World Monitor

Real-time global intelligence dashboard aggregating news, markets, geopolitical data, and infrastructure monitoring into a unified situation awareness interface.

Features

Interactive Global Map

• Zoom & Pan - Smooth navigation with mouse/trackpad gestures
• Multiple Views - Global, US, and MENA region presets
• Layer System - Toggle visibility of different data layers
• Time Filtering - Filter events by time range (1h to 7d)

Data Layers

Layers are organized into logical groups for efficient monitoring:

Geopolitical

Layer	Description
Conflicts	Active conflict zones with involved parties and status
Hotspots	Intelligence hotspots with activity levels based on news correlation
Sanctions	Countries under economic sanctions regimes
Protests	Live social unrest events from ACLED and GDELT

Military & Strategic

Layer	Description
Military Bases	220+ global military installations from 9 operators
Nuclear Facilities	Power plants, weapons labs, enrichment sites
Gamma Irradiators	IAEA-tracked Category 1-3 radiation sources

Infrastructure

Layer	Description
Undersea Cables	55 major submarine cable routes worldwide
Pipelines	88 operating oil & gas pipelines across all continents
Internet Outages	Network disruptions via Cloudflare Radar
AI Datacenters	111 major AI compute clusters (≥10,000 GPUs)

Transport

Layer	Description
Ships (AIS)	Live vessel tracking via AIS with chokepoint monitoring
Flights	FAA airport delay status and ground stops

Natural Events

Layer	Description
Earthquakes	Live USGS seismic data (M4.5+ global)
Weather Alerts	NWS severe weather warnings

Economic & Labels

Layer	Description
Economic	FRED indicators panel (Fed assets, rates, yields)
Countries	Country boundary labels
Waterways	Strategic waterways and chokepoints

News Aggregation

Multi-source RSS aggregation across categories:

• World / Geopolitical - BBC, Reuters, AP, Guardian, NPR
• Middle East / MENA - Al Jazeera, BBC ME, CNN ME
• Technology - Hacker News, Ars Technica, The Verge, MIT Tech Review
• AI / ML - ArXiv, Hugging Face, VentureBeat, OpenAI
• Finance - CNBC, MarketWatch, Financial Times, Yahoo Finance
• Government - White House, State Dept, Pentagon, Treasury, Fed, SEC
• Intel Feed - Defense One, Breaking Defense, Bellingcat, Krebs Security
• Think Tanks - Foreign Policy, Brookings, CSIS, CFR
• Layoffs Tracker - Tech industry job cuts
• Congress Trades - Congressional stock trading activity

Market Data

• Stocks - Major indices and tech stocks
• Commodities - Oil, gold, natural gas, copper
• Crypto - Bitcoin, Ethereum, and top cryptocurrencies
• Sector Heatmap - Visual sector performance
• Economic Indicators - Fed data (GDP, inflation, unemployment)

Prediction Markets

• Polymarket integration for event probability tracking
• Correlation analysis with news events

Search (⌘K)

Universal search across all data sources:

• News articles
• Geographic hotspots and conflicts
• Infrastructure (pipelines, cables, datacenters)
• Nuclear facilities and irradiators
• Markets and predictions

Data Export

• JSON export of current dashboard state
• Historical playback from snapshots

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Signal Intelligence

The dashboard continuously analyzes data streams to detect significant patterns and anomalies. Signals appear in the header badge (⚡) with confidence scores.

Signal Types

Signal	Trigger	What It Means
◉ Convergence	3+ source types report same story within 30 minutes	Multiple independent channels confirming the same event—higher likelihood of significance
△ Triangulation	Wire + Government + Intel sources align	The "authority triangle"—when official channels, wire services, and defense specialists all report the same thing
🔥 Velocity Spike	Topic mention rate doubles with 6+ sources/hour	A story is accelerating rapidly across the news ecosystem
🔮 Prediction Leading	Prediction market moves 5%+ with low news coverage	Markets pricing in information not yet reflected in news
📊 Silent Divergence	Market moves 2%+ with minimal related news	Unexplained price action—possible insider knowledge or algorithm-driven

How It Works

The correlation engine maintains rolling snapshots of:

• News topic frequency (by keyword extraction)
• Market price changes
• Prediction market probabilities

Each refresh cycle compares current state to previous snapshot, applying thresholds and deduplication to avoid alert fatigue. Signals include confidence scores (60-95%) based on the strength of the pattern.

