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ICE defies court, says journalist Mario Guevara ‘not releasable’

 

 Atlanta-based journalist Mario Guevara is arrested on June 14, 2025

. (Screenshot: Fox 5 Atlanta/YouTube)

July 7, 2025 
CPJ

Washington, D.C., July 7, 2025— 

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities to respect an immigration court ruling and release on bail journalist Mario Guevara, a native of El Salvador who has been legally in the U.S. for the past 20 years.

On Monday, ICE denied Guevara’s bail and listed him as “Not Releasable,” though a judge on July 1 ruled that Guevara could be released on a $7,500 bond, according to a copy of the denial reviewed by CPJ.

At around 4:30 p.m. local time on Monday, Floyd County jail officials told CPJ that Guevara had been taken by ICE from the Floyd County Jail in Rome, Georgia, though they said they did not know where he was being taken.

Timeline:

Atlanta-based journalist Mario Guevara’s weeks behind bars

Telemundo Atlanta reported on Monday morning that the activist group Indivisible had scheduled a protest for 6 p.m. that day at the jail.

“We are dismayed that immigration officials have decided to ignore a federal immigration court order last week granting bail to journalist Mario Guevara,” said CPJ U.S., Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “Guevara is currently the only jailed journalist in the United States who was arrested in relation to his work. Immigration authorities must respect the law and release him on bail instead of bouncing him from one jurisdiction to another.”

The journalist, who was initially arrested while covering a June 14 “No Kings” protest in the Atlanta metro area and charged with three misdemeanors, which local officials declined to prosecute due to insufficient evidence. A local judge ordered Guevara to be released on bond, but he remained in custody after ICE opened a detainer against him.

The Department of Homeland Security headquarters and the department’s Atlanta field office did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.


Timeline: Reporter Mario Guevara’s arrest and ICE detention

 

 (Collage: 11Alive/Youtube (left), CPJ)

July 7, 2025 5:12 PM EDT

Spanish-language reporter Mario Guevara, who has covered immigrant issues in the Atlanta metro area for the past 20 years, was detained by local law enforcement while livestreaming a local “No Kings” protest in mid-June. He was charged with three misdemeanors and then denied bond when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a detainer against him, despite being in the country legally at the time of his arrest.

Guevara arrived legally in the United States from El Salvador in April 2004, and applied for asylum in 2005 due to the dangers he faced as a journalist in El Salvador. Over the next twenty years, Guevara developed a large following in the Atlanta area, as well as national recognition, for his reporting on immigration issues.

Below is a timeline of events in Guevara’s case.

Atlanta-based journalist’s weeks behind bars

June 14, 2025: Guevara is arrested by the Doraville Police Department while covering a “No Kings” protest against the Trump administration in the Atlanta metro area. Local law enforcement filed three misdemeanor charges against him: unlawful assembly, obstruction, and being a pedestrian on the roadway. He was held at the DeKalb County Jail.

June 16, 2025: A local judge ordered Guevara to be released on bond, but he remained in custody after ICE opened a detainer against him. The journalist had work authorization and a path to a green card through his U.S.-citizen son.

June 17, 2025: The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department filed three new misdemeanors against Guevara — distracted driving, reckless driving, and failure to obey a traffic device — related to livestreaming law enforcement activity in May. The charges stem from incidents that allegedly occurred on May 13 and May 20, nearly a month prior.

June 18, 2025: Guevara is transferred to the Folkston ICE Processing Center in southeastern Florida, his lawyer told CPJ.

June 20, 2025: CPJ and a coalition of civil society and media groups send a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling for Guevara’s release due to concerns that his initial arrest violated Guevara’s First Amendment rights as a journalist.

June 25, 2025: DeKalb County declined to prosecute the three misdemeanor charges against Guevara that initially led to his arrest due to insufficient evidence. The charges are dropped.

June 27, 2025: CPJ urged a local Georgia solicitor-general to investigate the charges from the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office against Guevara.

July 1, 2025: At a bond hearing, a federal judge rules that Guevara can be released on $7,500 bond. During the hearing, the government counsel argued that livestreaming — an activity that Guevara and many other journalists frequently engage in as part of reporting — compromises the integrity and safety of law enforcement activities.

