Latest news with #MikeRyan
Scoop
33 minutes ago
- General
- Scoop
Upper Hutt At Heart: Local Volunteers And Not-For-Profits Celebrated At Airport Awards
Press Release – Upper Hutt City Council Thirty-three volunteer groups and not-for-profit organisations were the local finalists, recognised across six categories for their countless hours of service to the Upper Hutt community. Community spirit and local generosity lit up Whirinaki Whare Taonga as Upper Hutt celebrated its Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards finalists on Tuesday evening. Thirty-three volunteer groups and not-for-profit organisations were the local finalists, recognised across six categories for their countless hours of service to the Upper Hutt community. The represented initiatives were diverse and wide-reaching. They included scouts, sports clubs, animal welfare advocates, creative arts groups, and social service providers, amongst others. 'The energy and effort of volunteers and community groups make a real difference to locals every day,' said Jane Braun, Upper Hutt City Council's Community Partnerships Manager. 'All of the finalists contribute significantly to the social fabric of our local community.' Dedication and commitment were not the only qualities in the spotlight at the annual awards. Mike Ryan, Group Manager Community Services at Upper Hutt City Council, commended the finalists for demonstrating innovation and a keen understanding of their community. 'Year on year, the Airport Awards show us how community-led initiatives address and adapt to local needs and service gaps. Such a breadth of delivery models and support structures is inspiring, and a huge asset to Upper Hutt,' he said. Wellington Airport has hosted the awards in conjunction with the wider region's city councils since 2004. Matt Clarke, Wellington Airport chief executive, emphasised that the airport is proud to celebrate the outstanding work of community groups in Upper Hutt. 'These groups deserve recognition for the amazing and selfless work they do in the community. Congratulations to all the Upper Hutt finalists and winners, and best of luck for the Regional Community Awards finals later this year,' he said. Upper Hutt's winners have now progressed to the final stage of the awards, where they will be acknowledged alongside the winners from the other participating councils in the region, and will have the opportunity to become the overall winner in their respective award category. This year's Upper Hutt winners and runners-up are: Arts and Culture Winner: Pinestream Quilters Runner-up: Te Heke Mai Education and Child/Youth Development Winner: Stockdale Farm Runner-up: Upper Hutt Autism Group (UHAG) Health and Wellbeing Winner: Upper Hutt Women's Centre Runner-up (joint): Upper Hutt Community Patrol Runner-up (joint): Ōrongomai Marae – Kai Bank Heritage and Environment Winner: Heretaunga Bookfest Charitable Trust Runner-up: Upper Hutt Repair Café Sport and Leisure Winner: Reload FX Runner-up: Upper Hutt Hockey Club Rising Star Winner: Natural Leaders Supreme Award
CBC
21-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Sudbury, Ont., commercial waste workers hit the picket lines over pay concerns
Workers in Sudbury's commercial waste division walked off the job Friday as part of a strike over wages. The 25 members of the Labourers' International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 493 say Waste Management's pay hasn't kept up with the rising cost of living, and they're seeking increases to bring them in line with workers in other Ontario cities. While waste collection services for businesses and apartment buildings are affected, residential garbage and recycling pickup continues uninterrupted. That work is handled by a separate division represented by a different union. "The main issue right now is monetary concerns," said Mike Ryan, business manager for Local 493. Ryan said workers are especially frustrated given the cost-of-living increases seen during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. "They're not even maintaining anymore with the price of everything," he said. "They have to work more overtime just to maintain what they had pre-COVID." He added that members are also seeking wage parity with Waste Management employees in cities like Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, and Waterloo, arguing that Sudbury is among the company's most profitable operations in the province. 'Respect our picket line' While Waste Management has brought in managers and workers from outside the region to continue servicing commercial clients, Ryan warned that service quality may suffer. "There is going to be some slowdown in service," he said. "The members that we represent in the unit are very highly professional." Picketers were seen Monday blocking a Waste Management truck from entering the facility. "There's no legislation at this level that would prevent the employer from bringing in whatever you want to call them, replacement workers or scabs," he said. "So what our members are doing right now is pleading with those people — saying, 'we're on strike here for causes reasons and please respect our picket line.'" Ryan said Waste Management presented what they considered a fair and equitable final offer, but when the membership held a ratification vote, it was overwhelmingly rejected. In a statement to CBC News, Waste Management spokesperson Jessica Kropf confirmed the strike and said the company remains committed to negotiating in good faith. "We believe our proposals are fair and competitive," she said. "We are eager to reach an agreement with LiUNA Local 493 that recognizes the drivers' and technicians' many contributions to the company and community." She added that no disruptions to commercial service are expected and the company is working closely with affected clients. The City of Greater Sudbury said it does not comment on the operations of private companies but confirmed that residential waste collection is not impacted by the strike. Currently, the next meeting is open-ended, Ryan said he's ready to return to the bargaining table if Waste Management initiates contact and shows willingness to address the workers' concerns.
