When we can’t even afford to rent or buy somewhere to live, we have to ask: did we give the financial sector too much power?

• Leilani Farha is the former UN special rapporteur on adequate housing

In the summer of 2021, I visited a homeless community in a park in Toronto, Canada, and spoke to one of the residents. He was living in a tent in the shadow of brand new skyscrapers, and had been homeless for about five years. At one point he swivelled around, pointed up at a crane on the skyline, and said: “Who are they building those for? Definitely not for me.”

He was right. And he captured something experienced by ordinary people around the world: the growing conviction that the housing system is no longer tethered to their needs. What he was pointing at is not just a housing crisis. It is a crisis of democracy.

Leilani Farha is the 2026 CBC Massey lecturer. This piece is based on her new book: Housing Inc.: A Global Takeover and Our Fight for Home. She is the former UN special rapporteur on adequate housing and the global director of the international human rights organisation, The Shift

Continue reading...

© Illustration: Nathalie Lees/The Guardian

© Illustration: Nathalie Lees/The Guardian

© Illustration: Nathalie Lees/The Guardian

The employee, now fired, had said he advised government agencies in Saudi Arabia. He was also listed as a partner at a venture firm with a Saudi prince.

© Aaron Wojack for The New York Times

Bill Draper began funding start-ups in the early 1960s, when the Santa Clara Valley was better known for apricot orchards than microchips. He has died at 98.

Dorm Room Fund, a program that lets college students invest in their peers, raised a new $50 million fund as the competition for young founders ramps up.

© Hilary Swift for The New York Times

When Anthropic goes public in a blockbuster offering, which investors will profit? The answer says a lot about how much start-up investing has changed over the years.

© Simon Bailly

Irregular, an Israeli start-up, worked with OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta to assess the security of their A.I. models. It made a mistake. Then the tests went off the rails.

© Victor Arce