# The Meridian

> Neutral, cited news from Southern Africa. Every article is a synthesis of multiple sources, with per-fact citations and machine-scored neutrality and political drift.

The Meridian ingests reporting from 18+ outlets across English, Afrikaans, isiZulu and isiXhosa.
Articles are clustered by topic, synthesised by Claude, validated, and scored using a deterministic
heuristic scorer (heuristic-v1). Every score is traceable to lexicon entries and source sentences.

## Key pages

- [Front page](https://meridian.news/): Latest syntheses and live event timelines
- [Events](https://meridian.news/events): Ongoing story timelines
- [Methodology](https://meridian.news/method): How scoring, synthesis, and validation work
- [Corrections](https://meridian.news/corrections): Report an error in a synthesis
- [RSS feed](https://meridian.news/api/feed.rss): Subscribe to all syntheses
- [JSON Feed](https://meridian.news/api/feed.json): Machine-readable feed

## Recent syntheses

- [Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Saturday it has closed the Strait of Hormuz in respons…](https://meridian.news/article/63e9150a-3e6c-4395-83f8-6b267e9cd730): The IRGC navy said the strait will remain closed until the United States lifts its naval blockade on Iranian vessels and ports, calling the US actions "a violation of the ongoing ceasefire agreement in the US-Israel war… — 2026-04-18 (neutrality: 95)
- [Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz on Friday during a ceasefire in the Middle East war, only to clos…](https://meridian.news/article/468c4ad7-ec32-433b-be6c-2cd1f33bc6ee): At least eight oil and gas tankers passed through the strait early Saturday morning following Iran's Friday afternoon announcement, according to data from tracking firm Kpler. The vessels included one crude oil tanker, f… — 2026-04-18 (neutrality: 95)
- [Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz on Friday following a ceasefire in Lebanon, only to close it agai…](https://meridian.news/article/56cd1c28-368d-47c3-88aa-0bb2ec28fc6a): At least eight oil and gas tankers passed through the strait early Saturday morning after Iran's Friday announcement, according to maritime tracking data from Kpler. The vessels included one crude oil tanker, four liquef… — 2026-04-18 (neutrality: 95)
- [At least eight oil and gas tankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday after Iran tempor…](https://meridian.news/article/59409e05-663f-45ba-9738-75cb0a3f989c): Hours later, Iran's military announced the strait was closed again. Iran's central military command said that in response to a continuing American blockade, "control over the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous… — 2026-04-18 (neutrality: 95)
- [Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema received a five-year prison sentence on Thursday afte…](https://meridian.news/article/30d222ec-c8c2-45bf-81b3-acd22ffaaccc): The Congress of Traditional Leaders said the sentence raised questions about fairness in South Africa's legal system. Contralesa President Kgoshi Mathupa Mokoena noted that many people had fired shots at funerals and oth… — 2026-04-18 (neutrality: 90)