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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Russia to respond to attacks on airfields as military deems right: Kremlin
Russia will respond to Sunday's Ukrainian drone attacks on its airfields when and how the military deems appropriate, the Kremlin said on Thursday. On June 1, Ukraine used drones to carry out attacks against airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions, home to Moscow's nuclear triad. Replying to a media query on when Russia could retaliate and how, the Kremlin spokesman said, In such a way and at such a time as our military deems appropriate. On Wednesday night, in an unscheduled phone call with his US counterpart Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet. Agreeing with his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's view voiced at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Putin also described peace talks with Ukraine as "useful." Russian planes that were damaged after Ukraine's attack on Jun 1 will be repaired, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday. "As the defence ministry said, these aircraft were not destroyed but damaged. They will be repaired, he told the state-run news agency TASS when asked about the attack's potential impact on the strategic balance. So, draw your own conclusions. Apart from that, the aircraft we are talking about are not necessarily covered by any particular agreements. As for the START treaty, we have suspended it, as you know, Raybkov said. The Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) is an agreement for nuclear arms reduction between the US and Russia, and establishes a limit on deployed strategic warheads. Raybkov refuted Kyiv's statements about the destruction of 41 aircraft in the attack's aftermath. There is nothing of the kind, he stressed, adding that one should rely on the data released by the Russian defence ministry. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Scottish Sun
19-05-2025
- Business
- Scottish Sun
BBC star says school rewards kids for nodding along and many don't fit in the system
'If you run a company, go back to school. Mentor. Offer a placement. Let a young person shadow you, ask questions, and see what's possible' BACK TO SCHOOL BBC star says school rewards kids for nodding along and many don't fit in the system BBC Scotland's Home of the Year judge Danny Campbell has called for fellow entrepreneurs to return to the classroom. The 33-year-old, who runs his own architect firm HOKO, took part in a new schools initiative called the START programme which connects senior school pupils with business mentors to help them pitch and develop real startup ideas. 3 Kids only learn to nod along in class, says Danny Campbell. 3 Danny Campbell is a co-host on Scotland's Home of the Year. START Founder, Phil Ford, said: 'There's no better way to feel equipped with the necessary skills and mindsets to be an entrepreneur than by spending time with one.' Here, Danny Campbell, explains why schools fail to hit the mark when it comes to developing business leaders of the future. I WISH I could go back in time and speak to my 15-year-old self and tell him not to go to uni – start a business instead. Recently, I've gone back to school, mentoring pupils at John Paul Academy in Glasgow through START – a programme that gives young people the chance to build and pitch real business ideas, matched with mentors who've been there and done it. It struck me how little access many pupils have to this kind of thinking. A lot of them still believe starting a business is something for other people. It feels far away. But all it takes is one person to say: 'This could be you'. Now, two pupils are coming to intern at my architecture company, HOKO. It's a great opportunity for them, but they'll give us as much as we give them. They're smart, sharp, and curious. They'll bring a fresh perspective and help us question our assumptions. And for them, they'll see that entrepreneurship isn't some far-off dream. Some of the most successful business owners I know hated school. Many had ADHD, couldn't sit still, got told off for not paying attention. But give them real-world problems to solve, and the chance to think on their feet, and they fly. School rewards you for memorising and nodding along. Business rewards you for figuring things out. I've seen that contrast play out in my own family. My younger brother Duncan was one of the most talented people I've ever known. Before he passed away (last August from neoplasm brain cancer) he became an incredible actor and author. But at school, he was misunderstood. The system didn't know what to do with his creativity, and it slowly chipped away at it. I think about him constantly. I think about how many young people today don't fit within the system and wrongly believe they're not good enough, just because they don't tick the right boxes. My own experience, my brother's experience, and the children I've worked with through START have all shaped how I parent my eight-year-old son, Teddy. He loves Minecraft and YouTube. But I didn't want to just hand him an iPad and let him scroll. Instead, we turned it into a project. He had to create something. A series of videos he recorded and edited himself. He learned structure, patience, and how to take feedback. Now we're turning that into a mock business. Logo, a strategy. We're not going to post it – the learning is by doing. In this safe environment he'll work through the messy mistakes early, learning that he can take control of his own ideas and run with them. That's what most kids are missing today - real-world experiences that build belief. Jonathan Haidt's book The Anxious Generation argues that we've removed all the safe, practical risks that used to teach resilience – climbing