Switch DeepNews bot to gpt-6-astra and add podcasts source

AskNews recommended moving the DeepNews research-only bot to their new
Astra model and adding "podcasts" to the DeepNews sources list.

- METAC_ASKNEWS_DEEPNEWS now uses asknews/deep-research/high-depth/gpt-6-astra
- Medium and high depth DeepNews presets include the "podcasts" source
- Bump asknews SDK to 0.14.2, which is the first version whose client-side
  validation accepts "podcasts" (and lists gpt-6-astra); no transitive
  dependency changes
- Add a cheap integration test covering the podcasts source
- Replace stale DeepNews model Literal with the SDK's DeepNewsModel type

Note: as of Sep 5 2026 the AskNews server lists gpt-6-astra but still
rejects requests with "Invalid model: gpt-6-astra" (rollout in progress).
claude-fable-5 was verified working as a fallback.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: CodexVeritas

code_tests/integration_tests/test_asknews.py

@@ -40,3 +40,19 @@ async def test_formatted_deep_research() -> None:
     assert len(news) > 100, "News is too short"
     assert "<final_answer>" not in news, "<final_answer> is in the final answer"
     assert "<think>" not in news, "<think> is in the news"
+
+
+async def test_deep_research_accepts_podcasts_source() -> None:
+    if not os.getenv("ASKNEWS_CLIENT_ID") or not os.getenv("ASKNEWS_SECRET"):
+        pytest.skip("ASKNEWS_CLIENT_ID or ASKNEWS_SECRET is not set")
+    response = await AskNewsSearcher().run_deep_research(
+        "In one sentence, what is the latest news about the US federal funds rate?",
+        sources=["asknews", "podcasts"],
+        model="open-source-best",
+        search_depth=1,
+        max_depth=1,
+    )
+    content = response.choices[0].message.content
+    logger.info(f"Deep research with podcasts source: {content}")
+    assert content is not None, "Content is None"
+    assert len(content) > 100, "Content is too short"

forecasting_tools/helpers/asknews_searcher.py

@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ async def call_preconfigured_version(self, preset: str, prompt: str) -> str:
         elif "asknews/deep-research/medium-depth" in preset:
             research = await self.get_formatted_deep_research(
                 prompt,
-                sources=["asknews", "google", "x", "wiki"],
+                sources=["asknews", "google", "x", "wiki", "podcasts"],
                 filter_params={"premium": True},
                 search_depth=2,
                 max_depth=4,
@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@ async def call_preconfigured_version(self, preset: str, prompt: str) -> str:
         elif "asknews/deep-research/high-depth" in preset:
             research = await self.get_formatted_deep_research(
                 prompt,
-                sources=["asknews", "google", "x", "wiki"],
+                sources=["asknews", "google", "x", "wiki", "podcasts"],
                 filter_params={"premium": True},
                 search_depth=4,
                 max_depth=6,
@@ -187,10 +187,7 @@ async def get_formatted_deep_research(
         self,
         query: str,
         sources: list[str] | None = None,
-        model: (
-            Literal["deepseek", "deepseek-basic", "claude-3-7-sonnet-latest", "o3-mini"]
-            | str
-        ) = _default_model,
+        model: DeepNewsModel | str = _default_model,
         search_depth: int = _default_search_depth,
         max_depth: int = _default_max_depth,
         filter_params: dict[str, bool] | None = None,
@@ -225,7 +222,7 @@ async def run_deep_research(
             from asknews_sdk.dto.deepnews import CreateDeepNewsResponse
         except ImportError:
             raise ImportError(
-                "Most recent version of asknews package not installed, deep research will not work. Run `poetry add asknews@0.11.6`"
+                "Most recent version of asknews package not installed, deep research will not work. Run `poetry add asknews@0.14.2`"
             )
         async with AsyncAskNewsSDK(
             client_id=self.client_id,

poetry.lock

@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ faker = ">=37.0.0,<41.0.0"
 plotly = ">=5.24.1,<7.0.0"
 pandas = ">=2.2.3,<4.0.0"
 streamlit = "^1.20.0"
-asknews = ">=0.9.1,<0.14.0"
+asknews = ">=0.14.2,<0.15.0"
 unidecode = "^1.4.0"
 hyperbrowser = ">=0.53.0,<1.0.0"
 pendulum = "^3.1.0"

pyproject.toml

@@ -505,7 +505,7 @@ def get_default_bot_dict() -> dict[str, RunBotConfig]:  # NOSONAR
     sonnet_4_5_name = "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929"
     gemini_2_5_pro = "openrouter/google/gemini-2.5-pro"  # Used to be gemini-2.5-pro-preview (though automatically switched to regular pro when preview was deprecated)
     gemini_default_timeout = 5 * 60
-    deepnews_model = "asknews/deep-research/high-depth/claude-opus-4-6"  # Switched to opus 4.6 Feb 23rd. Switched to high depth Feb 16th 2026. Switched from claude-sonnet-4-20250514 to sonnet 4.5 in Nov 2025. Switched from high to medium depth on Jan 2nd, 2026
+    deepnews_model = "asknews/deep-research/high-depth/gpt-6-astra"  # Switched to gpt-6-astra and added podcasts source Sep 5th 2026 (per AskNews recommendation). Switched to opus 4.6 Feb 23rd. Switched to high depth Feb 16th 2026. Switched from claude-sonnet-4-20250514 to sonnet 4.5 in Nov 2025. Switched from high to medium depth on Jan 2nd, 2026
 
     roughly_sonnet_4_cost = 0.25190
     roughly_gpt_5_high_cost = 0.37868