Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Hard Numbers

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.

Shoppers leave the Shoprite store in Daveyton, South Africa May 23, 2018.

REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
Make us preferred on Google

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.

More For You

Hard number: Seeking owners
Will Fitzpatrick
It’s not known whether these works were among the hundreds of thousands that the Nazis looted – especially from Jews – during their time in power, but in displaying these pieces, the museum hopes that the public can identify their original owners. Perhaps the most famous lost painting of this kind was Gustav Klimt’s “The Woman in Gold”, which was [...]
Chinese court compensates AI-replaced worker
A court in Hangzhou ruled that companies are not permitted to fire employees or reduce their salaries because their positions are being automated or replaced by AI. The case was brought by a worker who was initially offered a 40% pay cut and a demotion when his job as a quality assurance supervisor was automated. After he refused the reduced [...]
Hard number: Some African states turn to AI surveillance
Zac Weisz
While China has long been a leader in infrastructure investment across the African continent, it’s found a new way to continue to expand its influence – AI-powered surveillance technology. According to a recent study, many of these new systems have even been funded by Chinese banks. Nigeria boasts the continent's largest network of smart CCTV [...]
Hard Number: Is Russia stuck in the mud?
More than four years into its war with Ukraine, the Russian military appears to be stuck in the mud. With the loss of access to Starlink satellites, which were previously used to help guide their drones, the Russians have turned to deploying small teams of soldiers in attempts to break through the front lines, with little success. This sluggish [...]