A "green scarf" to prevent desertification in the Taklimakan Desert in southwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Over the past 40 years, a green belt spanning 2,761 kilometers has been established around China's largest desert, the Taklimakan Desert, aptly referred to as the "green scarf". The initiative leverages the country's Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program (TSFP), so named because it carries out forestation in the north, northeast and northwest regions.
Currently, out of the remaining 285 kilometers of tasks combating desertification, 155 kilometers have been completed in the desert, achieving a completion rate of more than 54 percent. It is expected to complete the final flourish of the "green scarf" by the end of the year.
China has been exploring ways to combat desertification for decades and launched the TSFP in 1978. At present, the large-scale afforestation project, often called the "Great Green Wall" has entered a critical phase.
Since August last year, the country has launched three major battles against desertification under the TSFP, with the project in the Hexi Corridor-Taklimakan Desert region being one of them.
Practices such as planting desert shelter forests and building sand-control barriers have been successfully implemented there.
"Engineering sand control has meant building this straw checkerboard sand barrier. As you can see, both sides of the road are entirely covered with these straw checkerboard sand barriers, which stabilize all the sand and keep the road clear," said Abbas Eysa, head of sand control station in Qiemo County, Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture.
"Green scarf" for fixing sand in China's largest desert to be completed by end of 2024
As the Israeli military campaign in Lebanon is now in its second week, dozens of people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting residential areas in southern Lebanon.
In the Ain al-Dalb area east of Sidon, more than 40 people were killed and 70 others, including displaced people from villages in southern Lebanon, were injured in an Israeli strike that targeted the four-storey apartment building where they were living or sheltering on Sunday afternoon.
Rescue teams are continuing the search for missing people under the rubble.
"All our ambulances, rescue and firefighting vehicles were mobilized, and we rescued 20 wounded and 40 martyrs at night, and up to now with the help of the Lebanese Civil Defense and the Health Authority teams, the rescue teams are still searching for the remaining bodies of the martyrs at the site of the raid," said Hatem Yassin, a paramedic of Al-Risalah Health Ambulance Society.
"This targeting exposes the Zionist face to the international community, which must see the criminal enemy that commits massacres against humanity. Today this massacre is the biggest massacre in Lebanon," said Hussam AL-Eilani, a cleric.
In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on Saturday and Sunday, targeting a residential area near Hiram Hospital and another in the Masaken neighborhood.
"We are in a residential, commercial and clinic area, and between Jabal Amel and Hiram hospitals, and it was this area that was targeted. This enemy wants nothing but killing and extermination to reach the stage of displacing all those who remain, and breaking the will of steadfastness, resistance and patience," said Hassan Ezzeddine, a member of the Lebanese Parliament for Hezbollah. At least 105 people were killed and 359 others injured on Sunday in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Health announced.
In one strike in Beirut on Monday, Israel assassinated three leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, including the head of the military security department and a member of the political bureau, Muhammad Abdel Aal.
Israeli army relentlessly target residential areas in Lebanon
