From 8a05d8534416256fe2413f5f4fd9970ba94b504b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: SethBurkart123 <seth.burkart@hills.adventist.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:43:32 +1100
Subject: [PATCH] fix: news not loading

---
 src/background/news.ts          | 25 +++++++++++++------------
 src/manifests/manifest.json     |  2 +-
 src/seqta/utils/SendNewsPage.ts | 33 +++++++++++++++++++++++----------
 3 files changed, 37 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/background/news.ts b/src/background/news.ts
index 6e01e910..70bcf1b2 100644
--- a/src/background/news.ts
+++ b/src/background/news.ts
@@ -92,8 +92,12 @@ const rssFeedsByCountry: Record<string, string[]> = {
  *                           used to send the fetched news data back to the caller.
  *                           It's called with an object like `{ news: { articles: [...] } }`.
  */
-export async function fetchNews(source: string, sendResponse: any) {
-  if (source === "australia") {
+export async function fetchNews(source: string | undefined, sendResponse: any) {
+  const normalizedSource = typeof source === "string" && source.trim()
+    ? source.trim()
+    : "australia";
+
+  if (normalizedSource === "australia") {
     const date = new Date();
 
     const from =
@@ -111,18 +115,15 @@ export async function fetchNews(source: string, sendResponse: any) {
 
   const parser = new Parser();
   let feeds: string[];
-  console.log("fetchNews", source);
+  console.log("fetchNews", normalizedSource);
 
-  if (rssFeedsByCountry[source.toLowerCase()]) {
-    // If the source is a country, fetch from predefined feeds
-    feeds = rssFeedsByCountry[source.toLowerCase()];
-  } else if (source.startsWith("http")) {
-    // If the source is a URL, use it directly
-    feeds = [source];
+  if (rssFeedsByCountry[normalizedSource.toLowerCase()]) {
+    feeds = rssFeedsByCountry[normalizedSource.toLowerCase()];
+  } else if (normalizedSource.startsWith("http")) {
+    feeds = [normalizedSource];
   } else {
-    throw new Error(
-      "Invalid source. Provide a country code or a valid RSS feed URL.",
-    );
+    console.warn("[BetterSEQTA+] Invalid news source, falling back to Australia", normalizedSource);
+    return fetchNews("australia", sendResponse);
   }
 
   const articlesPromises = feeds.map(async (feedUrl) => {
diff --git a/src/manifests/manifest.json b/src/manifests/manifest.json
index 15565728..de4f9b3a 100644
--- a/src/manifests/manifest.json
+++ b/src/manifests/manifest.json
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
     "service_worker": "background.ts"
   },
   "content_security_policy": {
-    "extension_pages": "script-src 'self'; object-src 'self'; connect-src 'self' https://betterseqta.org https://accounts.betterseqta.org https://raw.githubusercontent.com"
+    "extension_pages": "script-src 'self'; object-src 'self'; connect-src 'self' http: https: https://betterseqta.org https://accounts.betterseqta.org https://raw.githubusercontent.com https://newsapi.org"
   },
   "content_scripts": [
     {
diff --git a/src/seqta/utils/SendNewsPage.ts b/src/seqta/utils/SendNewsPage.ts
index f21c0bde..3b1e9c66 100644
--- a/src/seqta/utils/SendNewsPage.ts
+++ b/src/seqta/utils/SendNewsPage.ts
@@ -53,11 +53,22 @@ export async function SendNewsPage() {
   const newscontainer = document.querySelector("#news-container");
   document.getElementById("newsloading")?.remove();
 
-  // Create a document fragment to batch DOM operations
+  const articles = response?.news?.articles;
+  if (!Array.isArray(articles) || articles.length === 0) {
+    const emptyState = document.createElement("div");
+    emptyState.classList.add("day-empty");
+    const img = document.createElement("img");
+    img.src = browser.runtime.getURL(LogoLightOutline);
+    const text = document.createElement("p");
+    text.innerText = "No news articles available right now.";
+    emptyState.append(img, text);
+    newscontainer?.append(emptyState);
+    return;
+  }
+
   const fragment = document.createDocumentFragment();
 
-  // Map over articles to create elements
-  response.news.articles.forEach((article: any) => {
+  articles.forEach((article: any) => {
     const newsarticle = document.createElement("a");
     newsarticle.classList.add("NewsArticle");
     newsarticle.href = article.url;
@@ -85,12 +96,14 @@ export async function SendNewsPage() {
     title.target = "_blank";
 
     const description = document.createElement("p");
+    const articleDescription = typeof article.description === "string"
+      ? article.description
+      : "No description available.";
 
-    article.description =
-      article.description.length > 400
-        ? article.description.substring(0, 400) + "..."
-        : article.description;
-    description.innerHTML = article.description;
+    description.innerHTML =
+      articleDescription.length > 400
+        ? articleDescription.substring(0, 400) + "..."
+        : articleDescription;
 
     articletext.append(title, description);
     newsarticle.append(articleimage, articletext);
@@ -102,10 +115,10 @@ export async function SendNewsPage() {
 
   if (!settingsState.animations) return;
 
-  const articles = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(".NewsArticle"));
+  const animatedArticles = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(".NewsArticle"));
 
   animate(
-    articles.slice(0, 20),
+    animatedArticles.slice(0, 20),
     { opacity: [0, 1], y: [10, 0], scale: [0.99, 1] },
     {
       delay: stagger(0.1),