I have seen the “thought provoking stories” on a new FF install I did a couple of days ago, it seems to be the replacement for Pocket stories since that’s been removed. You can still remove it in about:preferences#home and uncheck “Recommended stories”.

However I have never seen the ad below it either. Not even sure where that’s coming from, there is a … button on the top right of it, I would be tempted to see if that gives any hint where it’s coming from.