Maybe the alert system could be modified to only warn the user with a predefined warning to go check the news because something is going on.
The alert system wasn't only disbanded due to concerns over who could send what message, but also because of a potential vulnerability involving DoS attacks on full nodes:
All of the issues described below allow an attacker in possession of the Alert Key to perform a Denial of Service attack on nodes that still support the Alert system. These issues involve the exhaustion of memory which causes node software to crash or be killed due to excessive memory usage.
I don't think they're in any hurry to bring it back in a slightly different guise. There would be a certain irony if we inadvertently introduced new security risks while attempting to safeguard against potential future security risks.