By LAURAN NEERGAARD

WASHINGTON (AP) — Colorectal cancer is a threat not just to older adults but increasingly to young men and women, too. It’s now the top cancer killer of Americans younger than 50.

The deaths of “Dawson’s Creek” actor James Van Der Beek at 48 this week, and a few years ago “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman at 43, highlight the risk for younger adults.

FILE – Actor Chadwick Boseman appears at an interview for the film, “Marshall,” in Washington on Sept. 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

“We’re now starting to see more and more people in the 20-, 30- and 40-year-old range developing colon cancer. At the beginning of my career, nobody that age had colorectal cancer,” said Dr. John Marshall of Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, who has been a cancer doctor for more than three decades.

That trend “is shaking us all, to be blunt,” said Marshall, who is also medical consultant to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.

Here’s what to know about colorectal cancer — at any age — and how to protect yourself.

How common is colorectal cancer?

More than 158,000 cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year, according to the American Cancer Society. Among all ages, it’s the nation’s second leading cancer killer, behind lung cancer — expected to claim more than 55,000 lives this year.

For the population overall, cases and deaths have inched down in recent years. That’s thanks in part to screening tests that can spot tumors early, when they’re easier to treat — or even prevent them if precancerous growths are found and removed.

Who’s most at risk?

The vast majority of colorectal cancer cases and deaths still are in people 50 and older. That older age group has seen the most progress, with deaths dropping by about 1.5% a year over the past decade, according to cancer society statistics.

But while it’s still relatively rare in the under-50 crowd, their colorectal cancer diagnoses have been rising since the early 2000s.

And last month, cancer society researchers reported that colorectal cancer mortality in Americans under 50 had increased by 1.1% a year since 2005, becoming the deadliest cancer in that age group. This year, the society estimates 3,890 people under age 50 will die of it.

Risk factors at any age include obesity, lack of physical activity, a diet high in red or processed meat and low in fruits and vegetables, smoking, heavy alcohol use, having inflammatory bowel disease or a family history of colorectal cancer.

Marshall advises everyone to eat lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. “Meat’s not evil” but eat less of it, he said.

And a recent study found that a three-year exercise program improved survival in colon cancer patients and reduced cancer recurrence.

What are the symptoms of colorectal cancer?

Symptoms include blood in stool or rectal bleeding; changes in bowel habits such as diarrhea, constipation or narrowing of stool that lasts more than a few days; unintended weight loss; and cramps or abdominal pain.

“Don’t ignore symptoms. Get it checked,” Marshall stressed. Survival is far more likely when colorectal cancer is diagnosed early, before it spreads.

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When to get screened for colorectal cancer

Medical guidelines say the average person should start getting screened at age 45 — too late for some young adults.

People known to be at higher risk are supposed to talk with their doctors about whether to start screening even earlier.

How often people need to get checked depends on the type of screening they choose. There are a variety of options, including yearly stool-based tests or colonoscopies that may be done every 10 years as long as no problems were found. There’s also a newer blood test for adults 45 or older.

What’s causing the colorectal cancer rise in younger adults?

No one knows what’s causing the rise in cases in younger adults. But Georgetown’s Marshall said many young patients lack common risk factors. He wonders if changes in young people’s gut bacteria — the microbiome — might play a role.

Also, where cancer occurs along the question mark-shaped colon — it starts on one side of the abdomen and swoops to the other before ending with the rectum — influences how aggressive it is and how it’s treated. Marshall said there’s a marked difference in where younger and older people’s tumors tend to strike, another clue being explored.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By MORIAH BALINGIT

In one testimonial after another, teachers detailed all the ways President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has shaped their work and the lives of their students.

In a court filing Thursday, educators around the country described rumors of immigration raids that scared away students, immigrant parents who stopped sending their children to school altogether, and stories of parents and students — including one middle schooler — being picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at school bus stops.

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The stories were shared as part of a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration policy that opened up schools, houses of worship and medical facilities to immigration enforcement. The lawsuit was filed last year by an Oregon farmworkers union and a group of churches that argued the policy change was “arbitrary and capricious.” The American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and three preschool employees joined the suit in September.

As the impacts of immigration enforcement on schools and health care facilities grew, the plaintiffs filed a petition asking a judge to halt the Trump administration policy as the lawsuit proceeds.

“In recent months — and escalating in the past several weeks — immigration enforcement agents have made startling incursions into cities and towns around the country, including unprecedented and unrestrained surges in and around vital community institutions such as schools and healthcare facilities,” attorneys wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Administration officials have defended the policy in the past, saying that making schools, churches and other spaces off-limits to immigration enforcement could make them refuges for criminals.

Officials have said Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not target schools for enforcement operations, but there have been several instances in recent months where immigration authorities have pursued or detained people on or near school property.

A new policy opened the door to arrests at schools

The government for more than three decades had barred immigration authorities from making arrests in schools and houses of worship. That policy was updated over the years to include other “protected areas,” such as hospitals and homeless shelters, to prevent enforcement actions that would restrict access to essential services and activities.

