Hello from Singapore,

It’s easy to take flying, even long distances, for granted. As a correspondent living in far-flung places with my family, I had long assumed that a flight home would always be possible at short notice. Covid lockdowns knocked complacent travellers, like me, out of that belief. Now, with a fire that closed Heathrow airport last Friday stranding thousands of passengers around the world—perhaps including you—comes a reminder that travel infrastructure is more fragile than it generally seems. 

I did catch a flight out of Heathrow on Friday night, for the start of a trip around Asia. The pilot suggested that our “miracle” flight to Singapore was one of only ten to leave that day, down from the usual daily tally of 650 or so. Walking through a near-deserted terminal, seeing mostly empty runways, and then sitting aboard a near-empty A380 was a bizarre experience. It’s also a reminder that a change in fortunes can happen remarkably quickly.

Today we published an article that asks if some other fortunes might be set to shift. In recent months Elon Musk has been helping to cause political storms, but what has meanwhile been happening with his business empire? He admits he has been distracted: it is becoming clear that Musk Inc is not the impregnable fortress it once seemed to be. Tesla’s recent woes go beyond a temporary drop in demand for his cars in China, Europe and at home. Then there’s SpaceX, his space and satellite company. Read our analysis of how Mr Musk’s competitors are challenging him more seriously than before.

I’m also watching the news from Turkey, where Recep Tayyip Erdogan grows more repressive and threatens to undo democracy. The arrest last week of the mayor of Istanbul, a popular leader who has now just won the opposition nomination to run for president, is a very troubling sign. Our new piece argues that Turkey is nearing a point of no return. It strikes me that Mr Erdogan and other strongmen, not least Binyamin Netanyahu in Israel, who is currently widening a war in the Middle East, feel less constrained than before. Until recently America might have applied pressure on such allies, pushing them to moderate their authoritarian or belligerent behaviour. Under Donald Trump, who is defying courts and judges at home, you can’t expect much of that.

Finally, Mark Carney, Canada’s new prime minister, has just called a much-anticipated election. Until Mr Trump took office no one would have given Mr Carney’s Liberal Party, which has governed Canada for more than nine years, a realistic chance of winning. But Mr Trump’s policies have damaged the prospects of Mr Carney’s main rival, Pierre Poilievre, a Conservative who had tried to position himself as a populist, anti-elite figure, in short as a local version of Mr Trump. Canadian voters, it appears, don’t want that. We have a poll tracker for Canadian politics that I recommend you bookmark. (We also have a tracker that you can bookmark to keep note of Mr Trump’s approval rating.)

Might voters in Europe start to shun hard-right and populist parties? We published a story today saying that Marine Le Pen, in France, and Giorgia Meloni, in Italy, may have to distance themselves from Mr Trump if they want to sustain their appeal.

If you read German, check out our newly translated Archive 1945 project. (You can find the original English version here.) I’m intrigued to experiment more with AI-assisted translation of some of our articles. I’d welcome any feedback from you, on whether you see value in reading (or listening to) The Economist in any language other than English.

Finally, to return to airports. I can report that Terminal 5 at Heathrow is more eerie than beautiful when you have it mostly to yourself. One of my colleagues, meanwhile, has written a delightful article assessing which airports (in his judgment) are the most appealing of all. We’d love to have your views in response. My preference is for the smallest of them, especially tiny air strips in remote bits of Africa or Asia, where you never feel like a dumb sheep in a crowd being pushed through a giant pen. Write to me with your own nomination, saying why, at [email protected].