True, I started my live trading during 2012-13 sessions and then the scenario was different! FF was one of the most popular news sites in those sessions! Actually, nowadays there have so options, but in my early stage we found only 2-3 options! Nowadays, I use 3-4 free sites but till now use the Forexfactory!
When I started trading, I used to read news on investing.com, but now I also like forex crunch, as it provides detailed info on all currency pairs, especially the ones I like and trade.
a demo account is nice but i would argue a micro/cent account would be better for beginners as they only need to commit a small amount of capital. However, trading with real money will teach them much better about risk management and how to deal with anxiety in trading.