Using wp_query for a school newspaper

I am trying to redesign the school newspaper for UNLV using WordPress. The current site is a total wreck, and though I haven’t used WordPress much, it seems like it will probably do everything we need, and I won’t have to create a site from scratch. ??

Now, on to my question. If you go to the current website, https://www.unlvrebelyell.com, you will notice that different sections have different numbers of articles in them every issue. On the new home page using WP, I’d like it to only show the latest posts for the most current issue. I assume this can be done with wp_query somehow, but I’m not sure. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!