July 2, 2025: ICE refused to comply with the judge’s release order and did not accept the bond payment. His lawyer stated in an Instagram Live video that officials began the process to transfer Guevara to Gwinnett County, stating they will not clear his immigration bond until he secures bail there.

July 3, 2025: Guevara arrived at the Gwinnett County jail and was booked on three misdemeanor traffic violations that were filed on June 17. Bond was paid for the traffic violation charges, and he was released from Gwinnett custody, according to a Facebook post from the county sheriff’s department and jail records.

July 3, 2025: Guevara is transferred to the Floyd County Jail in Rome, Georgia, and is held on ICE detainer with no bond, according to the Floyd County Jail online booking system and social media posts on Guevara’s professional social media pages.

July 5, 2025: Guevara was confirmed to be in medical holding, according to a jail official who spoke to CPJ by phone.

July 7, 2025: Immigration officials denied Guevara’s bail and listed him as “Not Releasable,” according to a copy of the denial reviewed by CPJ.

July 7, 2025: At around 4:30 p.m. local time, Floyd County Jail officials told CPJ that Guevara had been taken by ICE from the Floyd County Jail in Rome, Georgia, and said they did not know where he was being taken.


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Frustrated judge blasts Trump team over deportation plans for Kilmar Abrego Garcia: ‘Like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall’

ICE plans to arrest and deport the Salvadoran dad, again, if he’s released from pretrial detention in criminal case

Kilmar Abrego Garcia can't be deported to country where he will be tortured, lawyer says

Alex Woodward
in New York

THE INDEPENDENT
Monday 07 July 2025

The federal judge overseeing Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s legal challenge over his arrest and removal from the United States is hauling Trump administration officials to court to get to the bottom of the government’s plans for the wrongfully deported Salvadoran immigrant.

Abrego Garcia, whose case has been at the center of Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, is currently locked up in federal custody ahead of a trial on smuggling charges.

If he’s released from pretrial detention, immigration officials intend to arrest and deport him, again, before a trial even begins, according to the Department of Justice.

After government lawyers and top Trump administration officials gave a series of conflicting statements about the fate of Abrego Garcia in recent weeks, District Judge Paula Xinis is ordering officials from the Department of Homeland Security to testify about their plans for his removal — answers that may reveal whether the criminal charges against him had anything to do with complying with court orders for his return.

She scheduled a hearing on July 7. Abrego Garcia could be released from federal custody and turned over to Homeland Security as soon as July 16.


open image in galleryKilmar Abrego Garcia’s supporters rally on July 7 outside a federal courthouse in Maryland, where a judge ordered Trump administration officials to testify in court about plans for the wrongly deported Salvadoran immigrant (AP)

During a hearing in Maryland on Monday, Justice Department lawyer Jonathan Guynn said the administration doesn’t intend to hold Abrego Garcia in “limbo” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement while waiting for his criminal trial.

“He will be removed, as would any other illegal alien in that process,” he said.

His remarks are the latest in a series of conflicting public statements from the administration after Abrego Garcia was abruptly returned to the United States from prisons in El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland with his wife and child, both U.S. citizens, along with two other children from a previous relationship, when he was arrested and deported to El Salvador on March 15 — what government lawyers admitted was an “administrative error” that defied an immigration judge’s 2019 order preventing his removal.


But the administration spent weeks battling court orders from federal judges and the Supreme Court to “facilitate” his return, claiming that they were powerless to return him while administration officials publicly asserted he would never again step foot in the United States.

Last month, he was flown back to face a criminal indictment accusing him of illegally transporting immigrants across the country. He has pleaded not guilty.


“Our plan is, he will be taken into ICE custody and removal proceedings will be initiated,” Guynn said during a court hearing last week.

But that same day, a spokesperson for the Justice Department told the Associated Press that the government will try Abrego Garcia on the charges against him before deporting him from the country. The White House also called the Justice Department’s in-court statements “fake news.”

On Monday, Justice Department said they don’t know where the government plans to deport him.

“It’s like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall trying to figure out what’s going to happen,” Xinis said at one point on Monday.

