Two giant pandas set off to Atlanta zoo from China after Xi-Trump summit 27. September 2026 (15:14) Pandas departed Chengdu for their new homes in Georgia as part of agreement between Chinese and US governmentsTwo giant pandas departed Chengdu in south-western China early on Sunday for their new homes in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of an agreement between the Chinese and US governments.While in Washington DC for a three-day summit with Donald Trump, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced that the pandas would arrive in Atlanta in the coming days. The loan of the pandas to the Atlanta zoo was one of the few concrete outcomes to come out of Xi’s state visit with the US president, which saw expressions of goodwill between the leaders, but no fixes to any of the longstanding differences between the two countries. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
‘I wanted to help another family’: four surrogates on how they feel about the surrogacy discourse 27. September 2026 (15:00) The Guardian spoke with surrogates across the US about what they think of the controversy surrounding the practiceSurrogacy has been thrust into the national spotlight in recent weeks, with both the announcement of Lena Dunham using a surrogate to start a family and the ongoing legal battle surrounding McKenna West, a gestational surrogate who fled to Texas to avoid having an abortion that was requested by the child’s biological parents.With a renewed public interest on commercial, or compensated, surrogacy, the Guardian spoke with surrogates across the US who shared their experiences and how they feel about surrogacy being part of a global, public conversation. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Pope Leo urges healing of ‘deep wounds’ before meeting child sexual abuse survivors in France 27. September 2026 (14:20) Catholic church must reckon with its ‘painful errors’, pontiff tells crowd in Lourdes during four-day tourThe pope has called on the Catholic church to heal “deep wounds” and “painful errors”, before a meeting with survivors of child sexual abuse as he continues his four-day visit to France.Addressing a crowd in a large field near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called on the church to reckon with its past, without directly referencing sexual abuse scandals in France that affected at least 330,000 children over seven decades. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Only 3% of US sickle cell patients receive red blood cell exchange for disease, researchers find 27. September 2026 (14:00) Various factors block sufferers of disease from receiving treatment that is effective and has widespread availabilitySickle cell patients are missing out on an effective treatment despite widespread US hospital access to the technology, new research has found.That treatment is called a red blood cell exchange, a procedure that discards a patient’s damaged red blood cells while simultaneously mixing the patient’s remaining plasma, platelets and white blood cells with red blood cells from a donor before returning them to the body. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
