Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist.

In New York, I'm John Fassman.

And in London, I'm Jason Palmer.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Voters in Angola, Sub-Saharan Africa's third largest economy head to the polls today.

Jouaul Lorenzo, the incumbent, wants another five-year term.

And his party has been losing support.

And trust in the electoral process is low all around.

And what's now the largest arts gathering in the world started off with eight drama

troops showing up uninvited and staging an Arctic cheap shows on the fringes of a snootier

festival.

These days, the Edinburgh Festival fringe is in a main attraction.

But first, today is Ukraine's independence day.

It's also been six months since Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, launched his war against

the country.

The opening days and weeks of the invasion were chaotic.

The capital, Kiev, was under heavy assault.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled.

The situation was fluid and things were moving quickly.

But as the months have dragged on, those frenetic early encounters have given way to a grinding

war of attrition.

Today marks six months since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in the small hours

...