Month: November 2022

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported the latest National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) checks on gun sales during Black Friday was one of the “Top 10” busiest days in history.

NSSF said NICS processed 711,372 background checks during the days leading up to and including Black Friday. FBI’s NICS recorded 192,749 background checks on Black Friday alone, a 2.8% increase from Black Friday 2021, when 187,585 background checks were completed. 

Below are the number of NICS checks leading up to Black Friday.

• Saturday, Nov. 20, 2022: 102,376

• Sunday, Nov. 21, 2022: 57,665

• Monday, Nov. 22, 2022: 103,543

• Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2022: 109,895

• Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2022: 116,033

• Thursday, Nov. 25, 2022: 29,111

• Friday, Nov. 26, 2022: 192,749

Third-highest Black Friday NICS checks on record since the system was established in 1998. 

When a person tries to buy a firearm at a gun shop, known as a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL), they’re required to fill out an ATF form, and the FFL forwards that information to the NICS electronically. NICS staff performs a background check on the buyer to ensure he/she does not have a criminal record or isn’t otherwise ineligible to purchase or own a firearm. 

Joe Bartozzi, NSSF President and CEO, commented on the large influx of law-abiding Americans buying guns last week and said:

“Background checks for firearm purchases were already trending to make 2022 the third strongest year on record, coming off of the outsized years of 2020 and 2021.

“These figures tell us that there is a continued strong appetite for lawful firearm ownership by law-abiding Americans and that firearm manufacturers across the country continue to deliver the quality firearms our customers have come to expect.”

What’s important to note is that NICS checks are a proxy for the number of guns sold and are not exact because the background checks are performed on the buyer rather than the gun. 

Elevated NICS checks imply a strong firearm appetite among law-abiding Americans. There was no explanation given why this trend remained red hot since the early pandemic days. 

What might have supercharged gun buying among law-abiding Americans is this summer’s US Supreme Court’s NYSRPA v. Bruen ruling affirmed the right-to-carry applies outside the home, which forces states to stop arbitrarily denying carry permits to applicants who didn’t meet specific requirements. Perhaps another reason is that under the Biden administration, violent crime has soared in some parts of the country — law-abiding Americans might want protection. 

Authored by Kyle Anzalone & Will Porter via The Libertarian Institute,

Washington and Seoul are reportedly discussing plans to ramp up anti-submarine military exercises set to begin next year. The talks came amid soaring tensions in the region, and just days before North Korea pledged to further develop its nuclear arsenal. 

While some details of the biannual ‘Silent Shark’ drills remain undecided, they are set to be “bigger than those of the past, given the North heightening tensions with its dozens of missile tests in recent months,” the Korea Times reported last week, citing an unnamed navy official.

Seoul has claimed the exercises are needed to contain the growing threat from Pyongyang, saying they will focus on anti-submarine warfare assets and are “designed to improve their capability to respond to increasing North Korean submarine threats, including its submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).”

In October, the DPRK said it had successfully fired a KN-23 SLBM – modeled on the Russian Iskander missile – as part of a flurry of weapon tests carried out in retaliation to joint US-South Korean war games. The nuclear-capable KN-23 was launched from a special underwater reservoir, prompting speculation that Pyongyang may have developed a new launch platform for the weapon.

Military activity on the Korean Peninsula has reached a multi-year high in 2022, with North Korea conducting a record number of missile tests, including two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches this month alone. The US and South Korea, for their part, have deployed additional strategic assets to the region, and have carried out several rounds of live-fire military exercises, helping to drive a cycle of escalation with the North. 

Earlier this month, Washington flew nuclear-capable, long-range B-1B stealth bombers over Korea during its ‘Vigilant Storm’ drill as a show of force to Pyongyang. Though US Air Force Chief of Staff CQ Brown Jr. downplayed the maneuvers as “just part of an exercise,” the DPRK has repeatedly denounced such drills as provocative, viewing them as preparations for an attack.

In addition to continued missile, rocket and artillery tests, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has pledged to further develop his country’s nuclear capabilities in response to the growing tensions, saying the military would work to improve its nuclear forces at the “fastest possible speed” back in April. 

Kim Jong Un is still smoking near fueled liquid propellant ICBMs in 2022. https://t.co/9XbGFWWYMW

— Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) November 18, 2022

More recently, Kim claimed North Korean scientists had made a “wonderful leap forward in the development of the technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles,” going on to say that Pyongyang would create “the world’s most powerful strategic force, the absolute force unprecedented in the century.”

Just when the automobile industry thought it was out of the clutches of the Covid-induced supply chain SNAFU that had taken place over the last several years, it looks as though China’s strict Covid policy threatens to pull them back in again. 

“At least three major automakers” are once again shuttering production, according to a new report from Bloomberg this week. Honda has shut down operations in Wuhan for the time being due to “limitations around movement” in the area, the report says.

The company also suspended operations at a lawnmower engine plant in Chongqing.

Yamaha has also been hit by the new Covid lockdowns, partially suspending operations at a motorcycle plant in Chongqing. Bloomberg reports that 8,721 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the area on Monday this week. 

VW also halted production at a joint venture plant that it has with China FAW Group on Monday of this week, the report continues. Volkswagen is attributing the shutdown to a shortage of components. It has also shut down two of five production lines at its factory in Changchun and has no date for resuming operations.

Nissan, Mazda and Mitsubishi told Bloomberg that their operations had not been affected. 

Recall, just last week we published on how China’s Covid restrictions were actually tightening when the country’s market had assumed they were easing. 

We published:

“More than a week after Beijing fine-tuned its Covid Zero strategy, local governments are struggling to balance the need to control the pandemic while also limit the economic damage. Shijiazhuang, a closely-watched city that had experimented with a version of “living with the virus,” has reversed course, suspending schools and asking residents to stay at home for five days. As infections multiplied, subway rides in some big cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing have tumbled.

The result is that Goldman Sachs’s Effective Lockdown Index has increased in recent weeks, despite Beijing’s new order to reduce the need for mass testing and citywide shutdowns.”

 

Authored by Madalina Vasiliu via The Epoch Times,

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers militia group, was found guilty by a jury on Nov. 29 of seditious conspiracy connected to the events on Jan 6, 2021.

One co-defendant, Kelly Meggs, was also found guilty of seditious conspiracy on Tuesday, while three others—Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell—were acquitted of that charge.

In total, Rhodes was found guilty on three out of five counts: seditious conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, and tampering with documents or proceedings.

Meggs was found guilty on five counts out of six: seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, and tampering with documents.

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, center, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, on June 25, 2017. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo)

The other three defendants were each found guilty on multiple lesser charges.

In closing arguments, defense attorneys said the government failed to prove that the Oath Keepers planned to attack the Capitol or to interfere with the certification of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

A defense lawyer said that none of the 50 witnesses in the Oath Keepers trial testified that they heard any of the defendants discuss or plan to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

However, in the final rebuttal, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler said that according to the jury instructions (pdf), the government did not have to prove that the defendants had a detailed plan to breach the Capitol and meet in person to discuss their alleged scheme. An implicit agreement and mutual understanding were enough to prove the defendants’ conspiracy, he said.

Sharon and Thomas Caldwell at the Peace Monument during the January 6, 2021 protest in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of Sharon Caldwell)

Nestler told the jury that the three defendants who decided to take the witness stand to testify in their defense (Stewart Rhodes, Thomas Caldwell, and Jessica Watkins) allegedly lied.

“But it’s important to ask not just whether they lied. Ask yourself, why? Because the truth is so damning,” Nestler emphasized.

The government told the 14 jurors that the defendants deleted evidence that could prove even further their plan to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A sign outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington on Sept. 29, 2022. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

James Bright, the attorney for Rhodes, asked the jury how the Oath Keepers could conspire as early as November 2020 to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, if the Jan. 6 rally wasn’t announced until late December 2020.

Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers organization in 2009 to assist in natural disaster situations, Bright said, to volunteer to provide security for small businesses that could not afford security services from a regular company and to offer personal security details for VIPs.

Several members of the Oath Keepers testified during the weeks-long trial, saying that the organization gave them a sense of purpose since most members were retired veterans who found meaning in continuing to serve the country.

During nearly two months of trial, the U.S. prosecutors presented exhibits showing contact between the five defendants on trial and others who allegedly plotted to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Most of the government’s evidence came from the FBI agents assigned to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. Text messages, video footage, Signal messages (an encrypted messaging app), and Zello audio recordings (a walkie-talkie app) were frequently shown in the courtroom, among other exhibits.

In his closing argument, defense counsel Bradford Geyer walked the jury through a video where he pointed out that unknown provocateurs broke through the Capitol doors first.

“Please send Ken home,” Geyer told the jury.

Another defense attorney, David Fischer, explained an unsent message that Thomas Caldwell, an Oath Keeper affiliate, deleted containing a link. That shouldn’t be considered evidence, the attorney said, since a link is not a document. That link was a video available to everyone, Fischer continued.

The prosecution distorted timeframes throughout its presentation of when the defendants walked up the stairs and entered the building, argued Jonathan Crisp, Jessica Watkins’ attorney. He also said that the government’s evidence was mostly out of context. Crisp explained that the stack formation was a way to get through the dense crowd and not for attacking the Capitol.

Only defendants Jessica Watkins, Kelly Meggs, and Kenneth Harrelson entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rhodes and Caldwell did not.

In the aftermath of Jan. 6, the U.S. government charged Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell with seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, conspiracy to prevent an officer from carrying out any duties, destruction of government property, civil disorder, and tampering with documents.

Before passing the trial to the jury on Nov. 21 evening, Judge Amit Mehta, an appointee of Barack Obama, reminded the jurors that the trial was against the five defendants on trial and not against the Oath Keepers’ organization.

Edward Tarpley, attorney for Rhodes said, “The judge treated us with respect.”

“There was no evidence ever introduced that there was a plan,” Tarpley told The Epoch Times, “I am grateful for the jury for not finding them guilty on all counts.”

“Jessica testified well, however, the government will seek multiple enhancements,” Jonathan Crisp, attorney for Jessica Watkins, told The Epoch Times.

Seditious Conspiracy

The most recent charge of seditious conspiracy was in 2010 when the government accused nine members of the Hutaree Militia from Michigan of “levy war against the United States.” An FBI agent who infiltrated the militia group provided most of the prosecution evidence.

When the defendants’ trial began two years later, in 2012, U.S. district judge Victoria Roberts dismissed the conspiracy charges. The judge explained that the government’s evidence mainly consisted of the defendants’ controversial speech protected by the First Amendment and did not prove the group’s alleged plan to overthrow the government.

The U.S. government pressed multiple charges, including attempted murder and seditious conspiracy, against five members of the Puerto Rican Nationalists who attacked the Capitol in 1954. The group opened fire on the House of Representatives and injured five Congress members.

Another seditious conspiracy charge was pressed in 1995 against Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine of his followers. They were found guilty of planning to bomb bridges, tunnels, and other landmarks in New York City.

In 2006, Adam Gadahn was the first American charged with treason since World War II. He “gave al Qaeda aid and comfort … with intent to betray the United States.”

Read more here…

Several months ago, we mocked the ridiculous idea spawned by some of the “best and brightest” progressives currently cogitating and advising the 80-year-old in the White House, according to which even as Biden was actively steamrolling US energy companies by vowing to end US fossil fuel usage in a few decades and single-handedly crushing the price of oil through the biggest ever release of crude from the strategic petroleum reserve (where the term “emergency” now means not war or a natural disaster but Democrats lagging in the polls) he would be throwing them a bone by “promising” to buy oil if and when it hit a price of $72/barrell, as otherwise US producers would have zero incentive ever to invest even one dollar in growth (or even maintenance) capex, thereby guaranteeing much, much higher oil prices once the current SPR drain inevitably drew to a close (which may or many not happen in what’s left of the president’s lifetime).

