Today's New York Times profiles Nashaa, one of UCLA’s Bollywood-fusion dance teams and an inspiration for the new Netflix comedy “Best of the Best.” Through photos documenting auditions, late-night rehearsals and competitions, the piece explores how the team gives South Asian students a way to connect with their culture and build community. Read more about UCLA in today’s New York Times, Southern California News Group, and other outlets.

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More highlights from UCLA in the News: September 28, 2026

UCLA launches first digital humanities department | KCRA-TV

UCLA is now the first university in the United States to launch a digital humanities department, combining humanistic studies with the exploration of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. Students will get a deep understanding of computational tools and technologies, from the perspective of fields including culture, society, languages and history. Through the lens of those academic disciplines, students will look at how the technology is developed and used. (UCLA’s Todd Presner was quoted.)

Report looks at metals in LA River after Boyle Heights warehouse fire | KNBC-TV

Researchers from UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health said at the peak of the fire, which started June 17 and flared up for days, firefighters were spraying 12,000 gallons of water per minute on the nearly 500,000 square-foot warehouse east of downtown Los Angeles. Some of that runoff water containing potentially toxic metals entered drains that lead to the Los Angeles River and, eventually, the ocean, researchers said. (UCLA’s Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne was quoted. Also: KNBC-TV.)

Survey will detail insurers’ post-disaster response | Southern California News Group

A grassroots wildfire survivors group and UCLA researchers are gathering wildfire survivors’ insurance stories to create the nation’s first public record of how each insurer treated its customers after the Eaton and Palisades fires. Fire survivors can take about 15 minutes and answer questions about their post-disaster stories on firesurvey.org. Every Fire Survivor’s Network (EFSN) and a team from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs will analyze results to produce the first national record of how insurers helped or hindered their customers post-disaster.

New “smoke ecology” field studies harms of wildfire smoke | NPR’s “Morning Edition”

Morgan Tingley is in the cohort. He studied wildfires as an ecologist at UCLA, events with a clear start and stop and defined borders. Smoke, he says, is different. “Smoke is extremely hard to predict, which means it’s hard to actually disentangle what its impacts are because you can’t really control it,” [said Tingley.]

U.S.-China AI talks and unchecked power: Analysis | Al Jazeera

“I think the alarm bells are ringing because it seems very clearly that this is a technology that’s gone completely out of control,” said UCLA’s Ramesh Srinivasan (approx. 1:45 mark).

How to make — and keep — friends as a grownup, according to science | CNN Health

But there are things we can do about it, research from [Jaimie] Krems and others has found. “Even though friendship feels like magic, it does involve these teachable competencies,” said Krems, who’s now director of the UCLA Center for Friendship Research. “If we were able to teach that, I think that we’d solve this epidemic of loneliness, which is a health problem, a public health problem, a civic problem. It’s an economic problem, and everybody’s unhappy.”

Does science support testosterone for menopause symptoms?  | CBC News

But as it stands, there’s insufficient data to recommend testosterone for broader issues linked to mood, cognition or general well-being, said Rajita Patil, director of the UCLA Comprehensive Menopause Care Program, at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s September workshop held.

What changes to the public charge rule could mean for immigrants | New Republic

One oft-cited UCLA Center for Health Policy Research brief found that, in 2019, “1 out of 4 low-income immigrant adults in California reported avoiding public programs like Medicaid or nutrition assistance programs out of fear that participating would negatively impact their own immigration status or that of a family member.” While many immigrants have long been skeptical of benefits usage, the public charge rule and the acute concern around it seems to have supercharged the effect, which is likely to happen again.

Ballot seizure by law enforcement is a wake-up call | CNN Politics

With the input of other election law scholars and former judges, Richard Hasen, an election law professor at UCLA, published a white paper seeking to guide judges on how they should assess applications from law enforcement to obtain ballots. Among its recommendations is that judges consider granting investigators access to copies of ballots, rather than the ballots themselves, to maintain chain of custody.

SCOTUS ruling could have limited impact on voter screening | New York Times

Richard Hasen, a law professor and election law expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote in a blog post on Friday that both the majority decision of the Supreme Court and the dissenting opinion were in agreement that the case would have “limited impact” on the midterms.