I feel like i have ifeel like i have said i feel like i have said this to you a few times, but. Im not sure we have ever seen a Statement Like this from a president of america. Steve bannon was Donald Trumps chief strategist. They campaigned together. They were in the white house together. Now this. A lengthy statement on bannon by trump in which the president says, when he was fired, steve not only lost his job, he lost his mind. He goes on. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, and says steve doesnt represent my base hes only in it for himself. Thats just the first two paragraphs. This isnt a democrat, or an old guard republican, or the media this is the guy who helped him get the presidency, the guy who oversaw the policy priorities at the start of the presidency. If at this point youre thinking, whats trump doing 7 well, in the short term, its almost certainly to do with this excerpt of a new book on trump by Michael Wolff thats been published by new York Magazine today. And steve bannon features heavily. For matters like this, we tend to turn to katty kay. Here is her view on Donald Trumps day in the office. It has been a pretty spectacular 18 hours. We started with President Trump comparing the size of his Nuclear Button to that of kim jong un, and in the last few hours we have had him dumping quite spectacularly steve bannon, who was the brains, really, but im President Trumps election victory. These two were very close. His campaign was in a mess, steve bannon was brought in. They were very close and simpatico, it was always said steve bannon really got President Trump, understood that they sent her to connect donald trump to the base and that was white trump won the election in 2016. Now they have had the spectacular falling out in public. You have to wonder whether the tweet i started by talking about, comparing the size of his Nuclear Button to north korea, whether that didnt actually presage some kind of stress in the white house and whether the white house was not aware that the book excerpt was not aware that the book excerpt was about to drop . Before all the heat before the heat goes on donald trump, steve bannon does not hold back, he does not behave like somebody on the same side as trump . It is pretty spectacular. Michael wolff is a journalist who has spoken at length to steve bannon. Steve bannon called a meeting between Donald Trumps son and his Campaign Manager and a russian operative in june 2016, steve bannon said it was treasonous, they should have gone straight to the fbi. At one point in the book he says the authorities are going to crack open tonaljunior like an egg, he says. This is the type of language that will really rattled donald trump. He holds family very dear. Here is steve bannon, his former ally and Campaign Manager, his former adviser and strategist in the white house, turning directly and publicly on Donald Trumps son. No wonder the president is not happy. Stay with us, lets explore what you have spoken about. The number of treat sent by the president since the beginning of the year. It was january the 3rd, he has sent 20 treats, most of which are extraordinary. He has said the palestinians do not want peace, he has attacked the wrong nuclear deal and said barack 0bama provided millions of dollars of terrorism through it, he has promised his very own fake news awards and demanded the fbi seeks to jail a former adviser of hillary clinton. 0n the fbi seeks to jail a former adviser of hillary clinton. On top of this, in an absurd bout of president ial bully waving, he responded to kim jong president ial bully waving, he responded to kimjong un president ial bully waving, he responded to kim jong un as saying will someone tell the man i have a Nuclear Button but it is much bigger and much more powerful than his, and my button works. Katty, on one level it is studied, on the other hand were talking about highly volatile men with Nuclear Weapons . On one level it is funny. I spoke to one person who said he wished the president had not treated that and does not serve american interests, one National Security and Foreign Policy expert says there is a detriment to america, saying you could dismiss this as a joke. You use the language that i would not use the language that i would not use about comparison and combat between the men. The kimjong un gave a speech on new years day in which he talked about having a Nuclear Button on his desk. Donald trump seems to have been taunted by that into sending out this rather extraordinary tweet. There have been a slew of reports in the us in the last few days about how the president can be played by foreign leaders. National Security Experts are worried he can be played by kim jong un, taunted, effectively, by the very reckless, unpredictable leader of north korea. And if he can be taunted in this way and both countries, one of them has a huge nuclear arsenal, the other is on the verge of gaining Nuclear Weapons that can be delivered, that is a very combustible mix. It might sound like a joke, makes everybody laugh, but were talking about two potential Nuclear Powers and an awful lot of conflict and the potential that something could just go wrong and a mistake be made. I have not heard anyone say on either side that this kind of tweeters helpful to the us or global security. Katty kay and Christian Fraser are an error couple of hours before 0utside source connor wood beyond 100 days. In the last hour Sarah Huckabee sanders has given a press conference at the white house. Inevitably steve bannon and donald trump came up, and Steve Bannons accusation that a meeting between figures within the Trump Administration and the russians during the president ial campaign was treason. This