“For three months, your clients told the world they weren’t going to do anything to bring him back,” she said, pointing to statements from Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the president himself.

“Am I really supposed to ignore all that?” she said.


open image in galleryAttorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg says Abrego Garcia is owed due process to challenge his removal from the United States if the Trump administration tries to deport him again (AP)


open image in galleryAbrego Garcia’s attorneys said he experienced “severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture” at a brutal prison in El Salvador. (AP)

She also said she finds it “highly problematic” that the Justice Department can’t seem to answer whether government lawyers knew about the criminal investigation against him while battling in court over his wrongful removal.

“This time, Judge Xinis was not willing to let government lawyers say, ‘We don’t really know,’” Abrego Garcia’s attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters on Monday.

“If they want to deport him to a third country, they need to name that country, and they need to describe the process by which they’re going to give him due process,” he said.

The Supreme Court has paved the way for the Trump administration to deport immigrants to so-called third nations that aren’t their home countries after a legal battle involving a group of deportees sent to war-torn South Sudan, where attorneys said the men face torture, abuse and death.

Last week, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said he experienced “severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture” at a brutal prison in El Salvador, where the Trump administration has deported dozens of alleged gang members.

Abrego Garcia must receive an opportunity to make a case before an immigration judge to explain why he shouldn’t return there or any other country where he faces risk of torture and abuse, Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

“Since day one of this case, the government’s strategy has been to send lawyers to court with no information or insufficient information,” he added. “It’s the result of a deliberate strategy not to communicate with lawyers in court.”

China urges EU to fulfill goals of Paris climate change pact

Beijing is ‘working closely with the rest of the world to actively contribute to global climate governance,’ says Foreign Minister spokeswoman Mao Ning

Berk Kutay Gokmen |08.07.2025 - TRT/AA

ISTANBUL

China on Monday urged the EU to fulfill the goals of the Paris climate change agreement, underscoring that green cooperation is a key feature of China-EU relations.

“Both sides actively support low-carbon transition and green development, firmly uphold the international climate governance system,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news conference in Beijing.

She said the two sides “share extensive common interests and enormous cooperation space on addressing climate change,” stressing that climate change affects all of humanity and demands global collaboration.

“China, while adjusting its energy mix and pursuing green development, is also working closely with the rest of the world to actively contribute to global climate governance,” Mao said, according to an official transcript.

She highlighted joint projects like the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, the Thrace Wind Project in Greece, and Germany's Dollen solar park as milestones in China-EU green cooperation.

“China is committed to green and low-carbon development,” Mao added, noting that non-fossil fuels now make up 17.9% of China’s energy and that carbon intensity has dropped over 34% in the past decade.

Her remarks came after media reports claimed that EU may delay a joint climate declaration with China unless China commits to deeper emission cuts.

“We stand ready to work with the EU to uphold multilateralism, fulfill the goals identified in the Paris Agreement, strengthen cooperation on mitigation and adaptation and green and low-carbon transition, and contribute to better global climate governance,” she added.

The US in January left the Paris climate change agreement, with President Donald Trump saying Washington “will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity."

Did US government cuts contribute to the Texas tragedy?

11 hours ago
Ben Chu, Jake Horton, Kayla Epstein & Marco Silva
BBC Verify

BBC


In the aftermath of the fatal Texas floods, some Democrats have warned about the "consequences" of the Trump administration's cuts to the federal government workforce, including meteorologists, with Senator Chris Murphy saying that: "Accurate weather forecasting helps avoid fatal disasters."

The suggestion is that the cuts may have impeded the ability of the National Weather Service (NWS) - the government agency which provides weather forecasts in the US - to adequately predict the floods and raise the alarm.

But the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday: "These offices [of the NWS] were well staffed… so any claims to the contrary are completely false."

BBC Verify has examined the impact of cuts under President Trump in this area and while there has been a reduction in the workforce at the NWS, experts who we spoke to said the staffing on hand for the Texas floods appears to have been adequate.



What are the cuts?


The Trump administration has proposed a 25% cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) current annual budget of $6.1bn (£4.4bn). NOAA is the agency which oversees the NWS.

