Features

HOUSTON — Every afternoon since they started staying in their Texas home due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Canonico sisters — ages two, four and 10 — spend some time banging on the floor with kitchen utensils.

It's not just idle play: they are taking online classes from a local kids' gym in Houston to burn up some of their pent-up energy — and to learn crucial motor and social skills at the same time.

Kinley, Caylee and Riley had already attended baby fitness programs over the years at their local branch of The Little Gym, a chain focused on movement-based learning.

When authorities in Houston — like many other jurisdictions around the United States — issued a stay-at-home order last week, their mother Lauren Soliz said she was all-in for them to pick up some classes online.

"We definitely want their mental health to equal their physical health," Soliz told AFP in an interview.

"Yes, they can watch their iPads for a certain amount of time every day. But we're also getting in our physical health too."

'Feeling the stress'

Soliz, 37, works as a tax consultant. With three girls to take care of at home and random meetings by phone throughout the day, she says it's virtually impossible to maintain a schedule.

Nevertheless, she has figured out how to set up regular exercise breaks — bike rides around their neighbourhood after breakfast, YouTube yoga classes.

And now, several times a week, Soliz's daughters — dressed in tank tops and shorts or their pastel-coloured pyjamas — follow along with a video class from The Little Gym.

"The girls love it, and they think it's playing," she said.

Riley, the 10-year-old, is just as enthusiastic about the classes as her little sisters, hopping in place or turning in circles.

"I think it's fun and it's time-consuming so it helps because we're just stuck inside," she said.

Soliz said the classes are a good way to blow off some steam.

"We're all feeling the stress and the anxiety and the unknown and uncertainty of, you know, how long is this going to be?" she said.

The US government's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has published guidelines for parents about how to help children throughout the crisis.

"Encourage your child to play outdoors — it's great for physical and mental health. Take a walk with your child or go on a bike ride," the CDC says.

But if outdoor play is impossible, it recommends "indoor activity breaks" for stretching and dancing.

The CDC suggests that children from the ages of six to 17 get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day — not easy when three out of four Americans have been ordered to stay home.

Alex Tellez, who runs one of the Houston-area Little Gyms, says parents pleaded with him for online content to use with their kids as the health crisis ramped up.

"Whether or not you have a specific outlet for children's energy, it will escape. They are going to run, they are going to play and that's because they need stimulation," he told AFP.

Tellez was forced to shut down his gym to comply with the strict stay-at-home order, and isn't sure when it will reopen.

His team pre-recorded a number of classes at their facility, and has been putting them up several times a week on Facebook and YouTube.

Teachers in athletic gear on red mats guide the children through exercises as they would in the actual gym.

"It makes it a little bit easier for a lot of families to just put it on their TV, rather than having to put it on their phone or on their computer," said Tellez.

Usually, a class at The Little Gym costs about $25 — a significant amount for some families. But Tellez has posted the classes for free.

"It was a bit of a transition for us because so much of the material is proprietary," he explained.

"But in these times, we feel that it's important not only for the business to be able to stay in touch with our customers on a regular basis, but for them to continue experiencing the value of our programme."

Of course, the hope is that once the stay-at-home period is over, families like Soliz's will head back to the gym.

By Julia Benarrous

Now is not the time for Leonard Cohen or Nick Cave. Bob Dylan is even a little too dark if you’re looking for music to carry you through the din of this coronavirus quarantine.

On the other hand, you don’t want “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” either. Cheery pop music right now sounds as vapid as those Florida spring-breakers on TV who didn’t want to leave the beach three weeks ago.

Here’s what I came up with as a playlist to keep me upbeat for the long haul. This is actually a whittled-down version of a list I programmed last year after writing about “The Happiness Playlist,” a great memoir by Minneapolis rocker Mark Mallman about how he listened to only hopeful, positive tunes to carry him out of depression.

It may seem like a simple concept, but to Mallman and us Generation Xers — whose Walkman-ized youths were ruled by grunge, punk, goth, gangsta rap and metal — happy songs are not really part of our regularly scheduled programming. But we know all about the power of music in general.

