CIA offers tips to potential informants in Iran as Trump considers military action.

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency offered help to potential informants in Iran on Tuesday, providing Farsi-language instructions on ways to safely contact the U.S. spy agency as President Donald Trump mulls possible military strikes.

The post is the latest in a series of recruitment pitches in Farsi, Korean, Russian and Mandarin that offered secure ways to contact the CIA. The Farsi-language message posted Tuesday to X, Instagram and YouTube, however, comes at an especially uneasy time in U.S.-Iran relations and as the Iranian theocracy faces new protests at home.

The U.S. has assembled its largest military force in the Mideast in decades as tensions with Iran have risen. Trump threatened military action in January in response to the government’s fierce crackdown on national protests before shifting his focus to Iran’s disputed nuclear program and warning it to make a deal. Another round of nuclear talks is planned for later this week.

In a sign of new unrest in Iran, students held anti-government protests at universities in Tehran on Monday.

“Hello. The Central Intelligence Agency hears you and wants to help,” the agency wrote in the message, according to an English translation. “Here are some tips on how to make a secure virtual call with us.”

The Farsi-language post racked up millions of views within just a few hours.

The agency won’t say if earlier recruitment videos have resulted in tips or new sources, but Director John Ratcliffe has said the posts are having an impact.

“Last year, CIA’s Mandarin video campaign reached many Chinese citizens, and we know there are many more searching for a way to improve their lives and change their country for the better,” Ratcliffe said earlier this month when a new Mandarin video was posted.

The #CIA’s tips include using a virtual private network, or VPN, to circumvent internet restrictions and surveillance, and the use of a disposable device that can’t easily be traced back to the user. The CIA also urged potential informants to use private web browsers and to delete their internet history to cover their tracks.

The instructions include ways to reach the CIA on its public website or on the darknet, a part of the internet that can only be accessed using special tools designed to hide the user’s identity. The CIA has also posted similar instructions in Russian.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about the new video.

Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report from New York.

David Klepper, The Associated Press

Sudanese paramilitary forces kill at least 28 people in an attack in Darfur, group says.

CAIRO — An attack by the Sudanese paramilitary forces on a stronghold of a Darfur tribal leader left at least 28 people dead, a doctors group said on Tuesday.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Monday rampaged through the town of Misteriha in North Darfur province, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The town is a stronghold of Arab tribal leader Musa Hilal who also hails from the Rizeigat Arab tribe as the majority of the members of the paramilitary RSF.

At least 39 people, including 10 women, were wounded in the attack, the medical group said.

Sudan’s war erupted in 2023 after tensions between the Sudanese army and the rival RSF escalated into fighting that began in Khartoum and spread nationwide, killing thousands, triggering mass displacement, disease outbreaks, and severe food insecurity. Aid workers were frequently targeted.

The medical group said RSF shelling hit the town’s healthcare center on Monday, after which the RSF fighters assaulted medical staff and detained at least one of them. The paramilitaries began their offensive on the town over the weekend with drone strikes that hit Hilal’s guesthouse. On Monday, the RSF launched a major ground offensive and took over the town.

The seizure of Misteriha has asserted RSF control of Darfur. However, it risks escalating tribal tensions in an area long known for violence and war.

Trump denies top U.S. officer warned of Iran strike risks. President Donald Trump on Monday denied reports that the top U.S. military officer had flagged the risks of a major operation against Iran, saying Washington would “easily” beat Tehran in any war.

U.S. media reported that General Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had warned of various risks associated with strikes against Iran including a long-term entanglement.

But Trump said on his Truth Social network that it was “100 percent incorrect” that Caine was “against us going to war with Iran.”

“General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won,” Trump wrote.

“He has not spoken of not doing Iran, or even the fake limited strikes that I have been reading about, he only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack.”

The Washington Post said Caine had expressed concern at the White House and Pentagon that munition shortages and a lack of allied support could increase danger to U.S. personnel.

And the Wall Street Journal said both the top general and other Pentagon officials have warned of risks such as U.S. and allied casualties as well as the danger of U.S. air defenses being depleted if its forces strike Iran.

The Axios news outlet meanwhile said Caine had warned of the United States “becoming entangled in a prolonged conflict.”

Trump’s roving negotiator Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had also been urging the president to hold off attacks and give diplomacy a chance, Axios said.

The U.S. president however accused the media outlets of writing “incorrectly, and purposefully so.”

“I am the one that makes the decision, I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people,” Trump added.

Trump, who ordered strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last year, has repeatedly threatened Tehran with further military action if ongoing talks do not reach a replacement for the nuclear deal the U.S. president tore up in 2018, during his first term in office.

Washington has deployed a massive military force to the Middle East, sending two aircraft carriers as well as more than a dozen other ships, a large number of warplanes and other assets to the region.

But negotiations are still set to continue, with a U.S. official saying the next round of talks with Tehran would take place on Thursday.

Kim reelected to top post of North Korea’s ruling party as it hails his nuclear buildup.


SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was reelected to the top post of the ruling Workers’ Party, with delegates crediting him for bolstering the country’s nuclear arsenal and strengthening its regional standing, state media reported Monday.