This would take effect in the 2026 financial year which begins in October this year - so these particular cuts would not have contributed to the Texas tragedy.

However, the staffing levels of the NWS have already been separately reduced by the Trump administration's efficiency drive since January.

The Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), previously run by Elon Musk, offered voluntary redundancies, known as buyouts, as well as early retirements to federal government workers. It also ended the contracts of most of those who were on probation.

As a result, about 200 people at the NWS took voluntary redundancy and 300 opted for early retirement, according to Tom Fahy, the director of the NWS union. A further 100 people were ultimately fired from the service, he said.

In total, the NWS lost 600 of its 4,200 staff, says Mr Fahy, causing several offices across the country to operate without the necessary staffing.

In April, the Associated Press news agency said it had seen data compiled by NWS employees showing half of its offices had a vacancy rate of 20% - double the rate a decade earlier.

Despite this, climate experts told BBC Verify that the NWS forecasts and flood warnings last week in Texas were as adequate as could be expected.

"The forecasts and warnings all played out in a normal manner. The challenge with this event was that it is very difficult to forecast this type of extreme, localised rainfall," says Avantika Gori, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University in Texas.

And Andy Hazelton, a climate scientist who modelled hurricane paths for the NOAA until he was fired during the layoffs in February, says: "I don't think the staffing issues contributed directly to this event. They got the watches and the warnings out."

What about the impact on offices in Texas?


However, some experts have suggested that staffing cuts may have impeded the ability of local NWS offices in Texas to effectively co-ordinate with local emergency services.

"There is a real question as to whether the communication of weather information occurred in a way that was sub-optimal," says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at University of California Los Angeles.

"The impact might have been partially averted if some of the people at the weather service responsible for making those communications were still employed - which they were not in some of these local offices," he adds.

The San Angelo and San Antonio offices, which cover the areas affected by the flooding, reportedly had some existing vacancies.

For example, the San Antonio office's website lists several positions as being vacant, including two meteorologists.

Getty Images
Rescue efforts are ongoing along the Guadalupe River in central Texas


The NSW union director told BBC Verify that the San Angelo office was missing a senior hydrologist, a scientist who specialises in flooding events.

The San Antonio office also lacked a "warning coordinating meteorologist", who coordinates communications between local forecasting offices and emergency management services in communities, Mr Fahy said.

However, he noted that both offices had temporarily upped their staffing in anticipation of a dangerous weather event, which is typical in these circumstances.

"The NWS weather forecast offices in Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo, Texas had additional forecasters on duty during the catastrophic flooding event," NWS spokeswoman Erica Grow Cei said in a statement to BBC Verify. "All forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner," she added.

NWS meteorologist Jason Runyen, who covers the San Antonio area, also said in a statement that where the office would typically have two forecasters on duty during clear weather, they had "up to five on staff".

When asked on Sunday if government cuts had left key vacancies unfilled at the NWS, President Trump told reporters: "No, they didn't."


Were weather balloon launches reduced?


In a video shared thousands of times on social media, US meteorologist John Morales said: "There has been a 20% reduction in weather balloon releases, launches... What we're starting to see is that the quality of the forecasts is becoming degraded."

Some social media users have been pointing to Mr Morales' words as evidence that budget cuts have limited forecasters' ability to anticipate extreme weather events like the floods in Kerr County, Texas.

Weather balloons are an important tool used by meteorologists to collect weather data - from temperatures, to humidity, pressure, or wind speed - from the upper atmosphere.

In the US, NWS stations would typically launch them twice a day.

In a series of public statements released since February, the NWS confirmed that it either suspended or reduced weather balloon launches in at least 11 locations across the country, which it attributed to a lack of staffing at the local weather forecast offices.

However, there is no evidence to suggest that any of those changes directly affected weather balloon launches in the areas impacted by the floods in Texas.

Publicly available data shows that, in the lead-up to the floods, weather balloon launches were carried out as planned at Del Rio, the launch station nearest to the flood epicentre, collecting data that informed weather forecasts which experts say were as adequate as they could be.

 

AI revives classic microscopy for on-farm soil health testing

Research presented at the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague

European Association of Geochemistry

The classic microscope is getting a modern twist - US researchers are developing an AI-powered microscope system that could make soil health testing faster, cheaper, and more accessible to farmers and land managers around the world.