1. The Kinks: “Better Things”

2. Allen Toussaint: “Yes We Can”

3. Staple Singers: “Heavy Makes You Happy”

4. Black Flag: “Rise Above”

5. Toots & the Maytals: “Pressure Drop”

6. Willie Nelson: “Pick Up the Tempo”

7. Beyoncé: “Formation”

8. Sleater-Kinney: “Dig Me Out”

9. Dixie Chicks: “Long Time Gone”

10. Sir Douglas Quintet: “Be Real”

11. Prince: “Mountains”

12. Kendrick Lamar & SZA: “All the Stars”

13. Lizzo: “Good as Hell”

14. Iron & Wine: “Call It Dreaming”

15. Lucinda Williams: “Blessed”

16. Trampled by Turtles: “Victory”

17. Soul Asylum: “Sometime to Return”

18. Bob Mould: “See a Little Light”

19. The Killers: “All These Things That I’ve Done”

20. Superchunk: “What a Time to Be Alive”

21. The Hold Steady: “Stay Positive”

22. Nina Simone: “Here Comes the Sun”

23. Bob Marley: “Coming in From the Cold”

24. Dr John, Dirty Dozen Brass & Friends: “Time Marches On”

25. Cowboy Junkies: “To Live Is to Fly” 

By Chris Riemenschneider

PARIS/WASHINGTON — From medical workers struggling to care for the rising tide of COVID-19 patients to the billions of people told to stay home to slow the pandemic, everyone is waiting for one thing: a vaccine.

There is no known treatment for the new coronavirus that emerged in China late last year and has since proliferated across the planet.

In mid-January, researchers from China published the genetic sequence of the virus, firing the starting gun for dozens of research labs across the world in the race to find effective drugs.

The approaches have varied dramatically. Some teams are looking at the effects of existing medicines as potential treatments, some are experimenting with repurposing common drugs. Others are using cutting-edge technologies to fashion radically new types of vaccines.

Just over 60 days after the genetic sequence of COVID-19 was shared, the first potential vaccine began human trials.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed it "an incredible achievement" and experts have raised cautious hopes that a vaccine will be ready within 18 months.

This may seem like a dauntingly long time for those in the path of the virus.

But Seth Berkley, the head of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, has cautioned that it normally takes between 10 and 15 years for a drug to go from development, through testing phases and onto licensing and large-scale manufacture, although the Ebola vaccine was ready in five.

"How lucky will we be in getting a good immune response? Which approaches will work? Will they be scalable?" he said in an interview with the TED organisation last week.

While the world will try to "squeeze it down dramatically", the timeline will still depend on the testing process.

"There are many things we're going to have to go through and it's really about making sure that vaccine works and it is safe for use in what ultimately may be billions of people," he said.

GAVI, which is making funding available for lower-income countries to respond to the coronavirus crisis, has urged world leaders to ensure potential treatments and vaccines are accessible to everyone.

Amid concerns over a shortfall in global cooperation over the virus, G20 nations on Thursday announced a $5-trillion injection to boost the global economy and pledged to "work together to increase research and development funding for vaccines and medicines".

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global organisation based in Oslo, has called for $2 billion to support the development of a vaccine.

Meanwhile, the United States is funding several companies through its Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A new type of vaccine

The traditional method for developing vaccines, based on principles dating back to smallpox vaccine in 1796, has been to introduce a modified part of the infectious agent to stimulate the body's immune system without doing harm.

But an emerging technique aims to trigger this immune response in a different way, by incorporating a strand of the virus' genetic material.

Within weeks of Chinese researchers making the genome of the virus public, a team at the University of Texas at Austin was able to create a replica model of its spike protein, the part which attaches to and infects human cells, and image it using a cryogenic (cooled) electron microscope.

This replica itself is now the basis for a vaccine candidate. NIH is working with Moderna, a relatively new firm founded in 2010, to make a vaccine using the protein's genetic information to grow it inside human muscle tissue, rather than having to inject it in.

This information is stored in an intermediary transient substance called "messenger RNA" that carries genetic code from DNA to cells.

"The advantage is that it's really fast," Jason McLellan, who led the UT Austin team, told AFP.

The human trials began this month and if all goes to plan, it could be available in about a year and a half, according to NIH's Anthony Fauci.

French drugmaker Sanofi is using a different genetic approach.

It is partnering with the US government to use a so-called "recombinant DNA platform" to produce a vaccine candidate.

It takes the virus' DNA and combines it with DNA from a harmless virus, creating a chimera that can provoke an immune response.

The antigens it produces can then be scaled up.

The technology is already the basis of Sanofi's influenza vaccine, and the firm believes it has a head start due to a SARS vaccine it developed that offered partial protection in animals.

Treatment quicker than cure?

While the world waits for a vaccine, scientists are experimenting with other existing drugs in the hunt for treatments for severely ill patients.

The WHO has selected four drugs or combinations for a large scale global trial involving patients from Argentina to Thailand.

These are the experimental antiviral treatment remdesivir; a combination of two HIV drugs, lopinavir and ritonavir; those two drugs plus interferon beta, an immune system medication; and the malaria drug chloroquine.

Remdesivir, made by US-based Gilead Sciences, is already in the final stages of clinical trials in Asia and doctors in China have reported it has proven effective in fighting the disease.

It was developed to fight other viruses including Ebola (where it was shown to be ineffective) and it has not yet been approved for anything.

Remdesivir gets modified inside the human body to become similar to one of the four building blocks of DNA, called nucleotides.

