Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will soon complete its monumental project of looping around Taklimakan Desert, China's largest desert, with barriers to curb its expansion.
Covering a staggering expanse of over 337,000 square kilometers, Taklimakan, also the world's second largest moving desert, is infamously known as the "Sea of Death".
To stop its dunes from intruding nearby villages, Xinjiang had finished building 2,761 kilometers of barriers of the closed-loop project encircling the whole Taklimakan Desert by the end of 2023.
This year, Xinjiang has constructed about 284 kilometers of barriers for the project, with the remaining one kilometer scheduled to be finished in Yutian County of Hotan Prefecture on Thursday.
The part in Pishan County of Hotan Prefecture, which was completed on Wednesday, uses multiple layers of barriers made with wooden poles and reeds to prevent moving of dunes.
The remaining one kilometer of the project in Yutian County uses several kinds of plants, including trees to block the desert.
According to the results of the sixth national monitoring survey on desertification released at the end of 2022, the areas of desertified land and sandified land had both shrunk in Xinjiang, which thus ended its history of the only provincial-level region in China with expansion of sandified land, and made contributions to consolidating protective barriers for ecological security in northwestern China.
Xinjiang to complete monumental control project on China's largest desert
Cuba has strongly condemned the United States' seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker, with a former Cuban diplomat calling the action illegal and warning it threatens regional energy security as the U.S. escalates pressure on Venezuela.
Carlos Alzugaray, the former Cuban diplomat, said the seizure of the tanker and its cargo violates international law.
"They have seized the ship, the tanker, but they have also seized the oil, they have taken the oil. All the sanctions that the United States has imposed on Venezuela are illegal because they are not based on any decision of an international institution like the Security Council of the United Nations," he said.
U.S. forces last week seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, the Skipper, in the Caribbean, alleging it was part of an "illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations." The U.S. has since intensified its campaign against Venezuela's oil trade.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has ordered a total blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers traveling to and from Venezuela, escalating a months-long pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump also said that the Venezuelan government has been designated "a foreign terrorist organization," accusing it of involvement in crimes including terrorism, drug smuggling and human trafficking.
Trump also claimed that Venezuela is "completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America," warning that the pressure would continue until the assets he said had been taken are returned to the United States.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has also denounced the U.S. seizure of Venezuelan oil tanker last week, calling it an act of piracy and maritime terrorism as the U.S. blockade may also impact Cuba, which is experiencing an energy crisis and is heavily dependent on oil imports from Venezuela.
For Cuba, the seizure raises particular concerns. The island is facing a deep energy crisis marked by rolling blackouts and relies heavily on oil imports from Venezuela. Cuban officials fear that expanded U.S. enforcement actions could further disrupt supplies.
The tanker seizure coincides with an expanded U.S. military presence in the Caribbean under "Operation Southern Spear," officially described as a counter-narcotics mission. Cuban authorities argue that the deployment violates a regional declaration designating Latin America and the Caribbean as a "Zone of Peace," and have called for international condemnation of the U.S. actions.
Cuba condemns US seizure of Venezuelan oil tanker amid energy crisis
