Southern strategy: the coming bid to retake Kherson

The city remains Ukraine’s only provincial capital to be taken by Russian forces—can Ukraine overcome its shortages of manpower and firepower to <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/07/03/ukraine-prepares-a-counter-offensive-to-retake-kherson-province?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=theintelligence&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">retake the province</a>? Mexico’s official missing-persons list has topped 100,000; our correspondent describes the <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2022/06/30/at-least-100000-people-are-missing-in-mexico?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=theintelligence&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">skyrocketing total</a> and piecemeal efforts to slow its rise. And research suggests that people choose their friends at least in part <a href="https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2022/06/24/friends-smell-like-one-another?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=theintelligence&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">by smell</a>. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of <em>The Economist</em>, subscribe here <a href="http://www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer</a><hr /><p style="color: grey; font-size: 0.75em;"> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>