diff --git a/bot/data/news.py b/bot/data/news.py
index 5c5b23e..23d8e18 100644
--- a/bot/data/news.py
+++ b/bot/data/news.py
@@ -51,7 +51,11 @@ _DATE_RE = re.compile(
     r"|\bQ[1-4]\b",
     flags=re.IGNORECASE,
 )
-_PUNCT_RE = re.compile(r"[?!\"'.,;:()\[\]{}]")
+# Hyphens/dashes are GNews query operators (a leading '-' means "exclude the
+# next term"), so a token like "El-Sayed" makes the API return HTTP 400.  Strip
+# them to spaces along with the rest of the punctuation so the query stays a
+# plain keyword list.  – = en dash, — = em dash.
+_PUNCT_RE = re.compile(r"[?!\"'.,;:()\[\]{}\-–—]")
 
 
 class NewsClient:
@@ -79,6 +83,18 @@ class NewsClient:
     # Public API
     # ------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+    @property
+    def enabled(self) -> bool:
+        """True only when a GNews API key is configured.
+
+        When False, get_sentiment() is a no-op that returns 0.0 without any
+        network call, so callers must skip GNews entirely — including the
+        per-cycle query budget accounting — instead of "spending" a query that
+        never reaches the API (which inflated gnews_queries_used to a phantom
+        5/5 while the key was missing).
+        """
+        return bool(self._api_key)
+
     async def get_sentiment(self, question: str) -> float:
         """
         Return a sentiment score ∈ [-1.0, +1.0] for the market question.
diff --git a/bot/strategy/bayesian.py b/bot/strategy/bayesian.py
index a20d08b..87518b8 100644
--- a/bot/strategy/bayesian.py
+++ b/bot/strategy/bayesian.py
@@ -503,7 +503,10 @@ class BayesianStrategy:
         # Phase 3: caller has pre-sorted markets by gnews_priority() so the
         # highest-value markets reach this block first.
         news_log_adj = 0.0
-        if is_politics and self._news is not None:
+        # self._news.enabled gates the whole block: with no GNews API key the
+        # client is a no-op, so we must not consume (or report) query budget for
+        # it — see NewsClient.enabled.
+        if is_politics and self._news is not None and self._news.enabled:
             if self._news_queries_this_cycle < MAX_NEWS_QUERIES_PER_CYCLE:
                 self._news_queries_this_cycle += 1
                 sentiment = await self._news.get_sentiment(market.question)
diff --git a/tests/test_news_query.py b/tests/test_news_query.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f46dc2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_news_query.py
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+"""Tests for the GNews layer minor fixes.
+
+Two faults found during the GNews capture/prioritisation diagnostic:
+
+1. Hyphens/dashes in a market question reached the GNews query verbatim and,
+   because '-' is GNews's exclusion operator, produced HTTP 400
+   (e.g. "Abdul El-Sayed Michigan Democratic Primary").
+
+2. The per-cycle GNews budget counter incremented in evaluate() *before*
+   get_sentiment() checked the API key, so with no key configured the
+   [CYCLE SUMMARY] reported a phantom "gnews_queries_used: 5/5" even though
+   zero real requests left the process.
+"""
+import asyncio
+
+from bot.data.news import NewsClient
+from bot.data.external import ExternalSignals
+from bot.data.polymarket import Market
+from bot.strategy.bayesian import BayesianStrategy
+
+
+# ── Fix 1: query sanitisation ────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+def test_build_query_strips_hyphen_that_breaks_gnews():
+    q = NewsClient._build_query(
+        "Will Abdul El-Sayed win the 2026 Michigan Democratic Primary?"
+    )
+    assert "-" not in q              # the exclusion operator must be gone
+    assert "El-Sayed" not in q
+    assert "Sayed" in q             # the meaningful token survives as its own word
+
+
+def test_build_query_strips_unicode_dashes():
+    q = NewsClient._build_query("Trump–Putin summit — final outcome")
+    assert "–" not in q and "—" not in q
+    assert "Trump" in q and "Putin" in q
+
+
+# ── Fix 2: enabled property + budget accounting ──────────────────────────────
+
+def test_enabled_reflects_api_key(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.delenv("GNEWS_API_KEY", raising=False)
+    assert NewsClient().enabled is False
+    monkeypatch.setenv("GNEWS_API_KEY", "deadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeef")
+    assert NewsClient().enabled is True
+
+
+def _politics_market() -> Market:
+    return Market(
+        id="m1", condition_id="c1",
+        question="Will candidate X win the 2026 governor election?",
+        yes_token_id="y", no_token_id="n",
+        yes_price=0.50, no_price=0.50, volume_24h=10_000.0,
+        end_date="2026-07-15T00:00:00Z", active=True, category="politics",
+    )
+
+
+def _signals() -> ExternalSignals:
+    return ExternalSignals(
+        btc_price=1.0, btc_change_24h=0.0, eth_price=1.0, eth_change_24h=0.0,
+        btc_dominance=50.0, fear_greed_index=50, fear_greed_label="neutral",
+        total_market_cap_change=0.0, valid=True,
+    )
+
+
+def test_disabled_news_consumes_no_gnews_budget(monkeypatch):
+    """Regression: no API key → gnews_queries_used stays 0 (was a phantom 1+)."""
+    monkeypatch.delenv("GNEWS_API_KEY", raising=False)
+    news = NewsClient()
+    assert news.enabled is False
+
+    strategy = BayesianStrategy(news=news, manifold=None, db=None)
+    strategy.reset_cycle()
+    asyncio.run(
+        strategy.evaluate(_politics_market(), _signals(), occupied_families=set())
+    )
+    assert strategy.get_cycle_stats()["gnews_queries_used"] == 0