Researchers at The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA, have successfully combined low-cost optical microscopy with machine learning to measure the presence and quantity of fungi in soil samples. Their early-stage proof-of-concept technology is presented at the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague on Wednesday 9 July.

Determining the abundance and diversity of soil fungi can provide valuable insights into soil health and fertility, as fungi play essential roles in the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients, water retention, and plant growth. With this knowledge, farmers can optimise crop production and sustainability by making informed decisions about soil management, including fertiliser application, irrigation, and tillage.

Optical microscopes are the oldest design of microscope and have long been used to discover and identify tiny organisms in the soil. Other forms of soil testing use techniques like phospholipid fatty acid testing and DNA analysis to detect organisms, or they measure the presence of chemicals such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. While powerful, these modern methods tend to be costly or just emphasise chemical composition, often overlooking the full biological complexity of soil ecosystems.

Alec Graves from The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Sciences, USA, is presenting the research at the Goldschmidt Conference this week. He said: “Current forms of biological soil analysis are limited, requiring either expensive laboratory equipment to measure molecular composition or an expert to identify organisms by sight using laboratory microscopes. Comprehensive soil testing isn’t widely accessible to farmers and land managers, who need to understand how agricultural practices impact soil health.

“Using machine learning algorithms and an optical microscope, we’re creating a low-cost solution for soil testing that reduces the labour and expertise required, while providing a more complete picture of soil biology.”

In their early-stage design, the researchers built and tested a machine learning algorithm to detect fungal biomass in soil samples, incorporating this into custom software for labelling microscope images. This was created using a dataset of several thousand images of fungi from soils across South Central Texas. The software works with just 100x and 400x total microscope magnification, available in many affordable off-the-shelf microscopes, including those found in school laboratories.

“Our technique analyses a video of a soil sample, breaking this into images, and uses a neural network to identify and quantify fungi,” says Graves. “Our proof-of-concept can already detect fungal strands in diluted samples and estimate fungal biomass.”

The team is now working to integrate their technique into a mobile robotic platform for detecting fungi in the soil. The system will combine sample collection, microphotography and analysis into a single device. They aim to have a fully developed, deployable device ready for testing within the next two years.

The research is led by Professor Saugata Datta, Director of Institute of Water Research Sustainability and Policy at UTSA, and funded by the USDA National Resource Conservation Service. Details of the machine learning algorithm are due to be published in a peer-reviewed journal later this year.

The Goldschmidt Conference is the world’s foremost geochemistry conference. It is a joint congress of the European Association of Geochemistry and the Geochemical Society (US), and over 4000 delegates attend. It takes place in Prague, Czech Republic, from 6-11 July 2025.

 

Two out of every three Israeli Arab citizens support political partnership between Arabs and Jews

New study by the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University examines the views of Arab citizens in Israel – after the war with Iran A comprehensive survey in Israel's Arab society finds:

Tel-Aviv University

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A new study by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at TAU's Moshe Dayan Center finds that a large majority (73.2%) of Israel's Arab citizens support the inclusion of an Arab party in the government that will be formed after the next elections. In addition, the turnout of Arab voters is expected to increase.

The study's main findings:

• A large majority (73.2%) support the participation of an Arab party in the next government: 41.8% support joining any government formed, and 31.4% support joining a center-left government. If elections for the Knesset were held today, the expected voter turnout in Arab society would be 57%, slightly higher than the 53.2% turnout in the 25th Knesset elections held in November 2022.
• The war between Israel and Iran did not change the priorities of Arab citizens regarding fundamental political issues such as joining the government or support for Arab-Jewish political partnership. However, some impact is evident in the definition of personal identity.
• Most of the Arab public (66% of respondents) believe in political cooperation between Arabs and Jews in Israel, but only 40.2% believe that the Jewish public actually supports such cooperation.
• A large majority of the Arab public (75.4%) report a low sense of personal security. The two main factors negatively affecting their mood are the high incidence of violence in Arab communities (41.9%) and the ongoing war in Gaza (37.6%). At the same time, 64% of survey participants report that their financial situation is relatively good.
• 54% of survey respondents stated that the most important issue for the Arab public today is addressing the problem of violence and crime. A significant portion (23.2%) said that ending the war in Gaza is the most important issue.
• The personal identity of Israel's Arab citizens includes three main components: Arab identity (36.2%), Israeli citizenship (30.3%), and religious affiliation (21.4%). For a relatively small portion of this public (9.7%), their Palestinian identity is the most important.

