Sydney Airport is an international airport in Sydney, Australia located 8 km south of the Sydney city centre, in the suburb of Mascot. The airport is owned by the ASX-listed Sydney Airport Group, it is the primary airport serving Sydney, is a primary hub for Qantas, as well as a secondary hub for Virgin Australia and Jetstar Airways, as well as a focus city for Air New Zealand. Situated next to Botany Bay, the airport has three runways, colloquially known as the east–west, north–south and third runways. Sydney Airport is one of the world's longest continuously operated commercial airports and the busiest airport in Australia, handling 42.6 million passengers and 348,904 aircraft movements in 2016–17. It was the 38th busiest airport in the world in 2016. 46 domestic and 43 international destinations are served to Sydney directly. In 2018, the airport was rated in the top 5 worldwide for airports handling 40–50 million passengers annually and was overall voted the 20th best airport in the world at the Skytrax World Airport Awards.

The airport's Air Traffic Control Tower is listed on the Commonwealth Heritage List. The land used for the airport had been a bullock paddock. Nigel Love, a pilot in the First World War, was interested in establishing the nation's first aircraft manufacturing company; this idea would require him to establish an aerodrome close to the city. A real estate office in Sydney told him of some land owned by the Kensington Race Club, being kept as a hedge against its losing its government-owned site at Randwick, it had been used by a local abattoir, closing down, to graze sheep and cattle. This land appealed to Love as the surface was flat and was covered with a pasture of buffalo grass; the grass had been grazed so evenly by the sheep and cattle that it required little to make it serviceable for aircraft. In addition, the approaches on all four sides had no obstructions, it was bounded by a racecourse, gardens, a river and Botany Bay. Love established Mascot as a private concern, leasing 80 hectares from the Kensington Race Club for three years.

It had a small canvas structure but was equipped with an imported Richards hangar. The first flight from Mascot was on November 1919 when Love carried freelance movie photographer Billy Marshall up in an Avro; the official opening flight took place on 9 January 1920 performed by Love. In 1921, the Commonwealth Government purchased 65 hectares in Mascot for the purpose of creating a public airfield. In 1923, when Love's three-year lease expired, the Mascot land was compulsorily acquired by the Commonwealth Government from the racing club; the first regular flights began in 1924. In 1933 the first gravel runways were built. By 1949 the airport had three runways – the 1,085-metre 11/29, the 1,190-metre 16/34 and the 1,787-metre 04/22; the Sydenham to Botany railway line crossed the latter runway 150 metres from the northern end and was protected by special safeworking facilities. The Cooks River was diverted away from the area in 1947–52 to provide more land for the airport and other small streams were filled.

When Mascot was declared an aerodrome in 1920 it was known as Sydney Airport. On 14 August 1936 the airport was renamed Sydney Airport in honour of pioneering Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. Up to the early 1960s the majority of Sydney-siders referred to the airport as Mascot; the first paved runway was 07/25 and the next one constructed was 16/34, extended into Botany Bay, starting in 1959, to accommodate jet aircraft. Runway 07/25 is used by lighter aircraft, but is used by all aircraft including Airbus A380s when conditions require. Runway 16R/34L is presently the longest operational runway in Australia, with a paved length of 4,400 m and 3,920 m between the zebra thresholds. By the 1960s, the need for a new international terminal had become apparent, work commenced in late 1966. Much of the new terminal was designed by Dixon Industries; the plans for the design are held by the State Library of New South Wales. The new terminal was opened on 3 May 1970, by HM Queen Elizabeth II.

The first Boeing 747 "Jumbo Jet" at the airport, Pan American's Clipper Flying Cloud, arrived on 4 October 1970. The east-west runway was 2,500 m long; the international terminal was expanded in 1992 and has undergone several refurbishments since including one, completed in early 2000 in order to re-invent the airport in time for the 2000 Olympic Games held in Sydney. The airport additionally underwent another project development that began in 2010 to extend the transit zone which brought new duty free facilities, shops & leisure areas for passengers; the limitations of having only two runways that crossed each other had become apparent and governments grappled with Sydney's airport capacity for decades. The third runway was parallel to the existing runway 16/34 on reclaimed land from Botany Bay. A proposed new airport on the outskirts of Sydney was shelved in 2004, before being re-examined in 2009–2012 showing that Kingsford Smith airport will not be able to cope by 2030; the "third runway", which the Commonwealth government commenced development of in 1989 and completed in 1994, remained controversial because of increased aircraft movements over many inner suburbs.

