For the first time, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) has included the moon in its 2025 list of 25 at-risk cultural heritage sites. Also joining that list this year are Gaza, the Swahili Coast, and the Turkish city of Antakya.

The World Monuments Fund list seeks to raise awareness and funds to help preserve the sites it spotlights. Africa's Swahili Coast, Maine's lighthouses and Buddhist grottoes in China are also in peril.

The Moon has been added to the World Monuments Watch (WMW) list of 25 endangered sites for 2025, alongside Gaza’s cultural heritage and terracotta sculptures in a Portuguese monastery. View on euronew

"The humanitarian situation is catastrophic," said Tommaso Della Longa, a spokesperson for many aid organizations operating in Israel and Gaza.

The World Monuments Fund has been publishing its World Monuments Watch every two years since 1996 to build awareness and concern for endangered places. To-date, it’s funded $120 million towards preserving almost 350 sites around the globe.

The preservation organization’s list, the World Monuments Watch, usually sticks to cultural heritage sites within Earth’s bounds. However, with humanity recently ramping up (uncrewed, for now) visits to the Moon, concerns have grown over what that means for the future of the culturally significant marks we’ve left on its surface.

WASHINGTON (United States) - President-elect Donald Trump holds MAGA rally day ahead inauguration ceremony (2000 GMT) PICTURE. VIDEO. ARLINGTON (United States) - President-elect Donald Trump participates in a Wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. PICTURE. VIDEO. LIVE VIDEO.

The full Israeli cabinet passed the agreement during a meeting that continued into the Jewish Sabbath, setting up the first reprieve in Gaza in over a year.

Envoy Steve Witkoff, carrying a message from Donald Trump, broke through the impasse in long-futile cease-fire talks.

Palestinians in Gaza are eager to leave miserable tent camps and return to their homes if a long-awaited cease-fire agreement halts the Israel-Hamas war.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are eager to leave miserable tent camps and return to their homes if a long-awaited ceasefire agreement halts the Israel-Hamas war. But many will find