Carrie's latest accessory: Abu Dhabi

This summer, Abu Dhabi residents, are you ready to be Carrie-d away? Excuse the weak Sex and the City pun, but as the film's marketing team still see fit to persist with it, presumably everyone else can too. But listen up: the point is that the film sequel is partly based in our very own capital city, with a trip made here by the four women as an escape from Manhattan. "It's the new Middle East and the future," explained the writer and director Michael Patrick King earlier this week on his decision to bring Abu Dhabi into the plot. "I think there's a very big story in the Middle East and it also is a very advanced, glamorous capital," he told the film website Collider.com.

As we gear ourselves up for the film's international release in May, rumours about the storyline have filtered through from the film's studio, Warner Bros. And while the movie may be set here, it wasn't actually filmed here but on location in Morocco. Who knows what the imaginary version of Abu Dhabi they have come up with will look like? However, we're not going to let this spoil our fun or stop us from imagining how the film might have looked if they had shot it here.

What has been reported is that the action kicks off two years on from where we left the girls in the first film. Happily, this has given them all new problems to moan about while picking at a bowl of spinach over brunch. We also know that Samantha manages to wangle them a week's holiday in Abu Dhabi, where an ex-boyfriend (we presume Smith) is shooting a film in the desert. Miranda is exhausted from work and Carrie is presumably delighted with the opportunity to break out a new, jewelled wardrobe, but Charlotte apparently needs the break most of all. Weighed down by two children, the gloss of her arduous Park Avenue princess existence has worn off and she's grappling with rumours that Harry is having an affair with the nanny. No points for originality, scriptwriters.

So, out they all trot to Abu Dhabi. And guess what? While here, Carrie apparently bumps into her ex-boyfriend Aidan in "a market". The most extraordinary coincidence in film history? It's up there. We're not told what market. Until May, it will be left up to our fertile imaginations to dwell upon whether their meeting place was inspired by the Iranian souq, Spinneys, the vegetable aisle of Abela or the cheese room at Jones the Grocer. Wherever it is, however, this "chance" meeting leads to them spending plenty of time together.

Frolicking around on the Corniche, perhaps, or dining at the Yacht Club? "You're playing with fire," Charlotte reportedly tells Carrie. Again, let's take a moment to salute the scriptwriters with this piece of poetry. Carrie, of course, is still married to Mr Big, although whispers suggest he too makes room for a flirtation with Penélope Cruz, who has a cameo in the film and told King she watched the first one 15 times.

The film's official trailer was released in December, but it makes no allusion to any extramarital activities. Instead, it shows the brightly dressed quartet riding camels (expect jokes from Samantha about this), wandering in the sand dunes and sitting under a gazebo in the desert. There they can be seen drinking from glass goblets and eating off silver platters. No cans or charcoal barbecue for them. No sleeping in tents on inflatable mattresses. It's presumably Qasr Al Sarab all the way for our precious four New Yorkers.

We're also told that they hang out at a "lavish" nightclub. Might we suggest Rush at the Yas Hotel, Etoiles at Emirates Palace or Pearls & Caviar at the Shangri-La. They're more their speed than the Captain's Arms or 3rd Avenue. With regards to shopping and clothing, the trailer shows Carrie arriving at the airport wearing a sparkly turban paired with an asymmetric dress, shoulder-less on one side, suggesting that the wardrobe department was geographically confused by the challenges of a Middle Eastern visit. Still, presumably they'll shop once they're here.

Helpful residents might have told them to avoid the traffic around Abu Dhabi Mall, so let's assume they go looking for shoes in Ounass or Aldo in Marina Mall, bling at the Madinat Zayed gold souq and Swarovski-covered kaftans at the Souk Qaryat al Beri. We have more than two months before the film is released. Good news for fans, the worst possible news for detractors. Between now and May, expect new levels of SATC fever pitch to be reached over the unstoppable juggernaut. As Carrie says at the trailer's beginning: "Just when you think you've seen it all, it hits you. You haven't seen anything yet."

Emergency

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry

Rating: 2/5

Combating coronavirus

Nick March: coronavirus dark cloud could have a silver lining

Gavin Esler: coronavirus offers a stinging rebuke to protectionists

Rashmee Roshan Lall: we will learn how to be vulnerable together

As You Were

Liam Gallagher

(Warner Bros)

Match info

Bournemouth 1 (King 45 1')
Arsenal 2 (Lerma 30' og, Aubameyang 67')

Man of the Match: Sead Kolasinac (Arsenal)

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

Gremio 1 Pachuca 0

Gremio Everton 95’

Artist Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim's exhibition is otherworldly but born of the land

UAE to make history at Venice Biennale

Test

Director: S Sashikanth

Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

Scoreline

Arsenal 3
Aubameyang (28'), Welbeck (38', 81')
Red cards: El Neny (90' 3)

Southampton 2
Long (17'), Austin (73')
Red cards: Stephens (90' 2)

if you go

The flights

Direct flights from the UAE to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, are available with Air Arabia, (www.airarabia.com) Fly Dubai (www.flydubai.com) or Etihad (www.etihad.com) from Dh1,200 return including taxes. The trek described here started from Jomson, but there are many other start and end point variations depending on how you tailor your trek. To get to Jomson from Kathmandu you must first fly to the lake-side resort town of Pokhara with either Buddha Air (www.buddhaair.com) or Yeti Airlines (www.yetiairlines.com). Both charge around US$240 (Dh880) return. From Pokhara there are early morning flights to Jomson with Yeti Airlines or Simrik Airlines (www.simrikairlines.com) for around US$220 (Dh800) return.

The trek

Restricted area permits (US$500 per person) are required for trekking in the Upper Mustang area. The challenging Meso Kanto pass between Tilcho Lake and Jomson should not be attempted by those without a lot of mountain experience and a good support team. An excellent trekking company with good knowledge of Upper Mustang, the Annaurpuna Circuit and Tilcho Lake area and who can help organise a version of the trek described here is the Nepal-UK run Snow Cat Travel (www.snowcattravel.com). Prices vary widely depending on accommodation types and the level of assistance required.

Women%E2%80%99s%20Asia%20Cup

%3Cp%3ESylhet%2C%20Bangladesh%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20results%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3ELost%20to%20Sri%20Lanka%20by%2011%20runs%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20fixtures%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3ETue%20Oct%204%2C%20v%20India%3Cbr%3EWed%20Oct%205%2C%20v%20Malaysia%3Cbr%3EFri%20Oct%207%2C%20v%20Thailand%3Cbr%3ESun%20Oct%209%2C%20v%20Pakistan%3Cbr%3ETue%20Oct%2011%2C%20v%20Bangladesh%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

FA Cup fifth round draw

Sheffield Wednesday v Manchester City
Reading/Cardiff City v Sheffield United
Chelsea v Shrewsbury Town/Liverpool
West Bromwich Albion v Newcastle United/Oxford United
Leicester City v Coventry City/Birmingham City
Northampton Town/Derby County v Manchester United
Southampton/Tottenham Hotspur v Norwich City
Portsmouth v Arsenal

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

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

The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

Fighting with My Family

Director: Stephen Merchant

Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Florence Pugh, Thomas Whilley, Tori Ellen Ross, Jack Lowden, Olivia Bernstone, Elroy Powell

Four stars

Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers