Many Muslims saw their places of worship destroyed or abandoned during the sectarian violence of India’s partition in 1947. Now villagers of many faiths are coming together to revive them

Gajju Khan is smiling as he sits in an unfinished building in the northern Indian state of Punjab in the late afternoon. The 87-year-old is hopeful that before he dies he will hear the azaan, the Muslim call to prayer, echo across his village once again when the mosque is completed.

The last time he heard it here was when he was eight years old, living with his parents in Tira Maloya, a village in Chandigarh, not far from where he lives now.

Bibi Rajinder Kaur, a Sikh, donated family land to build a mosque in her village. ‘There is no deed better than giving someone a place to worship,’ she says

The story of the emirates’ presence in Manchester winds from the Arab Spring to some of the most deprived places in England – with complicated results

• Emirati-linked firms’ ownership of Manchester land ‘up 39%’ in 10 years
  
  

When Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s long-ruling dictator, was toppled from power in the Arab spring protests of 2011, his downfall sent shock waves across the Middle East. It also helped change the face of modern Manchester.

Mubarak’s successor, the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, was a sworn enemy of the United Arab Emirates, whose rulers feared the advance of Morsi’s Islamism.

Building safety regulator delays leave London tower block beset by security and vandalism problems

It’s a sunny day with bright blue skies in north London, but you wouldn’t know that in Natasha Dyett’s flat. Most of the rooms are consumed in shadow, while her teenage son’s bedroom is almost completely dark, apart from a few slits of light coming through the window.

She lives in Archway Heights, a nine-storey block of flats that has been covered in scaffolding for more than six years for cladding works that still haven’t started.

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

Rising from bluebell woodlands and framed by rolling hills, this cluster of pink and brown brick towers in Croydon is a bittersweet winner of the prestigious RIBA Stirling prize

If Andy Burnham is looking for inspiration for his great “council housebuilding comeback”, he would do well to visit Croydon. There, nestled into a steeply sloping site, sheltered by a canopy of mature trees, stands a cluster of crystalline pink and brown brick towers, where generous flats look on to a landscape of allotments, playgrounds and to the rolling hills of south London beyond. Designed by Mary Duggan Architects, with Ruff Architects, it is a model of council-led housebuilding – so much so that it has also been named this year’s best building in the UK, confounding the bookies’ outsider odds.

Only once before has the RIBA Stirling prize ever been awarded to a council housing project, when Goldsmith Street in Norwich scooped the gong in 2019, for its rows of low-energy brick terraces, designed by Mikhail Riches Architects and Cathy Hawley. This year’s winner, Lion Green Road in Coulsdon, is an entirely different animal, and it puts a welcome spotlight back on housing design at a time when the government plans to pump £39bn into the sector. It is also a bittersweet vindication of Croydon council’s erstwhile housebuilding company, Brick by Brick, a bold and sadly brief experiment by the previous Labour administration, which was halted in 2020 when the council went bankrupt, seeing numerous projects cancelled.

The Spanish prime minister has been a lonely champion of progressive values in the EU. But the polls look ominous

When it comes to risk-taking, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has a formidable track record. In 2018, the Socialist party leader swept to power by triggering a no-confidence vote that unexpectedly ousted his centre-right predecessor Mariano Rajoy. He held on to it against the odds after calling a snap election in 2023, at a time when the popularity of his own party had plummeted and the far right was on the rise.

As he endures another rocky period in office, Mr Sánchez has once more rolled the dice. Last week, he announced a snap poll for November after his minority government was blocked from passing measures to ease Spain’s chronic housing crisis. The eviction of 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal from her Madrid home sparked nationwide protests over soaring rents and prices. The outrage grew with news of her death last Wednesday. Mr Sánchez clearly hopes that campaigning on a national cause célèbre gives him a chance of winning a stronger progressive mandate next month.

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Video posted online shows men entering home through unlocked door and claiming to be looking for paperwork

A Home Office accommodation provider has launched an investigation after “English nationalist” content creators posing as contractors filmed themselves entering a property housing asylum seekers.

