The Moon is among 25 sites on the World Monuments Fund's 2025 watch list, Goodwood Festival of Speed's plans to host ‘its biggest ever celebrations’ in honour of the 75th anniversary of the Formula 1 World Championship and our quiz of the day.
Across the universe
For the first time ever, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) has gone interplanetary; the Moon is among 25 sites on its 2025 Watch list, a biennial round-up that identifies places facing major challenges such as climate change, tourism, conflict and natural disaster.
There are more than 90 locations on the lunar surface where spacecraft have made historic landings, with relics including humanity’s first footprints there, courtesy of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (above) in 1969 and part of Tranquility Base, Apollo 11’s landing site with more than 100 other artefacts. ‘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,’ explains Bénédicte de Montlaur, WMF president and CEO.
The WMF is calling for international agreements to preserve this shared history as space exploration progresses; the organisation also hopes to inspire discussion on what a new Space Age means for ‘the Moon’s cultural and natural landscape’. The Moon’s inclusion on the list ‘underscores the universal need for proactive and cooperative strategies to protect heritage — whether on Earth or beyond — that reflect and safeguard our collective narrative,’ adds Mr de Montlaur.
Back on Earth, 29 countries across five continents are represented and, in Britain specifically, there is concern over Belfast’s Assembly Rooms, location of a famous 1792 harp festival that marked ‘the beginning of a long association between northern Protestants and the Gaelic revival’. At risk from tourism are Buddhist grottoes in China, while conflict and natural disaster have hit Ukraine, Palestine and Turkey — the village of Old Belchite, Spain, has been in ruins since the Spanish Civil War. Both Africa’s Swahili coast and 66 lighthouses in Maine, USA, are battling rising waters, and the Chapel of the Sorbonne in Paris’s Latin quarter has undergone decades of conservation issues.
Over the next two years, WMF will assist all 25 sites in fundraising and strategy, bringing the issues to a global audience. Since the Watch was launched in 1996, the WMF has contributed more than $110 million (and generated $300 million from other sources) toward projects at nearly 350 sites. AE
Click here for the full list.
Quiz of the day
1) What is the name of the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye?
2) Which animal does a mahout work with?
3) What did the acronym UNICEF originally stand for?
4) Lego was invented in which country?
5) Which health secretary launched the NHS in July 1948?
Start your engines
Goodwood Festival of Speed (July 10 – 13, 2025) has announced plans to host ‘its biggest ever celebrations’ in honour of the 75th anniversary of the Formula 1 World Championship.
As well as an F1-themed paddock, this year’s organisers are promising a legendary line-up of drivers, teams and cars — 80 of which will take on the West Sussex estate’s famous 1.16-mile ‘Hill’. (The fastest hillclimb record stands at 38.09seconds.)
Steps have also been taken to do F1’s iconic, long and winding history justice with the showcase elements of proceedings split into six ‘overarching categories’ that tell the story of the sport from its earliest, pre-World Championship days, to the internationally-recognised juggernaut it is today.
The names of drivers, past and present, planning to attend is yet to be released, but it’s bound to be good given that previous attendees include Sir Lewis Hamilton, reigning champion Max Verstappen (above), Mika Häkkinen and Niki Lauda.
Tickets are on sale. Click here to purchase and for more information.
That’s all for today — we will be back tomorrow.
Quiz answers
1) Holden Caulfield
2) Elephant
3) United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (now the United Nations Children’s Fund)
4) Denmark
5) Aneurin Bevan
