The Associated Press reported that a federal appeals court ruled New Jersey’s ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines is unconstitutional, the first federal appeals court to invalidate such a state law. UCLA law professor Adam Winkler said the decision was surprising because federal appeals courts have previously upheld assault weapons bans, and suggested it could signal how the Supreme Court may approach the issue. He added that the ruling shows that “very few gun laws” are currently safe from constitutional challenges. Read more about UCLA in today’s New York Times, CNN and others.

More highlights from UCLA in the News: July 20, 2026

Wildfire smoke is like smoking ‘half a pack a day.’ Here’s how to protect yourself | NPR

Dr. May-Lin Wilgus, a pulmonologist and professor at UCLA, compares breathing wildfire smoke to smoking cigarettes — a lot of cigarettes … On Friday morning, the AQI in Detroit was 435 — the worst for any major city in the world. On a smoky day, when AQI levels reach 100 to 200, “the exposure to the fine particulate matter, the air pollution, is similar to smoking a quarter to half a pack a day,” Wilgus says.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires chokes American cities | BBC News

“Well, the smoke is carrying these microparticles that are less than 2.5 nanometers in diameter. And they get into your lungs, and they cross into your blood vessels, and they can get into your brain and your organs and set up cellular inflammation and all kinds of problems that lead to immediate health effects,” said UCLA’s Dr. David Eisenman.

Wildfire smoke hangs over World Cup Final | New York Times

In general, experts said, unhealthy air can be particularly serious for athletes. A person vigorously exerting themselves can take in five to seven times more air than someone sedentary, vastly increasing their intake of pollutants, Michael Jerrett, a professor of environmental health sciences at UCLA, said.

So you think you caught cyclospora. Here’s what to do next | CNN

Until you have cyclosporiasis symptoms, there is no cause for concern if you have eaten at Taco Bell recently, especially in a state currently without a major outbreak, said Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at UCLA.  

Cyclosporiasis outbreak possibly traced to iceberg lettuce | KABC-TV

“An infection anywhere can in fact be an infection everywhere,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin. “No food system is risk-free. You know, it’s vast and it’s global and it’s highly interconnected. And truly the measure of a strong system is not that outbreaks never occur. It’s that we prevent as many of them as we possibly can.”

Election expert responds to Trump’s speech | WBUR-FM’s “Here & Now”

President Trump called last night for action to protect U.S. elections, and he continued to make unproven claims about the 2020 election, which he still denies he lost. “Here & Now’s” Peter O’Dowd speaks with Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at the UCLA School of Law. (Hasen was also featured by MS Now.)

Trump’s voter fraud speech was bait. Stop biting | Los Angeles Times

“Unfortunately, there are some members of the public that are going to believe what they’re being told and when they hear election results, question it,” said Chad Dunn, legal director of the UCLA Voting Rights Project. “This kind of communication misleads Americans and does a disservice to our democracy.”

Trump’s primetime speech rehashes false, misleading claims | Agence France-Presse

Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, told AFP that Trump’s speech consisted mostly of “recycled and debunked claims.” “What Trump did not do was even purport to show a single ineligible voter voted in the 2020 election, or that any voting machines were actually compromised,” he wrote on his blog.  

Documentary filmmakers facing threat of litigation | KCRW 89.9-FM’s “The Business”

Kim Masters talks to Dale Cohen, special counsel to PBS’s “Frontline,” and director of UCLA School of Law’s Documentary Film Legal Clinic, about the threat of litigation filmmakers face from the wealthy and powerful people they choose to cover, such as Donald Trump. Cohen laments that so few investigative films are being produced right now, a situation that wasn’t helped when Disney and CBS paid up to settle dubious lawsuits from Trump.

The latest on the conflict with Iran | KCAL-TV

“We’re seeing Iran really lash out and go after these Arab states in an attempt to basically put pressure on them to, in turn, pressure the United States to wrap up its military operation. From the American perspective, there’s really nothing else that could be done while Iran is threatening vessels in the Strait of Hormuz,” said UCLA’s Benjamin Radd.

A 10,000-year potato habit may have boosted this genetic advantage | Food & Wine

A 2026 study out of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Buffalo — published in Nature Communications — suggests that ancient dietary habits may still be reflected in the genes of modern populations. The researchers examined how starchy foods such as potatoes and quinoa might affect the body’s ability to produce digestive enzymes over time. To do this, they analyzed gene copy number variation in more than 3,700 male and female participants aged 18 to 25 across 85 different populations, aiming to better understand how long-term diet and evolution interact.

Why the UC should not reinstate the SAT/ACT for admissions | EdSource

(Commentary by UCLA’s Patricia Gándara) It is with sadness and dismay that I see UC faculty support of the SAT resurging as a cure for all ills afflicting higher education. Citing concerns over student readiness, some faculty members have called for the reinstatement of the SAT or ACT as a requirement for UC admission. This week, the chair of the University of California Board of Regents said she expects faculty leaders to issue a recommendation by June 2027 on whether the system should restore the testing requirement. I and many others would strongly argue they should not.