2 . People who cross the street while looking at their phones may be fined in the city of Xiamen, Fujian province, as traffic police officers are enforcing (施行) a local regulation that was put into effect on August 1st.

A pedestrian who was crossing the street on Tuesday while looking at their phone was given a warning, becoming the city’s first to receive a reprimand (训斥) for the behavior.

The Traffic Safety Regulation on Zebra Lines in Xiamen Special Economic Zone, made into a law on Tuesday, states pedestrians should not browse their electronic devices or engage in other activities that may end anger traffic safety while using crossing lanes. Those who violate this rule and delay or stop the progress of the normal passage of vehicles are supposed to be given a warning or a fine of 50 yuan($7).

The regulation was made in response to motions by legislators (立法委员) to the Xiamen people’s congress. “Through putting uncivilized behavior right via legal means, we hope to create a better environment for drivers and pedestrians to better understand and interact with each other,” said Wu Tao, an official at the local congress.

Su Guoqiang, a deputy to the congress among those who raised the motion, said more than 20 percent of traffic accidents in Xiamen happened on crosswalks. “We hope to use the punishment of the ‘small’ act of browsing phones as something to prevent people from doing such a thing,” he told China Central Television.

Peng Chong, a traffic police officer in Xiamen, told CCTV for the time being they will mostly educate and warn violators and make everyone involved in traffic aware of the rules.

4 . Homeowners Hermine Ricketts and her husband, Tom Carroll, held a ceremonial planting of vegetables in their garden on the day when a Florida law went into effect that removed local bans across the state on vegetable gardens at residential properties. It was one of the rules that had forced the couple, who lived in Miami Shores, to uproot(根除) all the vegetables in the garden that Ricketts had kept for almost twenty years.

Ricketts had her vegetable garden in her front yard because it faced south and her backyard was mostly in the shade. The retired architect said she gardened for the food and also for the peace it brought her.

“This is a peach tree that I planted, and around it, I had kale, and in between the kale, I had some cabbages,” Ricketts said then.

But then a zoning ordinance(条例) was tightened by Miami Shores Village to forbid vegetables in front yards on the ground, saying that they were unpleasant to look at. Village officials told Ricketts to uproot all her vegetables or she would face a $50 daily fine according to the ban.

And she fought back, joining up with the Institute for Justice, a national law firm, to challenge the ban.

It took six years, but they won. The Florida Legislature passed a bill protecting vegetable gardens, and Governor Ron DeSantis signed it. “After nearly six years of fighting... I will once again be able to legally plant vegetables in my front yard,” Ricketts said in a statement. “I’m grateful to the Legislature and the Governor for standing up to protect my freedom to grow healthy food on my own property.”

She complained that the fight even had to happen. “We had kept a beautiful, nutritious garden for many years before the Village went out of its way to ban it and then scared us with ruinous fines,” she said.

“Gardening is wonderful,” Ricketts added gladly. “I feel victory.... I have no words.”

5 . Germany’s top court has ruled that parts of the country’s 2019 climate (气候) action law must be changed because they don’t do a good job of protecting young people. The result is a big victory for the nine young people who started the law suing (诉讼).

The court suing stresses an important part of the climate change: The change will impact greatly on young people far more than the adults. That’s because the effects of earth warming will become more serious over time. As young people become adults, they’ll be left to deal with many problems that today’s adults have ignored. The government’s failure to plan carefully was putting their future lives in danger.

In 2019, Germany passed a new law, promising that the country would be carbon neutral (碳中和) by 2050. The law made a detailed plan of action until 2030. But the law didn’t have any specific rules or plans for climate actions that would be taken between 2031 and 2050.

Last Thursday, the judges of Germany’s highest court agreed with the young people. They said that not taking climate action made the basic rights of young people to a good future in danger.

The young people had challenged the government’s law in four specific areas. The judges didn’t agree with all of the challenges. But having the court support even a part of their case is seen as a big victory. Neubauer is one of the young people who sued. She works with the climate action group Fridays For Future. Ms. Neubauer said, “Climate protection is our basic right. This is a huge win for the climate movement. It changes a lot.”

