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Good morning, it’s Sunday, 7 January 2018 and this is an abbreviated Morning Edition of The Nightshift (the Media Bunker staff is taking an extended weekend off).
Welcome to 2018.
The fallout over Michael Wolff’s knife-in-the-face book, “Fire and Fury:Inside the Trump Whitehouse” continues. Wolff is all over the media and his book has became the center of a major national debate–now intensifying–about the President’s mental and emotional fitness for office. This has resulted in a Sunday morning round of Trump loyalists and paid spokespeople appearing on all of the political talk shows to talk about Trump’s presidency and his “suitability” to lead the nation. You can, however, rest easy because despite almost everyone in the book describing Trump as “intellectually challenged” ( to be very polite), one person has come forth to defend him, most emphatically: Donald Trump. President Trump said that “Like, I’m really smart… A very stable genius”.  So there. That settles it. Nothing to see here. Move on.
In other political news, the President and a select group of cabinet members and advisors are huddling this weekend at the Presidential retreat at Camp David. No word yet on what plans they’re developing. They’re probably all reading Michael Wolff’s book and tidying up their resumes.
Still cold and still frozen in the Northeast United States. Snow happens.
In the NFL playoffs, the Atlanta Falcons beat the young-team-on-the-way up Los Angeles Rams 26 to 13 and the Tennessee Titans topped the Kansas City Chiefs 22 to 21. Today, the Buffalo Bills play the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Carolina Panthers take on the New Orleans Saints. One more thing: don’t believe the stories about a massive rift between the triumvirate that makes the Patriots the most dominating team in pro football. At least don’t believe them until after the season.
Today is National Bobblehead Day. And don’t shake your head at those who collect bobbleheads–it’s a hot thing.
What we’re listening to in the Media Bunker: The First Day compilation on Spotify. 
The front pages (and sometimes more) of the world’s great English language newspapers are linked below.
Please check out the CNN “text news” site, which is much faster than their full multi-media site. It’s below at the end of the links.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips, below.
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
Bloomberg.com (New York)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
Sputnik (Moscow)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
Politico (Washington, DC)
Lawfareblog (Washington, DC)
Wired (San Francisco, CA)
The Weather Channel
CNN News Text Site
The Fine Print: Image embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1550 for this site. The Nightshift is a continually evolving experiment in news communications. It’s rapid iteration. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world. 

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Good morning, it’s Saturday, 6 January 2018 and this is an abbreviated Morning Edition of The Nightshift (the Media Bunker staff is taking an extended weekend off).
Welcome to 2018.
Washington may be in the middle of a huge winter storm, but it’s the firestorm that Michael Wolff’s book on Trump and the White House (“Fire and Fury:Inside the Trump White House”) that’s getting ALL the attention. Wolff is everywhere doing interviews, segments from the book are on every channel and every talk show, and the President’s attempts to disparage it are only encouraging more people to read it (i.e. if it’s not to be taken seriously, why is there so much push back from the White House). Why the White House–full of self-proclaimed geniuses– allowed Wolff unfettered access for almost a year is ample indication of their management style and attention to detail (did anyone bother to read Wolff’s other work). The one element that keeps coming through about the book is this: what it says about the current administration and its’ leader is further validation of what Washington has quietly been saying for the last year. It’s a mess and Trump’s image is shredded. Between the book and the slow drip-drip-drip of Mueller’s investigation, the year is not starting off very well for the Republican administration.
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Snow, wind, wind chill, tidal floods, bomb cyclone, cancelled flights. A major winter storm (“Grayson”)is making life difficult–even deadly for the midwest and upper east coast. Looks like a good weekend to stay inside, watch Netflix, the Golden Globes, pro football playoffs and golf from Hawaii. As a reminder of what a really bad winter storm is like, here’s a reprieve of our link to Bloomberg’s photo essay on the storm.