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Source Intelligence

Not all sources are equal. The system implements a dual classification to prioritize authoritative information.

Source Tiers (Authority Ranking)

Tier	Sources	Characteristics
Tier 1	Reuters, AP, AFP, Bloomberg, White House, Pentagon	Wire services and official government—fastest, most reliable
Tier 2	BBC, Guardian, NPR, Al Jazeera, CNBC, Financial Times	Major outlets—high editorial standards, some latency
Tier 3	Defense One, Bellingcat, Foreign Policy, MIT Tech Review	Domain specialists—deep expertise, narrower scope
Tier 4	Hacker News, The Verge, VentureBeat, aggregators	Useful signal but requires corroboration

When multiple sources report the same story, the lowest tier (most authoritative) source is displayed as the primary, with others listed as corroborating.

Source Types (Categorical)

Sources are also categorized by function for triangulation detection:

• Wire - News agencies (Reuters, AP, AFP, Bloomberg)
• Gov - Official government (White House, Pentagon, State Dept, Fed, SEC)
• Intel - Defense/security specialists (Defense One, Bellingcat, Krebs)
• Mainstream - Major news outlets (BBC, Guardian, NPR, Al Jazeera)
• Market - Financial press (CNBC, MarketWatch, Financial Times)
• Tech - Technology coverage (Hacker News, Ars Technica, MIT Tech Review)

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Algorithms & Design

News Clustering

Related articles are grouped using Jaccard similarity on tokenized headlines:

similarity(A, B) = |A ∩ B| / |A ∪ B|

• Headlines are tokenized, lowercased, and stripped of stop words
• Articles with similarity ≥ 0.5 are grouped into clusters
• Clusters are sorted by source tier, then recency
• The most authoritative source becomes the "primary" headline

Velocity Analysis

Each news cluster tracks publication velocity:

• Sources per hour = article count / time span
• Trend = rising/stable/falling based on first-half vs second-half publication rate
• Levels: Normal (<3/hr), Elevated (3-6/hr), Spike (>6/hr)

Sentiment Detection

Headlines are scored against curated word lists:

Negative indicators: war, attack, killed, crisis, crash, collapse, threat, sanctions, invasion, missile, terror, assassination, recession, layoffs...

Positive indicators: peace, deal, agreement, breakthrough, recovery, growth, ceasefire, treaty, alliance, victory...

Score determines sentiment classification: negative (<-1), neutral (-1 to +1), positive (>+1)

Baseline Deviation (Z-Score)

The system maintains rolling baselines for news volume per topic:

• 7-day average and 30-day average stored in IndexedDB
• Standard deviation calculated from historical counts
• Z-score = (current - mean) / stddev

Deviation levels:

• Spike: Z > 2.5 (statistically rare increase)
• Elevated: Z > 1.5
• Normal: -2 < Z < 1.5
• Quiet: Z < -2 (unusually low activity)

This enables detection of anomalous activity even when absolute numbers seem normal.

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Dynamic Hotspot Activity

Hotspots on the map are not static threat levels. Activity is calculated in real-time based on news correlation.

Each hotspot defines keywords:

{
  id: 'dc',
  name: 'DC',
  keywords: ['pentagon', 'white house', 'congress', 'cia', 'nsa', ...],
  agencies: ['Pentagon', 'CIA', 'NSA', 'State Dept'],
}

The system counts matching news articles in the current feed, applies velocity analysis, and assigns activity levels:

Level	Criteria	Visual
Low	<3 matches, normal velocity	Gray marker
Elevated	3-6 matches OR elevated velocity	Yellow pulse
High	>6 matches OR spike velocity	Red pulse

This creates a dynamic "heat map" of global attention based on live news flow.

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Custom Monitors

Create personalized keyword alerts that scan all incoming news:

1. Enter comma-separated keywords (e.g., "nvidia, gpu, chip shortage")
2. System assigns a unique color
3. Matching articles are highlighted in the Monitor panel
4. Matching articles in clusters inherit the monitor color

Monitors persist across sessions via LocalStorage.

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Snapshot System

The dashboard captures periodic snapshots for historical analysis:

• Automatic capture every refresh cycle
• 7-day retention with automatic cleanup
• Stored data: news clusters, market prices, prediction values, hotspot levels
• Playback: Load historical snapshots to see past dashboard states

Baselines (7-day and 30-day averages) are stored in IndexedDB for deviation analysis.

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Maritime Intelligence

The Ships layer provides real-time vessel tracking and maritime domain awareness through AIS (Automatic Identification System) data.

Chokepoint Monitoring

The system monitors eight critical maritime chokepoints where disruptions could impact global trade:

Chokepoint	Strategic Importance
Strait of Hormuz	20% of global oil transits; Iran control
Suez Canal	Europe-Asia shipping; single point of failure
Strait of Malacca	Primary Asia-Pacific oil route
Bab el-Mandeb	Red Sea access; Yemen/Houthi activity
Panama Canal	Americas east-west transit
Taiwan Strait	Semiconductor supply chain; PLA activity
South China Sea	Contested waters; island disputes
Black Sea	Ukraine grain exports; Russian naval activity

Density Analysis

Vessel positions are aggregated into a 2° grid to calculate traffic density. Each cell tracks:

• Current vessel count
• Historical baseline (30-minute rolling window)
• Change percentage from baseline

Density changes of ±30% trigger alerts, indicating potential congestion, diversions, or blockades.

Dark Ship Detection

The system monitors for AIS gaps—vessels that stop transmitting their position. An AIS gap exceeding 60 minutes in monitored regions may indicate:

• Sanctions evasion (ship-to-ship transfers)
• Illegal fishing
• Military activity
• Equipment failure

Vessels reappearing after gaps are flagged for the duration of the session.

WebSocket Architecture

AIS data flows through a WebSocket relay for real-time updates without polling:

AISStream → WebSocket Relay → Browser
              (ws://relay)

The connection automatically reconnects on disconnection with a 30-second backoff. When the Ships layer is disabled, the WebSocket disconnects to conserve resources.

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Social Unrest Tracking

The Protests layer aggregates civil unrest data from two independent sources, providing corroboration and global coverage.

ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data)

Academic-grade conflict data with human-verified events:

• Coverage: Global, 30-day rolling window
• Event types: Protests, riots, strikes, demonstrations
• Metadata: Actors involved, fatalities, detailed notes
• Confidence: High (human-curated)

GDELT (Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone)

Real-time news-derived event data:

• Coverage: Global, 7-day rolling window
• Event types: Geocoded protest mentions from news
• Volume: Reports per location (signal strength)
• Confidence: Medium (algorithmic extraction)

Multi-Source Corroboration

Events from both sources are deduplicated using a 0.5° spatial grid and date matching. When both ACLED and GDELT report events in the same area:

• Confidence is elevated to "high"
• ACLED data takes precedence (higher accuracy)
• Source list shows corroboration

Severity Classification

Severity	Criteria
High	Fatalities reported, riots, or clashes
Medium	Large demonstrations, strikes
Low	Smaller protests, localized events

Events near intelligence hotspots are cross-referenced to provide geopolitical context.

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Aviation Monitoring

The Flights layer tracks airport delays and ground stops at major US airports using FAA NASSTATUS data.

Delay Types

Type	Description
Ground Stop	No departures permitted; severe disruption
Ground Delay	Departures held; arrival rate limiting
Arrival Delay	Inbound traffic backed up
Departure Delay	Outbound traffic delayed

Severity Thresholds

Severity	Average Delay	Visual
Severe	≥60 minutes	Red
Major	45-59 minutes	Orange
Moderate	25-44 minutes	Yellow
Minor	15-24 minutes	Gray

Monitored Airports

The 30 largest US airports are tracked:

• Major hubs: JFK, LAX, ORD, ATL, DFW, DEN, SFO
• International gateways with high traffic volume
• Airports frequently affected by weather or congestion

Ground stops are particularly significant—they indicate severe disruption (weather, security, or infrastructure failure) and can cascade across the network.

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Fault Tolerance

External APIs are unreliable. Rate limits, outages, and network errors are inevitable. The system implements circuit breaker patterns to maintain availability.

