United News of Bangladesh

Foundations backed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have launched a $200 million initiative to help save 100 of the world's most threatened species. DiCaprio's Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund announced the Phoenix Species Project on Tuesday, describing it as the largest single fund ever created specifically to help recover critically endangered species. The project will support efforts to protect animals including lemurs, salamanders, pangolins, pigs, tortoises and echidnas whose survival is threatened by habitat loss, climate change and other pressures. DiCaprio has for years advocated for a major international effort to protect species at risk of extinction. In 2021, he and Re:wild co-founder and CEO Wes Sechrest met Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, who are chair and vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund. The meeting was followed by discussions with governments, environmental organisations and Indigenous communities about ways to protect some of the world's most vulnerable species. Those discussions eventually led to the Phoenix Species Project. Among the species the initiative will support are the golden-crowned sifaka, a lemur found in Madagascar; the Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander, which lives only in a small canyon in North Carolina; and the Visayan warty pig, found only on islands in the Philippines. Other species include Mexico's Cozumel harvest mouse, the pink land iguana of the Galápagos Islands, the Malayan pangolin of Southeast Asia and Tanzania's pancake tortoise. The project will also help protect the starry night harlequin toad, found only in Colombia's mountains, and Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, an egg-laying mammal native to New Guinea and named after renowned naturalist David Attenborough. The initiative aims to provide long-term funding and support to conservation projects that have achieved progress but often struggle to secure enough resources to continue their work. “We've protected the golden-crowned sifaka for years on a budget that would never match what this species deserves, but letting it go extinct was never an option,” said Tiana Andriamanana, executive director of Association Fanamby, one of the organisations receiving funding. She said the new funding, along with global cooperation and technical support, would create new opportunities to protect the species.

The Washington Post is laying off nearly 100 employees, representing 4% of its staff, in a bid to curb mounting losses.  The cuts primarily target workers on the business side of the renowned US newspaper, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.  The publication is among numerous news outlets facing challenges in the digital era, as online platforms increasingly compete for advertising revenue.  The layoffs come amid internal turbulence, following Bezos’ unprecedented decision to block an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the US presidential election in November.  "The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry," a spokesperson for the newspaper said. "Changes across our business functions are all in service of our greater goal to best position The Post for the future."  Amazon to donate $1 million to Trump inauguration In 2023, the Washington Post reported a $77 million loss and a decline in website readership. That same year, it announced voluntary buyouts in an effort to reduce staff by 10%.  Bezos wrote an opinion piece explaining that blocking the endorsement was necessary because of growing public perception that the "media is biased." Still, the newspaper said 250,000 of its readers cancelled their subscriptions in protest. Several prominent journalists have since left the publication, including investigative reporter Josh Dawsey, who confirmed on X that he is joining The Wall Street Journal. Managing editor Matea Gold has also departed, moving to The New York Times.  The situation escalated further on Saturday when Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned after the newspaper declined to publish satirical cartoon depicting Bezos and other tycoons kneeling before a statue of President-elect Donald Trump.  Last month, Bezos announced that Amazon would donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and make a $1 million in-kind contribution. He also described Trump’s re-election as "an extraordinary political comeback" and dined with him at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.    Source: with inputs from BBC

Jeff Bezos’ rocket company has gotten government approval to launch people into space, himself included. The Amazon founder will climb atop his New Shepard rocket next Tuesday in West Texas, joined by his brother, an 82-year-old female aviation pioneer and a $28 million auction winner. It will be the first launch with passengers for Blue Origin, which like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic plans to start flying paying customers in the months ahead. READ: Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson flying own rocket to space The Federal Aviation Administration issued its OK on Monday. The license is good through August. On Sunday, Virgin Galactic’s billionaire founder Richard Branson rode his own rocket plane to space, accompanied by five company employees. A specially designed aircraft carried the winged ship aloft over New Mexico. The space plane dropped away, fired its rocket motor and soared to 53.5 miles (86 kilometers), before gliding to a runway touchdown. Blue Origin’s flight — featuring an automated capsule launched atop a reusable booster — should reach a maximum altitude of roughly 66 miles (106 kilometers) before parachuting into the desert. READ: Richard Branson announces trip to space, ahead of Jeff Bezos Joining Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic in the chase for space tourists is Elon Musk’s SpaceX. But SpaceX plans to send its customers into orbit, not on brief up-and-down hops. Musk has yet to commit to a launch himself. Bezos, 57, stepped down last week as Amazon’s CEO. He founded Blue Origin in 2000.