Prometheus
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green
****
The trouble with prequels is that, by their very nature, they're designed to strip away the mystery. Last year's The Thing, for example, set out to join the dots right up to the point John Carpenter's 1982 icy alien classic of the same name began. It's merely part of a larger Hollywood trend that sees screenwriters taught to explain, to answer, to solve riddles, to leave the audience without a shred of doubt.
So any trepidation that Alien fans may be feeling towards Ridley Scott's Prometheus is understandable, particularly as Scott has promised that, 33 years since his film Alien changed the face of science fiction movies, he will return to the franchise he started, to answer some burning questions. Not least, the origins of the so-called "Space Jockey" - the creature whose carcass is glimpsed briefly in Alien.
While Prometheus does indeed provide answers, at least the script by Jon Spaihts and the Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof makes a virtue out of this. Set primarily in 2093, some 30 years before Alien, the crew of the ship Prometheus, led by the archaeologist couple Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), are travelling to distant moon LV-223 to uncover the origins of mankind and, quite literally, meet our makers.
Funding the trillion dollar trip is the Weyland Corp - the insidious "Company" from the original films - led by the ageing CEO Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), who has an agenda of his own. His agents on the ship include the mission director Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and the lifelike android David (Michael Fassbender) - one of several reminders that while Sigourney Weaver's heroine Ripley is absent, we are very much still in the Alien universe.
For all the tangential links to the franchise, there are differences: the crew of Prometheus (led by Idris Elba of The Wire) is more A-list than Alien's cast ever was, and the tension and dread of the original is largely absent, simply because this is not a film full of acid-spewing, dome-headed aliens munching through the crew one by one. But if it's more sci-fi than horror, there are some shocking sequences, one involving a nail-biting self-surgery that will turn you inside out.
Performances are first-rate - particularly an eerie Fassbender - but what really impresses is that Prometheus is a film about ideas. Expanding on Alien's preoccupations - the very male fear of reproduction - Scott's return to this bleak, forbidding future world asks big philosophical questions about the responsibility of creation. As forensic as it is frenetic, it's as thought-provoking as blockbusters get.
North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
Schedule
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Stage results
1. Julian Alaphilippe (FRA) Deceuninck-QuickStep 4:39:05
2. Michael Matthews (AUS) Team BikeExchange 0:00:08
3. Primoz Roglic (SLV) Jumbo-Visma same time
4. Jack Haig (AUS) Bahrain Victorious s.t
5. Wilco Kelderman (NED) Bora-Hansgrohe s.t
6. Tadej Pogacar (SLV) UAE Team Emirates s.t
7. David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama-FDJ s.t
8. Sergio Higuita Garcia (COL) EF Education-Nippo s.t
9. Bauke Mollema (NED) Trek-Segafredo s.t
10. Geraint Thomas (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers s.t
Venom
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Cast: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed
Rating: 1.5/5
RACE CARD
6.30pm Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,200
7.05pm Handicap Dh165,000 (D) 1,600m
7.40pm Maiden Dh165,000 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm Handicap Dh190,000 (D) 1,600m
8.50pm Handicap Dh175,000 (D) 1,400m
9.25pm Handicap Dh175,000 (D) 2,000m
The National selections:
6.30pm Underwriter
7.05pm Rayig
7.40pm Torno Subito
8.15pm Talento Puma
8.50pm Etisalat
9.25pm Gundogdu
Brief scores:
Liverpool 3
Mane 24', Shaqiri 73', 80'
Manchester United 1
Lingard 33'
Man of the Match: Fabinho (Liverpool)
MATCH INFO
Sheffield United 3
Fleck 19, Mousset 52, McBurnie 90
Manchester United 3
Williams 72, Greenwood 77, Rashford 79
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Hili 2: Unesco World Heritage site
The site is part of the Hili archaeological park in Al Ain. Excavations there have proved the existence of the earliest known agricultural communities in modern-day UAE. Some date to the Bronze Age but Hili 2 is an Iron Age site. The Iron Age witnessed the development of the falaj, a network of channels that funnelled water from natural springs in the area. Wells allowed settlements to be established, but falaj meant they could grow and thrive. Unesco, the UN's cultural body, awarded Al Ain's sites - including Hili 2 - world heritage status in 2011. Now the most recent dig at the site has revealed even more about the skilled people that lived and worked there.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Ramy%3A%20Season%203%2C%20Episode%201
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Company%20profile
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UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (c), Chamani Senevirathne (vc), Subha Srinivasan, NIsha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Esha Oza, Ishani Senevirathne, Heena Hotchandani, Keveesha Kumari, Judith Cleetus, Chavi Bhatt, Namita D’Souza.
SPECS
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
The%20Genius%20of%20Their%20Age
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