Hi Gibby,
I just tried selecting "News items" to display on the front page in Administration > Front Page > Front Page settings, then went to the site news forum. I found that this had automatically created a link to the site news in the front page main menu block (which remained even if news items were not displayed on the front page).
I don't know why the news forum was missing when you upgraded, but hopefully this work-around helps.
Blocks
Missing News forum from main page
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