DISPATCH.

Real-time geopolitical intelligence engine

"The world is talking. This is what it's saying."

Live demo: hasrat-dev.netlify.app
GitHub: github.com/hasratsi-del/DISPATCH.

DISPATCH fetches live global news, scores sentiment using NLP, aggregates signals by country, and renders them on an interactive world map — with a rotating Three.js globe, three analysis modes, an AI situation report, and country search.

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Quickstart (one command after first setup)

export NEWS_API_KEY=a6b91b19dbec4d3cb461e157d37a6854
./start.sh

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First time setup (run once, never again)

cd ~/Downloads/dispatch-project/backend
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

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Every time you want to run it

Open a terminal and run these four commands in order:

cd ~/Downloads/dispatch-project/backend
source .venv/bin/activate
export NEWS_API_KEY=a6b91b19dbec4d3cb461e157d37a6854
python app.py

You should see this in your terminal — this means it's working:

* Serving Flask app 'app'
* Debug mode: off
WARNING: This is a development server...
* Running on all addresses (0.0.0.0)
* Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000
* Running on http://172.20.10.4:5000
Press CTRL+C to quit

Then open a new terminal tab (Cmd+T) and run:

open ~/Downloads/dispatch-project/frontend/index.html

The map will open in your browser and pull live data from the backend.

To stop the backend: Press Ctrl+C in the backend terminal tab.

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If you restart your Mac

You will need to run the four commands above again. The .venv folder is permanent so you never need to reinstall packages — just activate and run.

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Deploy (free, $0)

Backend → Railway

1. Push the backend/ folder to a new GitHub repo
2. Connect to railway.app — it auto-detects Flask from railway.toml
3. Add NEWS_API_KEY as an environment variable in Railway dashboard
4. Copy your Railway URL (looks like https://dispatch-xxx.railway.app)

Frontend → Netlify

1. Open frontend/index.html in a text editor
2. Find the line with YOUR-RAILWAY-URL and replace with your Railway URL
3. Drag the frontend/ folder onto netlify.app

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How it works

NewsAPI (live headlines, 1000+ sources)
        ↓
Flask backend — Python
  — fetches news every 5 minutes
  — TextBlob sentiment scoring per article (-1.0 to +1.0)
  — country detection via keyword matching (100+ mappings)
  — aggregates average score per ISO country code
  — 5-minute cache to respect API rate limits
  — /api/sentiment JSON endpoint
        ↓
D3.js + Three.js frontend
  — rotating Three.js globe with live sentiment dots
  — D3 Natural Earth world map, zoom + pan
  — three map modes: Sentiment / Heat / Volume
  — hover tooltips with real clickable article links
  — AI situation report (local analysis)
  — country search with map highlight
  — intelligence briefing cards
  — full trending index ranked by coverage

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Features

Feature	Description
Sentiment map	Countries colored red → gray → gold by news sentiment
Heat mode	Most extreme countries glow, signal strength bars appear
Volume mode	Which countries dominate the news cycle
◈ AI Report	One-click: global tone, stress zones, stable zones
Country search	Type any country — highlights it on map with score
Live globe	Three.js rotating globe with pulsing sentiment dots
Article links	Every tooltip has real clickable headlines
Trending index	Full ranked list of top 15 most-covered countries

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Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Python 3.11, Flask, TextBlob, Gunicorn
NLP	TextBlob sentiment analysis
Data	NewsAPI (live global headlines)
Frontend	Vanilla JS, D3.js v7, Three.js r128
Deployment	Railway (backend) + Netlify (frontend)
Cost	$0

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Push to GitHub

git init
git add .
git commit -m "feat: DISPATCH geopolitical intelligence engine"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/hasratsi-del/DISPATCH..git
git push -u origin main

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Built by

Hasrat Singh Chauhan
Computing Science & Mathematics, University of Alberta
hasratsii.netlify.app · github.com/hasratsi-del