Benjamin Neuman, a virologist at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, told AFP that when viruses copy themselves, they do it "quickly and a bit sloppily," meaning they might incorporate remdevisir into their structure — though human cells, which are more fastidious, won't make the same mistake.

If the virus incorporates the remdesivir into itself, the drug adds unwanted mutations that can destroy the virus.

In an early trial, the lopinavir-ritonavir combination had disappointing results in a study of 199 patients in Wuhan, China, published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers concluded that the drugs did not significantly improve clinical outcomes.

US President Donald Trump has stoked excitement about hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and chloroquine (CQ), related compounds that are synthetic forms of quinine, which comes from cinchona trees and has been used for centuries to treat malaria.

HCQ, which is the less toxic of the two, is also used as an anti-inflammatory to treat conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

The medicines have shown promise against the COVID-19 illness in early studies in France and China.

But Fauci has cautioned that the small studies carried out so far amount to "anecdotal" evidence.

And the drugs are not without their risks.

About one per cent of people are at high risk of blackouts, seizure or even sudden death from cardiac arrest because of heart rhythm issues they may themselves be unaware of, Michael Ackerman, a genetic cardiologist at Mayo Clinic told AFP.

Multi-purpose drug

Regeneron last year developed an intravenous drug that was shown to significantly boost survival rates among Ebola patients using what are known as "monoclonal antibodies".

They genetically modified mice to give them human-like immune systems. The mice are exposed to viruses, or weakened forms of them, in order to produce human antibodies, Christos Kyratsous, the company's vice president of research told AFP.

These antibodies are then isolated and screened to find the most potent ones, which are grown in labs, purified and given to humans intravenously.

The drug could work as both a treatment and as a vaccine, by dosing up people before they are exposed — though these effects would be only temporary.

Old vaccines, new purpose

One CEPI-backed project — a collaboration with France's Institut Pasteur, biotech firm Themis and the University of Pittsburgh — uses the measles vaccine as "a vehicle".

This would take a vaccine that is widely manufactured across the world and redesign it to express the antigen of the new coronavirus.

Australian scientists are taking an even more direct approach.

Researchers at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne are fast-tracking large-scale human testing of the BCG vaccine, used for decades to prevent tuberculosis, to see if it can protect health workers from COVID-19.

By Kelly Macnamara and Issam Ahmed

Well-earning its 2020 Middle East Car of the Year award for the best Sub-Compact Sedan category with the great value for money it offers, the MG 5 is the sort of car that is about to become more relevant in more markets than before.

A compelling package of comfort, equipment and clean unpretentiously contemporary styling and appointment, the MG 5 ticks most boxes in a competitively affordable package, as value is set to become ever more important for car buyers in the wake of current world events and anticipated repercussions.

An honest, pleasant and utilitarian car, the MG 5 may not be quite as inspired as some of the Chinese owned and operated British brand’s MG 6 fastback saloon and HS SUV with their more expressive and shared design themes and spangled grille design. Instead, the MG 5’s design is, however, closer to the RX5 and RX8 SUVs with its strong straight lines and prominently tall, low and wide grille design and bold chrome slats. From side view its features a gently arcing roofline, deep lower crease and upper character line with Coke-bottle curves above the wheel-arches.

Frugal and fluent

Perhaps bearing closer resemblance to sister brand Roewe’s cars than the MG 6 or HS, the MG 5 is powered by a 1.5-litre naturally-aspirated four-cylinder engine behind its evocative octagonal badge and under its sharp bonnet creases. Driving the front wheels, it is competitively powered in the high value compact saloon segment, and develops 112BHP at 6,000rpm and 110lb/ft torque at 4,500rpm, which propels its 1,230kg mass to a 180km/h top speed and returns frugal 5.5l/100km combined cycle fuel economy. Meanwhile, the MG 5 is estimated to complete the 0-100km/h sprint in roughly around 11-seconds.

A smooth and responsive small engine with good low-end pick up, versatile mid-range and willing top-end, the MG 5’s 1.5-litre may not be hugely powerful, but it progressive in delivery and more generous than many competitors. Providing enough power for confident driving, the MG 5’s smooth delivery is seamless through its continually variable transmission, which fluently adjusts ratios either for maximum low rev efficiency when cruising. Meanwhile, for responsive acceleration CVT holds revs at an optimal point, which creates a sort of slingshot sensation as revs remain constant while the transmission ration changes.

Confident and reassuring

A comfortable drive with good in class refinement and reassuring handling qualities, the MG 5 is an impressively user-friendly. During a short test drive, it proved to be smooth and stable on highway, with good noise, vibration and harshness isolation. Meanwhile in narrow streets and in traffic it was manoeuvrable, with light steering, good visibility and a tight turning circle for negotiating heavy traffic and tight parking. Ride quality was comfortable and absorbed bumps, lumps and cracks well, with optional 205/55R16 tyres finding a good compromise between a forgiving ride and good grip.

If not quite as sporty in dynamic disposition as the MG 6, the MG 5 nevertheless availed itself well in that regard during test drive, and more so delivers a reassuring and capable compromise between ride comfort and handling ability. Turning in tidy into corners with good grip and just decent enough steering feel, the MG 5 is agile and manoeuvrable in town. And while it may lean slightly through corners, it feels controlled and committed through corners. Meanwhile braking is confident, with rear disc brakes even in base specification, rather than drums.

Equipment and comfort

Clean, uncluttered, user-friendly and pleasant inside, the MG 5’s cabin looks and feels more upmarket than prices suggest. Featuring decent quality plastics, trim and upholstering as well as a tidy design, the MG 5 doesn’t seem like a budget car, but more like a mid-range model. Seating is comfortable with good support, steering and seat adjustability and visibility, while front space, cabin access and its 512-litre luggage volume are generous. In the rear, space is good for its size and segment. Legroom is especially good, while rear headroom is good for most adults.

Well-equipped for this segment, the MG 5 is offered in three trim levels in the Middle East, with dusk-sensing headlights, power windows and mirrors, ABS, electronic brake-force distribution, electronic stability control, child seat latches, tilt adjustable steering, remote central locking, air conditioning, Bluetooth connectivity, cruise control and driver and passenger airbags available across the board. Middle and top spec versions get an infotainment touchscreen system with Android Auto and Apple Carplay, and rear parking sensors and camera. The top spec model meanwhile receives leather upholstery, keyless entry, side and curtain airbags, and more.

• Engine: 1.5-litre, transverse 4-cylinders
• Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC
• Gearbox: Continuously variable transmission (CVT) automatic, front-wheel-drive
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 112 (114) [84] @6,000rpm
• Specific power: 75BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 91BHP/tonne
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 110 (150) @4,500rpm
• Specific torque: 100Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 122Nm/tonne
• 0-100km/h: 11-seconds (estimate)
• Top speed: 180km/h
• Fuel consumption, combined: 5.5-litres/100km
• Fuel capacity: 45-litres
• Length: 4,601mm
• Width: 1,818mm
• Height: 1,489mm
• Wheelbase: 2,680mm
• Luggage volume: 512-litres
• Kerb weight: 1,230kg
• Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam
• Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs
• Tyres: 205/55R16

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON — The biggest reputational risk Facebook and other social media companies had expected in 2020 was fake news surrounding the US presidential election. Be it foreign or domestic in origin, the misinformation threat seemed familiar, perhaps even manageable.

The novel coronavirus, however, has opened up an entirely different problem: the life-endangering consequences of supposed cures, misleading claims, snake-oil sales pitches and conspiracy theories about the outbreak.

So far, AFP has debunked almost 200 rumours and myths about the virus, but experts say stronger action from tech companies is needed to stop misinformation and the scale at which it can be spread online.

"There's still a disconnect between what people think is true and what people are willing to share," Professor David Rand, a specialist in brain and cognitive sciences at the MIT Sloan School of Management, told AFP, explaining how a user's bias toward content he or she thinks will be liked or shared typically dominates decision-making when online.

Part of the reason is that social media algorithms are geared to appeal to someone's habits and interests: the emphasis is on likability, not accuracy. Changing that would require Facebook, Twitter and other such companies to alter what people see on screen.

Prompts urging users to consider the accuracy of content they are spreading on social networks are needed, said Rand, co-author of a study on COVID-19 misinformation that was published earlier this month.

Deadly consequences

Using controlled tests with more than 1,600 participants, the study found that false claims were shared in part simply because people failed to think about whether the content was reliable.

In a second test, when people were reminded to consider the accuracy of what they are going to share, their level of truth awareness more than doubled.

That approach — known as "accuracy nudge intervention" — from social media companies could limit the spread of misinformation, the report concluded.

"These are the kind of things that make the concept of accuracy top of the minds of people," said Rand, noting that news feeds are instead filled by users' own content and commercial advertisements.

"There probably is a concern from social networking companies about accuracy warnings degrading the user experience, because you're exposing users to content that they didn't want to see. But I hope by talking about this more we'll get them to take this seriously and try it."

What is undoubted is that misinformation about the novel coronavirus has been deadly. Although US, French and other scientists are working to expedite effective treatments, false reports have appeared in numerous countries.

In Iran, a fake remedy of ingesting methanol has reportedly led to 300 deaths, and left many more sick.

Dr Jason McKnight, assistant clinical professor in the Department of Primary Care and Population Health at Texas A&M University, said the sharing of false information has an impact beyond the immediate risk of the virus itself.

"I have seen posts related to 'treatments' that are not proven, techniques to prevent exposure and infection that are either not proven and/or filled with a lot of misleading information, and instruction for individuals to stock up on supplies and food," he said.

McKnight highlighted two types of danger posed by inaccurate information on the virus: that it "could incite fear or panic," and "the potential for individuals to do harmful things in hope of 'curing the illness' or 'preventing' the illness."

'Immediate positive impact'

Facebook took a hammering over Russia's interference in the 2016 US election. Having been accused on Capitol Hill of ignoring the allegations, Facebook conceded the following year that up to 10 million Americans had seen advertisements purchased by a shadowy Russian agency. As evidence mounted about how Russia had used Facebook to sow division, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised.

Facebook has placed authoritative coronavirus information at the top of news feeds and intensified its efforts to remove harmful content, including through the use of third-party fact checkers.

Zuckerberg also said earlier this month that a public health crisis is an easier arena than politics to set policies and to take a harder line on questionable content.

AFP and other media companies, including Reuters and the Associated Press, work with Facebook's fact checking program, under which content rated false is downgraded in news feeds so that fewer people see it. If someone tries to share such a post, he or she is presented with an article explaining why the information is not accurate.

However, a Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment on the potential for adding accuracy prompts to its platform.

A Twitter spokesman, in a statement to AFP, also did not address whether the company might consider using prompts.

"Our goal has been to make certain everyone on our service has access to credible, authoritative health information," he said.

"We've shifted our focus and priorities, working extensively with organisations like the WHO, ministries of health in a number of countries, and a breadth of public health officials."

The COVID-19 misinformation study mirrored past tests for political fake news, notably in that reminders about accuracy would be a simple way to improve choices about what people share.

"Accuracy nudges are straightforward for social media platforms to implement on top of the other approaches they are currently employing, and could have an immediate positive impact on stemming the tide of misinformation about the COVID-19 outbreak," the authors concluded.

By Arthur MacMillan and W.G. Dunlop 

PARIS — Frustrated at stay-at-home confinement, France's celebrity chefs are cooking up an antidote to the gloomy days of pandemic and quarantine with the help of television and social networks.

"Today it's not chef Lignac talking, it's Cyril who like all French people has to do his shopping near where he lives," says Cyril Lignac, the nation's current gastronomic media star.

On prime-time television, he sports a T-shirt to prepare dinner from his home on his new show "Everyone in the Kitchen".

The show focuses on everyday cooking and the travails of the public in a time of national emergency. The coronavirus crisis has enabled chefs "to play a different tune in the kitchen", he tells AFP. "It's very interesting to improve people's daily lives by cooking just from the cupboard and the fridge."

'No fuss' cuisine

The show, which opened on France's M6 channel on Tuesday, is scheduled to last only as long as the public's confinement in their own homes. Lignac says he wants to help his compatriots by proving how easy, good and well-priced it can be to cook at home.

Other chefs are following a similar path. "There are no tricks," says Paris chef Amandine Chaignot during an online class explaining how to prepare asparagus. "I have a tiny kitchen, if I can do it, you can too."

Chaignot may be more used to serving up prestigious banquets but here she's whipping up a dish with one pot — asparagus and eggs bubbling away before runny yolks are mixed with butter and poured over chopped-up white stalks.

Her video was made for mates who often eat in restaurants, she says.

"You can miss so much if you tell yourself 'I don't know how to do the simplest of things,'" she tells AFP. "It has to be easy, quick and not involve a lot of equipment or ingredients you cannot source."

'Dad' cooking

In the Mediterranean city of Marseille, two-star Michelin gourmet Alexandre Mazzia describes himself as a "dad" who does homework, sport and cooking with his children.

In a rare moment of downtime, he posted on social media some recipes adapted to a time of quarantine.

They include a chocolate cake that is "made like an omelette" with no need to whip up egg whites or sift flour, and a green Puy lentil salad that swaps kumquat for green apple and cashews for any nut.

"I received 350 text messages asking me what to do with Puy lentils," says the award-winning chef.

Triple Michelin star Christophe Bacquie has also taken to social media to help the nation to get cooking.

He wants to put Mediterranean tastes on our plates — endives in orange, honey and rosemary, lemon and olive oïl cake.

"It was my wife who convinced me to go on Instagram," he says.

With the markets closed, he says, shoppers are unlikely to find such things as a John Dory fish to cook with asparagus.

Instead, go for a traditional dish like potato galette without eggs or flour, Bacquie says.

"We use what we have," says Bacquie. "Everyone is confined, we have a duty to lead by example."

 By Olga Nedbaeva

My End Is My Beginning
Moris Farhi
London: Saqi Books, 2020
Pp. 256

Turkish-born Moris Farhi, who died last year, spent most of his life in the UK campaigning for human rights via Amnesty International and PEN international, where he was Vice President and Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee. He was also a prolific writer, penning a number of novels and a poetry collection, as well as writing for the theatre and screen. His creative talents and broad cultural background shine brightly in this, his last novel, “My End Is My Beginning”.

Written in prose that often approaches poetry, the novel is a love story between the two central characters, Belkis and Oric. It is also the story of an all-encompassing love for humanity that drives them, along with a small group of rebels, to travel around the world confronting injustice and cruelty and saving the victims. This is the age of dictators and the abuses they unleash are easily recognisable as the political, social, environmental and human catastrophes that plague the world today, from genocidal wars to drug addiction. While Farhi has employed fantasy to write the story in the style of a myth, its essence is hard-core reality. More than one dictator is easily recognisable, as are cultural figures and known advocates of human rights, such as Hrant, Belkis’s and Oric’s mentor. He is obviously Hrant Dink, the prominent Armenian-Turkish intellectual and newspaper editor who advocated Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and human rights overall, and who was assassinated in Istanbul in 2007.

The dictators in the story are dubbed “the Saviours” who are trying to impose their “Big Lies” on the population at large, using race, religion, ethnicity and gender differences to divide and rule. Their attempt comes to a head as the tyrant Numen, who supposedly advocates progressive Western policies, seals an alliance with the leader of an oil-rich “Islamic republic” who is peddling a distorted version of religion. In a protest against this unholy federation, Balkis is killed by the dictator’s guards, while Oric is overwhelmed by guilt at having become paralysed by fear and not done enough to save her.

Echoing the novel’s title, this is not the end of the story but only the beginning. Belkis and Oric are Dolphineros who live by the mantra, “Death is a lie”. When they are killed, they become Leviathans, wise leaders who enjoy eternal life and can be repeatedly reincarnated; according to Belkis, “the men and women who envisioned a better world and are now guiding us”. (p. 158)

In Hrant’s words, “Our mission is to hold Life sacred… We toil for a future where killing will be a bygone pandemic”. (p. 37)

Belkis continues to reappear as Oric struggles with his guilt and tries to overcome the fear that caused it. Cloaked in various disguises, they join other non-violent fighters for freedom on missions to many distant lands, aiming to repair the world. Oric begins to keep a journal chronicling their journeys, perhaps the author’s way of pointing to the significance of the written word in recording real history and guiding people towards change.

Combatting modern slavery, they travel to Africa to free boys for sale as child soldiers, youth trafficked for the sex trade, imprisoned journalists and activists, adults sold for organ transplants and girls who had been abducted. In Asia, they rescue women ensnared for the European sex trade, men in debt bondage and imprisoned dissenters, journalists, writers and bloggers, Rohingyas facing ethnic cleansing, Afghani youth recruited by the Taliban, Indian children slaving in cottage industries, and many more. In Central America they save those targeted for assassination by the drug cartels. In Yemen they rescue orphans in war-torn Yemen. They also liberate Filipino, Bangladeshi and Indonesian domestics, and aid refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos. The list goes on and on, and each mission is an adventure and a lesson in itself. There is also time for friendship and beauty as they join Roma friends for evenings of feasts, song and dance, and stage cultural festivals for marginalised social groups, which proved that “art did melt away animosities, that whatever the differences between peoples and cultures, the joy of humanness overpowered the hatreds concocted by deranged power-merchants”. (p. 213)

As one reads along to find out if Oric will overcome his fear and guilt, Farhi mesmerises with his multiple references to ancient and medieval mythology; he delights with his satirising of fundamentalisms of all shades; and impresses by paying homage to artists, writers, philosophers, humanists, doctors, scientists, explorers and philanthropists who have paved the way to a better future. While portraying a dystopia in all its gruesome features, Farhi also shows the way to freedom and equality via love, compassion and reason.

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO — On December 30, researchers using artificial intelligence systems to comb through media and social platforms detected the spread of an unusual flu-like illness in Wuhan, China.

It would be days before the World Health Organisation released a risk assessment and a full month before the UN agency declared a global public health emergency for the novel coronavirus.

Could the AI systems have accelerated the process and limited, or even arrested, the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Clark Freifeld, a Northeastern University computer scientist working with the global disease surveillance platform HealthMap, one of the systems detecting the outbreak, said it remains an open question.

"We identified the early signals, but the reality is it's hard to tell when you have an unidentified respiratory illness if it's a really serious situation," said Freifeld.

Dataminr, a real-time risk detection technology firm, said it delivered the earliest warning about COVID-19 on December 30 based on eyewitness accounts from inside Wuhan hospitals, pictures of the disinfection of the Wuhan seafood market where the virus originated and a warning by a Chinese doctor who later died from the virus himself.

"One of our biggest challenges is we tend to be reactive in these situations, it's human nature," said Kamran Khan, founder and chief executive of the Toronto-based disease tracking firm BlueDot, one of the early systems that flashed warning flags in December over the epidemic.

"Whenever you're dealing with a new, emerging disease, you don't have all the answers. Time is your most valuable resource; you cannot get it back."

Khan, who is also a professor of medicine and public health at the University of Toronto, told AFP by telephone the data showed "echoes of the SARS outbreak 17 years earlier, but we didn't know was how contagious this was."

Nevertheless, AI systems have proven to be valuable in tracking epidemics by scouring a diverse array of sources ranging from airline bookings, Twitter and Weibo messages to news reports and sensors on connected devices.

Humans in the loop

Still, Freifeld said AI systems have limits, and the big decisions must still be made by humans.

"We use the AI system as a force multiplier, but we are committed to the concept of having humans in the loop," he said.

AI and machine learning systems are likely to help the battle in several ways, from tracking the outbreak itself to speeding up drug testing.

"We can run simulations unlike we've ever done before, we understand biological pathways unlike we've ever understood before, and that's all because of the power of AI," said Michael Greeley of the equity firm Flare Capital Partners, which has invested in several AI medical startups.

But Greeley said it remains challenging to apply these technologies to sectors like drug delivery where the normal testing time can be years.

"There is extraordinary pressure on the industry to start using these tools even though they may not be ready for prime time," he said.

According to Khan, AI is helping in the containment phase with systems that used "anonymised" smartphone location data to track the progression of the disease and find hotspots, and to determine if people are following "social distancing" guidelines.

Andrew Kress, CEO of the health technology firm HealthVerity, said it remains challenging to collect medical data for disease outbreaks while complying with patient privacy.

It's possible to detect trends with signals such as pharmacy visits and sales of certain medications or even online searches, Kress said, but aggregating that has privacy implications.

"We need to have a real discussion about balance and utility around specific use cases and potentially the right kind of research to continue to figure out new ways to leverage some of these nontraditional data sources," Kress said.

Data mining

AI systems are also being put to work to scour the thousands of research studies for clues on what treatments might be effective.

Last week, researchers joined the White House in an effort to make available some 29,000 coronavirus research articles that can be scanned for data mining.

The effort brought together the Allen Institute for AI, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Microsoft, Georgetown University and others.

Through Kaggle, a machine learning and data science community owned by Google, these tools will be openly available for researchers around the world.

"It's difficult for people to manually go through more than 20,000 articles and synthesise their findings," said Kaggle CEO and co-founder Anthony Goldbloom.

"Recent advances in technology can be helpful here. We're putting machine-readable versions of these articles in front of our community of more than four million data scientists. Our hope is that AI can be used to help find answers to a key set of questions about COVID-19."

By Rob Lever and Julie Jammot

GRINDAVIK, Iceland — Using slow, deliberate movements and deep breathing, bathers immerse themselves in the waters of an ice-covered lake in southwestern Iceland.

While others might opt for the soothing hot springs for which the country is famous, this hardy group prefers an ice bath, all in the name of wellness.

The temperature above the frozen lake of Kleifarvatn, one of the country's deepest, is minus 6 degrees Celsius.

Equipped with an axe, Andri Einarsson, the co-instructor on this unusual seminar, cuts a hole through the sheet of ice covering the lake, located less than an hour's drive from the famous Blue Lagoon geothermal spa whose milky blue waters average 38 degrees C.

Up on shore, the group of about 15, who have come from the outskirts of the capital Reykjavik, is getting ready.

Clad in puffer jackets or thick sweaters, the participants warm up with a series of movements and breathing exercises reminiscent of the traditional Maori haka war dance.

"They were just working on getting the system ready [for the cold], challenging their mind, just tapping in and doing what we call the 'brown fat activation'," Einarsson tells AFP.

Cold as a remedy

The breathing technique is one of the pillars of the Wim Hof Method, named after a Dutch athlete.

Nicknamed the "Iceman," Wim Hof has been setting world records and pursuing extraordinary feats of cold resistance for decades.

In 2007, he climbed to an altitude of 7,400 metres on Mount Everest dressed only in shorts, and he's completed a barefoot half-marathon north of the Arctic Circle.

He lauds the benefits of his cold therapy — which combines breathing techniques, exposure to cold and meditation — as helping combat fatigue and stress and strengthening the immune system.

On the Kleifarvatn shore, despite the freezing cold, one by one the jackets and sweaters are discarded in favour of swimwear, and the participants begin to take the plunge.

Many don't even hesitate — the exercise marks the end of a four-week programme in which they've progressively been exposed to the cold.

It began with water at 10 degrees, followed by a bath full of ice, before finally braving the frozen lake.

For two minutes they endure the icy water, concentrating on inhaling and exhaling, which according to the adepts is the key to ignoring the biting pangs of the freezing temperatures.

Once out, walking back to dry land presents another challenge, as the cold water makes most people's legs go numb.

"There is this feeling of needles and everything starts itching a little bit," Marco Pizzolato tells AFP, as he returns from the hole in the ice.

 'All your worries'

When it comes to pain relief, the benefits of cold exposure have been known about since ancient times.

However the practice has been gaining popularity among athletes for the last 15 years to help them recover faster from workouts and injuries.

Scientists however are not yet fully convinced.

"We need more research before we can say for sure that it helps," Haukur Bjornsson, a doctor with the Icelandic national football team, tells AFP.

"Cold water immersion is part of what is recommended to help with the recovery. But the most important thing is sleep and nutrition, those are the only things for which we have some strong scientific proof," Bjornsson adds.

Different forms of cold therapy have found favour among the general public in recent years, with health clinics offering cryotherapy and fitness blogs preaching the benefits of cold showers.

Most public baths now too offer pools with water between two and 10 degrees C.

But Andri Einarsson stresses that it takes practice to actually enjoy the experience.

"Everybody can go in an ice bath, sit there and... be tough. But surrendering to it is totally a whole other ball game," he says.

While the science of the Wim Hof Method is still not understood or universally accepted, those participants questioned by AFP swore by its merits.

Ingvar Christiansen said that the practice "completely changed [his] life and way of thinking," as he recovered from a trying time in his life where he battled weight, burnout and divorce proceedings.

He now prefers cold baths to vacationing abroad.

"When I got out, I felt like I was coming home from a two-week vacation in Spain. You dump everything: all your worries, all

your anxiety, it goes away."

By Jeremie Richard 

LOS ANGELES — From quarrelling couples to toilet paper hoarding, life under coronavirus lockdown across much of the United States has provided comedy material for those seeking light-hearted relief in these difficult times.

More than 50 per cent of Americans are under some form of lockdown, while regular TV comedy staples such as Saturday Night Live are on hiatus, prompting many to turn to internet memes for amusement.

Short-form video platform TikTok has 1.3 million videos dedicated to a new coronavirus song — including dance routines with synchronised coughs. #Boredathome clips of people twerking, planking and dressing up in giant Pikachu outfits to break the monotony have been viewed 2.1 billion times.

Another TikTok video of a hamster perched on its hind legs appearing to "wash" its hands inside a tiny doll's house has been viewed more than 800,000 times.

"It is truly sad that a hamster just genuinely offered more useful public health advice in one 12-second TikTok than the president has in multiple addresses to the nation," quipped comedian John Oliver, broadcasting his "Last Week Tonight" show from an empty studio.

Like Oliver, several late-night comedy hosts have taken to broadcasting online from sealed-off settings, including their own homes.

Stephen Colbert appeared live from his own bathtub, counselling viewers to "look on the bright side — you're finally going to get a chance to binge watch all that toilet paper you bought."

"Based on my current level of inactivity and stress baking, I definitely will not be flattening my curves," added the host of CBS's "The Late Show."

Trevor Noah renamed his Comedy Central program as "The Daily Social Distancing Show," advising viewers anxious about President Donald Trump's handling of the crisis to "binge-watch the first eight years" of the Obama presidency instead.

'Stuck here with you'

Less established comedians, many of whom depend on live stand-up shows for a living, have reached new audiences online — with many jokes again revolving around the pandemic.

Comedians Taylor Tomlinson and Sam Morril began dating in real life just before the crisis, and their series of short, scripted videos about being confined together has had tens of thousands of views.

"Don't enter a brand new, long-distance relationship right before a pandemic," wrote Tomlinson on Instagram alongside the first video of "New Couple Gets Quarantined."

"I cannot believe I'm stuck here with you — I'd rather be Tom Hanks in Castaway," she shouts at Morril during a row in one episode. "I'd rather be Tom Hanks now, with coronavirus!" he replies.

Gus Johnson's video entitled "People who are going to parties right now" racked up over 1.65 million YouTube views, lampooning the selfishness of young people who mistakenly believe they are immune to the virus.

Online comedy sketch group Smosh published an episode entitled "Every Quarantine Ever," featuring a heavy-set man's desperate struggle to get off the couch and do a single pushup, and a woman making small talk to a stranger on the phone, including "So how much toilet paper do you have?"

'Perfectly healthy'

Even more august institutions like the New Yorker magazine have got in on the act, publishing a tongue-in-cheek lifestyle column called "Some Coronavirus Guidelines" which mocks the contradictory advice circulating.

"There's no need to panic... Stress is so normal that most Americans are feeling it right now. Which is a perfectly healthy response mechanism," it begins.

"And by 'healthy' we mean incredibly dangerous ... The good news is that if you continue worrying you can avoid contracting the virus entirely by dying of a premature heart attack."

By Andrew Marszal