, but were resolute in trying to resolve the issue rather than shelve the film or release it in its current form.

Moritz said he made an “impassioned speech” to the heads of Paramount and Sega to allow the filmmakers to fix the mistake.

As Moritz recalls, he told executives: “We really screwed up here, but there’s an incredible amount of interest and what we need to do is fix it … We need some more money and we need some more time. If you give that to us, I think we could turn this thing around.”

“I give both Paramount and Sega a lot of credit,” Moritz said. “They said ‘OK.’”

In the redesign, the team brought back Sonic’s iconic white gloves and classic red shoes. They reinfused the character with some of his cartoon roots, and six months after the first trailer, Paramount released a new iteration.

“The fans saw that we were trying to be really genuine in our love for this franchise,” Ascher said, noting that in the wake of the first trailer the team began engaging more with fans and focus groups to drum up feedback and inspiration.

The new trailer was well-received by fans, and three months later “Sonic the Hedgehog” opened to $58 million at the box office. The feature went on to collect $146 million domestically before the pandemic shuttered theaters. Globally, it pulled in $302 million.

The Sonic franchise has continued to thrive in the following years, with each follow-up feature outperforming the last.

“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” snared $190 million domestically and $403 million globally, while “Sonic the Hedgehog 3″ tallied $235 million stateside and $485 million worldwide.

“That’s a big jump,” said Marc Weinstock, Paramount’s president of worldwide marketing and distribution. “I get excited that every new movie does better than the last one, which is rare.”

Following the success of the second “Sonic” film, the studio’s then-president and CEO of Paramount Pictures, Brian Robbins, greenlit a “Knuckles” series based on the franchise for the company’s streaming service, Paramount+, as well as a third Sonic film.

Sonic was becoming multi-platform, much like Robbins and Paramount had done for franchises like “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “A Quiet Place,” “Spongebob Squarepants” and “Paw Patrol.”

The “Knuckles” show generated more than 11 million global viewing hours in its first 28 days on Parmount+.

The theatrical success also rocketed Sonic from a $70 million licensing business to one that generates more than $1 billion in retail revenue annually, according to Ivo Gerscovich, Sega’s senior vice president and chief business and brand officer of Sonic the Hedgehog.

“The great thing about Sonic — and the success of Sonic from the very beginning — is that we basically have listened to the fans from day one,” Robbins, now co-CEO of Paramount, said. “The fans are fanatical about this franchise and love this franchise and know this franchise. Because of that, they’ve become really key in shaping the franchise … They evangelize it.”

Fans inspired the casting of Keanu Reeves as Shadow, an archrival of Sonic, in the third Sonic film. And the filmmaking team says it continues to look to fans to inspire which characters it will add to the films and series next.

Ascher and Moritz both teased that the fourth Sonic film with again feature a new fan-favorite character, but said the team will continue to expand the franchise’s universe at a slow pace.

“If all of a sudden we bring every character, they are not going to get the time that the audience needs to understand them and relate to them and really fall in love with them,” Ascher said. “So, as we bring characters in, whether it’s film or it’s TV, the most important thing is that they have a good story that really showcases the character in an incredible way.”

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes and is the distributor of “The Fast and the Furious” films.

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Starbucks announced Tuesday that Nordstrom CFO Cathy Smith will join the company as its new chief financial officer, replacing longtime veteran Rachel Ruggeri.

The executive change is the latest for Starbucks after Brian Niccol joined the company as chief executive in September with the goal of turning around slumping coffee sales.

So far, noteworthy departures during Niccol’s tenure have included the company’s North American CEO, North American president, chief supply officer and the former chair of the board. Meanwhile, many executives with ties to Niccol from his time leading Chipotle Mexican Grill and Yum Brands’ Taco Bell have joined the company.

Smith, 61, joins Starbucks after two years at Nordstrom, which is also based in Seattle and recently announced a $6.25 billion deal to go private. Throughout her decades-long career, Smith has also served as CFO for Bright Health Group, Target, Express Scripts, Walmart International, GameStop, Centex, Kennametal, Textron and Raytheon.

Smith is expected to start next month, Niccol wrote in a letter to employees.

Ruggeri has served as chief financial officer for Starbucks since 2021. Excluding two brief stints at other companies, she has worked at the coffee chain since 2001.

