Huge update on Saudi Arabia's skyscraper 'utopia'
It's a building project worthy of the kings of ancient Persia: A 170km long mirrored skyscraper cutting a swathe through the Tabuk Desert in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
The great residential wall is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud's flagship project. It's supposed to define a future beyond the nation's dependence on crude oil.
It's about technology. It's about architecture. It's about a new way of life.
It's also about tourism, manufacturing and surveillance. Not to mention housing the world's richest and most ambitious in a glistening technocratic utopia.
The project was first announced in 2021.
Since then, billions of dollars have been spent on moving mountains of sand in preparation for laying the foundations of the much-hyped 'ecologically sensitive' city.
But there are problems.
Oil prices have remained stubbornly low. But costs keep spiralling.
And that's introduced Saudi Arabia to something new: a tight national budget.
Neom's new chief executive officer, Aiman Al-Mudaifer, has hired some of the world's most expensive consulting firms to engage in a strategic review of the gigaproject.
Is it viable? Is it practical?
What can be done to rein in costs?
In April, financial consultancy Goldman Sachs told its clients that Saudi Arabia was facing 'pretty significant' budget deficits. Now, a new Bloomberg report says consultants have been hired to propose potential cost-cutting changes to the gigaproject's design.
But this is the Crown Prince's Vision 2030 plan. He gets a royal veto.
A matter of scale
The Line's chief operating officer, Giles Pendleton, is upbeat about progress: 'THE LINE is taking shape at an incredible pace and something I'm incredibly proud of,' he posted to social media.
But Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants 1.5 million people living inside his glittering city by 2030.
It was always an ambitious goal.
Only 2.5 km of the 170 km long structure is currently under construction. Once completed, it will be capable of housing some 300,000.
Now, even that appears to be overly ambitious.
The Financial Times reported in April that a 'comprehensive review' of the project had been initiated amid fears the centrepiece of the Line's first segment – the NEOM stadium – wouldn't be ready in time for the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
So can the world's top consultancy firms save the day?
Initial ideas include reducing its proposed height to 500m, further shortening the length of the first component, and abandoning its proposed iconic mirrored exterior.
But whether or not any of these recommendations are adopted is a matter of royal prerogative.
The Line, as with the remainder of the NEOM desert technohub concept, is widely regarded as the Crown Prince's vanity project.
'We need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one,' he stated during the gigaproject's launch. 'Today, I present to you The Line … that preserves 95 per cent of nature within NEOM, with zero cars, zero streets and zero carbon emissions.'
It's about status.
It's about making a personal mark on history.
The Crown Prince wants to build the world's largest building (the Mukaab), the world's tallest skyscraper (the 1km high JEC Tower), and a series of spectacular (and landscape-changing) desert holiday resorts.
No matter the cost.
So far, that's been about $A77 billion.
Income versus expenditure
'There's nothing ordinary about building THE LINE and nothing ordinary about the people bringing it to life,' Pendleton boasts.
The potential total bill for the entire NEOM gigaproject has been calculated at $A2.5 trillion.
And there are also allegations that it has already cost 21,000 construction worker lives.
Now, labour is getting more expensive.
And Saudi Arabia's budget, to which oil still contributes about 61 per cent, is suffering under the global shift toward renewable energy.
With oil prices lingering at about $US70 a barrel, the Crown Prince's expectations may have to be curtailed.
Analysts say Saudi Arabia needs oil prices to be consistently above $US100 a barrel if it is to have any chance of paying for the building projects.
That's looking increasingly unlikely.
Russia has been dumping its oil on international markets in sanction-busting 'dark fleet' moves. And other OPEC+ nations have been less than willing to participate in price-raising production cuts.
So Saudi Arabia in April accused Iraq and the United Arab Emirates of 'cheating', and announced an increase to its own output.
This further puts downward pressure on international oil prices.
The Line was projected to contribute $75 billion to Saudi Arabia's national budget by 2030, providing approximately 380,000 full-time and high-tech jobs.
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The Australian
14 minutes ago
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Britain leads calls for airdrops as Gaza hunger crisis deepens
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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Israeli military expert predicts Gaza war to continue for 10 years
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News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
Britain leads calls for airdrops as Gaza hunger crisis deepens
International pressure was mounting on Saturday for alternative ways to be found to deliver food to hungry Palestinian civilians in Gaza, with Britain vowing to back airdrops. The UK decision to support the plans of regional partners Jordan and the United Arab Emirates came as pro-Palestinian activists piloted a symbolic aid vessel towards the shores of Gaza in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade. On the ground, the territory's civil defence agency said at least 40 more Palestinians had been killed in Israeli military strikes and shootings. Humanitarian chiefs are deeply sceptical that airdrops can deliver enough food to tackle the deepening hunger crisis facing Gaza's more than two million inhabitants and are instead demanding that Israel allow more overland convoys. But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the idea, vowing to work with Jordan to restart airdrops -- and with France and Germany to develop a plan for a lasting ceasefire. An Israeli official told AFP on Friday that airdrops in Gaza would resume soon, adding they would be conducted by the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Starmer's office said that in a call with his French and German counterparts, the "prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance". The United Arab Emirates said it would resume airdrops "immediately". "The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level," Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a post on X. "Air drops are resuming once more, immediately." - 'Starving civilians' - A number of Western and Arab governments carried out air drops in Gaza in 2024, at a time when aid deliveries by land also faced Israeli restrictions, but many in the humanitarian community consider them ineffective. "Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Israel imposed a total blockade on the entry of aid into Gaza on March 2 after talks to extend a ceasefire in the now 21-month-old conflict broke down. In late May, it began to allow a trickle of aid to enter. Israel's military insists it does not limit the number of trucks going into the Gaza Strip, and alleges that UN agencies and relief groups are not collecting the aid once it is inside the territory. But humanitarian organisations accuse the Israeli army of imposing excessive restrictions, while tightly controlling road access within Gaza. A separate aid operation is under way through the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but has faced fierce international criticism after Israeli fire killed hundreds of Palestinians near distribution points. - Naval blockade - On Saturday, pro-Palestinian activist group Freedom Flotilla said its latest aid boat, the Handala, was approaching Gaza and had already got closer than its previous vessel, the Madleen, which was intercepted and boarded by Israeli forces last month. The Israeli military said it was monitoring the situation and was prepared to enforce what it called its "legal maritime security blockade". Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 40 people on Saturday, including 14 killed in separate incidents near aid distribution centres. One of the 14 was killed "after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for humanitarian aid" northwest of Gaza City, the agency said. Witnesses told AFP that several thousand people had gathered in the area. Abu Samir Hamoudeh, 42, said the Israeli military opened fire while people were waiting to approach a distribution point near an Israeli military post in the Zikim area, northwest of Sudaniyah. The Israeli military told AFP that its troops fired "warning shots to distance the crowd" after identifying an "immediate threat". It added that it was not aware of any casualties as a result of the fire. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties. Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. The Israeli campaign has killed 59,733 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
