Have you ever been annoyed that Safari on macOS 10.14 Mojave wants to open Apple News articles in News app instead of in Safari? Well no more! I've just released a new, free, open source Mac app called StopTheNews that stops Safari from opening Apple News articles in News app. Instead, StopTheNews opens the original article URL in Safari. StopTheNews also works with Safari Technology Preview, if that's your default web browser.
The trick behind StopTheNews is simple. On Mojave, News app is the default handler for Apple News URL schemes. StopTheNews just registers itself as the default handler for Apple News URL schemes, taking over from News app. When StopTheNews gets an Apple News URL from Safari, it loads the page invisibly, finds the URL of the original article, and then opens the original article URL in Safari.
You may recognize the StopTheNews app icon: it's the old icon from StopTheMadness version 1.0. I needed an icon for StopTheNews, and I had this one sitting around unused, so that's the story. I apologize for the ugliness LOL. StopTheNews is free and open source, so I would certainly welcome the contribution of a new app icon to the project.
Hopefully StopTheNews can make your Apple News experience slightly less annoying. If you'd like to try StopTheNews, you can download now from GitHub.