LIST
WHERE (econtains(Topics, "Terrorism") OR econtains(Topics, "Wars"))
AND econtains(flat(list(Note-Type)), "List")
Sort Date DESC
This should work as long as Topics are true lists.
It could be one trick to keep the OR statement on one line, to help you make sense of the parentheses. Then each line should have the same amount of opening and close parentheses.
This also allows for somewhat easier reading, as each line has to be true for the entire query to be true.