The report from the party congress, a major propaganda spectacle where Kim is expected to outline his political and military goals for the next five years, suggests he will double down on accelerating a nuclear arsenal already equipped with missiles capable of threatening Asian U.S. allies and the American mainland.

The party also released a new roster for its powerful Central Committee that confirmed a generational shift in Kim’s leadership circle, with aging military chiefs and the 76-year-old head of Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament among dozens replaced in the 138-member body.

The congress, which began last Thursday, comes as Kim grows increasingly assertive in regional politics, following an aggressive expansion of his nuclear arsenal and closer ties with Russia forged through joint war efforts in Ukraine, which have deepened his standoffs with Washington and Seoul. Kim has also pursued stronger ties with China, traveling to Beijing last September and having his first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in six years.

Analysts say Kim will likely use the meeting to unveil new military goals, including strengthening conventional forces and integrating them with nuclear capabilities, while reemphasizing a campaign for economic “self-reliance” through mass mobilization, following gradual post-pandemic gains fueled by rebounding trade with China and arms exports to Russia.

Party credits Kim’s leadership as a boost to national pride

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim was reelected as the party’s general secretary with the “unshakable will and unanimous desire” of thousands of delegates on the fourth day of meetings Sunday.

Under party rules, the congress, which Kim has held every five years since 2016, elects the general secretary to serve as the party’s top representative and leader. Kim, 42, has held the party’s top post throughout his rule, though the title changed from first secretary to chairman at the congress in 2016 and then to general secretary at the congress in 2021.

The party said in a statement that by building up nuclear forces, Kim has created a military capable of handling “any threat of aggression” and “any form of war,” and credited his leadership with “reliably guaranteeing” the country’s future and “boosting the pride and self-esteem” of North Koreans.

It also praised Kim’s recent foreign policy, which it said raised national prestige. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said Xi congratulated Kim on his reelection.

Party’s leadership reshuffle reflects generational shift

KCNA said the congress adopted revisions to party rules during Sunday’s meeting but did not immediately provide details. Experts had anticipated that Kim would use the congress to entrench his hard-line stance toward South Korea and possibly rewrite party rules to codify his characterization of inter-Korean relations as between two “hostile” states.

State media so far haven’t mentioned any comments by Kim or other senior leaders at the congress directly addressing relations with Washington and Seoul.

Yoon Min Ho, a spokesperson at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, described Kim’s reelection as a predictable move to further burnish his leadership and that Seoul will closely watch further messages from the congress.

The most notable change to the new Central Committee list was the exclusion of Choe Ryong Hae, chairman of the standing committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly, who during an earlier part of Kim’s rule was seen as the second most powerful individual in Pyongyang. Also left out were military marshals Pak Jong Chon and Ri Pyong Chol, who had rose in the leadership ranks while Kim sped up his nuclear development over the past decade.

Yoon also noted the removal of senior officials who handled inter-Korean affairs, including Kim Yong Chol and Ri Son Gwon, who served key roles in carrying out Kim Jong Un’s diplomacy with then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in and President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019.

North Korea has suspended all meaningful diplomacy with the United States and South Korea since the collapse of a 2019 summit between Kim Jong Un and Trump over disagreements about exchange sanctions relief for steps to wind down Kim’s nuclear and missile program.

Kim’s government has rejected dialogue offers from Trump since the American president began his second term, urging Washington to drop its demand for North Korea’s denuclearization as a precondition for talks. Inter-Korean relations further deteriorated in 2024 when Kim abandoned the North’s long-standing goal of peaceful reunification and declared the war-divided South a permanent enemy.

Kim Tong-hyung, The Associated Press

Israeli settlers torch and deface a West Bank mosque during Ramadan

‘We are headed very much to a catastrophic war,’ expert says on U.S.-Iran nuclear dispute.

Badr Albusaidi, Oman’s Foreign Minister confirmed on social media on Sunday that the next round of talks are set to be held in Geneva on Feb. 26

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“Given the military forces that have been deployed in the Persian Gulf, military analysts are saying that this looks like the lead up to the 2003 Iraq war,” Nader Hashemi, associate professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. told CTV Your Morning on Friday.

“It seems like the U.S. is preparing for a major military attack on Iran, much larger and much bigger than what we saw last June.”

U.S. forces struck three Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025 as part of an attempt to slow Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran retaliated with strikes on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, targeting U.S. forces, following a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

Protests over the country’s political and economic situation began at the end of that year, prompting global protests, including across Canada.

But tensions between the two countries continue, as Trump stated at his inaugural Board of Peace meeting on Feb. 19 in Washington, D.C. that if a deal is not made between the two countries, “bad things will happen.”

Trump also said at the meeting that the world will find out in 10 days if a deal happens or whether the U.S military will take action.

Hashemi says the presence of the U.S. military in the region and Trump’s continued rhetoric are pressure tactics to ensure Iran agrees to U.S. demands.

“I don’t have a lot of optimism that these talks are going to produce a diplomatic breakthrough because they’ve been set up in such a way that Iran will have to reject the American demands because they are so comprehensive,” he said.

