The Los Angeles Times spoke with UCLA political science professor Lynn Vavreck about the future of the Republican Party as it approaches the midterms amid shifting voter support and questions about its direction beyond President Trump. Vavreck said the political coalition Trump built is unlikely to disappear when he leaves office, noting that the priorities motivating his supporters will persist. Read more about UCLA in today’s Bloomberg Law, the New Yorker and other outlets.

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More highlights from UCLA in the News: November 2, 2026

The year math changed forever | New Yorker

The role that artificial intelligence will play in research mathematics has been talked about a fair amount in the past five years, and a fearsome, unbounded amount in the past five months. [Terence] Tao — a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a founder, in 2025, of the Foundation for Science and AI Research — has been one of the most prominent voices in this discussion. (Tao was quoted; he was also featured on the syndicated radio show “Science Friday.”)

Arab parties and Israel’s next government | Los Angeles Times

(Commentary by UCLA’s David Myers) If a reporter for the Times of Mars covering the recent elections in Israel were to assess the results, she might file a story that would get this headline: “Historic Day: Arab Parties Score Decisive Win. Netanyahu Is Out.” She would note that there were three major blocs: the right-wing coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with 53 seats (down from 64 in the last Knesset), the opposition coalition led by Gadi Eisenkot with 48 seats, and the Arab parties, which nearly doubled their total from 10 to 19 seats.

Accused of voter fraud, they ended up in shackles | New York Times

“This is to serve a political purpose, and that political purpose is to support the civil suit, as well as to support Donald Trump’s claims of a big problem of noncitizen voters,” said Richard Hasen, a law professor and election law expert at the University of California, Los Angeles. (Hasen was also featured by the Christian Science Monitor and CNN.)

Raman says LAPD has grown more secretive | Los Angeles Times

“The LAPD has now evolved into an inward-facing organization,” said Jorja Leap, a professor of social welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. “It’s a pivotal moment. I still see people within the department working on community relations — I don’t want this to be a lost opportunity.”  

Prop. 45 and California’s fight over data centers | CalMatters

Julia Stein, a legal scholar and deputy director at UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, warns that the measure acts as a “blunt force instrument when it comes to streamlining” because of how wide its secondary umbrella extends.

Voters to weigh data center bans, restrictions | Los Angeles Times

“Local ballot measures are a tool that people can access and use at a time when people are feeling helpless about some of these broader forces shaping our futures,” said Megan Mullin, an environmental political scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Court rulings rebuff Trump’s election efforts | Los Angeles Times

It followed a ruling in a separate case in Washington, D.C., in which a federal judge demanded that the Trump administration turn over its list of alleged noncitizen voters to advocacy groups, including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. Data analysts from the UCLA Voting Rights Project wrote in court Saturday that their review of the provided list found it “contains extensive errors” and includes citizens and thousands of others who are not on California’s voter list. (Also: UCLA’s Chad Dunn was quoted by Bloomberg Law.)

Generational divide may decide LA mayor’s race | New York Times

“This is the first campaign I can recall where age was as significant a factor as racial demography,” said Jim Newton, a former head of the editorial page of The Los Angeles Times and lecturer on public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles.

A transit system lost half its riders. Who pays? | Spectrum News

“They have the ability to drive a car, but they choose to take transit for cost reasons, or for convenience reasons, when you have to find parking. There are routes that are faster than driving,” said UCLA’s Jacob Wasserman (approx. 6:45 mark).

Why crows can make lightning-fast visual decisions | Smithsonian

In other words, avians may have been forced to evolve rapid visual processing and motor responses. Still, researchers don’t know how widespread this speedy trait might be among birds, says Aaron Blaisdell, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles who also did not participate in the study, to the Transmitter. Is it “something that’s avian versus mammal, or is it something about crows specifically?”

Pesticide linked to increased risk of Parkinson’s | ScienceDaily

Researchers at UCLA Health found that people with long-term residential exposure to chlorpyrifos, a widely used pesticide, had more than 2.5 times the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease compared with those who were not exposed. Laboratory experiments also revealed how the chemical can interfere with the brain’s ability to remove damaged proteins, leading to the loss of nerve cells essential for controlling movement. (UCLA’s Dr. Jeff Bronstein was quoted.)

The No. 1 Thanksgiving cooking mistake | Reader’s Digest

The biggest concern is bacterial foodborne illness. “Salmonella, campylobacter and E. coli are the most common bacteria found in turkey, and to kill them, the meat needs to be 165 degrees Fahrenheit,” says Dana Hunnes, a senior clinical dietitian at University of California, Los Angeles Health.