Circuit Breaker Pattern

Each external service is wrapped in a circuit breaker that tracks failures:

Normal → Failure #1 → Failure #2 → OPEN (cooldown)
                                      ↓
                              5 minutes pass
                                      ↓
                                   CLOSED

Behavior during cooldown:

• New requests return cached data (if available)
• UI shows "temporarily unavailable" status
• No API calls are made (prevents hammering)

Protected Services

Service	Cooldown	Cache TTL
Yahoo Finance	5 min	10 min
Polymarket	5 min	10 min
USGS Earthquakes	5 min	10 min
NWS Weather	5 min	10 min
FRED Economic	5 min	10 min
Cloudflare Radar	5 min	10 min
ACLED	5 min	10 min
GDELT	5 min	10 min
FAA Status	5 min	5 min
RSS Feeds	5 min per feed	10 min

RSS feeds use per-feed circuit breakers—one failing feed doesn't affect others.

Graceful Degradation

When a service enters cooldown:

1. Cached data continues to display (stale but available)
2. Status panel shows service health
3. Automatic recovery when cooldown expires
4. No user intervention required

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Conditional Data Loading

API calls are expensive. The system only fetches data for enabled layers, reducing unnecessary network traffic and rate limit consumption.

Layer-Aware Loading

When a layer is toggled OFF:

• No API calls for that data source
• No refresh interval scheduled
• WebSocket connections closed (for AIS)

When a layer is toggled ON:

• Data is fetched immediately
• Refresh interval begins
• Loading indicator shown on toggle button

Unconfigured Services

Some data sources require API keys (AIS relay, Cloudflare Radar). If credentials are not configured:

• The layer toggle is hidden entirely
• No failed requests pollute the console
• Users see only functional layers

This prevents confusion when deploying without full API access.

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Prediction Market Filtering

The Prediction Markets panel focuses on geopolitically relevant markets, filtering out sports and entertainment.

Inclusion Keywords

Markets matching these topics are displayed:

• Conflicts: war, military, invasion, ceasefire, NATO, nuclear
• Countries: Russia, Ukraine, China, Taiwan, Iran, Israel, Gaza
• Leaders: Putin, Zelensky, Trump, Biden, Xi Jinping, Netanyahu
• Economics: Fed, interest rate, inflation, recession, tariffs, sanctions
• Global: UN, EU, treaties, summits, coups, refugees

Exclusion Keywords

Markets matching these are filtered out:

• Sports: NBA, NFL, FIFA, World Cup, championships, playoffs
• Entertainment: Oscars, movies, celebrities, TikTok, streaming

This ensures the panel shows markets like "Will Russia withdraw from Ukraine?" rather than "Will the Lakers win the championship?"

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Tech Stack

• Frontend: TypeScript, Vite
• Visualization: D3.js, TopoJSON
• Data: RSS feeds, REST APIs
• Storage: IndexedDB for snapshots/baselines, LocalStorage for preferences

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/koala73/worldmonitor.git
cd worldmonitor

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development server
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build

API Dependencies

The dashboard fetches data from various public APIs and data sources:

Service	Data	Auth Required
RSS2JSON	News feed parsing	No
Yahoo Finance	Stock quotes, indices	No
CoinGecko	Cryptocurrency prices	No
USGS	Earthquake data	No
NWS	Weather alerts	No
FRED	Economic indicators (Fed data)	No
Polymarket	Prediction markets	No
ACLED	Armed conflict & protest data	Yes (free)
GDELT	News-derived event geolocation	No
FAA NASSTATUS	Airport delay status	No
Cloudflare Radar	Internet outage data	Yes (free)
AISStream	Live vessel positions	Yes (relay)

Optional API Keys

Some features require API credentials. Without them, the corresponding layer is hidden:

Variable	Service	How to Get
VITE_WS_RELAY_URL	AIS vessel tracking	Deploy AIS relay or use hosted service
CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN	Internet outages	Free Cloudflare account with Radar access
VITE_ACLED_ACCESS_TOKEN	Protest data	Free registration at acleddata.com

The dashboard functions fully without these keys—affected layers simply don't appear.

