3 . 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.

4 . Children experiencing frequent family violence in Guangdong Province will be regarded as victims, according to a local draft against family violence. The draft will be handed in for consideration and agreement by the People’s Congress.

“It will help to improve people’s understanding of family violence and provide a better family environment for the development of children’s mental health.” said Chen Yongkang, deputy director of the social construction committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, “More detailed and exact measures against family violence will be made in the near future to better protect children’s health. Although they are not victims of physical hurt, children will be living under huge psychological shadows for quite a long time.”

The Guangdong Women’s Federation said the province recorded 14,172 cases of family violence between 2016 and 2018. Nearly 30 percent of China’s 270 million families have family violence problems, which cause 100,000 families to fall apart every year. About 90 percent of family violence victims are women.

“Family violence not only causes broken marriages, but also brings great harm to the development of children’s mental health,” Chen said. “The new draft will also help offenders realize they are doing something harmful to children. It will also make governments and social organizations pay more attention to the problem.”

According to the draft, mental violence will also be seen as an aspect of family violence. “Family violence is not all about physical hurt. Mental violence, including frequent shouting, does harm to family members, especially children,” Chen said.

5 . In China, 2020 was bid farewell with a series of fireworks and the scratching off of 200 million metric tons of plastic straws from the nation’s pollution stocks.

The ban comes into effect first with two items, plastic straws and single-use shopping bags, with other single-use plastics to follow. China is one of fewer than 10 nations to ban plastic straws completely.

The ban was announced in the Party's new Five-Year Plan in January 2021, and aims to reduce plastic pollution while moving to biodegradable alternatives, starting with plastic straws.

But there is something unique that makes a plastic straw ban in China have more effect than other countries, and it isn't the fact that it is the most populous nation. It’s that paper and polylactic acid compound straws will replace plastic ones in the people’s favorite drink — tapioca pearl tea, also known as milk or bubble tea.

Chinese consumers love milk tea. These treats, often taking the place of the West‘s morning coffee, are drunk through plastic straws larger and thicker than those we would recognize from a McDonald‘s as they must be able to adapt to the movement of the “bubbles” of tapioca pudding.

Milk tea chains like Nayuki in Shanghai have already been using paper straws for most of the year ahead of the first stage of the plastic ban scheduled to start in 2021. One Chinese news agency reports that while prices for biodegradable alternatives to straws and bags are more expensive, the ban has seen the market share for bio-plastics increase to an expected $7.3 billion in 2025, and a further doubling to $ 13.9 billion by 2030, suggesting the cost will rapidly decrease as more companies enter the market with new technologies.