The video, titled “HMO Hunting in Leicestershire”, was posted to the Truthhurts101UK YouTube account, which describes itself as being run by an “English nationalist citizen journalist” and claims to cover “immigration, demographic change, policing and stories others overlook”. The footage was also posted to the associated TH101UK’s X account, where is has been viewed more than 300,000 times.

At Bybi in Copenhagen, a dedicated group of staff and volunteers have built a community for all centred on the production of honey – much of which is given away for nothing. Could it be replicated elsewhere?

The bees at Bybi, a collective of beekeepers in Copenhagen, live on the roof. Their home is a complex of Victorian buildings, right in the centre of the city, that looks like an idealised vision of the modern social enterprise, ennobled by the architecture of the past. It’s a place of cottage industry in concert with nature, where the marginalised are brought in from the fringes and corporations stand waiting to help, where jobs happen but a lot of the work is done by volunteers, and where – this bit is important – a lot of time is spent discussing ideas.

Oliver Maxwell, Bybi’s 48-year-old founder, encourages me to examine the buildings more closely. They were once a prison, a workhouse and a hospital; their functions today – a homeless shelter, a young offender institution and, until recently, a job centre – are not so different. Denmark’s Victorian transformation, from “agricultural backwater to industrialised agriculture”, was reflected in how they treated people, Maxwell says.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

• This week’s question: Why is a child saying ‘Na-na, na-na-na!’ so annoying?

Why are national anthems almost always orchestral? When – and by whom – was it decided that brass and strings best represent a country’s identity? Where are the power-pop or folk varieties? Ross Gomes, by email

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

On Kaua‘i, neighbors repair each other’s roofs, teens deliver meals and locals use their own equipment to clear roads

It was a few hours after the sun rose over the verdant valleys and clear waters of Hā‘ena on Kaua‘i’s North Shore. Michael Olanolan was already in his excavator, clearing the main highway where a wall of fallen trees had blocked access. Other neighbors joined him, moving debris so electric crews could reach utility poles downed by Hurricane Lowell.

The 76-year-old father of nine and grandfather of 26 did this every day for weeks after Lowell hit the Hawaiian islands of Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau on 7 September. His generational home lost part of its roof to Lowell’s winds, but family and friends helped him repair it, freeing him up to also help his community. Clearing out roadways became his full-time job while residents were getting back on their feet.

Little if any sign Bury Park is a place where any group might fear to tread, despite Tory MP’s comments to the contrary

From behind the counter of his chippie, Tanner Ahmed is wrestling with the notion that the regular stop-off point for fans attending Luton Town’s nearby football ground could be in a “no-go zone” for white people.

“The whole point of setting up was to cater for thousands who were coming through here every week, especially in the first year when the club was in the Premier League,” said Ahmed, affectionately known as Mr T, in the Bury Park area, a predominantly Asian district of Luton.

Opposition lawmakers join forces to defeat proposals made by Socialist-led coalition after eviction of 87-year-old

Rightwing lawmakers in Spain have rejected emergency measures put forward to tackle the country’s housing crisis, pitting a fractured parliament against the widespread protest movement that has swelled in recent days.

On Friday Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist-led coalition put forward two decrees that included a range of measures aimed at improving access to housing, from a ban on evictions until 2030 to the regulation of temporary lettings and lettings by room.

Book clubs can be fun, fulfilling and interesting – but many members have seen a meeting or group go down in flames

For four years, Laura has been in a book club with other young mothers from her church. You might be picturing a docile scene of women drinking sweet tea – they live in the US south – and discussing a life-affirming family novel or chaste romance.

But you probably didn’t account for werewolf smut.

As soaring rents and house prices across Europe​ feed into the political discourse, campaigners believe they have a rare opportunity to force housing to the top of the agenda

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It was billed as one of the largest real-estate events in Europe, attracting as many as 15,000 people ranging from investment firms to developers. But as the District trade show and summit got under way last week in Madrid, housing campaigners from 140 organisations across the globe turned up, intent on holding their own “counter-summit” to push back against the idea of housing as a financial asset.