Project Structure

src/
├── App.ts                  # Main application orchestrator
├── main.ts                 # Entry point
├── components/
│   ├── Map.ts              # D3.js map with 18 toggleable layers
│   ├── MapPopup.ts         # Contextual info popups
│   ├── SearchModal.ts      # Universal search (⌘K)
│   ├── SignalModal.ts      # Signal intelligence display
│   ├── EconomicPanel.ts    # FRED economic indicators
│   ├── NewsPanel.ts        # News feed display
│   ├── MarketPanel.ts      # Stock/commodity display
│   ├── MonitorPanel.ts     # Custom keyword monitors
│   └── ...
├── config/
│   ├── feeds.ts            # 45+ RSS feeds, source tiers
│   ├── geo.ts              # Hotspots, conflicts, 55 cables, waterways
│   ├── pipelines.ts        # 88 oil & gas pipelines
│   ├── bases-expanded.ts   # 220+ military bases
│   ├── ai-datacenters.ts   # 313 AI clusters (filtered to 111)
│   ├── airports.ts         # 30 monitored US airports
│   ├── irradiators.ts      # IAEA gamma irradiator sites
│   └── markets.ts          # Stock symbols, sectors
├── services/
│   ├── ais.ts              # WebSocket vessel tracking
│   ├── protests.ts         # ACLED + GDELT integration
│   ├── flights.ts          # FAA delay parsing
│   ├── outages.ts          # Cloudflare Radar integration
│   ├── rss.ts              # RSS parsing with circuit breakers
│   ├── markets.ts          # Yahoo Finance, CoinGecko
│   ├── earthquakes.ts      # USGS integration
│   ├── weather.ts          # NWS alerts
│   ├── fred.ts             # Federal Reserve data
│   ├── polymarket.ts       # Prediction markets (filtered)
│   ├── clustering.ts       # Jaccard similarity clustering
│   ├── correlation.ts      # Signal detection engine
│   ├── velocity.ts         # Velocity & sentiment analysis
│   └── storage.ts          # IndexedDB snapshots & baselines
├── utils/
│   ├── circuit-breaker.ts  # Fault tolerance pattern
│   └── ...
├── styles/
└── types/
api/                        # Vercel serverless proxies
├── cloudflare-outages.js
├── faa-status.js
├── fred-data.js
├── gdelt-geo.js
└── nga-warnings.js

Usage

Keyboard Shortcuts

• ⌘K / Ctrl+K - Open search
• ↑↓ - Navigate search results
• Enter - Select result
• Esc - Close modals

Map Controls

• Scroll - Zoom in/out
• Drag - Pan the map
• Click markers - Show detailed popup
• Layer toggles - Show/hide data layers

Panel Management

• Drag panels - Reorder layout
• Settings (⚙) - Toggle panel visibility

Data Sources

News Feeds

Aggregates 45+ RSS feeds from major news outlets, government sources, and specialty publications with source-tier prioritization. Categories include world news, MENA, technology, AI/ML, finance, government releases, defense/intel, and think tanks.

Geospatial Data

• Hotspots: 25+ global intelligence hotspots with keyword correlation
• Conflicts: 10+ active conflict zones with involved parties
• Military Bases: 220+ installations from US, NATO, Russia, China, and allies
• Pipelines: 88 operating oil/gas pipelines across all continents
• Undersea Cables: 55 major submarine cable routes
• Nuclear: 100+ power plants, weapons labs, enrichment facilities
• AI Infrastructure: 111 major compute clusters (≥10k GPUs)
• Strategic Waterways: 8 critical chokepoints

Live APIs

• USGS: Earthquake feed (M4.5+ global)
• NWS: Severe weather alerts (US)
• FAA: Airport delays and ground stops
• Cloudflare Radar: Internet outage detection
• AIS: Real-time vessel positions
• ACLED/GDELT: Protest and unrest events
• Yahoo Finance: Stock quotes and indices
• CoinGecko: Cryptocurrency prices
• FRED: Federal Reserve economic data
• Polymarket: Prediction market odds

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Design Philosophy

Information density over aesthetics. Every pixel should convey signal. The dark interface minimizes eye strain during extended monitoring sessions.

Authority matters. Not all sources are equal. Wire services and official government channels are prioritized over aggregators and blogs.

Correlation over accumulation. Raw news feeds are noise. The value is in clustering related stories, detecting velocity changes, and identifying cross-source patterns.

Local-first. No accounts, no cloud sync. All preferences and history stored locally. The only network traffic is fetching public data.

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License

MIT

Author

Elie Habib

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Built for situational awareness and open-source intelligence gathering.