news-monitor-mcp 0.3.0

MCP server for global news monitoring via WorldNewsAPI – search, sentiment analysis, top headlines, and media monitoring for Swiss public institutions

🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

📰 news-monitor-mcp

MCP server for global news monitoring, media analysis and sentiment tracking via WorldNewsAPI — full-text search across 150+ countries, German/English sentiment analysis, top headlines, GL briefings, newspaper front pages and geo-search. API key required.

🇩🇪 Deutsche Version

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Overview

news-monitor-mcp transforms any AI assistant into a proactive media intelligence agent. The server connects LLMs like Claude with global news data: from Swiss institutional reputation monitoring to weekly leadership briefings and trend detection across categories.

Source: WorldNewsAPI (worldnewsapi.com) — the only freely available news API with German-language sentiment analysis.

API key required. Get a free key at worldnewsapi.com/console (1,000 calls/month free tier).

Anchor demo query: "How has the Schulamt Zürich been portrayed in the media over the last 30 days, and what is the overall sentiment?"

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Features

• 🔍 Full-text search – 150+ countries, 50+ languages, Boolean queries and exact phrase matching
• 📊 Sentiment analysis – German and English only (WorldNewsAPI unique feature); scores from −1 (negative) to +1 (positive)
• 📰 Top headlines – clustered by country and language, ranked by number of sources reporting
• 📋 Media briefing – multi-topic weekly report with sentiment overview for GL / leadership updates
• 🗞️ Newspaper front pages – digital covers from 6,000+ publications in 125 countries
• 📡 Trend radar – category-based trend detection (politics, technology, education, …) per country
• 📍 Geo-search – location-specific news (Zürich, Bern, Basel, Kanton Zürich, …)
• ☁️ Dual transport – stdio for Claude Desktop, Streamable HTTP for cloud deployment

#	Tool	Description
1	news_search	Full-text news search in 150+ countries
2	news_top_headlines	Top headlines by country and language
3	news_sentiment_monitor	Sentiment analysis for entity or topic
4	news_media_briefing	Multi-topic weekly briefing report
5	news_retrieve_article	Fetch full article by ID
6	news_search_sources	Find available news sources by name/country
7	news_front_pages	Digital newspaper front pages
8	news_trend_radar	Category-based trend detection per country
9	news_geo_search	Location-specific news search
10	news_alert_create	Create a persistent alert (sentiment / volume / keyword)
11	news_alert_list	List configured alerts with status
12	news_alert_check	Evaluate alerts against current data
13	news_alert_delete	Permanently remove an alert
14	news_cache_stats	Cache hit-rate and entries by type
15	news_cache_clear	Clear cache (entirely or per tool type)

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Demo

"Create a media briefing for: AI in education, Volksschule Zürich, school digitalisation"

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Data Sources

Source	API Type	Content
WorldNewsAPI	REST JSON	150+ countries, 50+ languages, full text, sentiment

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• uv or pip
• API key from worldnewsapi.com/console (free tier available)

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Installation

# Recommended: uvx (no install step needed)
uvx news-monitor-mcp

# Alternative: pip
pip install news-monitor-mcp

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Quickstart

# Start the server (stdio mode for Claude Desktop)
WORLD_NEWS_API_KEY=your-key uvx news-monitor-mcp

Try it immediately in Claude Desktop:

"Show me the top news from Switzerland today" "How is the Schulamt Zürich covered in German-language media this month?" "Create a media briefing on: Volksschule Zürich, AI in education, school digitalisation"

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Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
WORLD_NEWS_API_KEY	–	Required. API key from worldnewsapi.com
MCP_TRANSPORT	stdio	Transport: stdio or streamable_http
MCP_HOST	127.0.0.1	HTTP bind host. Use 0.0.0.0 only inside a container.
MCP_PORT	8000	Port for HTTP transport
MCP_BEARER_TOKEN	–	Required in --http mode. Bearer token clients must present in Authorization: Bearer <token>. Generate via python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(32))".
MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS	–	Optional CSV allowlist for the Origin header (DNS-rebinding protection). Example: https://claude.ai.
LOG_LEVEL	INFO	Log level: DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR. Logs are emitted as JSON to stderr with automatic redaction of api-key= query params and Authorization: Bearer headers.
NEWS_MONITOR_ALERTS_DIR	~/.news-monitor-mcp	Directory that holds alerts.json. The parent dir must not be a symlink (refused at startup as a defense against path-injection). File is created with mode 0o600, directory with 0o700.
NEWS_MONITOR_ALERTS_FILE	–	(Back-compat) explicit path to the alerts file. Same symlink check applies. Prefer NEWS_MONITOR_ALERTS_DIR.
MCP_ALERT_RETENTION_DAYS	90	Alerts older than this many days are deleted on server start (Privacy default per docs/privacy-dsg.md). Set to 0 to disable retention.
MCP_CACHE_MAX_PER_TYPE	1000	Maximum cache entries per tool type. When exceeded, the least-recently-used entry of that type is evicted. Set to 0 to disable the cap (unbounded growth — only safe for short-lived processes).
MCP_CACHE_SWEEP_SECONDS	300	Interval for the background task that removes TTL-expired entries from the cache. Set to 0 to disable the sweep (expired entries are still pruned lazily on news_cache_stats).