A Senate committee (Judiciary Committee), charged with investigating the Russian meddling issue, made it’s first referral for criminal charges, this one against English intelligence agent Charles Steele, a former British spy, who was involved in the now-infamous “Trump dossier”. Another partisan party-first initiative by a Republican group that should know better (maybe, really, it’s time we stopped giving these folks the benefit of the doubt–they don’t know better), the committee conveniently forgot that it was Steele who went first to the FBI after receiving the information (the FBI had much of the same information, as well, so there was second party confirmation of certain elements of   intelligence alleged in the dossier). So…overly-enthusiastic Republicans, doing everything they can to slow down the quiet freight train that is Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation,  tries to build a criminal case against the person who spotted  and reported the crime  to the appropriate authorities? Oh my….but wait, there’s more. Trump has also pressured the FBI to take another look at the Clinton foundation. For those not familiar with American democracy–many of whom live and work in Washington DC–the use of the FBI for such a patently politically motivated action is off limits.
Today is National Shortbread Day (it’s also National Cuddle Up Day). Time for a cup of coffee and some shortbread. And a cuddle.
What we’re listening to in the Media Bunker: The First Day compilation on Spotify. 
The front pages (and sometimes more) of the world’s great English language newspapers are linked below.
Please check out the CNN “text news” site, which is much faster than their full multi-media site. It’s below at the end of the links.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips, below.
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
Bloomberg.com (New York)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
Sputnik (Moscow)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
Politico (Washington, DC)
Lawfareblog (Washington, DC)
Wired (San Francisco, CA)
The Weather Channel
CNN News Text Site
The Fine Print: Image embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1549  for this site. The Nightshift is a continually evolving experiment in news communications. It’s rapid iteration. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world. 

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Good morning, it’s Friday, 5 January 2018 and this is an abbreviated Morning Edition of The Nightshift (the Media Bunker staff is taking an extended weekend off). Welcome to 2018.
There are really only two big stories in America this morning. One is the continuing firestorm created by Michael Wolff’s new book on Trump and his fledgling presidency, “Fire and Fury:Inside the Trump White House” and the other is the vicious winter storm that is pummeling the North East.
Wolff’s book and its’ incendiary comments, observations and insider quotes has become the media topic of the week around the world. It’s a disaster for the President’s White House and his image..a complete and total disaster. To insert that type of distraction into a White House which already has a well-earned reputation as chaotic and dysfunctional could blow the wheels off a fragile Presidency.
The second big story is the huge snow storm that is paralyzing the north east, with thousands of flights cancelled, high tides flooding streets of Boston, and unprecedented and dangerous windchill temperatures. Windchill temperatures could reach as low as -15 to -25 degrees in the crowded Northeast corridor from Washington, DC to Boston. Take a look at this photo essay from our friends at Bloomberg to get a visual indication of what’s going on today in the weather. Batten down and button up, indeed.
Today is National Screenwriters Day, just in time for the Golden Globe awards this Sunday.
In other news, there is a reported rift between the NFL New England Patriots power trio of QB Tom Brady, Coach Bill Belichick, and owner Robert Kraft. The Dow, a key indicator of the U.S. stock market, has hit 25,000 (a new record) and is still moving up. A huge computer hardware vulnerability has been identified–this one will be a major problem for individuals and corporations.
The front pages (and sometimes more) of the world’s great English language newspapers are linked below.
Please check out the CNN “text news” site, which is much faster than their full multi-media site. It’s below at the end of the links.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips, below.
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
Bloomberg.com (New York)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
Sputnik (Moscow)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
Politico (Washington, DC)
Lawfareblog (Washington, DC)
Wired (San Francisco, CA)
The Weather Channel
CNN News Text Site
The Fine Print: Image embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1548  for this site. The Nightshift is a continually evolving experiment in news communications. It’s rapid iteration. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world. 

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Good morning, it’s Thursday, 4 January 2018 and this is an abbreviated Morning Edition of The Nightshift (the Media Bunker staff is taking an extended weekend off). Welcome to 2018.
