Dear reader,

A lack of accessible, affordable transport disproportionately affects women and girls everywhere.

In South Africa, a recent spate of violence in the Western Cape province, fuelled by long-standing territorial disputes between rival taxi services, has forced women to walk to work, putting them at risk of being assaulted as they walk back home at night.

Apartheid spatial planning that physically divided cities according to racial groups left many Black and mixed-race South Africans on the outskirts of town and far from economic opportunities, reports correspondent Kim Harrisberg.

"I know of women walking up to 50 km (31 miles) through the night, or in the rain, to get to work. If they don't go, they bear the brunt of having to look in the eyes of hungry children," said Joanie Fredericks, a women's rights activist.

Meanwhile, women in Afghanistan fear losing their businesses and hard-won gains of the last 20 years - from education to freedom of movement - as the Taliban advance, particularly in cities such as Kabul, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif.

Women own almost 60,000 businesses, predominantly in Kabul, including restaurants, salons and handicrafts shops – and their future is uncertain, reports Shadi Khan Saif.

"My resolve to promote women's businesses, create jobs for them and see a self-reliant Afghanistan is keeping me here and fighting for survival," said Marzia Hafizi, who has an apparel shop in Kabul.

And finally, machine learning, big data and forecasting are being put to use to help deploy scarce fire resources as efficiently as possible as more intense and deadly wildfire seasons stretch firefighting resources to the limit.

Analytical tools that combine local firefighter know-how with advanced spatial analytics can help teams plan their control lines and plans of attack even before a fire breaks out, reports correspondent Avi Asher-Schapiro.

"People make bad decisions under stress - they can't crunch all this data on their own. This is about reducing the uncertainty, and helping firefighters make better decisions," said Brad Pietruszka, a fire manager at the San Juan National Forest.

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