Very cool idea! I think the UX needs some love. Zooming feels like too big steps and not very smooth, and for me it takes a while to load/update
I like the concept a lot though - keep it up!
Icons are too large on my desktop screen. This is an issue if there are many news points in the same vicinity. I have to zoom in needlessly to get to the other articles.
Yes agree it's not great for clicking, you can cycle around between locations using the arrow keys as well (random). So it's more for browsing and not seeking specific locations, at the moment..