~half the brief has no image, leaving a blank well above the headline. When an
article has no image_url, fill the well with the topic word (e.g. "science") in
lowercase Newsreader on a soft topic-tinted field, color-coded per topic
(science/tech/environment/health/community/culture/world/space + neutral
default). Same 5:4 footprint as the photo, so card height stays consistent.
Threads `topic` through the news object.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
thejayman77
e3e6f24753