Latest news with #PaulEnglish
Fox News
08-07-2025
- Fox News
UK court convicts 3 men over arson attack authorities say was organized by Russian intelligence
A British jury on Tuesday convicted three men of arson in an attack on an east London warehouse that was storing equipment destined for Ukraine. Authorities said Russian intelligence was behind the plot. Prosecutors said the March 20, 2024, attack was planned by agents of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, acting on behalf of Russian military intelligence. The British government has deemed Wagner a terrorist organization. The prosecution said Wagner used British intermediaries to recruit the men to target an industrial unit in Leyton, east London, where generators and Starlink satellite equipment bound for Ukraine were being stored. The Starlinks are frequently used by Ukraine's military in fending off Russia's invasion. Authorities said the arson was part of a campaign of disruption across Europe that Western officials blame on Moscow and its proxies. A jury at London's Central Criminal Court found Jakeem Rose, 23; Ugnius Asmena, 20; and Nii Mensah, 23, guilty of aggravated arson. A fourth man, Paul English, 61, was acquitted. The fire caused around 1 million pounds ($1.35 million) worth of damage. Prosecutors said the attack was orchestrated by Dylan Earl, 21, and Jake Reeves, 23, who pleaded guilty to aggravated arson on behalf of the Wagner Group before the trial started. They also pleaded guilty to offenses under the U.K.'s National Security Act 2023. Two other men were on trial over the arson and related plots. One was found guilty Tuesday of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts, while the other was cleared.
Associated Press
08-07-2025
- Associated Press
UK court convicts 3 men over arson attack authorities say was organized by Russian intelligence
LONDON (AP) — A British jury convicted three men on Tuesday of arson in an attack on an east London warehouse that was storing equipment destined for Ukraine. Authorities said Russian intelligence was behind the plot. Prosecutors said the March 20, 2024, attack was planned by agents of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, acting on behalf of Russian military intelligence. The British government has deemed Wagner a terrorist organization. The prosecution said Wagner used British intermediaries to recruit the men to target an industrial unit in Leyton, east London, where generators and StarLink satellite equipment bound for Ukraine were being stored. The StarLinks are frequently used by Ukraine's military in fending off Russia's invasion. Authorities said the arson was part of a campaign of disruption across Europe that Western officials blame on Moscow and its proxies. A jury at London's Central Criminal Court found Jakeem Rose, 23; Ugnius Asmena, 20; and Nii Mensah, 23 guilty of aggravated arson. A fourth man, Paul English, 61, was acquitted. The fire caused around 1 million pounds ($1.35 million) worth of damage. Prosecutors said the attack was orchestrated by Dylan Earl, 21, and Jake Reeves, 23, who pleaded guilty to aggravated arson on behalf of the Wagner Group before the trial started. They also pleaded guilty to offenses under the U.K.'s National Security Act 2023. Two other men were on trial over the arson and related plots. One was found guilty Tuesday of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts, while the other was cleared.
Forbes
30-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Steal These Tactics From Jeff Bezos And Mark Zuckerberg
Leading by Example: When leaders blaze the trail, the team follows with purpose and clarity. getty Mark Zuckerberg is personally recruiting his AI team . He's literally cold emailing top candidates and getting involved in the internal WhatsApp recruiting thread. Conventional wisdom says that CEOs should zoom out to 50,000 feet and think about vision and strategy and do the things only CEOs can do. But in this case, Zuckerberg is doing what only he can do. Other successful founders pay the same attention to key things when they're mission critical. It's a version of 'Founder Mode' 'Aspire to be world class recruiter and build this magical team,' advises Paul English, cofounder of Kayak. 'Magical teams build magical product.' English also focuses on speed, and insists that his companies have a goal of hiring top candidates within 7 days of finding them. 'Speed is not the opposite of good,' he insists. 'There are many things in the world where you have to go fast. Like if you work in a Formula 1 pit crew and your job is to change tire.' The pit crew has to be extremely fast but also extremely accurate. If they're not someone might die. English also takes the opportunity to ask the people he's trying to hire who the smartest people they know. And then he tries to hire them. This personal touch in hiring is essential when your company is starting out. Padmasree Warrior, former CTO of Cisco and now founder/CEO of Fable, personally took the first calls, sourced candidates, and convinced people to join Fable. 'It takes an inordinate amount of personal energy to hire great talent and I think that is a key factor,' she said. 'I think founders often underestimate that. I don't delegate hiring at Fable. I personally make calls because people are coming because they believe in you as the founder.' That was a big shift for her after she left her large company background. People used to come to work for the brand. She realized as the founder she was the brand, and that she had to personally convince them that this is the mission to sign onto. 'I'm convincing them that together we're going to make this and build Fable into a big company.' Dig deep into the data Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, wanted Amazon to be the most customer obsessed company in the world. Maybe that's why he took customer service calls regularly. In one famous meeting captured in the book The Everything Store, Brad Stone's he got frustrated that he kept hearing that customer service calls were being answered in under a minute when he kept hearing complaints to the contrary. He called customer service himself in the middle of the meeting, and everyone was silent while he waited four and a half minutes for someone to pick up. Bezos is not the only one who dug for data. Frank Blake , the former CEO of Home Depot, used to spend half of his time in stores so he could see for himself what was going on. 'Organizations don't want their leader to know what's happening,' Blake said. 'Your job is to find out what's actually happening with your customers and your vendors and your front line employees.' Increase span of control Conventional wisdom holds that CEOs should have fewer direct reports and not manage them day to day. But at least 2 wildly successful founders do the opposite. Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia, believes that the CEO should be managing the most people , not the fewest. He directly manages 50 people himself. "The more direct reports the CEO has, the less layers are in the company," Huang said in a 2023 interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit."It allows us to keep information fluid, allows us to make sure that everyone is empowered by information." Brian Chesky, cofounder and CEO of Airbnb, agrees. He also has a large number of direct reports and has eliminated 1-1s . He believes that if one of his leaders needs to hear something, the others would benefit from it also. At the end of the day the best CEOs have a feel for the company and the best way to lead which is far more nuanced than any leadership experts or conventional wisdom can understand. 'Way too many managers apologize about how they want to run the company. What everyone really wants is clarity. What everyone really wants is to be able to row in the same direction really clearly.'
Malay Mail
05-06-2025
- Malay Mail
Six on trial over London arson attack linked to Wagner Group in alleged €1m Russian plot
LONDON, June 5 — Six men went on trial on Wednesday over an arson attack that prosecutors say was carried out on behalf of Russia's Wagner mercenary group on a business in London involved in shipping goods to Ukraine. The warehouse units torched in March last year on an industrial estate in east London belonged to Oddisey, a company that delivered packages and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including satellite equipment from Elon Musk's Starlink. Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Paul English, 61, Nii Kojo Mensah, 23, Jakeem Rose, 23, and Ugnius Asmena, 20, deny charges of aggravated arson. Dmitrijus Paulauskas, 23, and Ashton Evans, 20, deny knowing about terrorist acts but failing to disclose the information. Prosecutor Duncan Penny told London's Old Bailey court that the arson was criminality 'at the behest of foreign influence'. He said it was organised by Dylan Earl, who was 'knowingly acting at the behest of the Wagner Group', banned by Britain as a terrorist organisation. Last October, Earl admitted aggravated arson and also pleaded guilty to preparing conduct for acts which endangered life under a new National Security Act (NSA), brought in to crack down on hostile activity by foreign states. 'It appears that Dylan Earl expressed a willingness to undertake 'missions' of which the Leyton arson attack was the first. It is apparent that (he) knew he was acting against Ukrainian, and for Russian, interests,' Penny said. Another man, Jake Reeves, 23, pleaded guilty in November to charges of aggravated arson and admitted a charge under the NSA of obtaining a material benefit from a foreign intelligence agency, meaning he accepted taking money from Wagner that was to be provided by Russian security services, Penny said. He said Earl and Reeves were also involved in a plot to carry out arson attacks on the Hedonism wine shop and Hide restaurant in the upmarket Mayfair district of London, together valued in excess of £30 million (RM170 million). Penny said the plot also involved kidnapping the owner, a high-profile Russian dissident and vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had personally driven aid trucks from Britain to Ukraine. In messages to the two men shown to the court, Earl said the target should be brought to him so he could be 'exhiled (sic) to Russia to face prison'. In recent years, British authorities have accused Russia or its agents of being behind a number of spy plots and sabotage missions in Britain and across Europe. The UK's domestic spy chief said Russian operatives were trying to cause 'mayhem'. The Kremlin has denied these accusations, and its embassy in London has rejected any part in the warehouse fire, saying the British government repeatedly blames Russia for anything 'bad' that happens in Britain. Wagner Wagner had been heavily engaged in the earlier part of Russia's war effort in Ukraine, until its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny against Russia's defence establishment in 2023. Penny said the jury would hear expert evidence that the group and its activities, which included sabotage in Europe, were now under the direct command of the Russian government. He told the court the six men on trial might have been ignorant of the political dimension and motivated by greed over the warehouse blaze, which led to an insurance claim estimated at over £1 million. The jury was shown messages between the men which Penny said showed their involvement, as well as footage from security cameras and their own phones which he said showed the men travelling to the warehouse and starting the fire with petrol. The trial, which is due to last up to five weeks, continues. — Reuters
The Irish Sun
04-06-2025
- The Irish Sun
Four men ‘torched Ukrainian-owned firm in UK on behalf of Russia's Wagner Group'
FOUR men accused of torching a Ukrainian-owned firm in the UK did so on behalf of Russia's Wagner Group, a court has heard. Goods including Starlink satellite equipment were being sent out to Advertisement Around £1million in damage was caused when it was set alight in Leyton, East London, in March last year. Paul English, 61, Nii Kojo Mensah, 23, Jakeem Barrington Rose, 23, and Ugnius Asmena, 20, are said to have started the blaze. The Old Bailey was told that CCTV placed them driving to the scene in English's Kia Picanto. Jurors heard Rose and Mensah were seen climbing a wall to approach the warehouse, while Mensah also livestreamed the arson. Advertisement READ MORE ON UKRAINE WAR Prosecutor Duncan Penny, KC, said they were paid agents motivated by 'good old-fashioned greed'. He added: 'They did not act alone . . . they were recruited by and directed by two others who have since admitted their role in the aggravated arson. 'This was deliberate and calculated criminality at the behest of foreign influence.' Mr Penny said 'they may have been ignorant' that they had been recruited on behalf of the Vladimir Putin-controlled Advertisement Most read in The Sun The four deny aggravated arson. The trial continues. Full devastation of Op Spiderweb revealed as new pics show Putin's jets in RUINS after drone blitz 1 Four men accused of torching a Ukrainian-owned firm in the UK did so on behalf of the Putin-controlled Wagner Group, a court has heard Credit: AP
