A sequel to the comedy Borat has been purchased by Amazon Prime and is expected to hit the streaming platform before November's US election.
British comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen will reprise his cult favourite role as a bumbling and politically incorrect reporter from Kazakhstan, after nearly 15 years.
The 2006 original, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, grossed more than $260 million (Dh954.9m), winning over critics and spawning endless catchphrases among devoted fans. It even earned an Oscar screenplay nomination.
According to Deadline, the follow-up film was shot covertly with minimal crew as soon as coronavirus restrictions eased this summer in the US and overseas.
The original featured Cohen's fictional journalist blundering across the US in search of cultural enlightenment – with the joke at the expense of Americans, who nevertheless lapped it up at the box office.
The sequel will again focus on Cohen "going undercover to get people to reveal their true selves and their often unflattering biases, with only the slightest provocation", Deadline reports.
The controversial satirist's anarchic, gonzo-style comedy has spawned multiple celebrated television and film characters such as wannabe rapper Ali G and Austrian TV presenter Bruno.
Cohen – who also made the 2012 film The Dictator – was recently seen pranking public figures in the TV series Who is America?
In one memorable scene from the show, Cohen hoodwinked Republican politicians into endorsing a made-up plan to train preschoolers in how to fire a gun, although the show drew mixed reviews.
Sarah Palin, former vice-presidential nominee and ex-Alaska governor, slammed the comedian's "evil, exploitive, sick 'humour'".
Cohen plays a leading role in Aaron Sorkin's Oscar-tipped drama The Trial of the Chicago 7, streaming on Netflix next month.
EPL's youngest
- Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal)
15 years, 181 days old
- Max Dowman (Arsenal)
15 years, 235 days old
- Jeremy Monga (Leicester)
15 years, 271 days old
- Harvey Elliott (Fulham)
16 years, 30 days old
- Matthew Briggs (Fulham)
16 years, 68 days old
The biog
Born November 11, 1948
Education: BA, English Language and Literature, Cairo University
Family: Four brothers, seven sisters, two daughters, 42 and 39, two sons, 43 and 35, and 15 grandchildren
Hobbies: Reading and traveling
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Expo details
Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia
The world fair will run for six months from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits
Some 70 per cent visitors are projected to come from outside the UAE, the largest proportion of international visitors in the 167-year history of World Expos.
More than 30,000 volunteers are required for Expo 2020
The site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area
It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
