NEOM / The Line

tracked under Infrastructure ▸ Megaprojects

state of play · Infrastructure

A drone carrying Semtex, a military-grade plastic explosive not commercially available, was placed beside a Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport overnight August 5; a DHL cargo aircraft struck an unknown object during its climb; investigators are searching for a second suspected flying object; German and NATO investigators are focusing on Russia as the likely actor. German Interior Minister Dobrindt described the incident as 'a new threat' to German infrastructure security. Leipzig/Halle is DHL's primary European cargo hub; the An-124 is one of the world's largest heavy-lift cargo aircraft. Counter-drone perimeter systems did not detect the tarmac-placed device, exposing a structural security gap at cargo facilities across NATO territory.

Auckland Transport confirmed the opening date of New Zealand's NZ$5.5 billion City Rail Link on August 5-6, after advertising billboards across Auckland accidentally revealed the date before an official announcement. The underground rail tunnel, discussed in Auckland for roughly a century, will allow trains to run through the city centre rather than terminating at Britomart station, the single piece of infrastructure that most changes Auckland's transport network capacity.

A Mediterranean cable cut blacked out Syria's internet for 48 hours before engineers rerouted via Cyprus and Turkey and spliced the fibre, a 1997-vintage single cable exposing how thin national redundancy is. Data-center load is straining the largest US eastern grid. The seabed and the grid remain the persistent single points of failure.

Watch: Leipzig/Halle investigation attribution and formal security-response from NATO cargo facility operators; whether the DHL aircraft collision and the tarmac drone are connected; CRL opening ridership figures in first weeks; cable-repair capacity and grid build-out.

Saudi Arabia's US$500 billion Public Investment Fund megaproject in Tabuk province, flagship of Vision 2030, now sharply scaled back after The Line's indefinite halt in 2025-2026.

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Mohammed bin Salman

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince since 2017 and Prime Minister since 2022, the architect of Vision 2030 and the swing-producer decisions that move world oil prices.

·4 takes ·Jul 3

NEOM halts The Line until after 2030 with a $16bn cancellation bill

The flagship of Vision 2030 cuts its population target to 100,000 and faces a bigger bill to cancel contracts than to build, as Riyadh resets its megaproject

Whose Money ·8 takes ·Jun 24

The briefing, by email