Blow Up: A new book (“Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House”) by author Michael Wolff paints a very unflattering picture of the current President, his White House administration and everyone in it. One of the major revelations in the book: the extreme animosity that former White House strategist Steve Bannon has for Trump and the Trump family. Trump has already fired back at Bannon and said that after losing his job inside the White House, Bannon “lost his mind”. Last night, Trump attorneys sent a letter to Bannon warning him about breaching the confidentiality agreement that Bannon (theoretically) signed while working on the Trump Campaign. More bad news for Bannon: the Mercer family is alleged to have pulled funding for his projects(they are said to have a financial interest in Breitbart, Bannon’s news operation) going forward. All of this is to be expected in a major political rift that has suddenly become extremely vicious and personal. The genie is not going back in the bottle: the damage is already done–the book is out, it’s getting massive press coverage, almost everyone is portrayed in a negative light, and it’s a disaster for everyone involved except the author. Scorched earth indeed.
Under The Weather. A major winter storm is working its’ way up the East Coast, leaving snow on the ground from Charleston to the North East. Before it’s finished, the storm may leave as much as 9 inches of snow in New England. Already some 3000 flights have been cancelled. Welcome to Winter, 2018.
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, under indictment for laundry list of items, is suing Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. Manafort’s main claim: that Mueller has exceeded his investigatory powers and limits. Manafort will almost certainly not prevail as Mueller’s team is very smart, very accomplished, and very professional in the way they approach one of the most serious legal initiatives in modern times.
No one won the Powerball drawing last night(winning numbers: 2,18,37,39,42,12). The current estimated jackpot is $550 million. The next drawing is Saturday night, 6 January 2018.
Today is National Spaghetti Day. Looks like it’s Italian for dinner.
The front pages (and sometimes more) of the world’s great English language newspapers are linked below.
Please check out the CNN “text news” site, which is much faster than their full multi-media site. It’s below at the end of the links.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips, below.
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
Bloomberg.com (New York)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
Sputnik (Moscow)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
Politico (Washington, DC)
Lawfareblog (Washington, DC)
Wired (San Francisco, CA)
The Weather Channel
CNN News Text Site
The Fine Print: Image embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1547  for this site. The Nightshift is a continually evolving experiment in news communications. It’s rapid iteration. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world.

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Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 3 January 2018 and this is an abbreviated Morning Edition of The Nightshift (the Media Bunker staff is taking an extended weekend off). Welcome to 2018.
Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) has announced he will not run for re-election in 2018. Speculation is that Mitt Romney, who now lives in Utah and is exceptionally popular in the state, will run and win Hatch’s seat. Hatch has been increasingly ineffective in recent years and his fawning performance with the administration over the last year has belied the independence that once gave him credibility. It’s well past time for him to leave.
Again: Trump and the head of North Korea are exchanging tweets about who has the most effective and largest “nuclear button” on their desk. This certainly is not going to end up good–especially with the Olympic games being staged in South Korea (noted alpine sports power) about one month away.
The green rush is on in California as the state has legalized the sale of recreational marijuana. Can you say “cash crop”–for both entrepreneurs and California’s state taxing authorities.
The Daily Grope: Arizona football coach Rich Rodriquez has been fired due to alleged sexual harassment charges. In New York, Peter Martins, the head of the NYC Ballet, has just resigned for similar reasons.
Cold weather continues to grip much of the United States. Even sections of the deep South are posting below freezing temperatures. A huge winter storm is set to hit the East Coast, with freezing temperatures, hurricane force winds and up to 10 inches (or more) of snow. Batten down and button up.
No one won the American MegaMillions drawing last night; that jackpot was valued at $343 million. Tonight is the Powerball Drawing, worth $440 million. Good luck.
Today is National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day. That should break a lot of New Year’s Resolutions.
The front pages (and sometimes more) of the world’s great English language newspapers are linked below.
