English news for Sunday, September 27, 2026

On July 1, 2026, scientists in Japan announced a new finding about allergies^*1. They found that mice with the same allergy can have different symptoms. The reason was one small part of the cells that fight sickness. The scientists work at Hiroshima University, a university in Japan, and at RIKEN, a large research organization in Japan.

The study looked at dust mites^*2. Many people are allergic to them. A dust mite allergy can cause atopic dermatitis^*3, a skin disease that is often very itchy. Inside the body, T cells^*4 react to material from the dust mites. Each T cell has a receptor^*5 on its surface. The receptor is the part that recognizes the mite material.

The scientists made two kinds of cloned mice^*6 from T cells. No one had done this before. Both kinds of mice had T cells that reacted to dust mites. But the receptors on those T cells were different. Everything else in the genes^*7 of the two kinds of mice was exactly the same.

The scientists put mite material on the skin of the mice many times. Both kinds of mice got a skin disease like atopic dermatitis. Both made IgE antibodies^*8, and cells that cause inflammation^*9 moved into their skin. However, only one kind of mouse clearly scratched itself as the disease grew. The other kind did not. The skin of the two kinds of mice also had different amounts of a substance called IL-22^*10. This substance is linked to itching.

The genes of the two kinds of mice were the same, and only the receptor was different. So the scientists think the receptor may be one reason why allergies look different from person to person.

The paper was published on June 24, 2026, in the journal^*11 Allergology International.

1. *1 allergies: when the body reacts badly to something that is usually harmless, like dust or some foods
2. *2 dust mites: very small animals that live in house dust and beds; you cannot see them
3. *3 atopic dermatitis: a skin sickness that makes the skin red, dry and itchy
4. *4 T cells: a kind of cell in the blood that helps the body fight sickness
5. *5 receptor: a part on the outside of a cell that finds and holds one special thing
6. *6 cloned mice: mice that were made in a laboratory to have exactly the same genes as one cell
7. *7 genes: the instructions inside every cell that decide how a living thing grows and looks
8. *8 IgE antibodies: things the body makes in the blood when it has an allergy
9. *9 inflammation: when a part of the body becomes red, hot and swollen
10. *10 IL-22: the name of a substance that cells make to send messages to other cells
11. *11 journal: a magazine where scientists print their studies

Two giant pandas have left China to live in the United States. Their names are Ping Ping and Fu Shuang. Early in the morning on September 27, 2026, at 2:55, they left Chengdu Shuangliu Airport on a charter plane^*1. Chengdu is a city in China. The pandas are going to Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, a city in the United States. They will live there for ten years. The news came from China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration. This is the government office in China that looks after forests and wild animals.

Ping Ping is a male panda. He was born on March 17, 2020. He has big, dark patches around his eyes. Fu Shuang is a female panda. She was born on October 18, 2020. She has a tuft^*2 of hair on top of her head.

Before the pandas left, there was a goodbye event at the Chengdu Research^*3 Base of Giant Panda Breeding. This is a center in Chengdu where pandas are raised.

The Chinese team got the pandas ready for the long trip. Before the flight, the pandas had training so they could get used to travel. For the trip, the team packed fresh bamboo shoots^*4, bamboo, apples, and medicine for emergencies. Inside the plane, the air was kept at a temperature and dampness^*5 that pandas like. An experienced American animal doctor and an experienced American keeper^*6 flew with them.

Zoo Atlanta has also been getting ready. Since December 2025, Chinese experts and the zoo have talked about how to fix up the panda house. In the middle of September, the Chinese experts checked the finished panda house in Atlanta and approved it.

China and the United States have worked together to protect pandas for more than 20 years. Together they have done more than 30 research projects and written more than 50 scientific papers^*7. Pandas in this program have had babies five times, and seven baby pandas were born.

After Ping Ping and Fu Shuang arrive, they will first spend some time in quarantine^*8. Chinese staff will stay in Atlanta to help care for them.

1. *1 charter plane: a plane that is rented for one special trip
2. *2 tuft: a small bunch of hair that sticks up
3. *3 research: careful study to learn new things
4. *4 bamboo shoots: young bamboo plants; pandas eat them
5. *5 dampness: how much water is in the air
6. *6 keeper: a person whose job is to look after animals in a zoo
7. *7 scientific papers: written reports by scientists about what they learned
8. *8 quarantine: a time when an animal is kept apart from other animals to check that it is healthy

Heavy rain from Typhoon^*1 No. 25 has caused serious flooding^*2 in Chiba, an area in Japan near Tokyo. On September 22, the levee^*3 of North Inba Lake broke. The broken part is about 100 meters long. The Chiba government manages this lake. The lake is in Narita, a city in Chiba.

Part of another levee also broke. This levee stands beside a small water channel in Narita. The channel carries water from farms into the lake. A large area around the lake is now under water. Part of the levee of the Nagato River, in the nearby town of Sakae, also broke.

The Chiba government announced the news on September 23. It asked the national government for emergency help. On the same day, the Kanto Regional Development Bureau, an office of Japan's national land ministry, decided to send TEC-FORCE. TEC-FORCE is a special team that helps after disasters^*4.

1. *1 Typhoon: a very big storm with strong wind and heavy rain
2. *2 flooding: when water covers land that is usually dry
3. *3 levee: a long wall of earth built beside a river or lake to stop water from spreading
4. *4 disasters: very bad events, like big storms or floods, that hurt many people or places