LAist reported on what experts know so far about the contents in the smoke released by a refrigerated warehouse fire that has burned in Boyle Heights for nearly a week. Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, says air quality indexes may capture the concentration of particulate matter in the air, but not necessarily the specific toxins in them. Zhu, who is studying the impacts of the 2025 LA wildfires, says she suspects at least some types of health-harming heavy metals are likely to be present. (Zhu was also quoted by the Los Angeles Daily News.) Read more about UCLA in today’s New York Times, Newsweek and others.  

More highlights from UCLA in the News: June 23, 2026

Dark smoke in a sunny place: Neighbors of LA fire struggle for breath | New York Times

Compared with the “garden-variety” air pollution that lingers in cities, smoke from a fire is likely even more dangerous, said Professor Suzanne Paulson, who teaches in the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. And industrial fires can produce particularly potent smoke.

High-severity wildfires burn 30 times more area than in 1985 | City News Service

High-severity wildfires that kill large numbers of trees are now burning far more acreage in California than they did four decades ago, according to a UCLA study published Monday. The study, appearing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the area burned by high-severity fires in California increased thirtyfold between 1985 and 2024, while overall forest acreage burned annually increased tenfold. (UCLA’s Park Williams and Mitchell Hung were quoted. Also: Gizmodo, KABC-TV, Spectrum News 1, NPR and KCRW-FM.)

The latest on the conflict with Iran | CNN

“You know, JD Vance is not a diplomat. That’s not his skill set. Marco Rubio, having spent years in the Senate and having dealt with foreign officials as part of that role, I think, has a better grasp on how to do this. And he’s there to allay some of the concerns the Gulf allies have,” said UCLA’s Benjamin Radd.

Don’t forget these 11 Latino Emmy contenders | Variety

UCLA’s latest Hollywood Diversity Report, released earlier this month, reinforced a message the business has been sending loud and clear: As budgets tighten and the commitment to inclusion wanes, representation for people of color is slipping, especially in film and streaming … According to the latest Latino GDP report from UCLA and California Lutheran University, the economic contribution of U.S. Latinos now exceeds that of Japan, making it equivalent to the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Further ‘erosion’ to Voting Rights Act with Arkansas case | Arkansas Advocate

Matt Barreto, faculty director of the UCLA Voting Rights Project, said the April ruling makes it extremely difficult to challenge state plans that dilute the votes of Black and Latino residents because the courts have “allowed states to hide behind partisan gerrymandering claims.” 

Organization offers inclusive self-defense course | Spectrum News 1

According to a study from the UCLA School of Law, LGBTQ people are five times more likely than non-LGBTQ people to be victims of violent crime, and nine times more likely to experience violent hate crimes.

LA’s Olympics time bomb is a make-or-break test for Democrats | Newsweek

Brian Taylor, a professor of urban planning and public policy at University of California, Los Angeles, said temporary transportation measures will be more crucial for the smooth running of the Olympics than major infrastructure projects.

Music mogul Clive Davis dies | KCAL-TV

‘In the commercial music industry, the art of the deal is actually one of the ways that creative work gets done,” said UCLA’s Robert Fink.