The news / events component is an automatically generated feed. The items that are rendered appear based on the categories and tags that are selected, both in the content type and also on the individual news article or calendar event.
For news, the most recent three news articles will appear. The article titles are links to the full article in the news site.
For events, the three events that are closest to the current date will appear. The event titles are links to the event in the main calendar.