I think the critique of "the search tool no longer respects your settings" is true regardless of it it notifies you of that fact. I did a random search myself and the first result outside of one week I saw was on page 17[1]. There are still lots of results within the one-week limit and that remains true for at least 10 more pages. I also do not see any banner warning me that my search has been expanded.

So while I think google news may still be generally useful, I also think the complaints in this article are accurate based on the first search I checked.

[1] (all query terms preserved as I have no notion which matter) https://www.google.com/search?q=iran+usa&sca_esv=cad7e3d7417...