Tag Archives: Retire

House Speaker Ryan won’t seek re-election, will retire in January

FILE PHOTO: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein/File Photo

By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, told Republicans in the House of Representatives on Wednesday he will not seek re-election in November, his office said.

Ryan will serve his full term and retire in January, Brendan Buck, spokesperson for the Speaker, said in a statement.

“After nearly twenty years in the House, the speaker is proud of all that has been accomplished and is ready to devote more of his time to being a husband and a father,” Buck said.

The departure of 48-year-old Ryan could complicate Republican Party efforts to retain the House in November, when candidates may be dragged down by the unpopularity of President Donald Trump.

The announcement of his departure months before the election will give potential candidates for House Republican leadership positions plenty of time to campaign for support.

The House speaker has scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. (1400 GMT).

Reports of Ryan’s departure have circulated for months. Politico reported in December that Ryan told confidants he would like to retire after the 2018 congressional elections.

Friends said Ryan, a longtime champion of tax reform, was ready to step down after passing a tax reform bill, according to the Axios news site, which first reported on Wednesday that Ryan would soon announce his retirement.

The tax bill was Trump’s first major legislative victory since he took office in January 2017 despite being helped by Republican control of Congress.

Lawmakers had expected Ryan might leave Congress if Republicans lose the House in November. The early announcement could have an impact on Ryan’s ability to raise campaign funds for Republican candidates.

More than three dozen House Republicans have said they are retiring, or running for another office, or resigning. Democrats need to win 23 seats in the November elections to retake a majority in the House, which Republicans have controlled since 2011.

Democrats believe that voter concerns over rising medical costs and Republican plans to cut Medicare and Medicaid will assist them in their fight to retake the House.

Trump said in a post on Twitter: “Speaker Paul Ryan is a truly good man, and while he will not be seeking re-election, he will leave a legacy of achievement that nobody can question. We are with you Paul!”

Ryan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998 from Wisconsin at age 28 and was quickly pegged as a Republican rising star. He became 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s vice presidential running mate, but Romney was beaten by incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama.

In Congress, Ryan earned a reputation as a fiscal policy expert, serving as chairman of the House Budget Committee from 2011 until 2015, but as speaker was a driving force behind a Republican tax overhaul passed by Congress last year that is projected to balloon the federal deficit.

(Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Adobe warns that hackers are exploiting its Flash software

The logo of the anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab is seen at its headquarters in Moscow, Russia September 15, 2017

TORONTO (Reuters) – Adobe Systems Inc warned on Monday that hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in its Flash multimedia software platform in web browsers, and the company urged users to quickly patch their systems to prevent such attacks.

The warning came after cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab Inc said a group it was tracking, BlackOasis, used the previously unknown weakness on Oct. 10 to plant malicious software on computers before connecting them back to servers in Switzerland, Bulgaria and the Netherlands.

Kaspersky said the malware, known as FinSpy or FinFisher, is a commercial product typically sold to nation states and law enforcement agencies to conduct surveillance.

Kaspersky said its assessment of BlackOasis shows it is targeting Middle Eastern politicians and United Nations officials engaged in the region, opposition bloggers and activists, and regional news correspondents with the latest version of FinSpy.

The company said victims have so far been observed in Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, the United Kingdom, Iran and elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East.

Adobe said it had released a Flash security update to fix the problem, which affected Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge and Internet Explorer browsers as well as desktop versions.

Adobe said in July that by the end of 2020 it would retire its once-ubiquitous technology used to power most of the media content found online.

It was heavily criticized by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, with alternatives such as HTML5 emerging in recent years and several web browsers now requiring users to enable Flash before running it.

On Google’s Chrome, the most popular web browser, Flash was used daily by 17 percent of desktop users, down from 80 percent in 2014, Google said at the time Adobe announced its retirement.

 

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto, additional reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and David Gregorio)

 

Powerful Jewish Leader Leaving Anti-Defamation League

Abraham Foxman, who has lead the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for 30 years, announced that he will be retiring this month.

Foxman began his career with the ADL in 1965 when he graduated from law school and rose to be the group’s head in 1987.  Under his leadership, the group has become a $60 million a year organization that runs anti-bias programs, monitors anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world along with advocating for Jews and Israel.

Foxman received praise from all corners of the political world after his announcement.

“Abe is one of the three or four people you have to speak to on any given issue,” said former White House official Jarrod Bernstein, who did Jewish outreach during President Barack Obama’s first term.

“Abe was like an uncle to me. If you did something he thought you were on the wrong side of, he was going to let you know about it,” Bernstein told JTA. “On the flip side, if he thought you were being treated unfairly, or you did something right, he wouldn’t hesitate to say that either. That’s important and we need more of that in the American Jewish community.”

Foxman believes that the work of the ADL is the reason the United States has some of the lowest incidents of anti-Semitism in the world.

“I don’t take credit for it, but I’m part of the effort — not only of the American Jewish community, but of decent people in this country, to fight it,” Foxman said.

“The most significant difference between the United States and the rest of the world is that in this country, there is a consequence to being a bigot and an anti-Semite. If you’re in commerce, if you’re in politics, if you’re in the arts — whatever it is — and you act out as an anti-Semite, you will pay a price.”

Foxman will be replaced by Jonathan Greenblatt, a White House aide.