Fire and Fury: Tillerson 'never questioned' Trump mental health

        Media captionDozens queued for the midnight release of Fire and Fury.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he has never doubted President Trump's mental health after a new book claimed staff saw him as a child.

      Author Michael Wolff said White House employees believed Mr Trump's "mental powers were slipping".

His book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, went on sale early despite the president's attempts to block its publication.

Mr Trump says the book is "boring and untruthful" and Wolff a "total loser".

He said it was being pushed by the media and others to hurt him. He added in a tweet: "They should try winning an election. Sad!"

     Mr Tillerson - who is alleged to have called Mr Trump a moron last year - told CNN: "I have no reason to question his mental fitness."

He said Mr Trump was "not typical of presidents of the past".

"I think that's well recognised. That's also though why the American people chose him," he said.

What are the questions on Trump's mental health?

       In a television interview on Friday, Wolff said "100% of the people" around Mr Trump questioned his fitness for office.

His book alleges that Mr Trump failed to recognise close friends, and was prone to repeating comments.

      Wolff said that White House staff described the president as childlike because "he has the need for immediate gratification. It's all about him... This man does not read, does not listen. He's like a pinball just shooting off the sides."

The president said he had not given Wolff access to the White House nor spoken to him for the book.

      But Wolff responded: "What was I doing there if he didn't want me to be there? I absolutely spoke to the president... It was not off the record."

He said he had spent a total of three hours with Mr Trump, both during the election campaign and after the inauguration.

What else is in the book?

     It cites former top aide Steve Bannon as describing a meeting between a Russian lawyer and Trump election campaign officials, including Mr Trump's son Donald Jr, as "treasonous".

Both Mr Trump Jr and his father deny that any collusion with Russians to win the election took place. However Mr Bannon is quoted in the book as saying: "They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV."

• Russia-Trump: Who's who in the drama to end all dramas?

The meeting is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his inquiry into possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and Russia.

The book makes many other claims, including that:

• The Trump team was shocked and horrified by his election win
• His wife, Melania, was in tears of sadness on election night
• His daughter, Ivanka, had a plan with her husband, Jared Kushner, that she would be "the first woman president"
• Ivanka mocked her dad's "comb-over" hairstyle and "often described the mechanics behind it to friends"

       The accuracy of some excerpts has been criticised and questioned in US media.

Still, even if only half of what the book contains is true, it paints a damning portrait of a paranoid president and a chaotic White House, says BBC North America editor Jon Sopel.

Will it actually hurt Trump?

      BBC North America reporter Anthony Zurcher reported, Donald Trump's supporters have seen many a media storm over the past few years, and somehow their man always emerges (relatively) unscathed. The book may be generating considerable heat among the chattering class, but there's little to indicate that its lasting impact will be much more than confirming long-held suspicions of Trump critics and re-enforcing the bunker mentality in the White House.

       Outside Washington, in places where people don't devoutly follow every permutation of the presidential Twitter feed, the Trump administration is compiling a boast-worthy economic record.

Despite some doom-and-gloom predictions following the 2016 election, the stock market has soared. Unemployment remains low. Major corporations are making high-profile moves to at least temporarily boost their workers' paycheques. And the president can start pointing to his party's tax bill as a tangible reason why the economy is humming along.

      If the current trajectory continues, Mr Trump and his fellow Republicans will be positioned to make the case to voters in the months and years ahead that despite all the drama - the often self-inflicted fire and fury - their agenda is to help Americans where it counts the most, in their pockets.

That's the kind of message that can win.

What will happen to Steve Bannon?

       Media captionTrump harsher on Bannon than he is on his "worst enemies"

Mr Trump said Mr Bannon - who was sacked in August - had "lost his mind" after losing his White House position, adding in a tweet that Mr Bannon had cried when he lost his job.

Reports suggest that more conservative factions in the Republican party are rallying around Mr Trump.

        Billionaire conservative donor Rebekah Mercer, who had backed Mr Bannon financially and invested in the right-wing Breitbart news website that he heads, cut ties with the former strategist, and reiterated her support for the president.

 What else is happening at the White House?

