Create a Google News Sitemap for WordPress

You can add specific news tags to an existing Sitemap or create a separate Sitema file, but a separate News Sitemap can improve how your content is tracked in Search using Search Console. More details on the website Google

Add code in your file function.php, and update “Permalink Settings” your site.

Add the created file to Search Console.

Your file will be available at: https://www.yorsite.com/wp-sitemap-google-news.xml

Tested:
WordPress 6.4.2
PHP 7.4

/**
 * Create rewrite rule.
 * the file will be available at https://www.yorsite.com/wp-sitemap-google-news.xml
 *
 */
add_action( 'init', 'wphaf_google_news_rewrite_rule' );

function wphaf_google_news_rewrite_rule() {

  add_rewrite_rule( '^wp-sitemap-google-news.xml$', 'index.php?google_news=index', 'top' );

  add_filter( 'query_vars', function( $vars ) {
      $vars[] = 'google_news';
      return $vars;
    } 
  );

}

/**
 * Render xml for sitemap.
 *
 */
function wphaf_google_news_render_sitemap() {
  global $wp_query;

  if ( get_query_var( 'google_news' ) != false && get_query_var( 'google_news' ) != '' ) {

    ob_start();

    echo sprintf(
      '%1$s%2$s',
      '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>',
      '<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">'
    );

    $args = array(
      'posts_per_page' => 20, 
      'orderby'     => 'modified',
      'order'       => 'DESC',
      'post_type'   => array( 'post' ),
      'no_found_rows' => true,
      'ignore_sticky_posts' => true,

      'date_query' => array(
          'after' => '2 day ago' 
      )
    );

    $query = new WP_Query( $args );

    if ( $query->have_posts() ) {
      while ( $query->have_posts() ) {
        $query->the_post();

        $date = new DateTime( $query->post->post_date, new DateTimeZone( 'Europe/Berlin' ) );
        $format = 'c';
?>
    <url>
      <loc><?php echo get_permalink( $query->post->ID ); ?></loc>
      <news:news>
        <news:publication>
          <news:name><?php echo get_bloginfo( 'name', 'display' ); ?></news:name>
          <news:language>ru</news:language>
        </news:publication>
        <news:publication_date><?php echo $date->format( $format ); ?></news:publication_date>
        <news:title><?php echo get_the_title( $query->post->ID ); ?></news:title>
      </news:news>
    </url>
<?php
      }
    }
    wp_reset_postdata();
?>
  </urlset>
<?php
    $sitemap_xml = ob_get_contents();

    ob_end_clean();

    return $sitemap_xml;
  }
}

/**
 * Output render xml file.
 *
 */
add_action( 'template_redirect', 'wphaf_google_news_template_redirect', 2 );

function wphaf_google_news_template_redirect() {

  global $wp_query;

  if ( get_query_var( 'google_news' ) != false && get_query_var( 'google_news' ) != '' ) {
    header( 'Content-Type: application/xml; charset=UTF-8' );
    echo wphaf_google_news_render_sitemap();
    exit();
  }
}