Bloomberg spoke with Colleen Callahan, executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, and Marta Segura, director of the UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, about Mayor-elect Nithya Raman’s plans to advance Los Angeles’ climate goals. Both emphasized the importance of turning existing climate commitments into measurable results and what that might look like. Read more about UCLA in today’s New York Times, CBS LA and other outlets.

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More highlights from UCLA in the News: November 6, 2026

LA voters choose Nithya Raman as the next mayor | New York Times

Overall, however, Zev Yaroslavsky, the director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a longtime civic leader, said Raman’s victory was “a reflection of an electorate that feels the city is on the wrong track.” An annual survey conducted early this year by the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA, found that residents across the county were less satisfied with their quality of life than at any point in more than a decade. (Yaroslavsky was also interviewed by KNBC-TV.)

Nithya Raman defeats incumbent Karen Bass in race for LA mayor | Spectrum News 1

“Inside the Issues” host Amrit Singh speaks with UCLA Blueprint magazine editor-in-chief Jim Newton about Nithya Raman’s victory to be the next mayor of Los Angeles and what it means for the city. 

Despite blue wave, voters in 4 states limit trans athletes | New York Times

There is no authoritative count of trans athletes in school sports. About 2.8 million people age 13 and older in the United States identify as transgender, according to an analysis of government data by the Williams Institute at UCLA. That amounts to about 1 percent of the population in that age group.

In the wake of Cornell, hard lessons for higher education | EdSource

(Commentary by UCLA’s Jennifer Wagman) Sexual assault allegations involving Cornell University’s Chi Phi fraternity have reignited a national conversation about campus sexual violence, institutional accountability, and whose interests universities protect. But the problem extends far beyond Cornell. As a public health researcher studying sexual violence across institutions of higher education, including University of California campuses, I have seen how deeply this problem is embedded in the environments shaping students’ lives.

Gang interventionist arrested in alleged murder conspiracy | Los Angeles Times

Jorja Leap, a gang expert at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, said that many people she has talked to were stunned by the news. Unlike in the case of Eugene “Big U” Henley, another gang interventionist who was charged in a federal murder conspiracy, most people had a hard time believing that Townsend could be responsible for such crimes, she said. (Leap was also quoted by CBS LA.)

Your old Android phone could become a walking robot | Fox News

Got an old Android phone collecting dust in a drawer? You might want to hang on to it. Researchers at UCLA have figured out how to turn an aging smartphone into the brain of a small walking robot. It’s called PhoneBot, and it can walk on two legs, follow people and even get back up after falling face down.

A guide to understanding the Super El Niño | Southern California News Group

This layering effect appeared to contribute to higher — and more prolonged — levels of global rainfall during the 2023-24 El Niño season, said Chad Thackeray, an assistant researcher at UCLA’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Climate change might intensify the rainfall again this season. “When you factor in projections that 2027 is expected to be the warmest year on record, there’s a pretty high likelihood that we’ll see similar records for this extreme rainfall,” Thackeray said.