“I’m personally grateful for the partnership we’ve had over the last 6 months since I joined Starbucks,” Niccol said in the letter. “Thank you, Rachel, for all you have done for our business, our culture and our partners.”

Her departure is without cause, the company said in a regulatory filing. Ruggeri will stick around to help with Smith’s transition into the role, according to Niccol.

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At least one person has been killed and several others have been injured after a car rammed into pedestrians in the southwestern German city of Mannheim, local police said Monday.

The incident occurred shortly after midday local time (6 a.m. ET), said Stefan Wilhelm, a spokesperson for Mannheim police. A suspect has been arrested, he added.

Germany’s federal government issued an “extreme danger” warning in the city and said a large-scale police operation is underway.

Mannheim University Hospital said that three of the injured people it has received are receiving urgent acute care, including a child. Police have not yet said how many people were injured.

Germany has been rocked by a string of deadly car ramming attacks in recent months. Police have not yet said whether Monday’s incident was a deliberate attack.

In December, a vehicle plowed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing six people, including a 9-year-old boy. The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who had lived in Germany for more than a decade and worked to help Saudis leave his home country. Social media posts showed he was a fervent critic of Islam.

In February, a person drove a Mini Cooper into demonstrators in Munich, killing a mother and her child and injuring more than 30 others. The suspect is a 24-year-old Afghan man.

That attack came on the eve of the Munich Security Conference and just days before the country’s federal election, where concerns over immigration and security helped propel the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to second place.

Monday’s incident comes as Germany celebrates “Rose Monday,” a carnival held before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

German police were already on high alert ahead of the carnival celebrations, but the incident in Mannheim has prompted some forces to take additional measures. Police in Ulm, a city southeast of Mannheim, said they have “noticeably increased” their presence around carnival events.

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Mexico has extradited 29 alleged criminals to the United States, among them the so-called “narco of narcos” Rafael Caro Quintero, many accused of murder and several alleged members of cartels now designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Here’s what you need to know about the extradited men and the accusations leveled against them.

Rafael Caro Quintero

Caro Quintero is the most high-profile individual among the 29 extradited. Known as the “narco of narcos” and pursued by the US for 40 years, the erstwhile leader of the now-defunct Guadalajara Cartel is alleged to have been among those responsible for the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena and others. When news broke of his extradition on February 27, the DEA’s Los Angeles office tweeted out a portrait of Camarena with the caption “Justice Served!”

Caro Quintero appeared before a judge in Brooklyn on Friday afternoon, pleading not guilty to charges related to the decades-old killing of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent and other drug-related charges.

Caro Quintero has already spent 28 years in prison in Mexico for his alleged role in Camarena’s murder before he was released on a technicality in 2013. That year, the Mexican Supreme Court overturned the decision that freed him.

Added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives in 2018, Caro Quintero returned to drug trafficking as a senior leader of the Sinaloa cartel, according to the FBI. The Sinaloa Cartel is now considered a terrorist organization by the US.

In July 2022, Caro Quintero was captured by the Mexican Navy during an operation in which a navy dog found him hiding among some bushes.

“Caro Quintero, a cartel kingpin who unleashed violence, destruction, and death across the United States and Mexico, has spent four decades atop DEA’s most wanted fugitives list, and today we can proudly say he has arrived in the United States where justice will be served,” DEA Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz said in a February 27 press release.

Judge Robert M. Levy clarified in court that Caro Quintero was expelled from Mexico under a provision within the national security law, which permits the Mexican government to remove an individual without undergoing the formal extradition process.

Alder Marin-Sotelo

Alder Marin-Sotelo and his brother were charged with the murder of Wake County, NC sheriff’s deputy Ned Byrd in August 2022 . Prosecutors accuse Marin-Sotelo of shooting and killing Byrd during a traffic stop.

In May 2023, while awaiting trial in a Virginia jail, Marin-Sotelo and another inmate managed to escape, with Marin-Sotelo fleeing to Mexico. He was captured there less than a week after his escape. His sister was later arrested and pleaded guilty in federal court to help him escape by paying $2,500 to arrange for the getaway car, according to court documents.

Court documents indicate that both Alder Marin-Sotelo and his brother are scheduled for arraignment in court on March 3.

Andrew Clark

Clark is the only Canadian citizen among the 29 prisoners. Known as “El Dictador,” or “the Dictator,” Mexican authorities captured Clark in Mexico in October 2024, and soon after the US Department of Justice hit him with a 16-count superseding indictment.

The DOJ alleges that Clark was one of two figures at the head of a massive drug-smuggling ring bringing “hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States,” according to a department press release in October 2024.

He’s further alleged to have ordered numerous murders. Clark’s accused co-conspirator is a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder, Ryan Wedding, who remains at large in Mexico, according to the FBI.

José Ángel Canobbio Inzunza

Also known as “El Güerito” and/or “El 90,” Canobbio is allegedly the leader of the armed group Los Chimales. According to Mexico’s top security agency, Canobbio was the second in command of the criminal group Los Chapitos – a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman’s sons.

In November 2024, a federal grand jury in Chicago indicted Canobbio “for allegedly manufacturing cocaine, fentanyl, and other drugs in Mexico and importing them into the United States,” according to the DOJ.

Norberto Valencia González

Valencia is accused of money laundering as a financial operator for the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, according to a press release from Mexico’s federal security agency SSPC. US Attorney General Pam Bondi’s statement on his extradition says that he faces “up to life imprisonment.”

José Alberto García Vilano

Known by his nickname “La Kena,” Mexican authorities say Garcia is accused of drug trafficking and money laundering. Allegedly, Garcia was the leader of the Los Ciclones group in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, one of the Gulf Cartel’s offshoots. In a February 28 press release, the Justice Department said that Garcia was charged with drug trafficking and money-laundering-related crimes.

The Gulf Cartel is infamous for allegations that it kidnapped four American tourists in Tamaulipas in 2023, killing two. Authorities believe the cartel had mistaken the tourists for Haitian drug traffickers.

Evaristo Cruz Sánchez

Alias “El Vaquero,” according to SSPC, Cruz is accused of drug trafficking as a regional leader of the Gulf Cartel – one of the six Mexican cartels now considered terrorist organizations by the US government.

In the same press release announcing Garcia’s capture, the Justice Department said that it charged Cruz in a “nine-count indictment for his involvement in drug trafficking between 2015 through 2021.”

Miguel and Omar Treviño Morales

Alleged former leaders of Los Zetas, like other members of the cartel, who often take on nommes de guerre beginning with “Z,” these two brothers are known by their respective aliases “Z-40” and “Z-42.” Founded by former members of the Mexican Special Forces and once powerful, according to InSight Crime, the Los Zetas cartel is currently weak and fragmented.

Miguel is allegedly the founder of the Cartel del Noreste – now considered a terrorist group by the US. Before his capture in 2015, Omar was considered a potential successor, according to InSight Crime in 2021.

Who are the remaining 20 prisoners?

The other 20 prisoners are all accused members or lower-level leaders of cartels and other criminal groups in Mexico, according to a press release from Mexico’s top security agency. Among them are alleged members of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), Cartel Del Noreste, and the Sinaloa Cartel – all now considered terror organizations by the US government.

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Pope Francis experienced “two episodes of acute respiratory failure,” the Vatican said Monday, marking the latest in a series of medical crises the 88-year-old pontiff has endured since he was first hospitalized last month.

Monday’s episodes were caused by “significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus” and a consequent narrowing of the airways, the Vatican said.

Earlier in the day, the pope underwent two bronchoscopies and doctors removed a buildup of secretions.

In the afternoon, Francis was given an oxygen mask to help with his breathing, according to the Vatican.

Throughout, the pontiff remained alert and cooperative, the Vatican said.

“It was a complicated afternoon,” Vatican sources said, adding that the acute respiratory crisis, which lasted for part of the afternoon, is now over, and that the pope is now resting.

“The accumulation of the mucus is a result of the pneumonia and that causes coughing and spasm as the bronchi try to expel the mucus as it irritates them,” the sources said.

The sources added that Francis’ blood tests remain the same and his prognosis remains “reserved.”

In a previous update on Monday morning, Vatican said the pope “rested well” throughout the night and sources said he was receiving high flows of oxygen through nose cannulas.

Pope Francis has been hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since mid-February, where he has been battling double pneumonia. On Friday, he had a sudden respiratory episode, which required him to receive an oxygen mask. His current hospitalization is his fourth – and now longest – stay since he became pope in 2013.

The Vatican has been releasing twice daily updates on the pope’s health.

The pontiff has suffered from lung-related issues for much of his life. As a young man, he suffered from severe pneumonia and had part of one lung removed.

On Sunday, Vatican sources said the “picture is still complex” and that the “risk of crisis” remains.

Rabezzana said the family has not been in touch with Francis but receives updates through the news. The last phone call the family had with the pope was on Christmas, she said.

Francis’ schedule has been cleared to accommodate his intensive medical treatment. He did not lead the Angelus prayer on Sunday, for the third week in a row.

He also will not lead the Ash Wednesday service, which marks the start of Lent, a 40-day period of prayer, repentance and fasting for many Christians, for only the second time in his papacy, according to the Vatican. A cardinal is expected to lead the service instead.

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It’s not unusual to see superheroes in the streets when it’s Carnival time in Brazil.

Batman, Superman and Spider-Man are common sights on the streets of São Paulo during what’s sometimes called the world’s biggest party.

But among the many people dressed in figure-hugging colorful lycra for this year’s festivities, four dressed as the 1990s-era Power Rangers really went the extra mile.

Footage shared by São Paulo authorities on Saturday showed what appeared to be the red, blue, yellow and green Power Rangers restraining a suspected phone thief in front of a crowd of Carnival revelers chanting “Power Rangers! Power Rangers!” in one scene, while a fifth Power Ranger – in black – brandishes a fistful of recovered devices in another.

“It’s morphin’ time!” wrote São Paolo’s governor Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas in a post on X, in which he revealed the “Power Rangers” were in fact undercover law enforcement officers taking a novel approach to crime at the festival.

He alleged that as a result of the arrest, police had recovered four more stolen phones and roughly $2,425 in cash.

“Our Civil Police Power Rangers are putting on another show this Carnival!” he added.

Brazil’s most populous state says gangs specializing in theft and robberies often take advantage of large crowds at festival time, and credits its strategy of disguising undercover police as partygoers for significant declines in festival-related crimes.

“Over the pre-Carnival weekend, 880 cases of cell phone theft and robbery were reported, a significant drop from the 2,344 cases recorded in the same period last year,” São Paulo’s government said recently.

The police don’t just dress up as Power Rangers, however. Last month, police released an image of an officer dressed as the Mexican parody superhero “El Chapulin Colorado” (the Red Grasshopper) escorting a handcuffed suspect.

Brazil’s festivities will continue until the first day of Lent in the Christian calendar, which this year falls on March 5.

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There are three major hurdles to holding new elections, officials said. Only three quarters of Ukraine’s polling stations are operable at present and preparations to get elections to “international standards” would take six months, said the deputy head of Ukraine’s electoral commission, Serhiy Dubovyk.

Ukraine’s constitution also mandates, upon the president’s resignation, that the speaker of parliament takes his place until elections are complete.

Finally, Ukraine is currently under martial law, prohibiting elections until it is lifted, meaning a sustained ceasefire or peace would be needed.

Focus on Zelensky’s future has grown since US President Donald Trump’s closest advisers spent Sunday hinting he might no longer be the leader Ukraine needs. On Monday, Trump responded to Zelensky being quoted as saying an end to the war was “very, very far away” by suggesting America would not put up with such talk “for much longer.” Conversely, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump had no interest in removing the Ukrainian president.

Zelensky himself appeared to dismiss the idea of his resignation when he spoke to journalists Sunday in London, providing a riddle of how to remove him from power.

“It is not enough to simply hold elections,” he said. “You would have to prevent me from participating in the elections … You’ll have to negotiate with me,” he said, before suggesting, as he has done previously, that he would resign if Ukraine received NATO membership – something the Trump administration has repeatedly ruled out. He joked, with a little defiance, that NATO entering Ukraine would mean “that I have fulfilled my mission.”

The practical headaches of staging an election swiftly are manifold, said Dubovyk. “First, the legal aspect of ending martial law must happen,” he said.

“Secondly, there must be a preparatory process, because the country is at war, with systemic damage (and) only 75 percent of polling stations are ready for the elections, including on the occupied territories.”

He said “the six-month preparatory period confirmed by representatives of all factions of the (Ukrainian parliament, the) Verkhovna Rada is a reasonable timeframe.”