“I think (Trump) is just waiting until he has enough military assets in the region to strike Iran, hoping that is going to produce a big gain for him personally and advance U.S. interests in the region more broadly.”

Trump’s Board of Peace meeting also resulted in US$7 billion pledged towards rebuilding Gaza amidst the Israel-Hamas conflict from some attending members.

But as talks continue between Iran and the U.S., Hashemi says the presence of the U.S. military in the region could potentially point to a war and not a resolution between the two countries.

“To deploy this amount of military hardware to aircraft carrier strike groups, it’s very expensive for the U.S. to do that and sustain that type of military presence for a long period of time if you’re not going to use it,” he said.

“I suspect this is all the lead up to a major war, but again, when it comes to Trump, what he’s known for is his unpredictability (...) he tends to sort of make big decisions based on the last conversation he’s had with someone in the room, so these things can change very quickly ...

My reading is that we are headed very much to a catastrophic war whose implications can’t be predicted at this moment.”

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As expected, Canada’s Cassie Sharpe sits out Olympic halfpipe final after nasty crash.

The announcement was not unexpected, given the severity of the crash, which resulted in the former Olympic champion spending two nights in hospital

“It’s just not safe for me to ski tonight. Nor am I medically cleared to,” Sharpe said in a social media video. “This is the right call. It’s hard to accept. But sometimes health, family, friends, life, it’s bigger than sport, even when it’s the Olympics.”

Sharpe managed to finish third in qualifying despite being taken out of the halfpipe on a stretcher after a hard crash on her second run.

The 33-year-old from Comox, B.C., who won gold in 2018 in Pyeongchang and silver four years ago in Beijing, fell on her fifth trick, attempting at 080 jump. Her skis went flying as she attempted to land in a switch (backwards) position, and she lay face down on the snow at the bottom of the pipe.

After a lengthy delay, she was stretchered off the pipe, waving her arms to the crowd.

“In qualifying I’m really proud of the skiing I put down,” said Sharpe. “Qualifying into the finals was the goal but doing it in third, I genuinely skied my heart out. And I was going for my third Olympic medal. I wasn’t backing down. I put it all in the halfpipe and I’m really proud of that performance.”

The Canadian Olympic Committee, in a brief statement, said Sharpe was back in the athletes’ village. Sharpe, meanwhile, said she was looking forward to cheering on teammates Amy Fraser and Rachael Karker.

Calgary’s Brendan Mackay, Karker’s fiancé, won bronze in the men’s freeski halfpipe Friday evening. Karker won bronze four years ago in Beijing while Fraser finished eight.

Sharpe had been looking forward to a different Olympics, after giving birth to daughter Louella in August 2023, with plenty of family in Italy.

“I obviously want to go in to win and be on the podium,” Sharpe told The Canadian Press before the games. “That would be beautiful and amazing and great. But if that doesn’t happen, I’m still coming home to my family, to my daughter, to my life that I’ve created here. So there’s definitely a wider view of what life means to me these days.”

Her mother, Chantal, who took a leave of absence from her job as an airline attendant to help care for Louella on the road, came as well as Sharpe’s father, husband, two brothers and other friends.

Husband Justin Dorey was a 2014 Olympian in freestyle halfpipe, while younger brother Darcy was a 2022 Olympian in snowboard slopestyle and big air

The Olympic halfpipe, some 198 metres long with walls of 7.2 metres, has taken its toll.

Defending world champion Finley Melville Ives fell on both qualifying runs Friday, with a hard impact on the second. The 19-year-old star from New Zealand was 23rd after the first run and, pushing to lay down a score, went down hard to open the second qualifying run and was stretchered off the course.

Power banks recalled across Canada for potential fire hazard: Health Canada.

Health Canada has announced a recall for approximately 20,000 power banks in Canada, due to a potential fire hazard.

LOGiiX, a Vancouver-based company, is recalling its Piston Power 5000 Mag Power Banks that were manufactured in China in several colours.

“A small number of power banks may overheat when used to charge a device or when charging the power banks, posing a fire hazard,” the notice says.

According to the notice, as of Feb. 9, the company has received four reports of incidents in Canada, but no reports of injuries.

The recalled products, sold between January 2022 and July 2025, are:

Model number: LGX-13302, in the colour black
Model number: LGX-13303, in the colour white
Model number: LGX-13304, in the colour navy or midnight blue
Model number: LGX-13839, in the colour lavender
Model number: LGX-13840, in the colour blush

The model number can be found on the bottom of the packaging above the barcode, the notice says.

Health Canada advises consumers to stop using the recalled product and contact LOGiiX for a replacement power bank.

Consumers should also contact their municipality for directives on how to safely transport and dispose of lithium-ion batteries, Health Canada advises.

For more information, consumers can also contact LOGiiX by telephone at 1-855-412-6632, by email at Help@logiix.ca or visit the company’s website.

The #Canada Consumer Product Safety Act prohibits recalled products from being redistributed, sold or given away in Canada, the notice says.

Ex-U.K. Prime Minister Johnson calls on allies to send noncombat troops to Ukraine ahead of ceasefire