In 1995 No Aircraft Noise was formed to con

As of 2015, 18.5% of Singaporeans have no religious affiliation. Non-religious Singaporeans are found in various ethnic groups and all walks of life in Singapore. Singapore's non-religious tend to be atheists, humanists, theists and skeptics; some locals affiliate with no religion, but still choose to practice traditional rituals like ancestor worship, which they do not regard as religious in essence. The number of non-religious people in Singapore has risen slightly. Census reports show that those who said they have no religion rose from 13% in 1980 to 18.5% in 2015. In recent years, social gatherings of non-religious people have become more popular in Singapore. Since 2005, informal atheist groups had organised social gatherings to discuss religion and secularism, popular books on the topic from authors such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. One of the earliest groups was called the Atheist Haven, was formed by three Singaporeans in 2004. In 2008, the Singapore Humanism Meetup was formed as a social network of secular humanists and agnostics.

In October 2010, the Humanist Society became the first humanist group to be gazetted as a society. Many pioneer members of the society met at gatherings organised by the Singapore Humanism Meetup. Non-religious groups in Singapore are linked to other non-religious networks in Southeast Asia; the Singapore Humanism Meetup, Singaporean Atheists and Humanist Society are listed on the Southeast Asian Atheists website. Religion in Singapore Article 15 of the Constitution of Singapore Freedom of religion in Singapore Singaporean Chinese religion Humanism Humanist Society Singapore Atheists SEA Atheists Singapore Humanism Meetup

Infanta María Luisa of Spain, 1st Duchess of Talavera de la Reina was a Spanish aristocrat and the second wife of Infante Ferdinand of Spain, Prince of Bavaria, a first cousin and brother-in law of Alfonso XIII of Spain. She was the second child and elder daughter of Luis de Silva y Fernandez de Henestrosa, 10th Count of Pie de Concha and his wife, María de los Dolores Fernández de Henestrosa, herself the daughter of the 9th Marquess of Villadarias. Doña Maria was granted the title "Duchess of Talavera de la Reina", made a grandee of Spain and accorded the style of Highness on 25 June 1914, gazetted 2 September of that year. Doña Maria married Infante Don Fernando de Baviera at Guipúzcoa, Spain on 1 October 1914, whose first wife, Infanta Maria Teresa, had died in 1912. Doña Maria was 56 when, on 17 May 1927, Maria Teresa's brother, King Alfonso XIII, made her an infanta de gracia and gave her the elevated treatment of Royal Highness, allowing her to share her husband's title and rank. Although her husband was a patrilineal descendant of Ludwig I of Bavaria, he had become a naturalised Spaniard in 1905 in conjunction with his first marriage.

Four days after Doña Maria de Silva was made a duchess in Spain, her fiancé renounced his dynastic rights as a member of the Bavarian Royal Family, 29 June 1914, completing the transfer of the prince's allegiance from Germany to Spain shortly before the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria led to World War I, although the legalities and logistics of the inter-dynastic re-arrangement of assets were disrupted and protracted by the war. Infante Ferdinand of Spain, Prince of Bavaria and Infanta Maria Luisa, Duchess of Talavera de la Reina had no children. Thus, on her death in 1955 her dukedom passed to her nephew, Juan Manuel de Silva y Goyeneche, 20th Marquess of Zahara and 13th Count of Pie de Concha. 3 December 1880 – 25 June 1914: Doña María Luisa de Silva y Fernandez de Henestrosa 25 June 1914 – 1 October 1914: Her Highness Doña María Luisa de Silva y Fernandez de Henestrosa, Duchess of Talavera de la Reina, Grandee of Spain 1 October 1914 – 17 May 1927: Her Highness Doña María Luisa de Silva y Fernandez de Henestrosa y de Baviera, Duchess of Talavera de la Reina, Grandee of Spain 17 May 1927 – 2 April 1955: Her Royal Highness Doña María Luisa de Silva y Fernandez de Henestrosa y de Baviera, Infanta of Spain, Duchess of Talavera de la Reina Dame of the Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa