A couple of months ago, there might have been mornings when you didnt feel like getting out of bed, putting yourself together, and spending eight hours at work surrounded by coworkers...but maybe now it doesnt sound so bad? If its still going to be a little while before you return to your desk, maybe these office comedies can help you feel like youre back at your office, drinking the crappy free coffee and dreading the meeting that could have been an email.

Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) is the host of a long-running late-night talk show that may be on its last legs creatively, and is steadily losing its audience. Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling, who also wrote the screenplay) is hired to the writing staff despite her lack of experience, helping to revitalize the show, though network pressure to replace Katherine with a hotter young male comedian (Ike Barinholtz) still looms.

Ex-30 Rock writer Tracey Wigfield created this sitcom about Katie (Briga Heelan), a segment producer at middling newsmagazine show The Breakdown, whose work life is upended when her worshipful yet intrusive mother, Carol (Andrea Martin), is hired as an intern. Nicole Richie kills the little screen time she gets as Portia, The Breakdowns glossy cohost.

Before changing comedy on I Think You Should Leave, Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin cocreated this sitcom (with Joe Kelly and Sam Richardson). After inheriting a successful local Detroit ad agency from his father, Tim (Robinson) partners with his best friend Sam (Richardson) to continue making commercials, though the two are frequently hampered by bad ideas, overconfidence, and drunkenness.

Richard (Thomas Middleditch) has a good job as a programmer at Hooli, a gigantic Bay Area tech company. On the side hes developed a data-compression algorithm, which he successfully pitches to a venture capitalist so that he can start his own company. Richard and his friends then spend the next several years learning how the tech world really workswhen hes not accidentally causing scandals or making himself sick from the stress.

Veridian Dynamics is a large global conglomerate that employs scientists, generally to research and develop technologies Veridian will be able to sell to the military for billions of dollars. Divorced single dad Ted (Jay Harrington) liaises between the researchers and the suits, trying to curb the worst impulses of his soulless boss, Veronica (Portia de Rossi), while also flirting with his colleague Linda (Andrea Anders).

Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), harried creator and head writer of The Girlie Show on NBC, is aghast when Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) comes over from GE to run programming, and orders her to add a new performer to her cast: the famously unstable and unpredictable Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan).

Before cocreating Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Aline Brosh McKenna adapted the best-selling novel of the same name into this beloved film. New grad Andy (Anne Hathaway), despite a disdain for style, ends up as second assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep, who earned an Oscar nomination for her performance), the powerful and terrifying editor of a legendary fashion magazine.

Though Armando Iannucci is best known in the U.S. for creating Veep, one of his most treasured series in his native U.K. is The Thick of It. A savage satire of British government, the star of the series is Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), a spectacularly profane fixer whose ruthlessness in preserving his partys power knows no limits.

Dan (Dennis Quaid), the middle-aged head of ad sales for a successful sports magazine, has his career stalled when a corporation called Globecom acquires his publication and installs Tyler (Topher Grace), an MBA half Dans age, as his boss. Dan does his best to maintain friendly relations with Tyler, including inviting him over for dinner, where Tyler takes a liking to Dans daughter, college freshman Alex (Scarlett Johansson).

In this dark romantic comedy, Lee (Maggie Gyllenhaal) recovers from in-patient treatment for self-harm and takes a job as the assistant to attorney Edward (James Spader). Edward is an extremely strict taskmaster, punishing Lee for every typo, and she eventually figures out that he is drawn to her submissiveness and enthusiastically enters into BDSM play with him.

This British mockumentary, set in the Slough office of a paper company, revolves around David Brent (Ricky Gervais, who cocreated the series with Stephen Merchant), the regional manager whose oblivious idiocy is an exhausting trial for his employees. Against all odds, a flirtation endures between office pals Dawn (Lucy Davis) and Tim (Martin Freeman), despite Dawns long-term fianc, who works in the warehouse. The format spawned remakes in several countries, including...

this U.S. adaptation, set in Scranton. This time the cloddish regional manager is Michael Scott (Steve Carell), abetted by sycophantic assistant to the regional manager Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson); flirty receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer) and salesman Jim (John Krasinski) fill out the main cast.

Peter (Ron Livingston) toils as a programmer at a company called Initech, harassed by friendly check-ins from his many managers. When his girlfriend takes him to a hypnotherapist to try to get him to change his antipathy toward his job, the hypnotherapist dies mid-session, and Peter never snaps back into his old mindset, returning to work with a new laissez-faire attitude that makes him look like a confident, relaxed go-getter and sets him on a path to successgreat news until he learns that layoffs are coming and his best friends wont be spared.

At news station WNYX, news director Dave Nelson (Dave Foley) has to manage the big personalities of his on-air talent (Phil Hartman and Khandi Alexander), the stations eccentric owner (Stephen Root), and Lisa (Maura Tierney), a producer whos both Daves girlfriend and pretty sure she could do his job better than he can.

Joel and Ethan Coens take on a 40s screwball comedy! Hudsucker Industries president Waring Hudsucker (Charles Durning) throws himself through a window during a meeting and dies. Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman), knowing this means the companys stock shares will be available to the public, hatches a scheme to tank the stock price by hiring Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins), a boob from the mailroom, as Hudsuckers replacement. Journalist Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason Leigh), smelling a story, gets herself hired as Norvilles secretary, but ends up developing tender feelings for him in the process.

While Larry (Garry Shandling) is the star of the successful network talk show The Larry Sanders Show, making the show requires countless hardworking staffers in the office: talent booker Paula (Janeane Garofalo); Larrys personal assistant, Beverly (Penny Johnson); and especially executive producer Artie (Rip Torn), who has to keep stress from touching Larry, or at least try to, which generally means running interference between Larry and his annoying sidekick, Hank (Jeffrey Tambor).

Jane (Holly Hunter) is a producer on a national nightly news broadcast; correspondent Aaron (Albert Brooks) has a crush on her that only rarely makes things awkward in their friendship. When Tom (William Hurt) is hired on from sports to be groomed as a new anchor despite his lack of knowledge or curiosity, Aaron is hurt that Jane would waste any time trying to coach him just because shes attracted to him.

Newly single Judy (Jane Fonda) starts work as a secretary at a large, busy office headed by Franklin Hart Jr. (Dabney Coleman). Though office supervisor Violet (Lily Tomlin) reflexively warns Judy away from Harts secretary, Doralee (Dolly Parton), on the basis of her fooling around with Hart, when the three actually talk, it turns out Hart invented the affair, and has also routinely taken credit for Violets good ideas. Together they decide to imprison Hart in his home, send his executive assistant on a long trip, and start remaking the office so that it becomes a better place for women to work.

