Live News panel goes black after switching from offline channel back to live channel

[Niboshi-Wasabi]

Variant

worldmonitor.app (Full / Geopolitical)

Affected area

Live video streams

Bug description

When a user adds a channel that is not currently live (via the channel management modal), switches to that channel (which correctly shows the "not live" / offline message), and then switches back to a channel that is live, the Live News panel shows a black/empty area instead of the stream. The stream does not recover until the page is reloaded.

Note: The root cause has been identified at the source code level. If you would like a fix, I am ready to open a bug-fix PR anytime—just let me know.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open the Live News panel (full / geopolitical variant).
2. Open Channel management (gear icon) and add a custom channel that is not currently streaming live (or pick an optional channel that is offline).
3. Close the modal and switch to that offline channel in the Live News panel.
   → The "not live" message appears as expected.
4. Switch to another channel that is currently live (e.g. a default channel that is streaming).
   → Bug: The player area stays black; no video is shown.

Expected behavior

The live stream for the selected channel should load and play in the panel.

Screenshots / Console errors

Browser & OS

Vivaldi 7.8 on Windows 11

[koala73]

thank you!
Assigning it to you - since you proposed