Despite the storm over the book, the Trump administration has been pressing ahead with its agenda.                                                                                                                                                              On Friday, Mr Trump refused to answer questions about the book as he departed for Camp David from the White House. Mr Trump will spend two days meeting top Republicans at the retreat to discuss his legislative priorities for the year ahead.  (Quoted from BBC World News, Jan 5, 2018, reported by Anthony Zurcher).

Saudi Arabia driving ban on women to be lifted

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has issued a decree allowing women to drive for the first time, state media say.

Government ministries are to prepare reports within 30 days and the order will be implemented by June 2018, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to forbid women from driving.
Under the current system, only men are allowed driving licences and women who drive in public risk being arrested and fined.
Because of the law, many families have had to employ private drivers to help transport female relatives.
Rights groups in the kingdom have campaigned for years to allow women to drive, and some women have been imprisoned for defying the rule.
"The royal decree will implement the provisions of traffic regulations, including the issuance of driving licences for men and women alike," the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
The country's US ambassador, Prince Khaled bin Salman, said it was "an historic and big day" and "the right decision at the right time".

Media captionSaudi Arabia's permanent representative to the UN confirmed the change in policy

He confirmed that women will not have to get permission from their male guardians to take driving lessons, and would be able to drive anywhere they liked.

What was the reaction?

The move was welcomed by the US state department, which called it "a great step in the right direction".
Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who was detained for 73 days in 2017 for flouting the ban, tweeted "thank God" following the announcement.
Manal al-Sharif, an organiser of the Women2Drive campaign who has also been imprisoned for driving, said on Twitter that Saudi Arabia would "never be the same again".
Activist Sahar Nassif in Jeddah told the BBC she was "very, very excited - jumping up and down and laughing".
"I'm going to buy my dream car, a convertible Mustang, and it's going to be black and yellow," she said.
Not everyone reacted positively, however, with conservative voices accusing the government of "bending the verses of Sharia".
"As far as I remember, Sharia scholars have said it was haram (forbidden) for women to drive. How come it has suddenly become halal (permissible)?" one critic tweeted.
(Quoted from BBC, September 26. By Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent)

Why North Korean sanctions have failed

The Trump administration escalated pressure on Kim Jong Un to disband his nuclear weapons program by imposing sanctions on eight North Korean banks and more than two dozen North Korean nationals working in countries like China, Russia and Libya.

"We are targeting North Korean banks and financial facilitators acting as representatives for North Korean banks across the globe," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement Tuesday. "This further advances our strategy to fully isolate North Korea in order to achieve our broader objectives of a peaceful and denuclearized Korean peninsula."

The latest measure of economic warfare comes just days after President Trump signed an executive order giving Mnuchin greater power to slap a range of sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear efforts.

The North Korean regime is believed to use a complex network of front companies to do business in China and other countries in order to dodge sanctions.

Trump's latest orders put the onus on banks and other firms to find out whether their clients have any dealings with North Korea. Last week's executive order will penalize any company or person doing business with North Korea by either cutting off their access to the U.S. financial system or freezing their assets -- or potentially both.
On Tuesday, the administration designated eight North Korean banks, including Agricultural Development Bank, Cheil Credit Bank and International Industrial Bank. The administration also took the additional step of designating 26 people linked to North Korea's financial network. The Treasury Department said they are North Koreans acting as representatives of North Korean banks in China, Russia, Libya and the United Arab Emirates.
The North Korean regime is believed to use a complex network of front companies to do business in China and other countries in order to dodge sanctions.
Trump has been pushing China to use its deep economic ties with North Korea to pressure the country's young leader to back down from developing nuclear weapons. China is estimated to account for roughly 90% of North Korea's foreign trade, with money and goods flowing back and forth across a land border that runs for 880 miles.
Even though China has supported a series of tough U.N. resolutions targeting North Korea's economy, many experts are skeptical that Chinese officials and companies are fully complying with the sanctions. And it's uncertain how Chinese banks will respond to the latest round of sanctions by both the U.N. and the U.S.
Earlier this month, China ordered its financial institutions to take a number of steps to comply with U.N. resolutions, including halting business with sanctioned individuals and companies. Employees at some major Chinese banks told CNNMoney that they were no longer opening new accounts for any North Koreans.  (Quoted from CNNMoney; September 26, 2017;Contributor : Mullen)