is what she said. I think that is a ridiculous accusation, one i am pretty sure we have addressed many times from here before. If that is in reference to comments made by mr bannon, i would in reference to comments made by mr bannon, iwould refer you in reference to comments made by mr bannon, i would refer you to the ones he made previously on 60 minutes where he called the collusion with russia about this president a totalfarce, collusion with russia about this president a total farce, so collusion with russia about this president a totalfarce, so i collusion with russia about this president a total farce, so i would look back at that. If anybody has been inconsistent, it has been him. It has not been the president or the administration. Reporter did the president meet any of donald trump jrs guests at thejune 2016 trump tower meeting . As the president has stated many times, no, and he was not aware of that. A couple of people have treated asking if we know about a fire at Hillary Clintons home. Not very much, this is what we can tell you. We will provide more information as and when we get it. At the moment, that a copy from cbs is all we have. While donald trump has been tweeting about north korea and the size of his button, there was an important phone call on the korean peninsula. This is the hotline between the north and the south looking just as youd expect a hotline to look. South korea says that earlier the phone rang for the first time in two years. Sophie long is in seoul. A very traditional physical telephone line was re established between north and south korea. 0n the stage and Television Service in north korea today, pyongyang announced it would reopen the so called red cross line. Just after 3 30pm seoul time this afternoon we heard from the south Korean Unification ministry that they had received a telephone call from north korea. That is the first direct telephone call to ta ke that is the first direct telephone call to take place between the countries for nearly two years. It is being seen as another step towards the opening of dialogue between north korea and south korea. South korea offered what it called high level talks to the north yesterday, we still do not know whether the north will accept the offer but it has been proposed for the 9th of january, next tuesday, exactly a month ahead of the winter 0lympics getting under way here in south korea. If those talks take place it is expected that is what they will discuss, whether pyongyang will send a delegation to the winter olympics. The south korean president has previously said he really feels that those games could mark a turning point in relations and help the escalate tensions on the korean peninsula. One of President Trumps many targets this new year is the palestinians. He says they show no appreciation or respect for hundreds of millions of dollars a year and the palestinians are no longer willing to talk peace. Why should we make any of these massive future payments to them, he said. As youd expect, the palestinians have pushed back. The plo tweeted, by recognizing 0ccupied jerusalem as israels capital trump has singlehandedly destroyed the very foundations of peace. Two quite different perspectives. Looking at the figures, the us provided 260 million of bilateral aid for palestinians in 2016. And its also the largest single donor to the un agency for palestine refugees, providing 368 million in 2016 which it has threatened to cut as well after the Un General Assembly overwhelming condemning americas recognition ofjerusalem as israels capital. It is very far clear of all the others, including the eu. But is this enough to push the palestinians to the negotiating table . Heres Anthony Zurcher. Early in Donald Trumps president ial campaign he said he was a negotiator who could be independent and bring the sides together. He built himself as somebody who would not take one side over the other. As the president ial campaign proceeded he more and more embrace the israeli side of negotiations to the point that when he was elected it became largely his focus. Now were seeing about playing into policy, with the declaration ofjerusalem about playing into policy, with the declaration of jerusalem as about playing into policy, with the declaration ofjerusalem as the capital and the intent to move the us embassy there. It was an interesting series of tweets last night, obviously overshadowed by the north korea to eat later the talking about the power of american money and support cutting off, i think it was, 600 million that the us gave the palestinians in 2016, using that effectively as a cudgel to bring them back to the negotiating table. What is it that donald trump would like the palestinians to do in order to not be on the receiving end of these kind of tweets . First and foremost the palestinians since thatcher is an announcement have said they are not going to take pa rt have said they are not going to take part in any peace negotiations with the us as the intermediary. So the first goal is to bring them back into negotiations. Mike pence, the Vice President , has planned on going over to the middle east, to israel, ona over to the middle east, to israel, on a state visit at some point this month. I think they wanted to not be the subject of mass protests when he gets there. I think they want him not to be. The goal at the beginning is to start dialogue and to get the palestinians to accept jerusalem is to start dialogue and to get the palestinians to accetherusalem as israels capital and to adjust their negotiating objectives accordingly. I was Peter Anthony later about the various challenges facing donald trump in the coming weeks, both in washington and with regard to Foreign