内容摘要：“China once again urges the US to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva,” Liu added.

“China once again urges the US to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva,” Liu added.

As the town’s imam, Mohamed Ben Baty descends from a distinguished line of Quranic scholars and is the custodian of nearly a millennium of scholarship. The family library he oversees houses 223 manuscripts, the oldest dating back to the 14th century.In a cramped, cluttered room, he half-opened a cupboard to display its precious contents – fragile, centuries-old documents whose survival is nothing short of remarkable.

“These books, at one time, were very poorly maintained and exposed to destruction,” Ben Baty said, gesturing towards pages marked by water stains, now stored in plastic sleeves. “Books in the past were stored in trunks, but when it rains, the water seeps in and can spoil the books,” he explained, recalling when part of the roof collapsed eight years ago during the rainy season.Spain provided funding in the 1990s for a library in Oualata, supporting the restoration and digital preservation of more than 2,000 books. However, continued preservation of these documents now relies on the dedication of a handful of enthusiasts like Ben Baty, who does not live in Oualata year-round.“The library needs a qualified expert to ensure its management and sustainability because it contains a wealth of valuable documentation for researchers in various fields: languages, Quranic sciences, history, astronomy,” he said.

Oualata’s isolation hinders the development of tourism – there is no hotel, and the nearest town is a two-hour journey across rough terrain. The town’s location in a region where many nations advise against travel, citing the threat of rebel violence, further complicates prospects.Efforts to counter the encroaching desert have included the planting of trees around Oualata three decades ago, but Sidiya admits these measures were insufficient.

A number of initiatives have been launched to rescue Oualata and the three other ancient towns inscribed together on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1996. Each year, a festival is held in one of the four towns to raise funds for restoration and investment, and to encourage more people to remain.

As the sun sets behind the Dhaar mountains and the desert air cools, the streets of Oualata fill with the sounds of children at play, and the ancient town briefly springs back to life.“There was also the fact that this map had already been presented by another cartographer decades ago,” Braun said, explaining the second problem.

Scottish scientist James Gall indeed first published an identical projection in a science journal in 1855, but it went unnoticed. There is no proof, some researchers say, that Peters outrightly plagiarised Gall, but critics say his failure to credit the earlier researcher is still problematic.In 2016, the debate resurfaced with renewed vigour after public schools in the US city of Boston switched to what many now refer to as the “Gall-Peters” projection. Officials said the move was part of a three-year effort to “decolonise the curriculum”. Teachers said they were amazed to see students questioning their view of the world after the switch.

However, many experts and map enthusiasts were annoyed by the fact that Boston chose Peters, and as such, gave the projection renewed relevance.Al Jazeera reached out to the Boston Public Schools (BPS) for comment.