Hard Numbers: Walmart heads to Africa, Israel orders Gaza City evacuation, France faces financial fallout, & More
Shoppers leave the Shoprite store in Daveyton, South Africa May 23, 2018.
1: US retail giant Walmart is set to launch its first store in Africa by the end of the year, opening a location in South Africa, the continent’s most industrialized economy.
23: A Russian strike on the Ukrainian village of Yarova on Tuesday killed 23 people who were waiting in line to collect their pensions, per a local official. The Kremlin escalated its strikes on Ukraine over the weekend, launching its biggest drone assault since the war began.
1 million: Israel ordered the full evacuation of Gaza City’s one million residents ahead of a new offensive, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to “break Hamas.” Many Palestinians say they can’t move again amid severe shortages of food and few safe destinations.
3.48%: France’s 10-year bond yields – the interest rate at which the government borrows money – jumped to 3.48% after Prime Minister François Bayrou lost his confidence vote Monday, surpassing the rate in Italy (a traditional debt laggard) for the first time since 1998. France’s sky-high debt appears to be putting it at financial risk.
46%: Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has 46% support in the New York City mayoral race, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll, putting him 22 points ahead of former state Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent. If the other candidates dropped out of the field, though, Mamdani’s lead over Cuomo would drop to just four points.