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.

You may not know what interchange fees are, but if you've paid for anything in America,

they've hit you in the wallet.

Hard.

They are an artifact of a duopoly.

And at long last, legislators have them in their sights.

And springtime on America's East Coast is a dangerous time to be a horseshoe crab.

The creature's blue blood is extremely useful in the biomedical industry, even though

there's a cheaper synthetic alternative.

We ask why the crabs are still being bled.

But first, a Ukrainian counterattack is continuing today against Russian defenses around the

city of Horson, the occupied capital of Ukraine's Horson region.

Last night, President Volodymyr Zelensky gave little away about the military's progress

and its intentions.

You will not hear any specifics about our plans, because this is war.

But the occupiers must know he went on.

We will chase them to the border.

On Monday morning, Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive against Russia in the southern

Horson province.

...