Following a broken engagement, Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) starts over in Minneapolis, taking a job as a producer on the nightly news. Marys work life with mensch newswriter Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod), blowhard anchor Ted Baxter (Ted Knight), and grouchy boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner) is balanced by her cozy hangouts with her neighbor and best friend, Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper).

Adapted from the Broadway musical, the film follows J. Pierrepont Finch (Robert Morse) as he acts on the steps in the self-help book How to Succeed in Business and works his way up from window cleaner to vice president in charge of advertising at the World Wide Wicket Company, generally by scumbagging everyone who crosses his path.

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Comedies That Will Bring You Back to Office Life - Vanity Fair

"We will get Florida back on its feet by using an approach that is safe, smart, and step by step," DeSantis said on Wednesday.

DeSantis said restaurants and retail spaces could let customers inside, but only at 25% capacity, and people must adhere to social distancing guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Restaurants can offer outdoor seating if tables are 6 feet apart.

"Outdoor transmission, as far as we've seen, has been more difficult than the indoor climate controlled transition," the governor said, adding that medical officials recommended the outdoor seating change.

Movie theaters can't reopen yet. The governor said it wouldn't be prudent, and it would be difficult to maintain social distancing. Bars, fitness centers and places that offer personal services, likes hair styling, also will open later.

People can schedule non-urgent surgeries again, he said, though it depends on a hospital's ability to handle surges in cases and availability of protective equipment.

The governor on Tuesday lauded the state's success in tackling the outbreak. He slammed the media for its prediction -- which he said was "wrong" -- that Florida's hospital system would be overwhelmed with almost a half million or more Covid-19 hospitalizations.

"Everyone in the media was saying Florida was going to be like New York or Italy, and that has not happened," he said. "We had a tailored and measured approach that not only helped our numbers be way below what anybody predicted, but also did less damage to our state going forward."

DeSantis largely credits Florida's reportedly low infection numbers to his own office's swift action, which included issuing a safer-at-home order that went into effect April 3.

Critics hammered DeSantis for his alleged inaction before the order was issued. The governor has said he decided to take action April 1 after noticing Trump's change of demeanor during a news conference the previous day. Trump urged Americans to prepare "for the hard days that lie ahead" during that appearance.

The governor's office provided CNN with graphs and charts that it said show how Florida fared better than several states in metrics such as hospitalization, intensive care admissions and per capita deaths. CNN has not independently confirmed the data.

Some local actions included:

DeSantis also took credit for protecting the state's older population, pointing to Florida suspending visitation and mandating staff screenings at long-term care facilities, as well as the mobile response team deployed to conduct testing at the facilities.

CNN's Erica Henry contributed to this report.

See the article here:
Florida will start to reopen May 4, but for now Miami-Dade and two other counties won't be included - CNN

If experiencing and risk-taking have to happen remotely, so be it. (Photo: Pexels)

By external measures, Im probably crushing it in quarantine. Ive gotten dressed every day. I schedule calls and check-ins with friends. I turn in my homework several days early. I am even one of the lucky few who has found an internship since social distancing began. COVID-19, by all accounts, has been kind to me.

Yet, I have never felt less fulfilled in college. I am lucky to be safe and secure in my home, but like many, I am grappling with conceptions of success and self in these new circumstances.

Since entering college, I have defined success by my ability to seek happiness in moments, and I structure my days around maximizing memorable experiences. I take three classes per quarter to minimize time spent on coursework; I focus on strengthening relationships and building memories; I give myself the free time I need to chase spontaneity and be creative. By leaving my calendar sparse, I have found space to attend countless performances, talks and film screenings, try theatre for the first time, impulsively start a blog and take unplanned trips off campus, exploring and deepening both my interests and friendships. I fundamentally believe the unstructured time I carve out has rewarded me with more memories, stories and growth than the rest of my life combined.

And to that end, I have failed in social distance. For the first time since entering college, I have been unable to seek happiness with the same approach, and I feel, above all else, stagnant. How can I be building meaningful experiences if every few days, I find myself crying about missing adventures with friends or wake up uninterested in engaging with the world? I like to pride myself on chasing whims and creating for the sake of creating, but in my room all day, I feel devoid of inspiration.

Today, without the ability to seek new experiences in the way I did before, I am searching for new ways to grow. I joined The Grind to be inspired and pursue deeper introspection in a time when video calls are inadequate replacements for the experiences I would have on campus. I am also writing to become more vulnerable.

Sharing my personal writing has always been a mental block something that should be effortless but that I often struggle with. I was recently on a Zoom call with my boyfriend (such are the times). While I was sharing my screen, he spotted a document titled Love @ Stanford on my desktop. This was a New York Times Modern Love-esque piece that I started and very quickly abandoned. Out of instinct, I refused to let him read it, despite there being nothing incriminating only 10 fractured, disconnected sentences.

When my writing is personal, I become self-conscious. Are my experiences worth sharing? Do I really have anything insightful to share? I often think of writing as my process of thinking; my thoughts start jumbled, and I rely on writing to sort and structure them into coherent beliefs. But even if I physically cringe when thinking about some of my peers reading my writing, I believe in the value of vulnerability so I am writing for The Grind to seek growth. If experiencing and risk-taking have to happen remotely, so be it.In these strange times, to write, I hope, is to experience.

Contact Lena Han at lahan at stanford.edu.

Read the rest here:
Social stagnation (and why I'm writing for The Grind) - The Stanford Daily

Members of Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights Defenders Kenya distribute food to vulnerable families in the Mathare slum of Nairobi on April 25. Fredrik Lerneryd/AFP/Getty Images

The next time you react when your six-foot perimeter is violated at a grocery store or on the sidewalk, imagine how much worse it could be. For hundreds of millions of people who live in unplanned settlements, slums, and refugee camps around the world, anything approaching social distancing is a cruel impossibility.

Likewise, the next time you wash your hands, think of the 3 billion or so people who cannot do so within the safety of their own homes due to lack of running water.

If you wonder whether to call your doctor about a cough or fever, recall that Africa has less than one-tenth the number of doctors per capita as the United States and an even greater shortage of essential medical technology. (Sierra Leone has only a handful of ventilators for nearly 8 million people.)

Johns Hopkins Universitys global map tracking the coronavirus shows that it has barely reached sub-Saharan Africa yet, compared to most of the Northern Hemisphere. There are only 33,748 reported cases as of April 27, about 1 percent of all cases reported globally.

But any serious global strategy to deal with this pandemic must look at the horizon, where a brewing African catastrophe is taking shape.

If COVID-19 spreads across Africa, it would not only be a human catastrophe for the continent, but one that threatens the Northern Hemisphere with future outbreaks and further human and economic losses. What is true in the United States, where people in poor and minority neighborhoods are dying in disproportionate numbers, is true for the world as a whole: No one will be safe so long as anyone is at risk.

If the United States, Europe, and others succeed in containing the virus in the coming months, there is no way contagion throughout Africa could be contained there. A second wave rising in Africa would almost surely crash on U.S. shores. In this way, the coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the worlds interdependence; the future safety of every U.S. community therefore depends on the success of every community in Africa and elsewhere.

While giving priority to the fight here at home is essential, the time to help Africa fight the virus is now.

Its true that Africas population is younger than most, with a median age of only 19.7 years, and potentially less vulnerable. Its also true that African urban areas are generally farther apart and Africans travel from area to area less frequently than in many of the worlds most industrialized countries. And some countries, such as Nigeria, Liberia, Uganda, and others that have dealt with Ebola, have built on their hard-won achievements and put into place structures from dealing with previous contagions.

But throughout the continent there are crowded slums; challenged health systems; scarce medical resources; immune systems weakened by malnutrition, HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases; and growing but vulnerable economies. These factors make the outlook grim.

That is why the World Health Organization (WHO) and leading advocates are calling for immediate attention to Africa.

As Americans have learned to their growing sorrow, a delayed start in responding fully to the pandemic means far more unnecessary deaths and greater economic loss than is necessary.

African leaders on the other hand have generally taken swift initial public health actions to combat COVID-19.

South Africa, for example, imposed a nationwide state of disaster on March 15, at a time when there were only 61 reported cases and no deaths. This bought time for training, preparing, and protecting more health care workers; scaling up testing facilities; opening pop-up clinics and employing contact tracing and isolation in high density areas. South Africas curve has flattened for now, and the country has far fewer cases (4,793) than initially predicted.

Some nations with strong community health programs and outreach workers, such as Rwanda and Ethiopia, are providing information and support through trusted community leaders to help deploy vast networks of contact tracing and community response. Their leadership in investing in community health worker programs provides a lesson for the United States, United Kingdom, and other high-income nations that are only now scrambling to develop a workforce capable of widespread contact tracing and community support before reopening the economy.

The government of Malawi is using predictive models previously developed for identifying hot spots for food insecurity and malaria risk to target assistance on areas likely to be hit the hardest by COVID-19 (due to age, co-morbidities, population movements, and flu-like illnesses).

In such countries, fast-moving efforts may help them stay ahead of the virus long enough to put into place high-volume testing, contact tracing, and isolation, as well as temporary intensive care facilities with respiratory support. But because so many are living on the edge of poverty, lockdowns are becoming extremely challenging to maintainas farmers are unable to transport their food, markets are closed, and those reliant on daily income from the informal labor market lose their means of sustenance, people run out of critical medicines, and pregnant women struggle to find timely transport before giving birth. And the absence in many areas of indoor running water and toilets makes it difficult or impossible to obey wash your hands public service announcements.

For many African countries, a delayed but still exponential growth of COVID-19 cases seems very likely. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has called COVID-19 an existential threat, and reported a 43 percent increase in new cases over one week in April. The WHO is warning that the continent could see 10 million cases. Despite their best efforts to prepare, health systems could quickly be overrun by a lack of health care workers, an inability to maintain lockdown, and a supply of personal protective equipment, test kits, and ventilators choked off by global competition.

This deadly mix must be addressed and ameliorated through massive, urgent global support. Unlike the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak, which focused on three countries in West Africa, COVID-19 infections have been confirmed in 52 African nations to date, including multiple countries with ongoing conflicts and substantial populations of internally displaced persons.

The U.S. government and other wealthy nations have an opportunity to play a positiveeven transformationalrole by supporting African governments and other actors. In coordination with United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the Africa CDC and the African Union, the African Development Bank and others, Washington can help vulnerable nations battle the virus and reduce future waves of infection on its own shores.

Congress should bolster the U.S. response to the global epidemican extension of the domestic responsethrough urgent, supplemental funding. Meeting needs such as prefabricated intensive-care units, bolstering food security and availability of water, sanitation, and hygiene, and supportive care through telemedicine will immediately save lives. In addition, financing is needed for the expansion of other essential elements of health security, such as laboratory strengthening, surveillance support, and personal protective equipment, which is in such short supply globally that the U.S. government has actually resorted to attempting to source supplies from countries that are recipients of U.S. aid.

Congress should also immediately increase support to U.S. global health programs already on the ground. Over the past 17 years, the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has spent $75 billion in the African region. Together with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, it has changed the trajectory of previously existing pandemics. The incidence of new HIV infections has declined 28 percent in the hard-hit regions of East and Southern Africa since 2010, with deaths declining by 44 percent there over the same period as millions of Africans gained access to antiretroviral therapy in Africa.

These successful health platforms offer the COVID-19 response established networks of data-driven public health leaders, extensive supply chain networks, nimble nongovernmental organizations and front-line health care workers who are already pivoting to support all elements of the coronavirus response on the continent. They are already gearing up their pooled procurement mechanisms to address inequitable distribution of critical supplies. And their involvement, as well as other U.S.-sponsored programs in maternal and child health and family planning, are essential to protecting the substantial gains in HIV, tuberculosis, malaria eradication, vaccination and family planning coverage during the pandemic.

The U.S. government should also provide further support for research and development of medicines and vaccines that can save lives in the United States and beyond. Investments in international partnerships such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations will help to meet global access needs while leveraging funding from other nations. Additional support for organizations such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance can help to ensure advance-purchase commitments are in place to help shape a healthy marketplace that ensures the ability to rapidly scale up production and distribution.

The WHOdespite U.S. President Donald Trumps threat to withdraw U.S. fundingmust continue to play an essential role in supporting coordinated and evidence-based public health action across African and other nations, and Congress should strongly protect its funding.

Bill and Melinda Gates have shown that private citizens can also have a transformational impact on Africas health infrastructure, and on April 16 they announced that they will more than double their foundations contribution to the WHO. Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter and Square, pledged to donate $1 billion to relief programs related to the virus. And wealthy celebrities, such as Charlize Theron, Rihanna and Jay-Z have contributed to fight the impact of COVID-19 in Africa.

The economic costs of shortchanging the continent would be high. At the end of 2019, the five fastest-growing economies globally were in Africa; now, sub-Saharan Africas gross domestic product is expected to contract by 1.6 percent this year, plunging the region into its first recession in 25 years, according to the International Monetary Fund. South Africas economy has already slid into recession and Nigeria and Angola are expected to follow suit. Tourisma sector that accounts for $40 billion in revenue annuallycould collapse. As many as 20 million jobs could be lost in the region, according to the African Union, and foreign investment could decline by 15 percent.

Africas cities, where nearly half of the continents population lives and where 50 percent of Sub-Saharan Africas GDP is generated, could be devastated. The social costs of increasing poverty in Africa will be felt for years as children lose access to schooling and will live with the consequences of early childhood deprivation.

It is understandable that at such a challenging moment, some Americans may want their government to stay focused solely on the COVID-19 crisis at home. This approach is understandable but shortsighted. Even those traditionally skeptical of U.S. engagement abroad must recognize the cascading costs for Americans of new contagions elsewhere. The costs for the United States and the rest of the world will be significant in new waves of migration, lost investments and crippled trading partners, lack of natural resources, interrupted supply chains, and pressure for still greater economic support in the future. Already, African finance ministers are requesting $100 billion for debt relief and economic stimulus.

Most importantly, human lives, in Africa and beyond, are at stake. The virus is attacking all of humanity. Humanitys response will not only be a test of our sense of collective self-interest, but also of our collective soul.

Excerpt from:
It's Time for Europe and the United States to Help Africa Fight the Coronavirus - Foreign Policy

It has certainly been an eventful week for Boris Johnson personally, who returned to work earlier this week after contracting Covid-19. However, the second Prime Ministers Questions for the new Labour leader Keir Starmer saw him face off against the First Secretary of State, as Dominic Raab deputised for the PM again. It had been unclear whether the Johnson would be up for the questions session today, but with the birth of his son this morning it became clear that he would not be appearing. It was left to Raab to defend the governments position, in a week which has seen the UK pass the grim 20,000 milestone for coronavirus deaths. In a perhaps less concise and punchy outing than his first this was a much longer session, in which we got a lot more by way of a preamble to each question we saw the Labour leader put questions to Raab on reporting, deaths in care homes, the provision of personal protective equipment and an exit strategy.

Beginning by adding yesterdays figures from the ONS and the Care Quality Commission to those of the daily recorded hospital deaths, the new Labour leader calculated a stark total of 27,241 deaths from Covid-19, warning that would probably be an underestimate because of the time lag in reporting. The UK is currently on track for one of the worst death rates in Europe, declared Starmer. And the rebuttal from Raab was an odd one, to say the least. It is far too early to make international comparisons. A particularly unconvincing argument, considering that every evening a minister is rolled out with a helpful graphic mapping the progress of the UK against other countries.

What happened to keeping below 20,000 deaths? The Labour leader asked. A benchmark that the chief scientific officer set out last month. The answer from Raab? This is an unprecedented pandemic and we should not criticise the attempt at a forecast it would be nice to know exactly when this turned from a target to a prediction. And why are deaths going up in care homes? Starmer asked. Why did Raab say that care sector Covid-19 deaths were falling on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday? There is a challenge in the care sector, Raab admitted one caused by the decentralised nature of care homes, he said, and the inability of the government to control the ebb and flow of people into the care settings. He refused to be drawn on his Sunday appearance, saying only that there were positive signs in care homes and that the figures are within the margin of error.

The Labour leader turned next to personal protective equipment, citing a survey from the Royal College of Physicians that revealed that one in four doctors reported not having adequate PPE. We are now ten weeks on from when the Health Secretary declared that there was serious and imminent threat to life. You would hope that by now things would be getting better, not worse, Starmer said. What is going on? He asked. A global shortage, Raab responded. And what about an exit strategy? Starmer pointed out that we are falling behind the many other countries that have published a strategy in some form, including France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland and Wales. The government must tell the public what is happening, Starmer stated, in order to maintain their trust. But again the First Secretary refused to be drawn, saying that proposals will have to wait for SAGE to finish their analysis of the evidence, Raab said. While that sounds reasonable on face value, it obviously does not explain why our analysis seems to be behind those of other countries.

Returning to work earlier on Monday, Johnson had boldly said that there will be many people looking now at our apparent success in dealing with the crisis. Raab notably avoided making the same claim as his boss. This afternoon, we saw Starmer place the First Secretary in an awkward position as he reeled off a barrage of figures pointing at anything but success. Raab was forced to admit his horror at the numbers and those numbers are only set to get worse. With the government today beginning to add deaths in care homes to the daily reporting for the first time, as Labour has called for, the coming weeks could reveal a death toll far worse than those of our European neighbours. No wonder Raab was so determined to keep away from any international comparison.

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PMQs: "We're on track to have one of Europe's worst death rates" - LabourList

Updated / Wednesday, 29 Apr 2020 22:47

Britain now has Europe's second-highest official death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, according to new figures that cover fatalities in all settings, including in nursing homes.

Public Health England has said that some 26,097 people died after testing positive for the virus.

It includes 765 deaths reported in the 24 hours to 5pm on Tuesday.

It is the first time data on the number of deaths in care homes and the wider community has been included in the Government's daily updates.

The new method of reporting includes an additional 3,811 deaths since the start of the outbreak.

Of these, around 70% were outside hospital settings and around 30% were in hospital.

PHE medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle said: "Every death from Covid-19 is a tragedy.

"Tracking the daily death count is vital to help us understand the impact of the disease.

"These more complete data will give us a fuller and more up-to-date picture of deaths in England and will inform the government's approach as we continue to protect the public.

"It will remain the case that ONS (Office for National Statistics) data, which publishes every week with data from 11 days ago, includes suspected cases where a test has not taken place.

"ONS figures will therefore continue to include more deaths than our daily series."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Keir Starmer earlier had a "constructive" phone call, with both leaders agreeing to continue speaking about the national UK effort to defeat Covid-19.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Prime Minister spoke to Sir Keir Starmer on the phone this afternoon and updated him on the government's efforts to combat coronavirus.

"It was a constructive call and they agreed to continue speaking about the national effort to defeat the virus."

During Prime Minister's Questions today, Mr Starmer claimed that Britain's efforts to secure personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline workers were getting worse not better.

He asked the government to explain how long it will take to fix the issue, as he also warned the UK looks on course for one of the worst Covid-19 death rates in Europe.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab acknowledged there are "challenges on the frontline", but insisted there was a global supply shortage on PPE and the government was doing "absolutely everything we can" to improve the situation.

He was deputising for Mr Johnson after the prime minister's fiance Carrie Symonds gave birth to a baby boy.

Mr Starmer began by asking why deaths in care homes are still rising, to which the First Secretary of State replied by stating it is a "challenge that we must grip and can grip".

Mr Starmer went on: "Six weeks ago on March 17, the Government's chief scientific adviser (Sir Patrick Vallance) indicated the Government hoped to keep the overall number of deaths from coronavirus to below 20,000.

"He said that would be 'good' by which in fairness to him he meant successful in the circumstances. But we're clearly way above that number and we're only partway through this crisis and we're possibly on track to have one of the worst death rates in Europe.

"On Monday, the Prime Minister said in his short speech that many were looking at our apparent success in the UK. But does the First Secretary agree with me that far from success these latest figures are truly dreadful?"

Mr Raab replied: "This is an unprecedented pandemic, a global pandemic, and I think in fairness we shouldn't criticise either the CMO (chief medical officer) or the deputy CMO for trying to give some forecast in response to the questions that many in this chamber and many in the media are calling for."

Turning to PPE, Mr Starmer said: "I recognise the challenge the government faces on this, I recognise that getting the right piece of equipment to the right place every time is very difficult, but lives do depend on it.

"And it is ten weeks since the Health Secretary declared that there was a serious and imminent threat to life. You'd hope that by now, things would be getting better, not worse."

Mr Starmer added: "So can I ask the First Secretary, what is going on and how soon can it be fixed?"

Mr Raab replied: "I feel animated, inspired to do even better, but he needs to recognise on PPE that there is a global supply shortage and we're doing absolutely everything we can to make sure that those on the front line get the equipment that they need."

Mr Starmer went on to encourage the government to publish details about what happens in the next phase and on the exit strategy, with Mr Raab saying he could not offer a time frame.

The Labour leader said: "France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland and Wales have all published exit plans of one sort or another.

"(Mr Raab) said, 'well what are the proposals, what should they cover?'. If you look at those plans, as he's done and I've done, it's clear that there are common issues such as schools reopening, business sectors reopening.

"These are the issues that, if he wants me to put them on the table, I absolutely will."

He added: "Delay risks not only falling behind other countries, but also the successful four-nation approach so far."

Mr Raab responded: "The Scottish Government has not set out an exit strategy. I read through very carefully their 25-page document, it was eminently sensible and it was grounded in the five tests that I set out on April 16."

On testing, Mr Raab also said the Prime Minister's 250,000 tests a day target remains "an aspiration" but would not put a date on it.

Additional reporting PA

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UK has second-highest Covid-19 death toll in Europe - RTE.ie

Potential for enlightenment has never been greater

The year is 2020, and the potential for enlightenment has never been greater. We now know the great hoax is that we thought we were independent and self-reliant. We should recognize that the lack of education, title, material possessions and income do not define the character, worth or essentiality of an individual.

Will this pandemic help us understand that everyone that is willing and able to work should be paid a living wage and their families provided with quality social services, education and medical care? This is nothing more than humanism.

To be or not to be is currently a choice that many fortunate Americans can make. Our options are to take care of all of our citizens providing whatever it takes to make their lives safe and productive, or turn this country over to those that like to parade around in public with an assault rifle hanging off their chest.

We must understand that without a consumer, our way of life will perish, because self-worth becomes extinct.

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Potential for 'enlightenment' has never been greater - SCNow

The three voyages of James Cook, between 1768 and 1780, substantially increased humanitys knowledge of the globe.

Prior to his odysseys, the Earth was divided into two separated hemispheres: the northern, which was largely but not entirely charted; and the southern, which was largely uncharted, and yet to be fully discovered by the more technologically developed world north of the equator. Cooks voyages, his achievements in seamanship, in navigation and cartography, his relentless will to explore both hemispheres, opened the way for contact between different regions and different peoples of the world, which had hitherto been impossible.

Cooks achievements ought to speak for themselves. He mapped more of the globe and sailed further south than anyone before him. When other mariners perished in the abyss of oceans, Cook could pinpoint his location to within a mile. He even pioneered a cure for scurvy that saved countless lives and increased the longevity of voyages.

He was also one of the very few men from the lower classes to rise to senior rank in the Royal Navy. Men followed Cook to the ends of the Earth and beyond, and his attitude to the indigenous peoples he encountered was enlightened and compassionate.

This month marks the 250th anniversary of Cook charting the east coast of Australia, then referred to as Terra Australis Incognita the unknown land of the south. He accomplished it during the three-year voyage of the Endeavour, the first of his three great voyages that marked him out as the mariner of the Enlightenment, if not all time.

Cook was born in 1728 in north Yorkshire, the son of a farm labourer. His fathers employer paid for Cook to undergo five years of schooling until, at the age of 16, he was sent to Staithes to work in a grocers shop where he slept each night under the counter. Eighteen months later he moved to Whitby to be apprenticed into the merchant navy, working on coal ships between the Tyne and London. At the end of his apprenticeship he worked on trading ships in the Baltic, progressing through the ranks. Then, at 23, he enlisted in the Royal Navy at the very bottom of the hierarchy.

He was relatively old for such a move, but was soon promoted. During the Seven Years War, he served in North America, mapping the entrance to the Saint Lawrence river as well as the coast of Newfoundland. The latter expedition resulted in a map so accurate it was still in use in the 20th century. The key to his accuracy was the astronomical observations he conducted to calculate longitude. This enabled him to use precise triangulation to establish land outlines. Cooks cartography brought him to the attention of the Royal Society and the Admiralty, who jointly arranged the voyage of the Endeavour. It was to be an expedition of scientific discovery, departing England in August 1768.

Official portrait of Captain James Cook (1775), at National Maritime Museum, UK.

The initial purpose of the expedition was to observe and record the transit of Venus across the Sun to help determine the distance of the Earth from the Sun. This would be done at the Pacific island of Tahiti. Cook was 39 and promoted to lieutenant in order that he could command the ship. Endeavour was a bark, which is a sailing ship with three or more masts. It had been built for moving coal, and it was a type of vessel Cook knew extremely well.

There were 94 on board, including a scientific team led by Joseph Banks, an independently wealthy naturalist who had been through Eton, Harrow and Oxford. Banks was an aristocrat, and brought with him the eccentricities of his class as well as some of his own. Alongside him were the naturalist Daniel Solander, the astronomer Charles Green, the artists Sydney Parkinson and Andrew Buchan. Banks also brought along two negro servants Thomas Richmond and George Dillon which was apparently the fashionable thing to do among his class at the time. The scientific team collected and recorded samples throughout the journey at sea and on land.

At Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago at the southernmost tip of South America, Banks servants died of exposure in a snow storm. As the ship rounded Cape Horn, Banks shot an albatross. He intended initially to treat it as a scientific specimen, but then decided he would eat the animal in a stew, recording the recipe in his journal.

In sailing mythology, the albatross embodied the souls of dead sailors. It was a creature to be revered, not stewed and eaten. Given Endeavour was about to sail west into the uncharted Pacific, from where other vessels had failed to re-emerge, mutiny was a possibility for Cook even without Banks blasphemy. It would be three months before they would see land again. Some must have wondered if they ever would, and one of Cooks crew threw himself overboard.

But Cook could lead. He used the lash on sailors more than Captain Bligh, who famously provoked a mutiny on the HMS Bounty in 1789. But somehow sailors trusted Cook. He once wrote: The man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. Leadership was about doing what was necessary, not what was popular.

For example, Cook knew that, when no fresh fruit was available, it was going to be difficult to ward off scurvy. The answer lay in ensuring his crew ate the less palatable pickled cabbage. Cook didnt understand how it worked, but he knew that it did and ordered his crew to eat it; when some didnt, he gave them a dozen lashes. Later he resorted to the reverse psychology of only serving sauerkraut at the captains table and one way or another not a single member of his crew died of scurvy. This was unheard of on such a voyage.

Having rounded Cape Horn at the end of January 1769, the Endeavour reached Tahiti on 13 April. The island had been chosen because a British expedition led by Samuel Wallis had landed there the previous year. Several of Cooks crew had sailed with Wallis and good relations were more easily established with leading Tahitians, including Tuteha, the chief of the area around the landing site. Cook was well aware that the people of the Pacific Islands were vulnerable to exploitation, and he set out very specific rules that his crew should abide by. It began: To endeavour by every fair means to cultivate a friendship with the Natives and to treat them with all imaginable humanity.

Cook was the mariner of the Enlightenment, if not all time

Permission was given for the visitors to build a fort, which became a trading post. During the stay, the British became acquainted with Tupaia, a Tahitian priest and navigator. Tupaia joined the Endeavour, sailing on to New Zealand and Australia. Cook and his astronomer observed the transit of Venus on 3 June 1769. He then opened a second packet of sealed orders from the Admiralty. These instructed him to search for new lands, in particular the great southern continent which would, redound greatly to the Honour of this Nation as a Maritime Power, as well as to the Dignity of the Crown of Great Britain, and may tend greatly to the advancement of the Trade and Navigation thereof.

When land was found his orders were to observe the Nature of the Soil, and the Products thereof; the Beasts and Fowls that inhabit or frequent it, the fishes that are to be found.

The artist Alexander Buchan died of epilepsy in Tahiti, but Banks and Solander continued to collect and collate samples at a relentless rate for Sydney Parkinsons quick hand. During the entire voyage, Parkinson made nearly a thousand artworks of plants and animals, and of lands and their peoples working in difficult circumstances. At one point his cabin was plagued by flies that fed on his paints. Banks subsequently had 738 copper plates engraved with Parkinsons work so his drawings and water colours could be published, but never completed the project. It wasnt until 1988 that the great Florilegium was published. In all Banks and Solander collected nearly 30,000 dried specimens, increasing the known flora of the world by a quarter. Parkinson was to die from dysentery later on in the voyage at Java. And Banks own journal of the Endeavour voyage was not published until 1962.

Cook was the second known European to land on New Zealand. His circumnavigation of both islands disproved the theory in Europe that it was part of the great southern landmass, as the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman had surmised a century before. Endeavour then made its way north east until, on 19 April 1770, Lieutenant Zachery Hicks called land from a masthead. They were looking at a coastline that no European had ever seen before, and it wasnt where Tasman recorded Van Diemens Land (known today as Tasmania) as being. As if to welcome them to Australis Incognita, the wind raised three water spouts, snaking up from the sea. Two died away quickly but the third hung in the air for some time, with Banks describing it in his journal thus:

It was a column which appeared to be about the thickness of a mast or a midling (sic) tree, and reachd down from a smoak colurd cloud about two thirds of the way to the surface of the seaWhen it was at its greatest distance from the water the pipe itself was perfectly transparent and much resembled a tube of glass.

Cook named the headland Point Hicks and continued heading north. They landed on 29 April, with Cook asking 18-year-old Isaac Smith, cousin to his wife Elizabeth, to be the first ashore. Banks and Solander wasted no time spreading out a sail on the beach and covering it with 200 quires of drying paper for botanical specimens. Endeavour stayed in the harbour for a week, and Cook named it Botany Bay on his departure.

His journals of the voyage were published on his return and established him as a world figure among the scientific community. He was, like the First Fleet that came to Australia after him, stunned by the vividness and abundance of bird life.

Two sorts of beautiful perroquets, he told Parkinson, a very uncommon hawk, pied back and white The iris or its every broad, of a rich scarlet colour inclining to orange, the beak was black, the cera dirty grey yellow, the feet were of a gold or deep buff colour like the kings yellow.

There were varying degrees of contact with Aboriginal people as Endeavour progressed up the coast. As Cook himself writes:

From what I have said of the Natives of New Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon earth, but in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans; being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous but the necessary conveniences so much sought after in Europe, they are happy in not knowing the use of them. They live in a Tranquillity which is not disturbd by the Inequality of the Condition.

On 11 June Endeavour ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. The coral tore its timbers and it began to sink. There were life boats enough for fewer than half of crew members, and the three pumps could barely keep pace with the incoming water. Crew member Jonathan Monkhouse told Cook about a method that was used on a leaking ship he was once aboard in the Atlantic. It was called fothering, and involved knitting fistfuls of wool and oakum to a sail, tying ropes to each corner, and smearing animal dung over it, before then wrapping it under the ship. The pressure of water would then push the bolstered sail into the hole. In Endeavours case it worked, and her crew were saved. The Endeavour limped to shore for repairs.

She finally returned to England in July 1771, and Cook became a sailor of international repute. During the American War of Independence Benjamin Franklin ordered his navy not to interfere with Cooks missions, for he was a common friend to mankind.

The Captain Cook statue vandalised in Melbourne, Australia, 25 January 2018.

Cooks achievements have lived on in the public memory for over two centuries. There are statues of him in Melbourne and Sydney. In 1934 the cottage where he was born was purchased and taken to Melbourne to be rebuilt brick by brick. The final space shuttle was called Endeavour, and Gene Rodenberrys Star Trek surely alludes to Cook, in the shape of James T Kirk and his spaceship, the Enterprise, with its five-year mission to seek out new life formsto boldly go where no man has been before.

Yet today things are different. On Australia Day in 2018, paint was thrown on Cooks statue, and he stands charged with colonialism, and facilitating the dispossession of Aboriginal people. This year a planned circumnavigation of Australia in a replica of Endeavour was criticised by many as insensitive.

James Cook and his achievements have fallen foul of the inane culture wars, and he finds himself out of favour, traduced. It would not be done to be seen in Sydneys best cafs reading a biography of the man. At a time when we find ourselves threatened by forces we do not fully comprehend, Cook and his crew can serve as an inspiration, a reminder of the resilience, of the insatiable curiosity of humanity. He embodies a spirit beyond talk of colonialism and national pride an indefatigable spirit of mankind that is fearless and optimistic, a belief that we can find answers and prevail.

Michael Crowley is a dramatist, and the author of The Stony Ground: The Remembered Life of Convict James Ruse and First Fleet.

Pictures by: Getty Images

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Captain Cook and the heroism of the Enlightenment - Spiked

Khrimian Hayrik sometime before 1903 (Photo: S. Soghomonyan)

Dear and blessed Armenians, villagers, when you return to the fatherland, as a gift, one by one, get your friend and relative a gun, get a gun and more guns. People, before all else, put the hope of your independence on yourself.

This excerpt is from the most famous sermon in modern Armenian history. Its message, that Armenians must cease their hopeful reliance on foreign powers, is taught in textbooks throughout the Diaspora. The man behind the speech, Mkrtich Khrimian Hayrik, occupies an outsized role in the Armenian national memory. He is the fiery cleric who beseeched Armenians to defend themselves and became known as the father of the revolutionary movement. A rare figure of history who is beloved by most everyone, Khrimian is considered an honorary Dashnak, a founding member of the Armenakan party. His name was often invoked within the pages of the official publication of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, all while simultaneously remaining a revered figure in the Armenian Church, respected for both his piety and devotion to his flock.

However, over the decades since his death, Khrimians legacy has been overtaken by the Sermon on the Sword mentioned above, which he first delivered in 1878 in the Armenian Cathedral in Kum Kapu. While the iron ladle metaphor he employed still resonates with contemporary audiences, Khrimians other myriad contributions to the development of the Armenian mind and the amelioration of the state of the villager have been left understudied.

Aside from his role as a pioneer in encouraging self-reliance, Khrimian also dedicated much of his life to educating the rural Armenian. Though the majority of Armenians lived in the vulnerable and vital eastern regions of the Ottoman Empirethe Armenian fatherlandmost resources were poured into developing the Armenian community in Istanbul. Khrimian was among the first to shift the focus from Istanbul to the eastern provinces to not only speak to the villager, but also to give the villager a voice.

Khrimian published a combination of nine essays and books between 1855 and 1901. During that time, he also wrote articles for, while also acting as editor and publisher of, two periodicals, Artsvi Vaspurakan and Artsvik Tarono. Throughout these texts, certain themes arise which were vital for Khrimian including gender and the financial stability of the villager.

However, one of the themes which was most frequently discussed and important to Khrimian was education and the enlightenment of the Armenian peasant. This essay will serve as an analysis of one of his seminal texts, Papik ev Tornik, as well as the Artsvi Vaspurakan publication as a sampling of his intellectual and literary output regarding his efforts to educate the rural Armenian population.

Long before he exhorted the carrying of arms as a solution to the critical plight of the Armenians, Khrimian entreated the value of education as a salvaging force. Within the first page of the introduction to Papik ev Tornik, Khrimian posed the following question directly to his reader asking, What is the reason why even with all the good you have, you are always left deprived? To this he answered, Read Papik ev Tornik and you will learn that the only cause is ignorancenot knowing how to read, write, count and economize. Khrimian frequently wrote that ignorance and lack of education were the root causes behind hardship. He also championed the idea that all Armenians, including women, should be educated; the education of the individual would lead to a more prosperous Armenian society within the Ottoman Empire.

Though Khrimian placed his emphasis on education, he did not advocate for formal education alone as the only avenue to escape ignorance. In the chapter of Papik ev Tornik titled, Amelioration of the State of the Villager, he extolled the intrinsic value of books, writing, You know, grandson, every book is its own teacher for the reader. The authors have died, but the writing has remained alive. There are those kinds of books that are immortal, thousands of years can pass and they still speak to us. This statement achieved two goals. Firstly, it worked to instill a respect within the Armenian peasant for reading; Khrimians statement posited the power of the book as a transmitter of knowledge which needed no mediator. Secondly, and more importantly, the statement gave the average rural Armenian a degree of agency over his education.

In the third issue of Artsvi Vaspurakan, printed in 1861, Khrimian argued for the need for Armenian public schools and challenged the popular belief that only the clergy needed to be educated, writing, Who has decided for the Armenian people that they must suffer eternally in this dungeon of ignorance or hell? Is Christs able hand going to come back down to earth again and free them, perhaps? The author answered his own cheeky rhetorical question by saying that the only solutions that would help the Armenians were public school and education. Here as well there was a connection between education and agency. Khrimian, despite being a cleric and soon-to-be Patriarch and eventually Catholicos, told his readers not to wait on Gods grace, but to free themselves from their dire situation through their education.

Aside from directly discussing the role and status of education in the development of the individual, many articles were themselves dedicated to educating the rural Armenian. One such example was the Tesarank Hayreni Ashkharhats series in Artsvi Vaspurakan which informed readers about different regions of the Armenian fatherland. This section provided the reader with important details oftentimes regarding either their surrounding regions or their own hometowns.

For instance, in the first publication of 1858, Khrimian printed a piece on the monastery of Varag in Vaspurakan. The article provided extensive information on the region including weather, its surroundings, topography, physical features, indigenous crops and the monastery itself.

Examples like this abound throughout Artsvi Vaspurakans publication. In the third issue of 1859, an article was dedicated to the scientific explanation of earthquakes. The catalyst of this article emerged after an earthquake occurred in Erzurum which led to the spread of terrible myths about what caused it, the worst result of which was that the youth believed in these myths and showed no further interest in learning the correct cause and thus remained ignorant. This compelled the author to write an article explaining the scientific process behind earthquakes in order to dispel superstition.

Lastly, Artsvi took up the mantle of educating its readership by engaging in pertinent contemporary discussions. One such example was a provocative and satirical piece on the debate of whether to use grabar (Classical Armenian) or the vernacular. The article, written by Khrimians student Garegin Sruandzeants, was styled as a tongue-in-cheek conversation between grabar and the vernacular themselves, each extolling its own virtue while insulting the other. After having already sparred for a number of pages, grabar responds to vernaculars claim that its time has passed. Grabar exclaims, , , , to which the vernacular retorts simply: It was a rare example of satire and humor in the publication, but more importantly, it invited the reader to participate in the national discourse and a pivotal development which was occurring in their time.

Khrimians image and legacy performed a specific role in the decades following his death, usually as the convenient and tidy embodiment of the nationalist and revolutionary movement which was brewing in the second half of the 19th century. Khrimian was undoubtedly a pivotal figure in the Armenian nationalist narrative and the revolutionary movement that came to fruition then.

Yet, confining Mkrtich Khrimians historical legacy to a single speech precludes an objective study of the vast impact Khrimian had on the development of the Armenians of the eastern provinces, the social dynamic of the Armenian millet and the perceived role of millet representation within the Ottoman Empire. The current limited understanding of Khrimian can only be expanded through a holistic analysis of his work and publications. This approach removes Khrimian as solely a character in Armenian history and portrays him as a transmitter of social, political and intellectual change, as much informed by the many changes surrounding him as he, in turn, shaped them.

Nora is a graduate of Columbia University's Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department and she will begin her doctoral studies at UCLA in the fall of 2020. Her thesis at Columbia was titled, "Beyond the Iron Ladle: Education, Gender and Economic Independence in the Work of Mkrtich Khrimean Hayrik. She also spent several years living and working in Armenia.

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The Legacy of Khrimian Hayrik: Education and Enlightenment - Armenian Weekly

Captain James Cook arrived in the Pacific 250 years ago, triggering British colonisation of the region. Were asking researchers to reflect on what happened and how it shapes us today. You can see other stories in the series here and an interactive here.

James Cook and his companions aboard the Endeavour landed at a harbour on Australias southeast coast in April of 1770. Cook named the place Botany Bay for the great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found in this place.

Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander were aboard the Endeavour as gentleman botanists, collecting specimens and applying names in Latin to plants Europeans had not previously seen. The place name hints at the importance of plants to Britains Empire, and to botanys pivotal place in Europes Enlightenment and Australias early colonisation.

Cook has always loomed large in Australias colonial history. White Australians have long commemorated and celebrated him as the symbolic link to the civilisation of Enlightenment and Empire. The two botanists have been less well remembered, yet Banks in particular was an influential figure in Australias early colonisation.

When Banks and his friend Solander went ashore on April 29, 1770 to collect plants for naming and classification, the Englishman recollected they saw nothing like people. Banks knew that the land on which he and Solander sought plants was inhabited (and in fact, as we now know, had been so for at least 65,000 years). Yet the two botanists were engaged in an activity that implied the land was blank and unknown.

They were both botanical adventurers. Solander was among the first and most favoured of the students of Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist and colonial traveller who devised the method still used today for naming species. Both Solander and Banks were advocates for the Linnaean method of taxonomy: a systematic classification of newly named plants and animals.

When they stepped ashore at Botany Bay in 1770, the pair saw themselves as pioneers in a double sense: as Linnaean botanists in a new land, its places and plants unnamed by any other; as if they were in a veritable terra nullius.

Terra nullius, meaning nobodys land, refers to a legal doctrine derived from European traditions stretching back to the ancient Romans. The idea was that land could be declared empty and unowned if there were no signs of occupation such as cultivation of the soil, towns, cities, or sacred temples.

As a legal doctrine it was not applied in Australia until the late 1880s, and there is dispute about its effects in law until its final elimination by the High Court in Mabo v Queensland (No. II) in 1992.

Read more: Terra nullius interruptus: Captain James Cook and absent presence in First Nations art

Cook never used this formulation, nor did Banks or Solander. Yet each in their way acted as if it were true. That the land, its plants, and animals, and even its peoples, were theirs to name and classify according to their own standards of scientific knowledge.

In the late eighteenth century, no form of scientific knowledge was more useful to empire than botany. It was the science par excellence of colonisation and empire. Botany promised a way to transform the waste of nature into economic productivity on a global scale.

Wealth and power in Britains eighteenth century empire came from harnessing economically useful crops: tobacco, sugar, tea, coffee, rice, potatoes, flax. Hence Banks and Solanders avid botanical activity was not merely a manifestation of Enlightenment science. It was an integral feature of Britains colonial and imperial ambitions.

Throughout the Endeavours voyage, Banks, Solander, and their assistants collected more than 30,000 plant specimens, naming more than 1,400 species.

By doing so, they were claiming new ground for European knowledge, just as Cook meticulously charted the coastlines of territories he claimed for His Majesty, King George III. Together they extended a new dispensation, inscribed in new names for places and for plants written over the ones that were already there.

Long after the Endeavour returned to Britain, Banks testified before two House of Commons committees in 1779 and 1785 that Botany Bay would be an advantageous site for a new penal colony. Among his reasons for this conclusion were not only its botanical qualities fertile soils, abundant trees and grasses but its virtual emptiness.

Read more: From Captain Cook to the First Fleet: how Botany Bay was chosen over Africa as a new British penal colony

When Banks described in his own Endeavour journal the land Cook had named New South Wales, he recalled: This immense tract of Land is thinly inhabited even to admiration . It was the science of botany that connected emptiness and empire to the Enlightened pursuit of knowledge.

One of Bankss correspondents was the Scottish botanist and professor of natural history, John Walker. Botany, Walker wrote, was one of the few Sciences that can promise any discovery or improvement. Botany was the scientific means to master the global emporium of commodities on which empire grew.

Botany was also the reason why it had not been necessary for Banks or Solander to affirm the land on which they trod was empty. For in a very real sense, their science presupposed it. The land, its plants and its people were theirs to name and thereby claim by discovery.

When Walker reflected on his own botanical expeditions in the Scottish Highlands, he described them as akin to voyages of discovery to lands as inanimate & unfrequented as any in the Terra australis.

As we reflect on the 250-year commemoration of Cooks landing in Australia, we ought also to consider his companions Banks and Solander, and their science of turning supposed emptiness to empire.

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Botany and the colonisation of Australia in 1770 - The Conversation AU