Elliot Brown

Stephen, our colleague Elliot Brown, as well as others, have been documenting for years now that Saudi Arabia has been giving a haircut to some of its big construction projects.

That includes the line, that 105-mile-long building that it had hoped to build through the desert.

What's changing more recently?

And Stephen, up for reconsideration here too are investments, notably outside of the kingdom.

So what's causing all of this?

After all, we've seen in the last few weeks that unlike some of its Gulf peers, Saudi Arabia fortunately has pipelines that are able to take some of its oil over to the Red Sea to reach global oil markets getting around the Strait of Hormuz.

So what's causing the pressure here?

And yet officials are trying to put a positive spin on things.

And I should just say here, NEOM did not respond to requests for comment on this reporting.

I've been speaking to Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent Stephen Kalin.

Stephen, appreciate the update.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me.