Claude Desktop Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "news-monitor": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["news-monitor-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "WORLD_NEWS_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config file locations:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

After restarting Claude Desktop, all tools are available. Example queries:

• "Show me the top Swiss news today"
• "What is the media sentiment on AI in education this month?"
• "Create a weekly briefing for: Schulamt Zürich, Volksschule, KI Bildung"
• "Find all German-language articles about school digitalisation in the last 14 days"
• "Show me the front pages of Swiss newspapers today"

Cloud Deployment (Streamable HTTP)

For use via claude.ai in the browser (e.g. on managed workstations without local software):

Authentication is mandatory. The HTTP transport refuses any request without a valid Authorization: Bearer <token> header. Generate a token once and keep it secret:

python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(32))"

Render.com (recommended):

1. Push/fork the repository to GitHub
2. On render.com: New Web Service → connect GitHub repo
3. Set the following environment variables in the Render dashboard:
   • WORLD_NEWS_API_KEY — your WorldNewsAPI key
   • MCP_BEARER_TOKEN — the token generated above
   • MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 — bind on all interfaces inside the container
   • MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS=https://claude.ai (optional, recommended)
4. In claude.ai under Settings → MCP Servers, add the URL https://your-app.onrender.com/mcp and configure the Bearer token as the auth header.

# Local HTTP mode (binds 127.0.0.1 by default)
WORLD_NEWS_API_KEY=your-key \
  MCP_BEARER_TOKEN=$(python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(32))") \
  news-monitor-mcp --http --port 8000

# Verify auth is enforced
curl -i http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp                                  # → 401
curl -i -H "Authorization: Bearer $MCP_BEARER_TOKEN" http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp

Scaling notes

This server is currently single-process / single-replica:

• The TTL cache lives in process memory (NewsCache). If you run multiple Render or Kubernetes replicas, each replica has its own cache — hit-rates drop linearly with the replica count.
• Alerts persist to a local alerts.json (defaults to /data inside the container). Multiple replicas mounting the same persistent volume serialize via fcntl.flock, but for true cluster operation a shared store (Redis / Postgres) is needed — see the open finding SCALE-STATEFUL.
• On Render Free Tier, the container sleeps after ~15 minutes of inactivity and loses non-persistent state. Attach a Persistent Disk for /data if you need alerts to survive restarts. For Render Free + alerts you must accept that the cache is lost on every wake-up.

The MCP_CACHE_MAX_PER_TYPE cap (default 1000 entries / type) and the background sweep (MCP_CACHE_SWEEP_SECONDS, default 5 min) prevent the in-process cache from growing without bound.

Container image

A non-root multi-stage Dockerfile is included and built on every CI run. Inside the container the server defaults to --http, binds 0.0.0.0:8000, persists alerts under /data, and refuses to start if MCP_BEARER_TOKEN is missing.

docker build -t news-monitor-mcp .

docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 \
  -e WORLD_NEWS_API_KEY=your-key \
  -e MCP_BEARER_TOKEN=$(python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(32))") \
  -e MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS=https://claude.ai \
  -v news-monitor-data:/data \
  news-monitor-mcp

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Architecture

┌─────────────────┐    ┌──────────────────────────┐    ┌──────────────────────────┐
│  Claude / AI    │────▶│   News Monitor MCP        │────▶│   WorldNewsAPI           │
│  (MCP Host)     │◀────│   (MCP Server)            │◀────│   REST JSON API          │
└─────────────────┘    │                            │    │   150+ countries         │
                       │  9 Tools                   │    │   50+ languages          │
                       │  Stdio | Streamable HTTP   │    │   Sentiment DE/EN        │
                       └──────────────────────────┘    └──────────────────────────┘

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Project Structure

news-monitor-mcp/
├── src/
│   └── news_monitor_mcp/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── server.py          # All 9 tools
├── tests/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── test_server.py         # 20 tests (unit + live)
├── pyproject.toml
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── LICENSE
├── README.md                  # This file (English)
└── README.de.md               # German version

