turn off opera news stories

I have never used Opera. Still, once a day or so I get a notification of some news headline. I don't have to open opera for this, it appears on my phone "dashboard" that lists all my apps and I can also see the notification from the screen that just shows the clock and text message notifications, etc. (Sorry I don't really know much mobile terminology). Is this the same issue described here? https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/149864/how-to-turn-off-opera-mini-discover-top-stories-news-feed The person who posted that question seems to have a problem with the browser home page showing news stories. I'm using Android 6.0.1, Security Patch Level Oct 1, 2016. My phone is a Blu Life One X2. This feature is extremely irritating and I wonder who thought such an intrusive app was a good design decision.