A Los Angeles Times article featured several UCLA entities in its reporting on the young-adult book adaptation “boom” on streaming platforms, which is taking studios and scholars by surprise. UCLA’s Yalda T. Uhls, founder and chief executive of UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers, says younger generations reject stereotypes and are responding well to more authentic and diverse characters. UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity report was also cited as evidence that diverse casting and storylines are in high demand among audiences. Read more about UCLA in today’s Wall Street Journal, Variety and others.
More highlights from UCLA in the News: April 13, 2026
UCLA receives $33 million to boost mental health workforce | Santa Monica Daily Press
UCLA has received a $33 million grant from philanthropic organization Ballmer Group to expand training programs aimed at addressing the youth mental health crisis in Los Angeles County. Beginning this fall, the university plans to launch or expand three coordinated initiatives across its departments of psychology, social welfare, and psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, as well as the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. (UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk was quoted.)
UCLA-led report finds sharp rise in deportations and ICE arrests | City News Service
Deportations within the United States increased fivefold during the first year of the current presidential administration, according to a UCLA-led report announced today by the Deportation Data Project. Immigration arrests — particularly those conducted in public settings — also surged nationwide, with overall arrests more than quadrupling compared with levels at the end of the previous administration, researchers found. (UCLA’s Graeme Blair was quoted.)
The U.S. ceasefire deal with Iran | Spectrum News 1
“There are areas where one side wins and other areas where the other side wins. For the United States, it has managed to significantly degrade Iran’s war-making capability — both its ability to fight domestically against its own citizens, but also to export the war elsewhere,” said UCLA’s Benjamin Radd (approx. 2:20 mark).
Why Iran and other regimes are so hard to break | Wall Street Journal
Such leaders project an image of widespread popular support by staging elections and controlling the media, while also crushing any opposition, said Daniel Treisman, a political-science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has researched dictatorships. “For individuals to protest, they have to believe there will be many others with them, providing safety in numbers,” Treisman said. “Authoritarian governments work hard to prevent that belief from taking root.”
What 10 days of space travel could mean for Artemis astronauts’ health | Sky News
But the further you go into space, the more radiation you get exposed to, says Dr. Haig Aintablian, director of space medicine at UCLA. “Once you go beyond low Earth orbit, you lose much of the protection of Earth’s magnetic field,” he tells Sky News, adding radiation is one of the “real challenges” deep space poses.
Artemis II splashes down | KNBC-TV
“On their trajectory back from the Moon, the astronauts are basically traveling about as fast as a meteor when it hits the top of the atmosphere,” said UCLA’s David Paige (approx. 1:00 mark).
AI scans find emotional distress may precede 90% of suicide deaths | Medical Xpress
A new UCLA-led study of suicides in the U.S. has found that current national reporting on these deaths underestimates the extent of “emotional dysregulation,” the emotional distress that occurs before suicide, which could provide a method to prevent future deaths … “Suicide is a major contributor to early mortality, particularly among those 15 to 45 years of age; it is the second leading cause of death for men and fourth for women in the United States,” said study co-author, clinical psychologist and UCLA professor Vickie Mays.
San Pedro residents fight plans for addiction recovery center | Los Angeles Times
Underlying the conflict between neighbors and treatment centers is a widening gap between supply and demand in all kinds of housing, UCLA public health professor Randall Kuhn said in an interview. “Every community needs to accept facilities at some point, but on the other hand, we’re a democracy,” he said. Neither the city nor the county has agreed upon or given communities like San Pedro a reasonable expectation for addressing the crisis, Kuhn said.
Some Texas Republicans ramp up criticisms of Muslims | CNN
Khaled Abou El Fadl, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, says that politicians previously took “polite steps” of telling Muslims they are not the enemy domestically. Trump notably launched his first campaign with a vow to bar all Muslim immigrants and instituted several visa bans on majority Muslim countries.
Pratt’s sojourn in Santa Barbara likely won’t affect mayor bid | Los Angeles Times
“I don’t think this is going to be electorally consequential,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a former Los Angeles County supervisor and city council member who is now director of the L.A. Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. “He’s a victim of the Palisades fire that doesn’t have a home to live in because it burned down.”
Route 66’s dark side: Behind the myth of the iconic road trip | LAist
And now, Black communities are leaving the metropolitan areas where they initially gathered, like South Los Angeles. According to Michael Stoll, a professor of public policy and urban planning at UCLA, families are increasingly moving to places like the Inland Empire and Antelope Valley largely because of housing costs and gentrification.
Why the box office for ‘You, Me & Tuscany’ matters | Variety
Ana-Christina Ramón, who co-authors the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, says Hollywood is ignoring its own data. “It’s never really an issue of if Black moviegoers will support a Black-led movie, because you can see that they do,” she says.