Please check out the CNN “text news” site, which is much faster than their full multi-media site. It’s below at the end of the links.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips, below.
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
Bloomberg.com (New York)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
Sputnik (Moscow)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
Politico (Washington, DC)
Lawfareblog (Washington, DC)
Wired (San Francisco, CA)
The Weather Channel
CNN News Text Site
The Fine Print: Image embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1545  for this site. The Nightshift is a continually evolving experiment in news communications. It’s rapid iteration. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world.

Press Clippings:
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Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 2 January 2018 and this is an abbreviated Morning Edition of The Nightshift (the Media Bunker staff is taking an extended weekend off). Welcome to 2018.
Georgia beat Oklahoma 54-48 in a double overtime game played at the Rose Bowl last night to claim one of the two spaces in the National Championship College Football Game (to be played on Monday, 8 January 2018). Alabama beat Clemson 24-6 to take the other spot. Two SEC teams (Alabama, Georgia) will play for the National Championship. The Georgia-Oklahoma game, the first overtime game in the history of the Rose Bowl, is already being considered a classic. The Alabama-Clemson game was luckluster by comparison (unless you’re an Alabama fan, in which case it was just fine).
The front pages (and sometimes more) of the world’s great English language newspapers are linked below.
Today is National Personal Trainer Awareness Day. Fits right in with your New Year’s resolutions, right?
Happy New Year to all who checked into The Nightshift in 2017.
Please check out the CNN “text news” site, which is much faster than their full multi-media site. It’s below at the end of the links.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips, below.
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
Bloomberg.com (New York)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
Sputnik (Moscow)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
Politico (Washington, DC)
Lawfareblog (Washington, DC)
Wired (San Francisco, CA)
The Weather Channel
CNN News Text Site
The Fine Print: Image embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1544  for this site. The Nightshift is a continually evolving experiment in news communications. It’s rapid iteration. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world.

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Good morning, it’s Monday, 1 January 2018 and this is an abbreviated Morning Edition of The Nightshift (the Media Bunker staff is taking an extended weekend off) and the first edition of 2018.
The world switched years last night, as millions of people all over the globe celebrated the end of 2017 and the arrival of 2018. No matter where you are or what you do, make 2018 a personal best.Perhaps the world’s most famous New Year’s Eve celebration, the one that takes place in Times Square in New York City, went off without a hitch, amid very cold temperatures and very strict security.
Today is huge day in college football, with the national championship semi-finals to be played in the afternoon and evening. Alabama will play Clemson in the Sugar Bowl (New Orleans) and Oklahoma will face off against Georgia in the Rose Bowl (Pasadena). Also not to be missed: the NHL’s Winter Classic, played outside at CITI Stadium in New York this year,pits the New York Rangers against the Buffalo Sabres. It’s one of the great sporting events of the year (even if you don’t like hockey, you should tune it..it is a classic).
The front pages (and sometimes more) of the world’s great English language newspapers are linked below.
Today is New Year’s Day and also National Bloody Mary Day (also National Hangover Day, so one of these three should work for you).
Enjoy the day and the weekend with your family, your friends, and your pets. And…do one random act of kindness because…t’is the season.
Happy New Year,  and Best Wishes to all who have checked into The Nightshift in 2017.
Going, going, gone: Our annual Holiday playlist has been taken down. We thank our friends at Spotify for hosting it. The next playlist will be posted for Valentines 2018.
Please check out the CNN “text news” site, which is much faster than their full multi-media site. It’s below at the end of the links.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips, below.
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
Bloomberg.com (New York)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
Sputnik (Moscow)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
Politico (Washington, DC)
Lawfareblog (Washington, DC)
Wired (San Francisco, CA)
The Weather Channel
CNN News Text Site
The Fine Print: Image embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1543  for this site. The Nightshift is a continually evolving experiment in news communications. It’s rapid iteration. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world.