Shortly after Trump took office, his administration rescinded that policy, instead issuing a four-paragraph memo that advised officers to use “a healthy dose of common sense” when deciding whether to make arrests near “protected areas.”

As Trump has ramped up his efforts to deport millions of people, some of the arrests have been made near schools during pick-up and drop-off hours. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include a trio of educators from an Oregon preschool, where ICE agents attempted to arrest a man in the parking lot after he dropped off his infant son.

In Chelsea, Massachusetts, teachers union president Kathryn Anderson said immigration enforcement has been more disruptive to learning than the COVID pandemic, which moved school online for months. The school system lost a significant number of students this year and absenteeism is higher than usual.

“Right now, kids of all backgrounds are being prevented from going to school because of the extremely real fear that either they or their family members will be separated,” said Anderson, who is not part of the lawsuit. “As an educator … having to help kids move through and exist in that fear (has) been a near impossible task.”

During a Chicago operation in October, agents released tear gas that engulfed a school playground. They later arrested a teacher inside of her preschool during morning drop-off. DHS said agents had attempted to pull over the car she was riding in before she got to school and said she barricaded herself inside, forcing agents to enter. The woman, who has work authorization, was eventually released.

In Minneapolis, agents scuffled with bystanders after pursuing a man onto a high school campus as school was ending for the day.

Teachers describe fear trickling into classrooms

The court filing included testimony from 60 teachers and health care workers from 18 states who described how immigration enforcement near their schools and medical facilities has challenged their work. All submitted their testimony anonymously.

One middle school teacher said half of students stayed home amidst a rumor about immigration enforcement nearby. The following month, a student at the school was detained while at a bus stop.

Elsewhere, a speech pathologist described tearful meetings with immigrant parents fearful that signing documents to get their child special education services would draw the attention of immigration enforcement.

A high school teacher said many students, including immigrants still learning English, switched to virtual learning after a parent was arrested by ICE at a school bus stop. But the virtual option is only offered in English, and the teacher said they feared the students are falling behind.

A teacher at a another school said a student was detained by ICE at a school bus stop and never returned to class after being released. Now, when students ask whether they can be arrested at school, “I can no longer reassure them that campus is safe from ICE.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Amazon’s smart doorbell maker Ring has terminated a partnership with police surveillance tech company Flock Safety.

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The announcement follows a backlash that erupted after 30-second Ring ad that aired during the Super Bowl featuring a lost dog that is found through a network of cameras, sparking fears of a dystopian surveillance society.

But that feature, called Search Party, was not related to Flock. And Ring’s announcement doesn’t cite the ad as a reason for the “joint decision” for the cancellation.

Ring and Flock said last year they were planning on working together to give Ring camera owners the option to share their video footage in response to law enforcement requests made through a Ring feature known as Community Requests.

“Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated,” Ring’s statement said.

“The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.”

Beyond the Flock partnership, Ring has faced other surveillance concerns.

In Super Bowl ad, a lost dog is found with Ring’s Search Party feature, which the company says can “reunite lost dogs with their families and track wildfires threatening your community.” The clip depicts the dog being tracked by cameras throughout a neighborhood on using artificial intelligence.

And viewers took to social media to criticize it for being sinister, leaving many wondering if it would be used to track humans and saying they would turn the feature off.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focus on civil liberties related to digital technology, said this week that Americans should feel unsettled over the potential loss of privacy.

“Amazon Ring already integrates biometric identification, like face recognition, into its products via features like “Familiar Faces,” which depends on scanning the faces of those in sight of the camera and matching it against a list of pre-saved, pre-approved faces,” the Foundation wrote Tuesday. “It doesn’t take much to imagine Ring eventually combining these two features: face recognition and neighborhood searches.”

The tragic story of the RMS Titanic has played out on the big screen, and in musicals, novels, exhibits, documentaries and TV miniseries. Now, it arrives in South Florida as a new immersive experience.

Guests can climb aboard a lifeboat to experience the historic ship’s final moments — and watch from a passenger’s perspective, floating in the dark waters on a star-filled, bitterly cold night, as distress signals were being sent and Titanic disappeared into the ocean.

The experience is called “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage,” and it will be available through Tuesday, March 31, at the South Florida PBS Studios in Boynton Beach.

Guests may know the facts already — that the so-called “unsinkable” ship struck an iceberg and sank in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, killing more than 1,500 people during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City.

But this immersive experience offers an opportunity to take a trip through history: To learn about the ship with 3D views, video animations, life-sized reconstructions and narrative storytelling; view artifacts; and use virtual reality to go 2.5 miles below sea level in a deep-sea submersible to see the wreck site.

Titanic’s sister and rescue ships also get a featured spot in the multisensory journey, which takes from 45 to 90 minutes to complete.

Learn historical facts about Titanic’s crew and passengers during “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage” at South Florida PBS Studios in Boynton Beach. (South Florida PBS/Courtesy)

Fans of James Cameron’s 1997 “Titanic” movie can even pose as passengers in an artificial intelligence photo booth to recreate the “I’m flying” scene between Jack and Rose on the ship’s bow.

This is the third immersive experience presented at South Florida PBS Studios, following presentations on Leonardo Da Vinci and Egyptian pharaohs.

Below, we obtained more details during a Q&A session with Jeneissy Azcuy, chief marketing and education officer with South Florida PBS, that’s been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How did South Florida PBS find out about this experience and bring it here? 

A: Exhibition Hub [based in Atlanta] created the experience. We discovered it at last year’s PBS Annual Meeting, where several staff members were invited to visit the immersive experience and came away impressed. Knowing that PBS had produced excellent programming about the Titanic, with a new documentary from American Public Television scheduled for spring 2026, we saw an opportunity to bring the experience to South Florida. Our research also revealed a compelling local connection — several Titanic passengers had ties to South Florida, making it especially relevant for our community.

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Q: Why is it important to learn about Titanic and keep its history alive, especially in an interactive way?

A: The Titanic represents far more than a maritime disaster. It is a profound human story that offers timeless lessons about hubris, class divisions, heroism and tragedy. By keeping this history alive through interactive experiences, we ensure that new generations connect emotionally with these lessons in ways that textbooks simply cannot achieve.

An immersive approach transforms the Titanic from a distant historical event into a visceral, personal experience. When you’re standing on a replica of the bow, sitting in a lifeboat or exploring the wreckage through VR [virtual reality], the 1,500 lives lost become real people, not just statistics. You begin to understand the human decisions, both wise and catastrophic, that led to that fateful night.

Bowls and glassware are among the artifacts on display in the “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage” exhibit at South Florida PBS Studios in Boynton Beach. (South Florida PBS/Courtesy)

These interactive experiences also illuminate broader themes that remain relevant today: the dangers of overconfidence in technology and the life-and-death consequences of ignored warnings. By engaging with this history in such an immersive way, visitors don’t just learn facts, they develop empathy, critical thinking, and a deeper appreciation for how individual choices and societal structures can shape tragic outcomes. It’s this emotional connection that ensures the lessons of the Titanic continue to resonate and inform how we approach challenges in our own time.

Q: How is the virtual reality experience?

A: The VR aspect of “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage” is truly extraordinary. It takes you on a breathtaking journey to the ocean floor, where you encounter the haunting wreckage of the Titanic resting in the deep. As you explore the sunken vessel, you can observe the ship’s remains in stunning detail before the experience transitions, bringing you back in time to April 14, 1912. Suddenly, you’re aboard the magnificent ship itself, witnessing the tragic events of that fateful night unfold around you.

Descend 2.5 miles below sea level to view Titanic’s wreck site in the VR portion of the new exhibit. (South Florida PBS/Courtesy)

Q: What is your favorite part of the exhibit?

A: My favorite part is the immersive show, particularly the experience of sitting in the lifeboat. From that vantage point, you’re drawn into the unfolding drama as you learn about the critical messages being transmitted, some received, some tragically ignored. The experience weaves together the rich history of the ship, its crew and passengers, building a deeper understanding of life aboard the Titanic. Then, as the narrative progresses, you witness the heartbreaking sequence of events leading to its catastrophic end. There’s something profoundly moving about experiencing this history while seated in a lifeboat, which adds an emotional weight and sense of immediacy that makes the story feel incredibly real and personal.

Q: “Titanic” overlaps with the “Egyptian Pharaohs: From Cheops to Ramses II” immersive experience on display through Sunday, March 29. How do you fit each exhibit into the facility?

A: We’ve successfully separated the two experiences by utilizing different sections of our substantially expanded campus. Our recently opened, state-of-the-art Cornelia T. Bailey Cultural Arts Center, an 8,000-square-foot facility, hosts portions of the “Egyptian Pharaohs” experience across its immersive dome, Taylor Performance Hall and Innovation Lab. Our 4,000-square-foot immersive studio hosts the “Egyptian Pharaohs” immersive show.

For “Titanic,” we’ve transformed office space into a museum-style gallery featuring authentic Titanic artifacts, a replica of the ship’s bow for photo opportunities and the VR experience. The immersive voyage itself takes place in one of our studios, complete with a lifeboat where visitors can sit for added realism.

Each experience has its own dedicated entrance: Guests access “Egyptian Pharaohs” through the Bailey Cultural Arts Center, while “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage” is entered through the back of the South Florida PBS Studios.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage”

WHEN: Jan. 30-March 31

WHERE: South Florida PBS Studios, 3401 S. Congress Ave., Boynton Beach

COST: $45 for adults; $35 for seniors, students, military and first responders; and free for guests age 12 and younger (not recommended for children younger than 5)

INFORMATION: southfloridapbs.org/titanic/

The immersive experience also features a replica of the RMS Titanic. (South Florida PBS/Courtesy)