Progressives cheering the latest SPR news unaware that the government is literally giving out tens of billions in risk-free dollars to US energy producers arbing the SPR trade. https://t.co/572IYI8t9L

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 26, 2022

And while on paper this noble lie may have looked appealing – after all by giving an oil price floor, Biden would at least tacitly encourage US majors to invest in much needed growth capex – we warned that it was still nonetheless just that: a lie.

Today, that was confirmed after Biden’s Energy Security Advisor Amos Hochstein said that the White House would look to refill the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves when oil prices were “consistently” at $70 per barrel, Bloomberg said.

As a reminder, in mid-October, the White House released a fact sheet that outlined the administration’s intention to refill the SPR when oil prices were between $67 and $72 per barrel, following the President’s release of 200 million barrels from the SPR to help bring down the price of oil.

According to the White House statement at the time, the Administration was counting on its repurchase of crude oil helping to create some certainty around future crude oil demand, stimulating greater domestic oil production. The United States has added 15 oil-directed drilling rigs since that announcement was made.

And now, just as we expected, the Administration is walking back that plan by clarifying that its repurchase program would begin only when crude oil prices were $70 or below “consistently”.

Hochstein did not say how long prices would need to stay at the level before repurchasing would begin.

One thing is certain: if and when oil prices are below $70 “consistently”, the White House will next lower the bogey to $60, $50, $40 and so on… as E&Ps watch in disgust and scrap any plans to expand production in the next decade.

Oil prices have been experiencing significant volatility over the past month, with OPEC’s production plans, the EU’s price cap plan and export ban, China’s Covid struggles, and stagnating U.S. production at the center of the volatility.

The amount of crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has declined by 204.3 million barrels so far this year, with the current levels at just 389.1 million barrels—the lowest level since March 1984.

“Refining and refilling the reserve at $70 a barrel is a good price for companies and it’s a good price for the taxpayers, and it’s critical to our national security,” The White House said in October. It lied, just as it has lied about everything else.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A gun control bill that would ban “assault weapons” likely does not have enough votes to make it to President Joe Biden’s desk, Democrats said on Nov. 27.

“I’m glad that President Biden is going to be pushing us to take a vote on an assault weapons ban. The House has already passed it. It’s sitting in front of the Senate. Does it have 60 votes in the Senate right now? Probably not,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I don’t know how you get 60 votes in the Senate,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House majority whip, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

The Democrat controlled-House of Representatives in July passed H.R. 1808, or the Assault Weapons Ban. The law would prohibit the sale, manufacture, and possession of all semiautomatic guns.

Democrats also control the Senate. The upper chamber is split 50–50 and Vice President Kamala Harris can cast tiebreaking votes. But to pass the filibuster, Democrats must convince 10 Republicans to support legislation.

Republicans will gain control of the House in January 2023 after flipping seats in the midterm elections, adding urgency to the Democrat push to pass gun control bills.

Biden on Thanksgiving called for “much stricter gun laws” and said he would call for a ban on so-called assault weapons during the lame-duck session.

“The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick,” Biden said.

“It’s just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers,” he added.

Criticism

Pro-Second Amendment groups and some Republicans have criticized the effort to ban “assault weapons,” noting the term would encompass many firearms.

“They are coming for everything,” the Firearms Policy Coalition said on Facebook, alongside a picture of Biden’s remarks.

“Americans rejected Pelosi’s gun control schemes in the mid terms, yet here is Biden saying he wants to ban modern firearms, and maligning most gun owners,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said in a statement.

He was referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and how Democrats lost the House in the midterms.

The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action estimated that more than 24 million guns could fall under the definition outlined in H.R. 1808.

Senate Prospects

The House narrowly passed H.R. 1808 in a 217–213 vote. Five Democrats—Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Vincente Gonzalez (D-Texas), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.)—voted against the bill. The latter two were voted out in the midterms. Two Republicans—Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.)—backed the legislation. Jacobs chose to retire due to his vote.

Bills only need a majority vote to pass the House. In the upper chamber, most bills need to meet a threshold called the filibuster, currently set at 60 votes, in order to advance to a final vote.

Democrats only hold 50 seats, necessitating support from at least 10 Republicans.

Fifteen Senate Republicans joined Democrats in June in approving a gun control bill called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, including Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine). The bill included expanding background checks; incentivizing states to impose measures known as red flag laws, which enable judges to strip people of guns; and boosting school security.

But none of the Republicans who voted for the bill has said they support a ban on so-called assault weapons.

The legislation “is being implemented as we speak,” Murphy said on Sunday, adding that “it takes a little while for these big, complicated laws to be put into place.”

Read more here…

The United States is considering transferring new longer-range rockets to Ukraine which are capable of striking targets 100 miles away, despite the Biden White House previously shutting the door on the possibility, citing worries that long-range systems could strike inside Russian territory, potentially bringing Moscow and Washington into direct confrontation. 

But those legitimate worries over stumbling into WW3 are apparently quickly going by the wayside, as Reuters reports this week that Boeing is getting involved by proposing its Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) for the Ukrainians, which could be delivered as early as spring 2023.

Time is indeed of the essence from NATO’s point of view, given rapidly depleting stockpiles in the militaries of the West, which the Pentagon has also of late expressed alarm over. 

The GLSDB is seen as versatile and capable of being quickly delivered to the battlefield given it combines small-diameter bombs with a key rocket technology said to be widely available among Pentagon inventories – the M26 rocket motor.

Boeing says it can easily manufacture many of these small precision-guided bombs cable of fitting into a variety of common rocket systems. Neither Boeing nor the Pentagon have yet to officially confirm, but Reuters details:

Although the United States has rebuffed requests for the 185-mile (297km) range ATACMS missile, the GLSDB’s 94-mile (150km) range would allow Ukraine to hit valuable military targets that have been out of reach and help it continue pressing its counterattacks by disrupting Russian rear areas.

GLSDB is made jointly by SAAB AB and Boeing Co and has been in development since 2019, well before the invasion, which Russia calls a “special operation”. In October, SAAB chief executive Micael Johansson said of the GLSDB: “We are imminently shortly expecting contracts on that.”

Crucially, the main appeal and priority is beginning to rest on availability… “According to the document – a Boeing proposal to U.S. European Command (EUCOM), which is overseeing weapons headed to Ukraine – the main components of the GLSDB would come from current U.S. stores,” Reuters writes.

“The M26 rocket motor is relatively abundant, and the GBU-39 costs about $40,000 each, making the completed GLSDB inexpensive and its main components readily available,” the report adds. “Although arms manufacturers are struggling with demand, those factors make it possible to yield weapons by early 2023, albeit at a low rate of production.”

Given that some US generals and officials have forecast that the Ukraine conflict could take years before the fighting ceases, and given already arms availability is becoming a major determinant for what gets sent, the massive Western weapons pipeline to Kiev could be growing thinner by the month. 

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans this week said that Apple’s alleged threat to remove Twitter from its App Store warrants congressional investigation.

“That would be a huge, huge mistake, and it would be a really raw exercise of monopolistic power that I think would merit a response from the United States Congress,” DeSantis told an audience in Duval County, Florida, on Tuesday.

The “old regime” at Twitter attempted to “suffocate the dissent” in regards to COVID-19 reporting, DeSantis said, adding that Apple is acting as a “vassal of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]” while using “corporate power in the United States … to suffocate Americans.”

