Front Burner

Flying cars, an artificial moon and Saudi Arabia's $500 billion vision for the future

Today on Front burner, the Wall Street Journal’s Justin Scheck on “Neom” — Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion vision for the future, and what it tells us about their fight to redefine their place on the international stage.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh on October 23, 2018. (Photo by Fayez Nureldine / AFP) (AFP/Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia's "Neom" is a planned futuristic city-state in the desert. The project is said to include flying cars, gene editing, an island of robot dinosaurs, an artificial moon — and the most comprehensive surveillance state on earth. The Wall Street Journal has viewed planning documents that provide unprecedented access into the Gulf nation's plan to turn a formerly barren strip of desert into the most lucrative plot of land on earth. 

Today we'll talk to the Wall Street Journal's Justin Scheck, who broke the story about the Saudi Crown Prince's vision for the future, and what it tells us about the kingdom's place on the world stage.

 

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