157 companies worldwide are currently actively developing flying cars and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles / aircraft. 🇺🇸The United States leads the sector with 64 companies, followed by India with 16, and Germany with 13. Around 59 of these companies are funded, having collectively raised nearly $7 billion in venture capital and private equity. Notable Players: • Alef Aeronautics (US) is developing a dual-use vehicle designed to drive on regular roads and take off vertically; its Model A has captured immense industry attention by demonstrating vertical takeoff directly over ground obstacles; Model A uses a unique mesh body that hides internal electric rotors, allowing it to take off vertically like a drone while maintaining the footprint of a traditional car that fits in a standard garage; it has received special FAA airworthiness authorization for limited flight testing; • Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation (US) focus primarily on electric air taxi services; • EHang (🇨🇳China) has achieved milestone certifications and pilotless test flights for its autonomous passenger drones; • Xpeng Aeroht Land Aircraft Carrier (China) features a six-wheeled, off-road intelligent mother vehicle that houses and deploys a separate, fully electric two-seat eVTOL aircraft from its rear cargo bay, effectively bypassing the engineering compromises of combining road driving and flight dynamics into a single chassis; • PAL-V Liberty (🇳🇱Netherlands) claims to have the world’s first “fully certified flying car”, having achieved official road-use certification in Europe; it operates as a three-wheeled car on the road and transforms into a gyrocopter for flight, using a fold-away unpowered top rotor and a rear propeller to achieve a flying range of 500 km at speeds up to 180 km/h; • Klein Vision AirCar (🇸🇰Slovakia) is a sports-car/airplane hybrid that successfully completed actual inter-city flights and earned official airworthiness certification in Europe; It transforms from a sleek car into a fixed-wing aircraft in just 3 minutes by deploying retractable wings and a tail section, reaching air speeds of 200 km/h and requires a traditional runway to operate; • Jetson ONE & Astro (🇸🇪Sweden) is an ultralight carbon-fiber personal multicopter operated by a simple joystick; it has achieved significant real-world traction, notably with the unveiling of “Astro” - a specialised police variant, which reaches speeds of over 100 km/h with a 20-minute flight time; • SkyDrive (🇯🇵Japan) is compact, multi-rotor aircraft designed to act as clean, quiet urban air taxis capable of taking off from rooftops and existing heliports; • Doroni Aerospace H1X (US) is a two-seat personal eVTOL which features 8 enclosed lift fans and two rear thrusters; for a 100-mile (160 km) range, the project uses an automated digital piloting system designed to make flying safe and intuitive for non-seasoned pilots. Who will succeed in this increasingly competitive market?

🇪🇺Europe is entering an extended period of political paralysis as a massive wave of upcoming national elections threatens to stall critical, long-term decision-making at the EU and national level, according to an analysis by the Economist. Triggered primarily by 🇪🇸Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling early elections, more than half of EU citizens are scheduled to elect new national leaders between late 2026 and the end of 202 - including the voters in 🇫🇷France, 🇮🇹Italy, 🇬🇷Greece, 🇵🇱Poland and 🇫🇮Finland. This impending gridlock, dubbed Europe’s “lame-duck year,” arrives at a painfully inopportune moment due to several overlapping regional and global crises: • Geopolitical threats & security - the ongoing war in 🇺🇦Ukraine demands urgent economic and military aid; with the disengaging 🇺🇸US in mind, Europe must aggressively fund and build its own collective defense - a task political candidates are hesitant to compromise on during active campaigns; • Economic stagnation & the “🇨🇳China Shock” - the continent is grappling with weak growth and the decline of its traditional economic model, which relied heavily on cheap Russian energy and affordable Chinese imports; EU leaders face divisive choices regarding whether to erect protective trade barriers against predatory Chinese competition; • Fiscal crises & sovereign debt - major eurozone economies, particularly France, are facing intense bond-market pressure and soaring public debt; • Rise of populism - is a distinct risk exists that upcoming elections will empower right-wing populists who are fundamentally hostile to EU integration and further funding of Brussels, including but not limited to Marine Le Pen; While regular EU summits will continue and regulations will still be drafted, European leaders already appear to be retreating into defensive political postures. This might leave EU unable to execute crucial overhauls to its single market, AI competitiveness, and long-term budget. Will Europe still be able to shape global events in the coming year: A) Yes; B) No?

Police in the southern 🇩🇪German state of Bavaria have detained a suspect over a fire at Adolf Hitler’s Alpine mountain retreat. A major fire broke out at a heavily-fortified former mountain residence of Hitler, the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle’s Nest). The remote mountaintop building sits at an altitude of 1,834 metres (6,000 feet) on Obersalzberg above Berchtesgaden. Around 200 firefighters and emergency personnel deployed to the scene, facing extreme difficulty battling the flames due to the high altitude and difficult alpine terrain. No injuries were reported, and no one was found inside the building. The historic structure, which has operated as a tourist destination, café, and restaurant since the post-war era, was left largely destroyed and “could probably not be saved”. Was this a “lone wolf” arson, or a hybrid attack?