How to pull latest posts from a specific category - wordpress

Question

I'm trying to pull the latest posts from the category "local-news" but I'm only seeing one of the two posts that exist for this category. I'm not sure if it's my if statement and/or while loop that's causing the issue. This is my first time developing a WP theme and using PHP so I'm a little confused as to how I could fix this. I'm not sure how to close my if statement or while loop either without causing a critical error or syntax error.
<div class="container">
<div class="row mt-4">
<?php
$args = array(
'category_name' => 'local-news',
'post_type' => 'post' ,
'orderby' => 'date' ,
'order' => 'DESC' ,
'posts_per_page' => 6
);
$q = new WP_Query($args);
$q -> the_post();
?>
if ( $q->have_posts() ) : {
while ( $q->have_posts() ) : the_post() {
<div class="card-body pb-0">
<div class="latest_news_cont">
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>">
<?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
</a>
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>">
<h5>
<?php the_title(); ?>
</h5>
</a>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
<p style="text-align:center;">Read more</p>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<div class="card-body pb-0">
<div class="latest_news_cont">
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>">
<?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
</a>
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>">
<h5>
<?php the_title(); ?>
</h5>
</a>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
<p style="text-align:center;">Read more</p>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Answer 1

Below I have fixed the initial issues I noticed:
<?php
$args = array(
'category_name' => 'local-news',
'post_type' => 'post',
'orderby' => 'date',
'order' => 'DESC',
'posts_per_page' => 6
);
$q = new WP_Query($args);
if ( $q->have_posts() ) :
while ( $q->have_posts() ) :
$q->the_post();
?>
<div class="card-body pb-0">
<div class="latest_news_cont">
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">
<?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
</a>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">
<h5>
<?php the_title(); ?>
</h5>
</a>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
<p style="text-align:center;">Read more</p>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<div class="card-body pb-0">
<div class="latest_news_cont">
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">
<?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
</a>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">
<h5>
<?php the_title(); ?>
</h5>
</a>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
<p style="text-align:center;">Read more</p>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<?php
endwhile;
endif;

Answer 2

I figured it out, had a lot of syntax issues and open php tags.
<?php
// the query
$the_query = new WP_Query(array(
'category_name' => 'local-news',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'posts_per_page' => 5,
));
?>
<?php if ($the_query->have_posts()) : ?>
<?php while ($the_query->have_posts()) : $the_query >the_post(); ?>
<div class="card-body pb-0">
<div class="latest_news_cont">
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>">
<?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
</a>
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>">
<h5>
<?php the_title(); ?>
</h5>
</a>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
<p style="text-align:center;">Read more</p>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
<?php else : ?>
<p><?php __('No News'); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>