The court has given the German government until the end of 2022 to fix the law. The climate law will now need to have a much more detailed plan for the actions that will be taken after 2030 to cut Germany’s pollution, allowing it to become carbon neutral by 2050. Germany’s government has said that it will quickly begin working to make the needed changes.

6 . Are you the only child in your family? If so, do you enjoy it or do you want more siblings（兄弟姐妹）?

On May 31, a key meeting of the Communist Party of China unveiled a policy that would allow all couples to have up to three children.

The move is expected to maximize the population's role in driving economic and social growth, since this is a critical time for China to transform the world's most populous country into a powerhouse（强国）with a quality workforce, according to the National Health Commission.

The three-child policy is also expected to prevent the decline in the nation's birthrate and address the challenge of a rapidly aging population, China Daily reported.

China's annual number of newborns has fallen for four years in a row. The country's total birthrate—the average number of children born to each woman—stood at 1.3 in 2020. The number is below the rate of 2.1 that would maintain a stable population, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The declining birthrate has also brought a sharp increase in the proportion of the population aged 60 or above, rising from 10.3 percent to 18.7 percent in the past decade. An increasingly elderly population will increase the cost of labor and the pressure on the social security net. It also means there will be a lack of young labor force. Therefore, it's not good for economic growth, according to Chen Youhua, a professor at Nanjing University.

In fact, the new birth policy is a step to further relax the family planning policy. The one-child policy was introduced in the 1970s and aimed to control the fast-growing population. Then in 2013, China allowed couples to have a second child if either parent was an only child, and in 2016, all couples were allowed to have two children.

However, not all people have shown their support for this latest policy. Many couples complained about the rising costs of raising a child. A netizen named Qinfeng commented, "High cost of education and both the physical and mental exhaustion stopped me from having more than one child." Also, many women are reluctant（不情愿的）to give birth because that could mean sacrificing their career prospects, according to Mu Guangzong, a professor at Peking University.

In that case, Mu noted that it is better to implement supporting measures with the three-child policy, such as more preferential（优惠的）policies for couples that would ease their parental burden.

7 . A newspaper said a federal judge sentenced Bruce Jones to 12 years in federal prison for fraud (欺诈). Over a 10-year period, Jones had managed to cheat thousands of people throughout the state out of almost $10 million.

He advertised his fantastic ideas on TV. “For some reason,” Jones said, “TV seems to break the ice. Even though you are a total stranger to the viewer, once he sees you on TV in his home, he feels like he knows you. You enter his living room and become a trusted friend.”

Jones had an imagination that wouldn’t quit. One time he showed viewers an “official government” earthquake report which “proved” that the western half of California would collapse into the sea within three years. For $100, he said, Jones would insure your house and property for full value. Thousands of people who saw that TV ad sent him a hundred dollars each.

In another TV ad, Jones claimed that he had come to an agreement with the federal and state government for exclusive(独享的)air rights. He told viewers that, for only $100, they could own the first 10 miles above all their property. You would be able to charge any commercial plane that flew over your property $100 per crossing. You would also be able to charge government rockets, satellites, space shuttles, and space stations $100 for each and every violation of your air rights.

Another time, Jones claimed to have invented a product that gets rid of calories. He showed the viewers a spray can of “NoCal.” He said that by simply spraying NoCal on your food, a chemical interaction would cause all the calories in the food to simply disappear within about 10 seconds. The NoCal was only $10 a can. As usual, Jones received thousands of checks in the mail.

The judge told Jones that he should be ashamed of himself. Jones responded that he was very ashamed of himself, and that when he got out of prison he hoped to become a TV adviser to help people avoid getting cheated. He told the judge that he was already developing an instructional CD that, for merely $100, would save people thousands of dollars in scams(骗局). The judge nodded, and then changed Jones’ sentence from 10 years to 12 years.