Dear reader,

Crime has risen in several parts of the world in the past year because of political turmoil and economic downturns.

In South Africa, as the worst violence in years broke out this month, a grandmother lookout team - comprising about a dozen grandmothers who generally patrol from the safety of their patios and alert the police - has become more valuable than ever, reports correspondent Kim Harrisberg.

"It takes two to fight crime: we need the community involved because they are there 24 hours and they know what is happening in their environment," said Bertrams police captain Richard Munyai.

Meanwhile, millions of Europeans may have to leave their homes in the coming months because they cannot afford to pay rent, as pandemic-related rent moratoriums wind down across the continent, reports correspondent Arthur Neslen.

Even before the pandemic hit, one in four tenants in the European Union spent more than 40% of their income on housing, even as the stock of social housing units has fallen significantly over the last two decades, and large equity funds have moved into the property market.

"We are expecting a hard autumn," said Barbara Steenbergen, the European head of the International Union of Tenants. "A frightening autumn."

And a proposal in California is seen as the first strategic attempt to address the task of moving coastal cities back from rising seas, reports Carey Biron.

Under a new state bill, a "revolving" fund would be set up to provide soft loans for cities to buy vulnerable seaside properties from willing sellers, and then rent them back to the owners or tenants for as long as they remained habitable.

"In 20 or 50 years, we don't want, nor could we afford, to build a wall along the entire coast, so a big part of that will be 'managed retreat' - making room for the coast and ocean by moving inland," said Sara Aminzadeh, a commissioner on the California Coastal Commission, a state agency that has voted to support the bill.

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