Policy i will speak to anthony later. Once again, iceland is making strides on gender equality. Its now illegal there for men to be paid more than women for doing the same job. Iceland has form in this area. Every year the World Economic forum measures gender equality and in recent years iceland is always top of the country list. The study considers factors like pay, education and participation in government. Now, globally, average earnings between men and women differ by 9000 a year. Only 20 of parliamentarians are women. And 44 of women are not doing paid work though, of course, many of them are working. This is the icelandicjournalist sigrun davidsdottir. The hope is that if this works as intended it should eradicate gender bias, which is often somehow built into pay systems. So the standard should actually. Well, if it works, it should eradicate this bias. I think most women in iceland still feel that not enough has been done, and so on. It is not that we think that everything is perfect, farfrom it, there is still gender inequality aunts and gender bias, but we hope this is a step in the right direction. Inafew right direction. In a few minutes we will update you on the protest in iran. The head of the revolutionary guard say they are over, that social media tells a different story. We will have the latest on pro and Anti Government protests. The bbc understands one in ten nhs hospital trusts have declared a Major Incident in the past 2a hours. Hospitals have reported struggling to cope with the surge in patients since christmas and nhs england has cancelled all non urgent operations until the end of the month. I want to apologise for the fact that we have had, regrettably, to postpone a number of operations. We are trying to do it differently this year. Last year we cancelled a lot of operations at the very last minute, so people got called the day before to say their operation was not going ahead. That is obviously very undesirable, so we want to do it in very undesirable, so we want to do itina very undesirable, so we want to do it in a much more planned way. But our hope is that the total number of cancelled operations will not be significantly higher this year than last. The signs are that we are managing to keep the occupancy levels relatively lower than last year. But we are dealing with an uptick in fluent respiratory illness which is creating particular pressures. Which is creating particular pressures. which is creating particular pressures. In flu and respiratory illness. This is 0utside source live from the bbc newsroom. 0ur lead story is President Trump has said his former chief strategist steve bannon has lost his mind after he reportedly called a meeting between the trump team and a russian lawyer treasonous and unpatriotic. These are some of the main stories on bbc world service, first from bbc hindi. A general strike by members of indias low caste Dalit Community has disrupted business and transport services in mumbai. The strike is a response to violence involving right wing hindu groups in the city of pune on monday. The french president Emmanuel Macron says his government will introduce legislation to combat fake news during election campaigns. Mr macron said such measures were needed to protect democracies from determined propaganda. And thousands of you have been looking at this footage of a frustrated passenger on a ryanair flight. After the plane was delayed, the man decided to leave through the emergency exit and sat on the wing. As he could have predicted, he was then arrested by airport security. Lets update you on the protests in iran. The head of irans revolutionary guards says the protests of the past few days have been defeated. Also state media has been broadcasting these images of massive pro government demonstrations. Here they are tens of thousands of people marching through a number of towns and cities, chanting slogans in support of irans supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei. Of course, state media has been less keen to show the Anti Government demos. No such problem on social media. These are the latest images of protests in tehran last night. We know a number of people turned out to express their frustrations with different parts of the government plasma performance. I also wanted to show you animation which uses data from opponents of the regime to mark the protests, which they say have been in almost every province even rural ones which tend to be more conservative. They have an agenda in suggesting this is widespread, of course. The next thing to show you are the thoughts of afps tehran correspondent eric randolph. In terms of Anti Government protests, things seem to have come down quite a bit. It is obviously very difficult for us to get verifiable information from the provinces and even to move around very much in teheran during what the government calls illegal protests. What we can see and from what were getting on social media and from contacts around the country, the anti regime violence we have seen in recent days seems to have calmed down. Today is about the authorities showing their own show of strength with these quite impressive and huge rallies in various cities around the country. We have been surprised several times in the past week with how things have continued, but it does seem that the wind is up, up the cells of the protesters for now. Asa the cells of the protesters for now. As a result i think the Security Forces have ta ken a as a result i think the Security Forces have taken a wait and see approach to the unrest, did not want to come from people too strongly. There were a large number of arrests, a50 people in tehran alone, but they did not unleash the revolutionary guard is