The governor appeared to have been referring to reports that Apple blocked some features of its popular AirDrop service for only Chinese users prior to widespread protests against the regime’s “zero COVID” policies.

Top story: @FLVoiceNews: ‘WATCH: Ron DeSantis says Apple removing @elonmusk‘s Twitter from app store warrants Congressional response

“That would be a huge, huge mistake, and it would be a really raw exercise of monopol… pic.twitter.com/vmJ2ACglGb, see more https://t.co/whhQ7jVrUh

— NewsNosh (@NewsNosh) November 29, 2022

The Florida governor was referring to a claim from new Twitter owner Elon Musk’s posts on Monday that Apple, considered the world’s most valuable company, threatened to remove the Twitter app from its App Store. Apple has not yet issued a public comment on the matter, and The Epoch Times has contacted the firm for comment.

“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” Musk asked on Twitter.

“Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store,” he posted, “but won’t tell us why.” The tech billionaire also directly asked CEO Tim Cook: “What’s going on?”

Outside of DeSantis, other Republicans said that Apple and Google have too much control over the internet via their respective app-downloading stores. Removing Twitter from both would mean that the social media app would be heavily limited in its growth and usage.

Parler, a social media platform favored by conservatives, was removed from the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Web Services days after the Jan. 6 Capitol incident. For more than a month, the website was not accessible, and data shows that its usage significantly dropped during that time period and has never recovered.

“This is why we need to end the App Store duopoly before the end of this year. No one should have this kind of market power,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo) wrote.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who co-sponsored a Senate measure targeting app stores, added that “Apple and Google currently have a stranglehold on companies and have used their leverage to bully businesses.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at a gaming convention in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 13, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

In the first quarter of 2022, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter, spending $48 million and accounting for more than 4 percent of total revenue for the period, the Washington Post reported, citing an internal Twitter document.

Cook, Apple’s CEO, has not yet weighed in on Musk’s comments. When asked about possibly removing Twitter from the App Store in an interview on Nov. 15, he replied: “They say that they are going to continue to moderate and so … I count on them to do that.”

Read more here…

Saudi Arabia has unveiled plans for a massive new airport in Riyadh as part of the kingdom’s ambition to diversify its economy so its fortunes aren’t solely determined by the price of oil.  

In announcing the plan, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) said the airport would be named after his 86-year-old father, King Salman. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund — the Public Investment Fund — will own the airport.

The move is part of a previously-announced Saudi intention to invest $1 trillion to transform the head-chopping kingdom into a tourist destination.  

The airport is slated to have six parallel runways on a 22-square-mile expanse, subsuming the existing King Khaled airport. The initial goal is to accommodate upwards of 120 million travelers by the end of this decade.  

It’s not all about tourism. Today, just a half-million tons of airfreight transit the kingdom each year. By 2030, MBS wants to see that skyrocket to 4.5 million tons.    

King Salman International Airport will challenge current airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Doha, Qatar. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is also launching a new national airline, RIA, to compete with the likes of Emirates and Qatar Airways. In discussions with Boeing and Airbus, RIA is slated to take its first flight by the end of this year. 

The Public Investment Fund posted a slick video with renderings of the future “aerotropolis”: 

Introducing King Salman International Airport.

An aerotropolis centered around seamless passenger journeys, world-class efficient operations, and innovation.#KSIA#PIF pic.twitter.com/yNXbAizzFH

— Public Investment Fund (@PIF_en) November 28, 2022

“The airport project is in line with Saudi Arabia’s vision to transform Riyadh to be among the top ten city economies in the world and to support the growth of Riyadh’s population to 15–20 million people by 2030,” Saudi state news agency SPA said. The development is projected to create more than 100,000 jobs.

The lofty goals for the air hub are positively humble when compared to the country’s planned building of Neom, a giant, modern mega-city in the northwest part of Saudi Arabia. Believe it or not, it’s supposed to center on two parallel skyscrapers that will be 110 miles long, 500 meters tall and house 9 million people.