The study was initiated by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation, operating under the German Konrad Adenauer Stiftung at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University. (The full study is attached in a separate file.)

Dr. Arik Rudnitzky, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at the Moshe Dayan Center: “A large, solid majority of Israel's Arab citizens support political partnership between Arabs and Jews, as well as the inclusion of an Arab party in the government that will be formed after the next elections. The importance of this political standpoint cannot be overstated.
It should be understood against the backdrop of a harsh reality in which the mood in the Arab public is low due to the rampant violence in Arab communities, the negative effects of the war in Gaza, and also the recent brief war with Iran, which starkly exposed the severe lack of protective facilities in Arab communities. Nevertheless, and contrary to expectations, Israel's Arab citizens refuse to despair and look soberly at the day after the war. According to this survey, voter turnout of Arab citizens in the next Knesset elections will be slightly higher than in the elections of November 2022. Opinions are divided on whether the precedent of the inclusion of Arab party Ra’am in the Bennett-Lapid government (2021-22) was successful, but even those who criticize MK Mansour Abbas (Head of Ra'am) for this move do not necessarily oppose the attempt itself — rather, they believe Ra’am could have achieved more. Thus, precisely in the context of the longest and harshest war in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the survey points to the hope residing in the hearts of Arab citizens for establishing a political partnership between Arabs and Jews in the day after the war.”

Please contact Noga Shahar for the full survey. 

972-547-705-223

Taupr@tauex.tau.ac.il

 

What’s behind the enormous increase in early-onset gastrointestinal cancers?

Oxford University Press USA

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A new paper in BJS, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that early-onset gastrointestinal cancer rates are rising dramatically across the globe.

In the United States, the age-standardized rate of colorectal cancer decreased from 66.2 cases per 100,000 people in 1985 to 35.7 cases per 100,000 people in 2018. In contrast, early-onset colorectal cancer has shown a marked increase in both men and women in the United States since the mid-1990s, with the age-adjusted incidence rising from 5.9 cases per 100,000 in 2000 to 8.4 cases per 100,000 in 2017. Compared with adults born in 1950, those born in 1990 have twice the risk of developing colon cancer and four times the risk of developing rectal cancer.

The incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer, the most common type of gastrointestinal cancer, is also increasing globally, particularly in high-income countries. A study of 20 European countries revealed significant increases in early-onset colorectal cancer from 2004 to 2016, with increases of 7.9%, 4.9%, and 1.6% for individuals aged 20–29, 30–39, and 40–49 years, respectively. A recent Centers for Disease Control analysis revealed 185% increase among people between 20 and 24 and a 333% increase in incidence of colorectal cancer among people between 15 and 19.

With these rising rates, early onset colorectal cancer has become the leading cause of cancer-related death for men under 50 and the second-leading cause for women under 50 in the United States. The disease affects Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and Asian people disproportionately. A National Cancer Institute analysis from 1973 through 2009 demonstrated that doctors diagnosed 16.5% of American Indians/Alaska Natives, 15.4% of Hispanics, 12% of Asians/Pacific Islanders, and 11.9% of Black patients with colorectal cancer before age 50, compared to only 6.7% of non-Hispanic White patients.

The researchers in this study explain that patients with early-onset colorectal cancers often experience delays in diagnosis because neither physicians nor patients suspect cancer. Consequently, doctors are more likely to diagnosis such patients when they are at advanced stages of the disease.

Though official guidelines for early-onset and average-onset cancers are the same, researchers here emphasize that younger patients are more likely to receive aggressive treatment, often without a survival advantage. Young patients with gastrointestinal cancers also have unique and often unmet needs as they navigate cancer care. Often in their peak earning years, younger patients are more likely to experience financial hardship because of their cancer diagnosis. They may find it particularly difficult to explain such diagnosis with young children. They also may be thinking of growing or starting their families at the time.

Though the American Society of Clinical Oncology recommends oncologists discuss treatment-related fertility concerns with patients of reproductive age, a recent study found that 50% of patients reported that their doctors did not talk to them about the impact of their disease or treatment on having future children.

Survivors of early onset colorectal cancer are also more likely to report problems with anxiety, body image, and sexual dysfunction compared to advanced onset survivors, and are also more likely to report worse social functioning and physical quality of life. Male patients with early onset colorectal cancers are more likely to suffer depression than those diagnosed with average onset colorectal cancers.

The researchers note that risk factors associated with increased risk of early onset gastrointestinal cancers include obesity, a Western-style diet, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, smoking, and alcohol use. Obesity, particularly in childhood and adolescence, is increasing in the United States, and is a leading theory for the rising rates of several early onset gastrointestinal cancers. In a 2019 study of 85,256 women in the United States, those with a BMI over 30 had close to double the risk of developing early-onset colorectal cancer compared women with lower BMIs.

“The incidence of GI cancers in adults younger than age 50 is rising globally,” said the paper’s lead author, Sara Char. “Ongoing research efforts investigating the biology of early-onset GI cancers are critical to developing more effective screening, prevention, and treatment strategies.”

 

The paper, “Early-Onset Gastrointestinal Cancers: A Comprehensive Review and Future Directions,” is available (at midnight on July 8th) at https://academic.oup.com/bjs/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/bjs/znaf102.

Direct correspondence to: 
Sara K. Char
Department of Medical Oncology
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
450 Brookline Ave
Boston, MA 02215
Sara_Char@dfci.harvard.edu

To request a copy of the study, please contact:
Daniel Luzer 
daniel.luzer@oup.com

---

Journal

BJS

DOI

10.1093/bjs/znaf102 

Method of Research

Systematic review

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Early-Onset Gastrointestinal Cancers: A Comprehensive Review and Future Directions

Article Publication Date

8-Jul-2025

 

People diagnosed with dementia are living longer, global study shows

Earlier diagnosis and better care may lead to lower risk of death than in previous years following dementia diagnosis, researchers found

University of Waterloo

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A person diagnosed with dementia has improved survival outcomes in recent years amid significant progress in dementia diagnosis and care, according to a recent multinational study led by a University of Waterloo researcher.  

The study analyzed data from more than 1.2 million people over the age of 60 living with dementia in eight global regions between 2000 and 2018. It found that in five of those regions, including Ontario, a lower risk of death exists today than in previous years.  

“Dementia is a global public health priority,” said Dr. Hao Luo, assistant professor in the School of Public Health Sciences and lead author of the study. “Understanding how survival among people living with dementia varies over time and across health systems can help policy makers assess its real-world impact on health and social care services.”  

She said the increase in survival probability is likely due to factors such as progress in dementia prevention and care in recent years, as well as more effective drug treatments and psychosocial interventions tailored to an individual’s needs.  

“Knowledge of survival after the diagnosis of dementia is important for people living with dementia and their family members for making informed decisions about the subsequent care arrangement, for clinicians to improve their prognosis and care for people living with dementia and for policy makers to improve estimation of the real-world disease burden currently carried by health systems,” Luo said.  

Of the eight regions in the study (Ontario, United Kingdom, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Finland, Germany and New Zealand), only New Zealand showed an increase in the risk of death following the first hospital record of dementia diagnosis. Data from Finland and Germany were inconclusive.  

“We were surprised to observe a steady increase in mortality risk in New Zealand between 2014 and 2018,” Luo said. “We later found that this coincided with a national effort to shift the diagnosis and management of uncomplicated dementia to primary care to free up specialist services. With greater involvement of primary care, people living with dementia are more likely to present to hospitals at a more advanced stage of the disease, leading to a higher risk of mortality following the first hospital record of dementia diagnosis.”  

The consistently observed decrease in mortality risk across five of the regions accounted for 84 per cent of all participants. Canada, the U.K., South Korea, Taiwan, Finland and Germany have national dementia strategies already in place or in development. 
 
