Our daily stroll around the world

🇬🇧🙅‍♀️ The UK’s antitrust regulator blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. After months of review, officials issued a ruling yesterday saying the two companies had failed to sufficiently ease regulators’ worries that the deal would harm competition in the UK’s video game industry. If it stands, experts told the WSJ the ruling – which Microsoft plans to appeal – would have a significant negative impact on the chances of the Microsoft-Activision deal happening at all, since it would be difficult for the combined company to operate completely outside the UK.

🇸🇬 A Singaporean man was executed yesterday for trafficking two pounds of cannabis. Under Singaporean law, trafficking more than ~1.1 pounds of cannabis may result in the death penalty (which the country used a total of 11 times last year in connection with drug offenses). Prior to yesterday’s execution, the convicted man’s family members and outside activists had argued that he was convicted on weak evidence, though Singaporean prosecutors denied those claims.

🚗⚡ Nearly one in five new cars sold globally this year will be electric. That’s according to an annual report published yesterday by the International Energy Agency, which found that more than 10 million EVs were sold last year for the first time in history – largely thanks to 6+ million sales in China. The report projects global EV sales will rise by another 4 million this year to reach 18% of all new cars, up from 4% in 2020.