v7.1: Three New Geo Sources — France 24, RFI, and Arab News
The geopolitical news pool grows from 5 sources to 8 with the addition of France 24, RFI English, and Arab News — three confirmed-free RSS feeds that fill significant regional gaps in the existing source list. No scoring changes; the new sources drop directly into the existing geo pool.
Since v1, the geopolitical news pool has consisted of five English-language outlets: BBC World, Al Jazeera, NPR, The Guardian, and Deutsche Welle. That lineup covers Western Europe and global Anglophone journalism well. What it lacks is substantive coverage of the Francophone world, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Gulf region as primary-source perspectives rather than translated wire copy. v7.1 addresses those gaps with three new feeds, all verified to provide full-content free RSS.
Three new sources
| Source | Veracity | Poll interval | Coverage focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| France 24 (English) | 0.88 | 2 min | French public international broadcaster — strong Europe, Africa, and Middle East reporting with a non-Anglophone editorial lens |
| RFI English (Radio France Internationale) | 0.85 | 3 min | Africa specialist with the broadest continent-wide English coverage of any source in the pool — essential for early signals from Central and West Africa |
| Arab News | 0.80 | 3 min | Saudi-based English outlet — primary-source Gulf perspective on Middle East politics, energy markets, and regional diplomacy that Western wires often lag |
How sources were selected
The selection criteria were strict: the feed had to be genuinely free (no paywall, no API key, no commercial aggregation restriction), provide full article descriptions (not titles only), and cover a region meaningfully underrepresented in the existing pool. Several candidates were evaluated and excluded:
- Reuters — discontinued all public RSS feeds in 2020; every mirror tested returned 403 or empty.
- AP News — free RSS endpoints were retired; current hub format redirects to an ad-tech sync URL.
- Wall Street Journal — feed exists but every item is tagged with a PAID access class; no free content.
- Nikkei Asia — feed is active but RSS items contain titles only, no descriptions. Claude and Gemini need article text to produce meaningful scores; a title-only source would add noise rather than signal.
- Times of India — free RSS feeds exist, but the ToI terms of service explicitly prohibit aggregation and commercial use of their feeds.
What changes and what does not
No scoring weights, blending formula, or architecture has changed. The three new sources are assigned a category of 'geo' and join the existing five sources in the geopolitical scoring pool. Articles from all eight sources compete in the same top-100 mean that produces the geo score component. The top-100 cap means that on high-volume days the pool self-selects the most impactful articles regardless of source — adding more feeds increases coverage breadth without inflating the score by volume.
The geo pool — before and after
| Source | Veracity | Primary strength |
|---|---|---|
| BBC World | 0.90 | Global breadth — established standard for international wire coverage |
| Al Jazeera | 0.85 | MENA and Global South primary reporting |
| NPR | 0.90 | US policy and international affairs — strong Washington desk |
| The Guardian | 0.90 | Investigative depth, UK/Europe, climate and conflict |
| Deutsche Welle | 0.88 | European and African coverage in English from a German perspective |
| France 24 ★ new | 0.88 | Francophone world, Africa, Middle East — French editorial lens |
| RFI English ★ new | 0.85 | Sub-Saharan Africa specialist — broadest Africa coverage in the pool |
| Arab News ★ new | 0.80 | Gulf and Middle East primary source — Saudi perspective on regional politics and energy |