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The Meridian is a public-facing news platform that ingests articles from across the political spectrum, clusters them by story using AI, and produces neutral, fact-first summaries — showing where sources agree and where they diverge.

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The Meridian

AI-powered neutral news aggregation across the political spectrum

Node.js TypeScript React Express PostgreSQL Drizzle ORM OpenAI Vite Tailwind CSS Leaflet Esri License WCAG 2.1 AA News Sources

Overview

The Meridian is a full-stack news aggregation platform that collects articles from 88 sources across the political spectrum and multiple global regions, clusters them by topic using OpenAI GPT-4o, and generates neutral, fact-first summaries with narrative divergence analysis.

Instead of reading one outlet's take, The Meridian shows you what multiple sources agree on, where they diverge, and what's missing from the conversation.

Key Capabilities

  • Multi-source aggregation — RSS ingestion from 88 outlets spanning left, center-left, center, center-right, and right editorial perspectives
  • AI-powered clustering — Articles about the same event are grouped into unified stories using semantic similarity
  • Neutral summarization — GPT-4o generates balanced summaries with key facts, consensus scores, and divergence analysis
  • Narrative Conflict Map — Interactive Leaflet map with Esri ArcGIS Dark Gray basemap visualizing global conflicts and geopolitical tensions where sources clash in coverage
  • Edition system — Filter stories by region (US, UK, Canada, Europe, International) with browser geolocation support
  • Bias indicators — Every source displays its editorial lean rating alongside its content

Features

News Feed

  • Clustered story cards with neutral headlines and AI-generated summaries
  • Consensus scoring (0–100) showing how much sources agree
  • Source count per story with bias distribution indicators
  • Topic filtering (Politics, World, Business, Technology, Science, Health, etc.)
  • Edition-based regional filtering with location detection

Story Detail

  • Full neutral summary with extracted key facts
  • Divergence analysis highlighting where sources disagree
  • Narrative lens breakdown showing how different outlets frame the story
  • Coverage gap detection revealing what's missing from the conversation
  • Direct links to all source articles

Narrative Conflict Map

  • Interactive world map powered by Leaflet with Esri ArcGIS World Dark Gray basemap tiles (authenticated via API key)
  • Content-aware geocoding using 120+ real-world location database with weighted scoring algorithm
  • Headline-priority matching: locations mentioned first in headlines are weighted 10x over summary mentions, with position bonus for tiebreaking
  • Demonym support (e.g. "Kenyan", "Nigerian", "Brazilian") for accurate geographic placement
  • Zoom-responsive markers with conflict intensity indicators
  • Sidebar conflict list for keyboard-accessible navigation
  • WCAG 2.1 AA compliant with semantic HTML, ARIA landmarks, and visible focus indicators

Search & Discovery

  • Full-text search across story headlines and summaries
  • Trending stories section highlighting the most-covered topics
  • Related stories linked from each story detail page
  • Bookmark/save stories for later reading (requires sign-in)
  • Saved Stories page (/saved) for quick access to bookmarked content

Authentication & Personalization

  • Custom email/password authentication with bcrypt hashing (12 rounds)
  • OAuth social login — Sign in with Google, Facebook, Apple, GitHub, or Microsoft via Passport.js
  • Session-based auth with PostgreSQL session store
  • Forgot/reset password flow with time-limited tokens
  • Post-signup onboarding modal for topic preferences and digest frequency
  • All content readable without signing in (no content gates)

Stock Ticker

  • Scrolling market data ticker at the top of the page

Admin Dashboard

  • Manual pipeline trigger for on-demand article ingestion
  • Contact form submission management with read/unread tracking
  • Source monitoring and management

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Client (React)                    │
│  Vite · TypeScript · Tailwind · shadcn/ui · Wouter  │
│  TanStack Query · Framer Motion · Leaflet           │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘
                       │ HTTP/JSON
┌──────────────────────▼──────────────────────────────┐
│                  Server (Express)                    │
│  TypeScript · express-session · connect-pg-simple    │
│  bcrypt · rss-parser · OpenAI SDK                    │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘
                       │ Drizzle ORM
┌──────────────────────▼──────────────────────────────┐
│                   PostgreSQL                         │
│  sources · articles · stories · story_articles       │
│  users · sessions · password_reset_tokens            │
│  contact_submissions                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Monorepo Structure

├── client/                   # React SPA
│   └── src/
│       ├── components/       # UI components (AuthModal, OnboardingModal, StoryCard, etc.)
│       │   ├── layout/       # Navbar, Footer
│       │   └── ui/           # shadcn/ui primitives
│       ├── hooks/            # Custom hooks (useAuth, useStories, useSources, useEdition)
│       ├── lib/              # Utilities (queryClient, apiRequest)
│       └── pages/            # Route pages (Feed, Story, ConflictMap, Admin, etc.)
├── server/                   # Express API server
│   ├── pipeline.ts           # RSS ingestion + AI clustering + summarization
│   ├── routes.ts             # API route definitions + source registry
│   ├── storage.ts            # Database access layer (IStorage interface)
│   └── replit_integrations/  # Auth, chat, image, audio, batch modules
│       └── auth/             # Custom auth (routes, storage, session config)
├── shared/                   # Shared types and schemas
│   ├── schema.ts             # Drizzle table definitions
│   ├── models/auth.ts        # Auth-specific schema (users, sessions, reset tokens)
│   └── routes.ts             # API route contracts with Zod validation
└── package.json

News Sources

The Meridian aggregates from 88 sources across 12 regional categories:

Region Sources
US Mainstream NYT, WSJ, AP, Fox News, NPR, Bloomberg, CNBC, OAN
UK The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Sky News, Daily Mail, BBC UK, The Times UK
Canada CBC News, Globe and Mail, National Post, CTV News, Toronto Star, Global News
Europe Deutsche Welle, France 24, Euronews, Politico Europe, Der Spiegel International, The Local EU, EUobserver
Asia-Pacific SCMP, Japan Times, Times of India, Straits Times, ABC News Australia, Nikkei Asia, The Diplomat, Channel News Asia, Kyodo News, The Hindu
Africa Africa News, AllAfrica, The East African, Daily Maverick, Premium Times Nigeria, News24 South Africa, The Africa Report
Middle East Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, The National UAE, Haaretz, Arab News, Iran International
Latin America Buenos Aires Herald, MercoPress, Mexico News Daily, Brazil Reports
Eastern Europe The Moscow Times, Kyiv Independent, TASS English
Humanitarian ReliefWeb, UN News, The New Humanitarian, ICRC News
Science & Tech Ars Technica, TechCrunch, Wired, The Verge, Scientific American, Nature News, Science Daily, STAT News
Business Bloomberg, CNBC, Financial Times, The Economist

Each source is tagged with an editorial lean rating: left, center-left, center, center-right, or right.

News Pipeline

The pipeline runs automatically every 30 minutes:

  1. Ingest — Fetch RSS feeds from all active sources, filter to articles published within the last 48 hours
  2. Deduplicate — Skip articles already in the database (matched by URL)
  3. Cluster — Group related articles into stories using OpenAI GPT-4o semantic similarity analysis
  4. Summarize — Generate neutral headlines, balanced summaries, and key facts for each story cluster
  5. Analyze — Produce consensus scores, narrative lens breakdowns, divergence summaries, and coverage gap reports
  6. Publish — Save stories with linked source articles to the database

Tech Stack

Frontend

Technology Purpose
React 18 UI framework
TypeScript Type safety
Vite 5 Build tool and dev server with HMR
Tailwind CSS 3 Utility-first styling
shadcn/ui (Radix UI) Component library (New York style)
Wouter Lightweight client-side routing
TanStack Query v5 Server state management and caching
Framer Motion Page transitions and animations
Leaflet + react-leaflet Interactive conflict map
Esri ArcGIS Basemaps Dark Gray world map tiles (authenticated)
date-fns Date formatting
Lucide React Icon library

Backend

Technology Purpose
Express 4 HTTP server and API routing
TypeScript (tsx) Runtime TypeScript execution
Drizzle ORM Type-safe database queries
PostgreSQL Primary database
express-session Session management
connect-pg-simple PostgreSQL session store
bcrypt Password hashing (12 salt rounds)
rss-parser RSS feed ingestion
OpenAI SDK GPT-4o for clustering and summarization
drizzle-zod Schema-to-validation bridge
esbuild Production server bundling

Getting Started

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 20+
  • PostgreSQL 16+
  • OpenAI API key (for the AI pipeline)

Environment Variables

Variable Required Description
DATABASE_URL Yes PostgreSQL connection string
SESSION_SECRET Yes Express session signing secret
AI_INTEGRATIONS_OPENAI_API_KEY Yes OpenAI API key for GPT-4o
AI_INTEGRATIONS_OPENAI_BASE_URL Yes OpenAI API base URL
ESRI_API_KEY No Esri API key for authenticated basemap tile access
GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD No Gmail app password for email features

Installation

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Push database schema
npm run db:push

# Start development server
npm run dev

The app will be available at http://localhost:5000.

Production Build

# Build for production
npm run build

# Start production server
npm start

API Endpoints

Authentication

Method Endpoint Description
POST /api/auth/register Create account (email, password, firstName, lastName)
POST /api/auth/login Sign in with email and password
POST /api/auth/logout Destroy session
GET /api/auth/user Get current authenticated user
POST /api/auth/forgot-password Generate password reset token
POST /api/auth/reset-password Reset password with valid token
PATCH /api/auth/preferences Update topic preferences and digest frequency

Stories

Method Endpoint Description
GET /api/stories List published stories (supports pagination, region filter)
GET /api/stories/search Search stories by query string
GET /api/stories/trending Get trending stories by source coverage
GET /api/stories/:id Get story detail with linked articles and source info
GET /api/stories/:id/related Get related stories for a given story

Bookmarks

Method Endpoint Description
GET /api/bookmarks List user's bookmarked stories
POST /api/bookmarks/:storyId Bookmark a story
DELETE /api/bookmarks/:storyId Remove a bookmark

Sources

Method Endpoint Description
GET /api/sources List all news sources with bias ratings

Contact

Method Endpoint Description
POST /api/contact Submit contact form
GET /api/contact/submissions List all submissions (admin)
PATCH /api/contact/submissions/:id/read Mark submission as read

Configuration

Method Endpoint Description
GET /api/config/map Get Esri API key for map tile authentication

Admin

Method Endpoint Description
POST /api/pipeline/run Manually trigger the news pipeline

Pages

Route Page Description
/ Landing Hero section, featured stories, platform overview
/feed Feed Full story listing with topic and edition filters
/story/:id Story Detail Complete story with sources, divergence, and analysis
/conflicts Conflict Map Interactive geopolitical conflict visualization
/saved Saved Stories User's bookmarked stories (requires sign-in)
/sources Sources Index Browse all 88 news sources by bias rating
/methodology Methodology How the AI pipeline and neutrality engine work
/admin Admin Dashboard Pipeline control, contact submissions, monitoring
/about About Platform mission and team information
/contact Contact Contact form with subject categories
/privacy Privacy Policy Data handling and cookie policies
/terms Terms of Service Usage terms and conditions
/auth/reset-password Password Reset Token-based password reset form

Accessibility

The Meridian follows WCAG 2.1 AA compliance standards:

  • Semantic HTML with proper heading hierarchy (h1 → h2 → h3)
  • ARIA landmarks, roles, and live regions throughout
  • Visible focus indicators (focus:ring-2) on all interactive elements
  • Minimum touch targets: 36×36px buttons, 44px list items
  • Color contrast ratios meeting AA minimums
  • Keyboard-accessible navigation for all features
  • Conflict map sidebar provides equivalent keyboard access to map markers

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

About

The Meridian is a public-facing news platform that ingests articles from across the political spectrum, clusters them by story using AI, and produces neutral, fact-first summaries — showing where sources agree and where they diverge.

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