š Meta reels in the money
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Metaās Reels are cannibalizing the Facebook feed and Instagram stories. That is good news, in a way, for Meta, which reported strong first-quarter results yesterday (April 26). But the company has to work out how to run more profitable ads on Reels.
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Elizabeth Holmes made a last-ditch attempt to delay her prison sentence. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Holmes, the disgraced founder of Theranos, to stay out of jail for now, while it decides whether she can remain free as she pushes for a retrial of her criminal conviction.
A Fugees rapper was convicted of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China. A jury found that Pras MichƩl worked with the fugitive Malaysian businessman Jho Low in a number of byzantine political conspiracies.
UK regulators blocked Microsoftās Activision Blizzard deal. The $69 billion acquisition would give Microsoft an unfair advantage in cloud gaming, said regulators (more below).
Colombia got a new finance minister. In a surprise cabinet reshuffle, JosƩ Antonio Ocampo, a Columbia University economist whom the markets liked, lost his finance portfolio.
Microsoft canāt fly under the radar anymore
A focus on enterprise software has largely kept Microsoft out of regulatorsā crosshairs, at least compared to other Big Tech players. While Microsoft plans to appeal the Competition and Markets Authorityās decision, the block casts serious doubt on whether the landmark Activision deal will go through, and whether its antitrust luck can hold up.
$78: Price to which Activisionās stock fell yesterday after the ruling, well below Microsoftās $95 per-share asking price
$2.5 billion: Price Microsoft paid for the gaming company that built Minecraft in 2014
$26 billion: Price Microsoft paid for speech recognition software Nuance in 2021
The EU approved the worldās first carbon tax on imports
It only took two years of negotiations, but yesterday, the EUās 27 members voted to finalize a new law. Presentingā¦ the worldās first carbon border tax!
Levied on imports, this tax has the potential to transform the most polluting industries within the EU and beyond. Quartzās Aurora Almendral explains what products the tax targets, how much itās expected to raise in a year, and its one big problem.
Big Oil is afraid of state courts in the US
20: The number of US states and cities that, in recent years, have sued oil companies over their roles in misleading the public about the impact of burning fossil fuels on climate change.
Oil companies have attempted to fend off climate change-related lawsuits by filing appeals to move the cases from state courts to the federal system. But the US Supreme Court just dealt a major blow to their efforts, making state courts scarier than Big Oil would like.
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š«„ Circle drawing says a lot about how culture shapes our instinctsā¦
šæ ā¦and moviegoing might tell us a lot about recessions
š±ļø Xerox is giving away the lab that birthed the PC, mouse, and laser printer
š¤ South Korea passed a bill to protect underage K-pop idols from exploitation
Surprising discoveries
Parrots are FaceTiming each other. The calls are helping the birds deal with loneliness.
Manga may be losing its punch in the US. While sales for the graphic novels are cooling in that country, theyāre rising like prime soufflĆ© in France.
TikTok is saving candy stores. One seller found a viral video could bring as many as 10,000 orders.
The first photo of a jet being blasted from the edge of a black hole was taken. No, not that kind of jet, though weād be impressed by those aliens.
Apple chose the best possible name for its new health app. We still think we wear it better.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, internet candy, and parrot chats to talk@qz.com. Reader support makes Quartz available to allābecome a member. Todayās Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.
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