Luo said her future research will look at the role comorbidities play. “To analyze multinational data using a standardized approach, some compromises were made, including not accounting for the impact of comorbid conditions on dementia survival,” she said. “One of my future research directions is to understand the patterns of comorbidity and how comorbidities affect survival among persons with dementia.” 

The study, A multinational cohort study of trends in survival following dementia diagnosis, was recently published in Communications Medicine. 

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Journal

Communications Medicine

 

Where the feral buffalo roam in Hong Kong

Diverse attitudes to ruminants as neighbors

Communications and Institutional Research Office, City University of Hong Kong

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Buffalo bronze themselves alongside human bathers on a south Lantau beach in Hong Kong.

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Credit: Dr Danhe Yang

Most people associate Hong Kong with skyscrapers and shopping malls, but a small population of feral water buffalo calls the marshlands of South Lantau Island home. And they’re sparking a mix of curiosity, concern, and connection among locals.

A new study published in People and Nature in July 2025 led by City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) examines how Hong Kong residents feel about their unusual neighbours. These findings suggest opinions are about as diverse as the city itself.

The article is titled “Public attitudes and values regarding a semi-urban feral ungulate”.

“Some see the buffalo as a living link to the territory’s rural past, while others worry about safety, environmental impact, or traffic disruptions,” says lead investigator Alan McElligott, a specialist in animal behaviour and welfare at the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC), CityUHK.

So while Hong Kong is known as a bustling financial hub, feral buffalo roaming semi-urban areas may seem surprising. “Yet they provide an accessible link to nature and an opportunity to understand human-animal interactions in such landscapes,” adds Kate Flay, a specialist in livestock animal health at JCC.

 

The team based their findings on 657 responses—550 online and 107 through in-person interviews (with 56 participants leaving additional comments)—collected from a public survey distributed in the last months of 2023 and at the start of 2024.

The key insights from the CityUHK-led research are that public attitudes toward the buffalo fall into four key categories: appreciation and conditional acceptance of their presence; concern about community impacts and calls for better management; seeing them as valuable for conservation and education; as well as individual perceptions formed through everyday encounters. For each of these, neutral responses to the buffalo were most frequent, followed by positive and then negative responses.

Regarding the questions on Buffalo Tolerance and Appreciation, 61% of the responses were neutral, 25% highly positive, and 14% highly negative, with effects of age, gender, ethnicity, and birthplace. Looking at the questions on Buffalo Social Benefits and Advocacy, 66% of responses were neutral, 19% highly positive, and 15% highly negative, with significant effects of age and ethnicity.

A similar pattern was found for questions on Preservation and Education, where 46% of the responses were neutral, 41% highly positive, and 13% highly negative, with effects of gender, ethnicity, and birthplace. In the final section on Impacts on Daily Life, 49% of the responses were neutral, 27% highly positive, and 23% highly negative, with significant effects of age and ethnicity.

“Demographic factors also correlate with opinions, with differences based on age, gender, ethnicity, birthplace, and whether respondents lived on Lantau,” explains another of the investigators, Hannah Mumby, a specialist in applied behavioural ecology and conservation at the University of Hong Kong. “Emotional responses were common in interviews, with a majority expressing fondness for the buffalo or neutral attitudes, and a minority noting concern over safety risks.”

The team also found significant variation among participants living in the three districts in Hong Kong represented in the survey, such as whether they were residents of South Lantau Island, where the feral buffalo roam.

“We found that familiarity with wildlife in rural areas often leads to more positive perceptions,” McElligott says.

The key takeaway is that we recognise residents' diverse views on accepting the buffaloes’ presence. These views can be considered to ensure that humans and buffalo share the landscape harmoniously.

A new study led by City University of Hong Kong examines how Hong Kong residents in built-up areas feel about their unusual neighbours in semi-rural districts.

Familiarity with wildlife in rural areas often leads to more positive perceptions, the findings suggest. 

Credit

Dr Danhe Yang

Journal

People and Nature

DOI

10.1002/pan3.70082 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Public attitudes and values regarding a semi-urban feral ungulate

Article Publication Date

7-Jul-2025