Yes I was wondering if it could be connected to the Facebook News Feed changes, and it is also worth pointing out that, conversely, many news sources use Google News actively and at least part of their traffic depends on it.

PS regarding Mozilla: as you correctly noted, their focus on privacy and their deal with Google are at odds. I guess the deal is good in terms of money but it doesn't look good in terms of PR and could be damaging in the long term, I think they should do something about it.