He added it could be “accelerated, but in this case, it is impossible to fully guarantee compliance with all international standards.”

Dubovyk and several other Ukrainian officials mentioned the logistical challenge of allowing the approximately 7 million Ukrainians living abroad as refugees the chance to vote, and the potential frontline crisis of having to allow the estimated million Ukrainians in the military the chance to both vote, and run in, the election.

The Kremlin has persistently referred to what it claims is the illegitimacy of Zelensky, falsely questioning his mandate in wartime, a talking point that crept into the White House’s statements last month.

Election advocates said this, and Russia’s history of electoral interference – such as when it sparked the vast pro-Western protests of the Orange Revolution in 2004 – made it only more important to ensure the vote met international standards.

“We need to reload all freedoms of movement and speech, and have a competitive electoral process,” said Olha Aivazovska, from the electoral reform group the Opora civil network.

She said elections in wartime were “impossible because it will be unconstitutional. Everything we have now because of the war, we have to change. It is about the reputation and legitimacy of the Ukrainian state as it is. Without legitimacy this state will not survive, because Russia will destroy our reputation and then we will be a failed state.”

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Japan is fighting a forest fire that has damaged dozens of homes and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate in a northeastern coastal city.

The fire has burned about 2,100 hectares (5,190 acres) of forest in Ofunato since it started Wednesday, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

The agency said at least 84 homes have been damaged, and over 1,200 people evacuated. The fire has subsided in some areas. More than 2,000 troops and and firefighters have been deployed from across the country.

A man was found dead on a road Thursday, and authorities are examining if the death was linked to the fire, the agency said.

The northeastern regions, including Ofunato, have had their driest winter since 1946, when the Japan Meteorological Agency started collecting data.

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Warning: This report contains details of sexual assaults. Reader discretion is advised.

Armed forces in Sudan’s ongoing civil war are perpetrating systematic sexual violence against young children, with one-year-olds the youngest survivors of rape, according to a new report from UNICEF, the United Nations’ (UN) children’s agency.

The UNICEF report, released Tuesday, said that at least 221 cases of child rape had been recorded since the beginning of 2024, along with an additional 77 reported cases of sexual assault against children.

Four one-year-olds were among those who survived sexual assaults, while another 12 survivors were children under the age of 5, according to the report. Of the rape survivors, 66% are girls and 33% are boys.

The data, compiled by gender-based violence service providers in Sudan, only represent a “small fraction” of the total child rape cases, UNICEF said, noting that survivors, their families and even frontline workers are often unwilling or unable to report the crimes due to challenges around accessing services, cultural stigmas and the fear of retribution from armed groups.

The report, which detailed firsthand accounts of sexual violence against children from December 2024 and January 2025, found that children were sexually abused during invasions of cities, while fleeing danger, while being held against their will or in detention – and sometimes in exchange for food or other essential supplies.

Sudan has been gripped by war for nearly two years, as forces loyal to two rival generals fight for control of the country.

The generals – Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – have viciously competed for territory in a country still reeling from the massacre of tens of thousands of people in the early 2000s and the displacement of millions more.

Since April 2023, more than 28,700 people have been killed according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data initiative, and more than 11 million have been forced to flee their homes.

UNICEF received firsthand reports of “armed men storming homes and demanding at gunpoint that families surrender their girls, often while violently attacking the family members or raping the girls in front of their loved ones,” according to the report.

Frontline workers have seen an increase of violence against internally displaced people living in shelters or who are sheltering at informal sites, UNICEF said, noting that the risk of sexual violence is high within these communities, especially against children.

One rape survivor, a woman who asked to be called Omnia, told UNICEF that she was detained by armed men for 19 days. She said that she became suicidal after hearing young girls being raped every night.

“After nine at night, someone opens the door, carrying a whip, selects one of the girls, and takes her to another room. I could hear the little girl crying and screaming. They were raping her… She is still just a young child. They only release these girls at dawn, and they return almost unconscious,” Omnia said.

Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s executive director said the testimonies should “shock anyone to their core and compel immediate action,” adding that “widespread sexual violence in Sudan has instilled terror in people, especially children.”

The report noted that violence is not limited to only one part of Sudan and that cases of child rape were reported in nine states across the country.

The SAF controls the eastern and northern parts of the country, according to the British government, while the RSF controls western, southern and central Sudan – including the Darfur region.

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