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The Guardian
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Digested week: Trump merch and what's in a name? A lot if it's Sussex
Just back from New York and – this is what you get for flying out of Newark – I'm stunned by the volume of Trump memorabilia for sale at the terminal. Actual Maga hats and T-shirts; old-timey baseball shirts with 'Trump 47' on the front; a fridge magnet depicting Trump's Iwo Jima moment, fist in the air behind the words 'Fight! Fight! Fight!; and a Trump hoodie with the slogan 'Take America Back'. It's New Jersey but still, piles of Trump merch for sale so close to the city feels like finding a fur-coat store next to the vegan pantry. In New York itself, meanwhile, there is widespread and guilty determination by friends to turn away from the news because engagement is just so depressing. The question most asked of me is how are Americans regarded in general and when they travel overseas? On that front, at least, I can reassure. As ever, it seems most people are too wrapped up in their own parochial dramas to give much thought to what, or who, any passing American they encounter might represent. With one caveat: travelling on American passports, we clear immigration in Reykjavik en route to New York where the official demands paperwork I've never been asked for before and tells me brusquely: 'The way things are done in America isn't the way we do them in the rest of the world.' I'm so stung by this condescension I find myself huffing, Colonel Blimp-style, 'I'm a British citizen!' – which startles us both, but probably me more than her. That encounter in Iceland qualifies as a 'microstress', a small aggravation that, according to a recent survey of 2,000 people commissioned by psychologists, can over time take as serious a toll on one's nerves as the big ones: death, divorce, moving house. In the survey, the top three microstresses were listed as being stuck in traffic, when a bin bag breaks (really?) and losing one's keys. I get this, but consider the flipside: the equalising force of micro-joys: the first (and second and third) coffee of the morning; finding the remote after you've lost it; or catching site of the cat asleep on the sofa with its paws in the air – small pleasures and improvements that, unlike winning the lottery, say, trigger a governable amount of emotion. I often think that contentment truly rests on banking enough of these small joys in a way that comfortably outweighs the big stuff. It's reported in this paper that Prince Harry had to wait six months for his children's passports to be issued after he had a punt at sticking 'HRH' in the honorifics field and listed their surnames as Sussex, in direct defiance of the queen's 1960 ruling that descendants without royal titles could not inherit the surname associated with their parents' peerage. Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion It's brilliant of Harry, in a way, trying to slide the issue past the king via an innocent piece of paperwork submitted to a faceless government body. When the passports weren't issued, Harry and Meghan, frustrated, put in a second application for 24-hour service and promptly had their meeting cancelled due to a 'systems failure', a piece of peerless counter passive-aggression by the king, with the added bonus of plausible deniability. There is, after all, simply no defeating British bureaucracy when it's set to truculence. These are Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet's second set of surnames, their first having been Mountbatten-Windsor, while Harry and William both grew up with the name Wales. The main takeaway from this story, as a friend observes, is that 'no one in that sodding family ever knows what their surname is'. From the land of move slow and frustrate things to the rapidly disintegrating Elon Musk who, in an even shorter timescale than anticipated, has turned on his benefactor, President Trump. Last week, Musk criticised Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax bill for swelling the deficit with that heavy-lifting word 'disappointed', and hedged with the coy qualifier, 'my personal opinion'. Obviously that mildness couldn't hold. By Tuesday this week, Musk's assessment of the bill had advanced from disappointing to a 'disgusting abomination'. By Thursday, Trump had retaliated on social media with threats to cut federal contracts to Tesla, provoking Musk to boast, 'without me, Trump would've lost the election' and make a veiled accusation – not the first time he's thrown 'paedo' around when challenged – that Trump was mixed up with Jeffrey Epstein. But while this was the moment we'd all been waiting for, watching the world's two most powerful men, both of whom appear to be suffering from cognitive impairment of some kind, duke it out, was less cathartic than simply morbidly depressing. An end of the week treat, however, in the form of Dame Rosemary Squires, the founder of the Ambassador Theatre Group, saying the quiet part out loud: does anyone really want to sit through a play that lasts longer than three hours? Her observation was triggered by the opening of Stereophonic, lately transferred to London from New York, which goes on for three hours 10 minutes. A Little Life, the recent stage adaptation of the Hanya Yanagihara novel, ran to almost four hours, although as an experience preferable, surely, to reading the book. This week, I saw the brilliant My Neighbour Totoro, which clocks in at two hours 40 and is fantastic, although still shy of the dream phrase 'running time one hour 20 minutes'. Still, there are some weeks when all you're fit for is Samuel Beckett's reward to the very tired who attempt to go to the theatre midweek: his play Breath, which comes in at a small, beautiful 35 seconds.
News.com.au
10-05-2025
- News.com.au
World's best airport for 2025 revealed
It may come as no surprise that Singapore's Changi Airport has taken out the world's best airport title for 2025. The South-East Asian airport is renowned for its unrivalled passenger experiences boasting a waterfall, canopy park, rock climbing and butterfly garden. Its innovative amenities, extensive dining range and unique hotel offerings all form part of what makes this airport a standout. And it's no wonder why it has won the prestigious Skytrax Award 13 times, having reclaimed the top spot from Doha's Hamad International Airport (2024), which moves down to second. 'Changi Airport is honoured to be named by Skytrax as the World's Best Airport for the 13th time,' Yam Kum Weng, CEO of Changi Airport Group said. 'It is indeed gratifying to receive this recognition, and this certainly encourages us to continue to strive to provide the best travel experience. We thank all our passengers for their vote of confidence. Changi Airport has been voted the best airport in the world – ad it's easy to see why. It has the world's largest indoor waterfall, canopy park, rock climbing, butterfly garden, theatre and arcade. Picture: TikTok 'And we're especially grateful to the Changi Airport community, whose unwavering commitment to service excellence has made this award possible. 'As air travel continues to grow, we look forward to welcoming passengers to experience the magic at Changi Airport.' It also has a trampoline park. Picture: TikTok/countingcountries Rounding out the top 10 is Tokyo Haneda in third place, followed by Seoul Incheon, Tokyo Narita, Hong Kong, Paris CDG, Rome Fiumicino, Munich and Zurich. Dubai, often praised for its airport, just missed out – coming it at 11th. The World Airport Awards began in 1999, when Skytrax launched its first global, Airport customer satisfaction survey. 'They are regarded as a quality benchmark for the world airport industry, assessing customer service and facilities across over 500 airports,' it states on the Skytrax site. 'There is no entry fee or any type of payment by an airport (or other third party) to be included in the survey or awards, with the survey and awards process fully funded by Skytrax.' It also won the best airport bathrooms award. Picture: Instagram/changiairport They're all very lush. Picture: Instagram/changiairport Singapore Changi Airport received other major awards including World's Best Airport Dining and the World's Best Airport Washrooms (bathrooms). When it came to Australian airports, Melbourne missed out of the top 10, coming in at 16, followed by Brisbane in 35th and Sydney half way down the list at 54th. Perth and Adelaide ranked 63rd and 68th, respectively, while the Gold Coast sat towards the bottom at 74th. For the Best Regional Airports in Australia/Pacific 2025, Adelaide took the top gong, followed by the Gold Coast, Christchurch, Cairns and Darwin. Meanwhile, Tokyo Haneda came first for having the world's cleanest airport, followed by Singapore Changi, Doha Hamad, Seoul Incheon and Hong Kong. When it comes to world's best shopping, Doha Hamad took out the top spot with Singapore Changi closely behind. London Heathrow came third.