trees, walking to the shop, knocking on doors – and replaced them with hours online, scrolling alone and unguarded. I am the way I am because I was allowed to live in the real world. When I was 10, I walked into a café in Garelochhead and asked if I could wash their customers' cars. I charged £2.50, donated 50p to charity, and got my mate involved to scale the operation. We were rubbish at it, but I made enough money to buy my mum a horribly tacky dolphin ring with the profits. I learned how to ask. I learned how to use what I had - my age, my cheek, my energy. That one summer gave me more belief and experience than years of school ever did. But far too often now, kids are trained to be passive – either sitting and scrolling, or sitting and nodding. They deserve the chance to build a product, pitch an idea, or work on a team. Programmes like START are about showing young people there's more than one path. And this is my call to other business owners. If you run a company, go back to school. Mentor. Offer a placement. Let a young person shadow you, ask questions, and see what's possible. Entrepreneurs are builders. Job creators. Problem-solvers. The government and education system should be actively encouraging them to get into the classroom – and entrepreneurs should grab any opportunity to do so. If we want to improve the future, start with a classroom. We need more entrepreneurs back in schools to show that it can be done. Because if they don't see it, they won't believe it. *To find out more visit:
The Herald Scotland
13-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Home of the Year judge in plea for START programme help
He took part in the Glasgow-founded education initiative and it was so successful that two students from the programme have secured internships at his growing architecture firm, HOKO. Now the 33-year-old is hoping others follow suit and begin helping out in the START programme too. START is a project-based learning programme for final year school students that attempts to harness the tools and mindsets of design, entrepreneurship and storytelling to bring the experience of participating in a startup to Scottish schools. It was launched by the High School of Glasgow and it is set to expand to more than 12 schools later this year. Read More Scottish Government slashes targets for closing primary school attainment gap Mr Campbell said: 'Going back to school has been one of the most energising experiences of my career. The ideas, energy and ambition these young people brought to the table were incredible. 'A lot of people think you're there to teach – but I learned just as much. Seeing business through their eyes reminded me why I started in the first place. It's a two-way street: you help them, and they absolutely help you. It's access to a younger perspective, a new mindset, fresh energy and the chance to play a role in someone's first steps towards building a business.' START Founder, Phil Ford, said: 'START is all about inspiring the next generation of business leaders and innovators. It encourages young people to draw on their own experiences and passions to identify real-world problems and to then solve them by creating new products or services which they pitch in a 'pre-seed investment round' to industry experts. 'We've witnessed the programme igniting entrepreneurial ambition in school leavers with 98% of this year's cohort saying that participating in START has encouraged them to consider starting a business in the future. 'A huge part of the confidence instilled in pupils is thanks to exposure to founders via the mentoring aspect of the programme. There's no better way to feel equipped with the necessary skills and mindsets to be an entrepreneur than by spending time with one: getting under the bonnet of a startup and learning what it takes to build a business first-hand. The pupils at John Paul Academy were helped immensely by Danny's insight, knowledge and enthusiasm and I watched them flourish under his counsel.' Mr Campbell added: 'The team at John Paul Academy completely threw themselves into the challenge. I'm excited to have one of them join HOKO this summer — they really earned it. 'They were sharp, motivated, full of ideas, and I've no doubt they'll bring something new to the team ''We often talk about building future talent pipelines — this is how you do it. You open the door earlier. You build relationships that last. You give people a chance. 'This isn't about criticising the system, it's about creating more routes in. 'As a dad of three young boys, their futures and education is something I think about a lot, and I am actively encouraging an entrepreneurial mindset already. 'Not everyone's path will be university. And that's OK. We need a landscape where young people see multiple routes to success — whether that's higher education, apprenticeships, starting their own thing or joining a growing business to get real world experience. 'As business leaders, we have something to offer. We have something to gain too. A half-day spent mentoring could change someone's life. But it could also spark something in you.' START is growing and is due to be offered to at least 12 schools in Scotland from August. There are still some mentorship opportunities available, get in touch to find out more:
Forbes
19-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Spin-Out Strategy: Turning Scientists Into Entrepreneurs
A lot of hopes are being pinned on the U.K.'s so-called Golden Triangle, an expanded technology cluster encompassing London and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. If all goes according to plan, this will be the life sciences and deeptech powerhouse of Britain's innovation economy - a natural home for the next generation of science-led startups. As such, its success - and the contribution of the universities that form the three points of the region - are crucial to future economic prosperity. The challenge, however, is to maximise the potential of the startups - many of them university spin-outs - within the region. To do that, the founders who are taking their technologies to the marketplace will have to make the transition from academics to effective CEOs and salespeople. It's not always an easy journey. So, what can be done to help? I've been talking to Anthony Finbow, currently Entrepreneur in Residence for Founders at the University of Cambridge and its START accelerator program. As an entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in starting, running and advising companies in the software and life sciences sector, his role is to support the university's emerging entrepreneurs, equipping them build viable companies. As he acknowledges, there is often a learning curve. While it would be wrong to generalize about the Seed and pre-Seed companies in the cohort - some are already selling while others are still at the stage of identifying a market for a prototype technology - the working background of many academics means there are gaps to fill. Finbow cites sales as a case in point. 'Often they have no experience in selling,' he says. 'It is not just about turning up. It is about researching the customers and learning from the first interaction about the client's needs and how they can be served. From there, you build a knowledge bank. A lot of people are not experienced in that.' It's a view echoed by Daniel Fredrich, CEO of Pinepeak, one the companies participating in the accelerator programme. The company uses AI to predict wildfire risks anywhere in the world and is developing a product aimed at the insurance industry. 'We're scientists by background, with little experience of enterprise sales when we started Pinepeal in 2023, " he says.'Since then, we've been on a steep learning curve.' The task of finding paying customers is complicated by the fact that - almost by definition - science-led startups are offering something new to the customers they target. A point made by Rebekka Mikkola, co-founder and CEO of Trismik, a spinout that is developing tools for the evaluation of large language models. As she explains, the purpose of the technology is to help users decide on which LLMs are most suitable for the tasks in hand. 'We're operating in a space where many agree LLM evaluations are broken, but there's little consensus yet on how to do it better,' she says. 'Our biggest challenge is building a presence in this emerging category. We're not just introducing a new tool - we're proposing a new standard. That means earning trust early, proving our method works across real-world use cases, and becoming the default choice for anyone who needs to evaluate LLMs reliably.' There are cultural challenges too. Finbow says life as an academic researcher is very different from that of an entrepreneur. In his own career, Finbow has'vectored' from telecoms to life sciences. In the latter field, he found scientists who were focused on the scientific disciplines of conducting experiments to prove concepts. Culturally, that's a long way from the cutthroat world of building differentiated products in competitive markets. So, how does Finbow see the transition from researcher to entrepreneur beginning? Finbow defines his role, at least in part, in terms of helping founders to become more expansive in their thinking. Or to put it another way, he wants them to nurture a long-term vision. 'Most early-stage companies are focused on what they can bring into the world and what will be marketable and saleable in the first instance,' he says. People tend to de-emphasise the concept of the vivid vision.' By that, he means an assessment of the startup's prospects from the standpoint of a founder who is still running the company five years into the future. 'So imagine yourself in five years' time and use that as the basis for describing a vector towards something more compelling than the start point,' he says. 'Imagine as deeply as possible every facet of the business that one has built.' After that, the next stage of the exercise is to imagine how to get there. 'You build a bridge via a series of milestones from today to the future.' Is this all a bit much for first time founders to address? After all, many will be struggling developing a viable product and finding the first customer. Finbow admits there is a balance to be struck between a focus on the now and a vision for tomorrow. 'There are periods when you have to be expansive in your thinking and times when you need to focus,' he says. "I would say to founders, if it looks like the offering isn't going to be compelling enough to sell soon, it is important to have an expansive thinking phase. Expansive thinking is good training for figuring out how to pivot, expand and point the business in the right direction in the future.' If all that seems theoretical, the founders participating in the START accelerator can see very practical benefits, not least in terms of building contacts within their chosen sectors. 'It (START) has connected us with a powerful network of mentors, investors, and operators who've helped us think deeply about how to scale trust in an area where hype often drowns out rigour. It's also given us the headroom to move quickly while staying grounded in Cambridge's strong research culture,' says Mikkola. Fredrich sees similar benefits. 'It is helping us connect with key partners and advance our commercial ambitions,' he says. The same point might be made out of any good accelerator. Academic founders may face specific challenges, but the task of creating a differentiated product, finding a fit with markets and building traction are pretty much universal.
Forbes
27-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
‘Da Bomb' Of Aircraft, The B-1 Rarely Takes Media Up. But It Took Us
B-1 bomber with Forbes writer Jim Clash aboard taxis out to participate in a supersonic training sortie, Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas, March 25, 2025. The B-1B Lancer is the only supersonic bomber still in service within the American military fleet. It has been a workhorse for the U.S. Air Force for nearly four decades. Nicknamed 'the bone,' the plane no longer carries nuclear weapons - the 1994 START treaty prevents that - but it is still highly lethal with a range, without refueling, of 7,500 miles. In fact, the B-1 can carry more ordnance than its venerable predecessor, the B-52. Forbes writer Jim Clash (oxygen mask) hypoxia training for a B-1 flight, Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas, March 24, 2024. With four General Electric F101-GE-102 turbofan engines, each producing more than 30,000 pounds of thrust, the B-1 is also a favorite at air shows. The guttural roar of takeoff, then the subsequent high-speed passes over the crowd, is unmistakable, and unforgettable. As with the U-2 spy plane, in which I rode to the edge of space last summer (link at end), the B-1 is difficult for civilians, including the media, to score a ride in. Reportedly, only one journalist has done it - from Newsweek - so I'm to be the second. To say I'm excited goes without saying, but, as with any high-performance aircraft, a little nervous, too. Forbes writer Jim Clash trains in a parachute harness in preparation for his B-1 bomber flight, Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas, March 24, 2025. My first day at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas, home to two dozen of the remaining B-1s still active, included a mandatory medical exam followed by SERE immersive parachute and ejection seat training - plus suit, helmet and oxygen-mask fittings. While we would be flying over friendly territory, and a B-1 bailout is rare, as a precaution all riders (and pilots) must know what to do in case of an emergency. In 2024, a B-1 crashed upon landing at Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City, South Dakota. The quarter-billion-dollar aircraft was destroyed, but all crew onboard, thankfully, survived. Forbes writer Jim Clash boards a B-1 bomber, Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas, March 25, 2025. During our mission, conducted by Dyess' 9th Bomb Wing ('Death From Above'), I was to be one of four on the plane: pilot Lt Col Ryan 'Duke' Stillwell, Commander of the 9th; copilot Capt Jordan 'Offset' Dobranski; Capt Nicholas 'King' George, offensive weapons systems officer; and a defensive one (me). The two weapons guys' seats are located in a separate area behind the pilots' cockpit, so it's difficult to see much during takeoff because of the tiny windows back there. For such a large aircraft, like with the B-52, the B-1 is incredibly cramped. Most of the space is used to carry bombs and fuel. B-1 bomber carrying Forbes writer Jim Clash takes off with full afterburners from Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas, March 25, 2025. After boarding the plane, code-named Dark 26, via steps underneath the fuselage, then strapping into our seats, the hatch was sealed and we took on more than 100,000 pounds of fuel. An emergency incident involving a potential brake fire in another B-1 delayed our sortie by a little over an hour. Once we did taxi out to the runway, the ejection seat was set to automatic for takeoff, meaning if one person initiated bailout, all four would go quickly and sequentially, the back crew first, then the front. USAF Lt Col Ryan 'Duke' Stillwell at the controls of a B-1 bomber high above Texas, March 25, 2025. Despite my obscured view, the takeoff got my attention. It's not as violent as the fighter jets I've flown in, but still intense. Those four GE engines at full thrust each blast out a 30-foot-long orange/blue flame and push you back into your seat with the force of a couple of Gs. Once airborne and above 10,000 feet, we put our ejection seats into the manual mode, and Stillwell let me unbuckle and swap places with Dobranski to watch the action from upfront. En route, Stillwell let me take the controls for a few minutes. For such a big plane, it was very responsive to stick and throttle inputs, and handled well. Forbes writer Jim Clash in a B-1 bomber over Texas, March 25, 2025. Upon reaching Pecos, New Mexico, we, along with our wingman B-1 Dark 27, unloaded smart bombs over targets, executing three separate rolls in the process. We only pulled 2.6 Gs on each roll, but it felt like a lot more. If you're wondering, there is usually a small bathroom on board. Crews can be in the air for more than 24 hours straight, so it comes in handy. We were in the air for only an hour and 45 minutes, so our B-1 didn't have that latrine, but we did have little piddle-paks. Bombing mission complete, it was back to Dyess. On the way, we went supersonic. For that, the variable sweep wings were pulled back for less air resistance, then we accelerated over a restricted area where supersonic flights are permitted. In populated areas, anything above Mach 1 is prohibited due to loud sonic booms. B-1 bomber's shadow just before landing at Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas, March 25, 2025. Starting a dive at 17,000 feet, we maxed out at Mach 1.13 down at 14,000 feet, damn impressive for such a heavy beast. With full afterburners, we were burning fuel at a rate of more than 300,000 pounds per hour. Before landing back on terra firma, we did a quick touch-and-go to help train copilot Dobranski. Once we did land, I was pretty stoked. It was the eighth separate plane in which I had flown supersonic, probably a record for non-pilots. I'm going to submit it to Guinness World Records. Seems a lot more valid than some of the wacky stuff they certify these days. Forbes writer Jim Clash and the B-1 he just flew supersonic in, Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas, March 25, 2025. What's next? Now that I've flown in two of the three iconic American bombers still active - the B-1 and B-52 - I'm eyeing the stealthy, bat-like B-2 Spirit and the inactive B-29. Of course there's the SR-71 Blackbird, no longer in service as far as the public has been told. Even if one of them were still flying, the chances of getting onboard are about the same as visiting verboten Area 51. Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a series about Dyess AFB and the B-1. More installments are forthcoming shortly.