Many of the campaigners arrived in the Spanish capital as Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old woman who uses a wheelchair, was being evicted from the apartment where she had lived for seven decades. As anger over the eviction gave way to days of protests and an encampment in the heart of Madrid, the presence of campaigners from Italy to Ireland was a poignant reminder of the global dimension of the crisis.

Pédro Sanchez is an admirer of Zohran Mamdani. It’s time Spanish politicians emulated the New York mayor’s relentless focus on affordable homes

Maricarmen Abascal is a determined woman who uses a wheelchair to get around. She has needed her determination over the years she has spent fighting the real estate company that forced her out of her Madrid apartment last week. She had lived in the flat for more than 70 of her 87 years.

Police forced their way into her apartment after a judge approved Abascal’s eviction. By then, protesters had gathered around the building, including the actor Carlos Bardem, Javier’s brother. Teargas was used against them. Abascal was taken to a Madrid hospital, suffering from anxiety and extreme exhaustion, while her supporters chanted: “You are not alone.”

María Ramírez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain

Measures, which need to be approved in Congress, include extending ban on evictions of vulnerable people

Spain’s Socialist Workers’ party-led coalition government has approved a range of measures aimed at easing the country’s housing crisis, including extending a ban on evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, after a public outcry over the eviction of an 87-year-old disabled woman from her Madrid apartment last week.

Two decrees have been approved by cabinet but will need to be approved in Congress, where the coalition lacks a majority. The government has requested a special parliamentary session on Friday in the hope of getting the decrees passed as soon as possible.

The number of luxury sheds and garden rooms has rocketed since the pandemic – fuelled by those wanting an office, a gym or extra living space. Meanwhile, the resentment between neighbours has been rising, too

Linda loves her shed. She loves that she can work there rather than in her dining room, which her toddler likes to tear through. She loves its Scandinavian vibe – it’s clad in wood and set on decking at the bottom of her garden. She loves the views of the countryside from the window by her desk. Or she did. Her desk faces the wall now, because she’s too nervous to face her neighbour. She never sits on the decking, either. “What if they see me?” she says. “It’s a horrible feeling.”

Linda’s neighbours are unhappy about her shed, or “garden room”, which is actually two rooms. They do not like its size (7.25 metres by 2.74 metres, or 3.5 metres if you include the raised decking) or its position, about 30 metres away from their house. Linda says they have barely spoken since the construction, which is awkward, as the gardens are separated by a low fence.

Exclusive: Full government funding figures ‘tell sombre story about rise in hostility that British Muslims live with’, trust says

A record £66m of emergency security funding was issued by the Home Office for mosques and related community sites in the UK when violent disorder spread in the aftermath of the Southport attacks in 2024.

Exclusive figures obtained by the Guardian also reveal a record of about £41m in security funding was issued for mosques and related community sites for the year from April 2025-26 as part of the protective security scheme.

Locals raised £1m for Mayday Saxonvale scheme involving homes and park but Somerset officials agreed deal with London-based real estate company

A bold bid by residents of a progressive town in the English West Country who raised almost £1m to create what could have been the UK’s largest community-led regeneration project is in tatters.

More than 1,000 residents of Frome in Somerset had clubbed together with the aim of building homes, workspaces, a riverside park and a lido on a brownfield area in their town centre.

Wirral mother among renters turning to food banks as gap between a two-bed and housing benefit hits £158 a month – rising to as much as £324 in London

Do you prioritise paying the rent, putting food on the table or keeping the house warm in winter? In practice, says Laura Braddock, a single mum from Wirral, Merseyside, you always pay the rent first and improvise the rest. “If I’ve got a roof over our head, then everything else I can muddle through.”

The pressing problem for Braddock, 39, is that muddling through is getting harder. The monthly rent for her two-bedroom flat far outstrips the local housing allowance (LHA) she receives – and the gap may widen.