Indianapolis Star
30-06-2025
- Climate
- Indianapolis Star
Expect thunderstorms early this week. A look at Fourth of July week forecast
The afternoon of June 30 could see intense thunderstorms, which could cause damaging winds (between 50 to 60 mph) and flash flooding across central Indiana. No flash flood warnings are in effect, said meteorologist Mike Ryan. He encouraged anyone out between the afternoon and evening to be prepared for heavy rain and lightning. Despite rain early in the week, your Fourth of July cookout should be (mostly) dry. Intense storms, then cooler temperatures, are expected from June 30 through July 6, following last week's eight days of 90 degrees or higher – something the National Weather Service said it hasn't seen since 2012. Conditions should dry up and cool down between July 1 through July 3, he said, as highs are expected in the mid-80s. Some thunderstorms are possible from July 4 to July 6 as temperatures are expected to rise. The weather on Friday seems typical for a Fourth of July and most people should stay dry, according to the National Weather Service. "I wouldn't cancel any plans for Friday," Ryan said. Temperatures will be close to 90 until July 6. Those outside on Friday should wear light-colored clothes and step inside every now and then, Ryan said. 🚨 Indiana Weather Alerts: Warnings, Watches and Advisories. ⚡ Indiana power outage map: How to check your status. 💻 Internet outages: How to track them. 🚫 What you should and shouldn't do when the power is out. 🐶 Your neighbor left their pet outside. Who you should call. If you encounter a downed traffic signal or a limb blocking a roadway, contact the Mayor's Action Center at 317-327-4622 or online at When calling after hours, press "2" to be connected. Check road conditions, including road closures, crashes and live webcams using Indiana's online Trafficwise map at or visit our gridlock guide page for live traffic cams and more. INDOT's CARS Program provides information about road conditions, closures and width and weight restrictions. The website has a color-coded map of Indiana's highways and highlights hazardous road conditions and travel delays.
Irish Times
28-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Mike Ryan: What next for the ‘Indiana Jones of epidemiology' as he leaves WHO?
If Indiana Jones had been an epidemiologist instead of an archaeologist, Hollywood might have looked no further for inspiration than the life and times of a Co Sligo man, Mike Ryan . The 60-year-old is leaving the crisis-hit World Health Organisation (WHO) after decades of fighting deadly diseases in some of the most dangerous places on earth. In January, a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order pulling the US out of the WHO, Ryan, the organisation's deputy director general, was doing what he does best. He was on his way to check out the response to an Ebola outbreak in Kampala, Uganda, after giving a pep talk in Islamabad to the team trying to eradicate polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two countries where it remains stubbornly endemic. READ MORE WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , who visited Dublin this week, says the world is 'living in a golden age of disease elimination' and his one-time right-hand man, Ryan, has been at the forefront of that effort since he joined the organisation in 1996. Tedros paid tribute to Ryan on Friday at a press conference in WHO's Geneva HQ on the inconclusive findings of an advisory group assessing the origins of the Covid virus. 'I know that many of you value his experience and knowledge and his Irish way of saying things. WHO will not be the same without Mike but when he says I am tired and need to go then it is very difficult to keep him,' he said. Tedros with help on pronunciation from Dr Ryan managed to say: 'Go raibh mile maith agat.' 'It's been a long road,' Ryan responded. 'Eight years leading the emergencies programme and I can tell you it's a 24-hour 365 day job and it's been a great honour Tedros to lead it on your behalf and on behalf of all our wonderful staff and partners and people out there on the front lines.' His leading role in the WHO's efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic earned him a Presidential Services Award from Michael D Higgins, and he takes pleasure in the fact that Tom Howley's, his local pub in Curry, Co Sligo, displays a newspaper headline announcing that he shared the honour with Jack Charlton. Dr Mike Ryan and is team in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo The young Mike Ryan lost his merchant seaman father at the age of 11 and was raised by his mother along with his two brothers in a family that extends across the border into Co Mayo. He played GAA football up to senior level for Curry, and it's a place he loves to return to when he can. Ryan was the first in his family to go to university. While completing his studies to be a trauma surgeon, he took a job in a hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, and was held hostage there by Saddam Hussein's regime during the first Gulf War. He worked to the point of exhaustion. [ How Dr Mike Ryan became a victim of 'desperate' funding crisis in WHO Opens in new window ] Before his release from Iraq, he fractured his spine in a road incident, which ended his ambition of becoming a surgeon but launched him into what became a distinguished career as an epidemiologist. 'He's the complete package,' says a long-time colleague, Bruce Aylward, a Canadian epidemiologist who also leaves the WHO senior management team this month as major cutbacks get under way. Canadian epidemiologist Bruce Aylward: 'Mike [Ryan] is one of those rare people who can step into those spaces, command respect and chart a way forward. He brings wonderful clarity of vision.' Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images. 'There's no denying what a giant Mike is in global health and especially in the world of infectious diseases and emergencies. He has been on the front end of so many of these now, so competent. Mike is one of those rare people who can step into those spaces, command respect and chart a way forward. He brings wonderful clarity of vision. At the same time, he's a man of the people who can lead a team in the midst of uncertainty,' adds Aylward. Only time will tell where Dr Ryan goes next. Could it be Áras an Uachtaráin? Head of the HSE? A senior UN role? A return to the WHO as a senior adviser? Or, could he lead a mooted pandemic corps of international health experts to boost preparedness for the next pandemic, possibly funded by Bill Gates? [ Dr Mike Ryan targeted by political parties for potential presidential run Opens in new window ] Could Labour or another political party recruit him as a candidate for the autumn's presidential campaign. His interest in joining the Department of Health has been sounded out, unsuccessfully, before. On the prospect of a run for the presidency, Mary Harney, the former minister for health, said: 'He's a man of enormous substance and highly rated across the globe. I think he would be a very formidable candidate. He's got a lot of street cred especially after his defence of the children of Gaza. I couldn't speak highly enough of him.' Ryan's diplomatic skills are in no doubt following the adoption by UN member states at the World Health Assembly last month of a global pandemic agreement. Following the Covid pandemic, which claimed some 20 million lives, Ryan said: 'The prospect of facing the next big pandemic without some common agreement between states seems unconscionable.' The agreement is a rare example in the current geopolitical climate of a multilateral success for the UN system. It provides a template for future pandemic response and international co-operation, though it still requires a further annex to be adopted at next year's World Health Assembly before it can be fully ratified. Mike Ryan's ability to nurture organisational sea change was first demonstrated 25 years ago when he conceived the idea of a Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, which today numbers 310 institutions, including national public health agencies and NGOs Exasperated by suggestions that the WHO was a 'deep state'-type agency, Ryan pointed out that the word 'lockdown' does not feature in the text and has likened the role of the WHO to that of the staff at Augusta, home of the US Masters golf tournament. 'We get to cut the greens and serve the sandwiches,' he says. Following its adoption by consensus at the World Health Assembly, Tedros paid tribute to Ryan and his deputy, Jaouad Mahjour, for their tireless support to the International Negotiating Body over the last 3½ years of discussion and drafting. This singular achievement marks Ryan out as someone with the strategic nous to help the UN reinvent itself as it faces into an existential crisis forced by UN member states demanding a reduction in the plethora of UN bodies and mandates as they follow the US example and slash development and humanitarian aid budgets. His ability to nurture organisational sea change was first demonstrated 25 years ago. He then conceived the idea of a Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, which today numbers 310 institutions, including national public health agencies and NGOs. It has been activated in more than 150 international outbreak responses, dramatically curtailing the spread of infectious diseases and reducing epidemic death tolls. There is a possibility that the UN may turn to Ryan as it seeks to devise a new global health architecture that will break down the silos between UN agencies providing health services to people affected by conflict and disaster. These include Unicef, the children's agency, UNHCR, the refugees agency, and the World Food Programme. Under one option outlined in a recent leaked memo from UN headquarters in New York, operational aspects of these agencies could be merged into a single humanitarian entity. At the same time, the WHO is in discussion with 12 sister agencies and global health initiatives to see how synergies and savings can be made. Ryan has a phenomenal appetite for work. As evidenced by his January visit to Pakistan, he temporarily filled the vacuum left by the untimely death last August of his good friend and colleague, ex-Irish army officer Aidan O'Leary, who was the WHO director of the global polio eradication initiative. [ Aidan O'Leary obituary: Humanitarian who led WHO's polio eradication efforts Opens in new window ] He also led the prioritisation exercise forced on the WHO by budget cuts that are likely to see a 25 per cent cut in staff numbers at its Geneva base and across regional offices, as it faces a shortfall of $1.7 billion in its running costs of $4.2 billion over the next two years. The initial reduction was top-down, reducing the senior management team from 14 to seven, and work got under way in earnest this week to cut the number of department heads from 76 to 34 before a wider cull of staff gets under way. In his parting words on Friday, Dr Tedros told Dr Ryan 'we know where to find you' in a hint that there may yet be work for him to carry out on behalf of the WHO. It was clear in Tedros's initial announcement last month that it was not easy to let him go. 'The new team has been chosen after very careful consideration, and to ensure gender balance and geographical representation,' Tedros said. 'This was, as you can imagine, an extremely difficult and painful decision for me, as it is for every manager in our organisation who is having to decide who stays and who goes.' [ World Health Organisation forges ahead as US makes its absence felt Opens in new window ] Whatever the calculation that resulted in his departure, there is little doubt the WHO has lost one of its finest advocates and best communicators, someone who reassured the world at large that professionals were in charge during the constant rounds of media briefings at the height of the pandemic. Ryan could also engage listeners when he talked about a humanitarian crisis such as the killing and starvation of Palestinians by Israel. He spoke from the heart last month when addressing the UN Geneva press corps on the horrific situation in Gaza. 'We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza because if we don't do something about it, we are complicit in what is happening before our very eyes.' Ryan is a man for all seasons, and it is hard to imagine we have seen or heard the last of him.
BBC News
20-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Isle of Man's veteran's hand crank challenge to 'inspire others'
An army veteran who completed the equivalent distance of the Isle of Man's Parish Walk on a hand crank machine after losing the use of his legs said he hoped his efforts would "inspire others".Mike Ryan said he decided to complete the 85-mile (137km) challenge at the National Sports Centre (NSC) as the event's route would be "impossible" in a wheelchair due to the said he had decided to take on the venture, which he completed in just over six hours, to "surprise" himself and demonstrate to others "I am more than what you see".Mr Ryan said: "It is easy for people to look at people with a disability and think they are 50% of the next person... give me an option to be judged on a level playing field and I won't come last." The former member of the Royal Engineers said he decided to use the hand crank machine, which is designed to improve upper body fitness, because it was the only piece of exercise equipment he could use that registered a distance. Mr Ryan, who served in the British Army between 1994 and 2001 and did tours of Germany, Bosnia and Northern Ireland, said he broke his legs in more than 140 places over a three year was referred to the NSC by the island's mental health services due to developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after leaving military service. Attending the gym sessions "helps me get out of the house more and combat stress", he said he had "jokingly" asked to sign up for the Parish Walk Challenge at the NSC, which sees entrants complete the distance of the walk on a variety of gym equipment, but had then taken it on in receiving a medal for completing the task, he said although it was different from the annual walk itself it was no less of an achievement."I know it is not the same as completing the Parish Walk, but I would say to anyone to go and do 85 miles in a day is challenging, even if it is not the same challenge," he others with PTSD to seek help, he said: "Don't suffer in silence like I did for a few years."Completing the challenge in six hours and 15 minutes, Mr Ryan raised about £650 for local charity Bridge the Gap, which aims to help young people with long-term health conditions. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
