January 2026's supermoon over the Nuseirat area of Gaza Photograph by Anadolu/Getty Images

Deir al-Balah, Gaza

The moon in the evening over the Nuseirat area of GazaPhotograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2026/jan/03/wolf-moon-supermoon-across-the-world-in-pictures

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Churches, Cinemas — and Moon Artifacts — Top List of Endangered Monuments 2025: Aerial bombardment has caused severe damage to monuments across the Gaza Strip, including the roughly 1000-year-old church of St Porphyrius, partly destroyed by a bomb in October 2023 that also killed 16-18 civilians.

Stories to fuel your mind

Churches, Cinemas — and Moon Artifacts — Top List of Endangered Monuments

The 2025 World Monument Watch list features a non-terrestrial site for the first time.

A baroque church, a modernist cinema, irrigation systems and indigenous trading paths all feature on a new list of world heritage sites in danger.

Published every two years by the World Monuments Fund (WMF), the 2025 World Monument Watch list also breaks entirely new ground by including in its 25-entry list a site at risk that isn’t even on Earth: the Moon, or more specifically the remnants of early landings left on its surface by astronauts.

The Moon’s listing reflects the need to “recognize and preserve the artifacts that testify to humanity’s first steps beyond Earth,” said WMF President and Chief Executive Officer Bénédicte de Montlaur in a statement.

“Items such as the camera that captured the televised Moon landing; a memorial disk left by astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin; and hundreds of other objects are emblematic of this legacy. Yet, they face mounting risks amidst accelerating lunar activities, undertaken without adequate preservation protocols.” 

Back on Earth, a striking number of sites at risk are in relatively affluent countries or in the heart of major cities. Two entries on the list are in the US: the historic lighthouses of Maine, threatened with climate change-related coastal erosion and extreme weather, and the Great Trading Path, a southeastern trail used by indigenous peoples to trade across the Carolinas and beyond.   ... READ MORE https://getpocket.com/explore/item/churches-cinemas-and-moon-artifacts-top-list-of-endangered-monuments?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

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Moonlight... a true childhood story of being Palestinian in 1967 by Mike Hanini Odetalla

 

Moonlight...a true childhood story of being Palestinian by Mike Hanini Odetalla

 

As I look outside my window and see a most beautiful full moon, so bright and brilliant; it literally sends golden shards of light through my window shades. I begin to remember that night in June of 1967. Could it have been the same bright and peaceful moon that lit our escape path as we ran for the neighboring hills and caves? I remember it being so big and bright, that the worn dirt path that led us away was clearly visible. The mouth of the cave faced due east and that night, the moon shone like a giant spotlight that seemed to be resting on top of the hill that my family had owned a large chunk of for generations. The moon seemed to be resting on top of that hill facing the west and looking straight into my eyes as I sat there at the mouth of the cave. I was in awe struck as the jets crisscrossed the night sky, their silvery metallic bodies gleaming, and reflecting dabs of moonlight.

 

Could this be really war I wondered? It didn’t seem like it. Except for the brilliant flashes of light that were later followed by the thunder, all seemed “normal”. Yes, we were cramped, more than 25 people were in the cave with us, but I had somehow tuned out all the noise of the women and the cries of the other children. I was totally hypnotized by that gorgeous moonlight. Suddenly, I was rudely snapped out of my hypnotic state, as my mother yanked my arm, yelling for us to run away from that cave. I got up and ran simply because of my mother’s frantic yelling and urging.

 

We ran until we reached a large tree in the middle of an olive grove about 100 yards away. Then I became conscious that my mother was still urging the others to follow. They hesitated at first, but finally relented as it became clear, you see that those jets gleaming in the moonlight were preparing to hit us. Not 5 minutes had passed when I saw them again, flying low over head. After 2 passes, a jet positioned itself and dove at us from the east, the same direction as that brilliant moonlight. The flash from under its wing deployed its rockets directly into the mouth of the same cave where we had taken refuge only a few minutes before. There were powerful explosions as debris flew outward.

 

I began to realize, finally, that this, indeed, was war: a word and a reality that had carried no tangible meaning for me until that moment. There was no electricity in my village of Beit Hanina and thus, I had never watched TV nor ever seen a movie. All of knew of war were the tales that the old people told about their experiences in 1948 and the raids by IDF into neighboring villages. Now, a first hand experience was putting War into my life in bright, vivid colors, accompanied by a very violently booming soundtrack.

 

This, my introduction to war, was also the end of my childhood innocence. The sights and experiences that followed would be recorded by my brain for all of eternity, no matter how horrible they were. The moon continued to light our way as we went through the olive groves and seeking yet another scorpion infested cave. That cave would be our “home” for the next 10 days or so. Our new ‘home’ opened directly overhead, looking into the sky, so I no longer had a view of the moon or of what was going on around us. The only reminder of war was the ever present thunder of the artillery in the background, and the confinement inside that cave.

 

To this day, when I look at a full moon, I wonder if it remembers that 6 year old boy gripped then, as now, in its hypnotic powers on that fateful night in early June of 1967…

 

           Mike Odetalla 2002 All rights reserved.