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Testing

# Unit tests (no API key required)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "not live"

# Integration tests (live API calls, API key required)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "live"

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Example Use Cases

Schulamt / Institutional Communication

"How has the Schulamt Zürich been portrayed in media over the last 30 days?"
→ news_sentiment_monitor(entity="Schulamt Zürich", language="de", days_back=30)

"Create a weekly media briefing for leadership"
→ news_media_briefing(topics=["Volksschule Zürich", "KI Bildung", "Schuldigitalisierung"])

"What are Swiss media reporting on school digitalisation?"
→ news_search(query="Schuldigitalisierung", language="de", source_country="ch")

KI-Fachgruppe / AI Working Group

"What are the current tech trends in Swiss press this week?"
→ news_trend_radar(category="technology", source_country="ch", language="de")

"How are AI developments in education covered internationally?"
→ news_search(query="AI education classroom", language="en", number=20)

"Compare Swiss and German media coverage of AI regulation"
→ news_search(query="KI Regulierung", source_country="ch", language="de")
→ news_search(query="KI Regulierung", source_country="de", language="de")

City Administration / Location Research

"What is being reported about Zürich school infrastructure?"
→ news_geo_search(location="Zürich", query="Schule")

"Show today's front pages of Swiss newspapers"
→ news_front_pages(source_country="ch")

→ More use cases by audience →

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Sentiment Analysis

WorldNewsAPI offers German-language sentiment analysis — rare among news APIs:

Score	Label	Meaning
> 0.3	positiv 😊	Positive coverage
−0.3 to 0.3	neutral 😐	Neutral / factual coverage
< −0.3	negativ 😟	Critical / negative coverage

⚠️ Sentiment is only available for German (de) and English (en).

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Safety, Limits & Responsible Use

Read-Only Operation

12 of the 15 tools carry readOnlyHint: true. All 9 monitoring tools (search, headlines, sentiment, briefing, article, sources, front_pages, trend, geo) are fully read-only and issue GET requests to WorldNewsAPI only. The 3 exceptions are local-only operations: news_alert_create and news_alert_delete (write/ delete ~/.news-monitor-mcp/alerts.json) and news_cache_clear (clears in-memory cache). None of the 15 tools modify any external data source.

API Rate Limits

Constraint	WorldNewsAPI Free Tier	Paid Plans
Calls/month	1,000	Up to 1M
Articles/call	10	Up to 100
Historical depth	30 days	Extended
Timeout per call	30 seconds	30 seconds

The TTL cache (v0.2+) reduces redundant calls by up to 80%.

Data Privacy

• No personal data stored: The server holds no persistent user data. Cache entries are in-memory and reset on server restart.
• No profiling: The server retrieves publicly published journalism only. It is not designed for surveillance or personal profiling.
• Alert data: Alert configurations are stored locally in ~/.news-monitor-mcp/alerts.json — on your machine only, never transmitted.

Responsible Use

• Query public news only — do not use as a profiling tool for individuals.
• Sentiment scores reflect algorithmic analysis of journalistic tone, not verified editorial judgements.
• Results depend on WorldNewsAPI's indexing; Swiss regional media may be less well-covered than national outlets.

Terms of Service

Users must comply with:

• WorldNewsAPI Terms of Service
• WorldNewsAPI Privacy Policy

This MCP server is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with WorldNewsAPI.

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Synergies with Other MCP Servers

news-monitor-mcp can be combined with other servers in the portfolio:

Combination	Use Case
+ fedlex-mcp	Law meets discourse: legal framework + media coverage
+ global-education-mcp	OECD stats + current media context
+ srgssr-mcp	Swiss public media + international news comparison
+ swiss-environment-mcp	Environmental data + media reporting
+ swiss-statistics-mcp	BFS statistics + current media narrative
+ zurich-opendata-mcp	City data + local media coverage

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md

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Security & Compliance

• Report vulnerabilities privately: see SECURITY.md
• Swiss public-sector deployment: see docs/isds-klassifikation.md for the ISDS / Schutzbedarfsfeststellung
• Swiss data protection (revDSG) — duties, profiling, retention, drittlandtransfer: docs/privacy-dsg.md
• Audit history: audits/

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE

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Author

Hayal Oezkan · malkreide

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Credits & Related Projects

• Data: WorldNewsAPI – global news data with sentiment analysis
• Protocol: Model Context Protocol – Anthropic / Linux Foundation
• Related: swiss-culture-mcp – MCP server for Swiss cultural heritage data
• Related: srgssr-mcp – MCP server for SRG SSR Swiss public media
• Portfolio: Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio