German startups join other voices in Europe in pushing for a loosening of the EU's AI Act. "The AI Act has to go", as it “is stalling the very innovation it aims to regulate," one founder tells Sifted. sifted.eu/articles/ger...

NEW: updated long-run gap in voting between young men and women in Germany: Gender divide continues to widen, but contrary to what is often assumed, young men continue to vote roughly in line with the overall population, while young women have swung sharply left. www.ft.com/content/29fd...

German voting appears to be high..charts here from the FT live blog on the elections www.ft.com/content/b60d...

“Some applicants have asked us: ‘Is Germany safe for foreigners?". Ahead of Germany’s snap election on Sunday, tech founders reflect on their hopes and fears for the next government sifted.eu/articles/wha...

Can Europe become a haven for disillusioned US tech talent? While Europe has its own issues – economic uncertainty and rising right-wing extremism, for example – some say benefits like universal healthcare and employment rights outweigh living under a second Trump term. sifted.eu/articles/us-...

As Donald Trump’s second White House term gets underway, European startups are drawing up contingency plans for a potential rollout of import tariffs. sifted.eu/articles/tru...

Looks like the Trump and Musk bromance is going well according to this report in Politico. White House staff are furious about Musk's criticisms of Stargate www.politico.com/news/2025/01...

The US' $500bn AI investment plan has got European tech leaders all riled up. European tech leaders say the bloc needs to up investment in AI if it wants to remain competitive in the field. sifted.eu/articles/eu-...

Great piece from my colleague @anisahob.bsky.social on how to continue doing DEI work amid political backlash: “We just need to focus on the North Star of building an equitable society — and startups are in a unique space to do that and gain from it.” sifted.eu/articles/how...

Elon Musk’s rise to the role of “chief buddy” under Donald Trump’s second White House administration has stirred division among European tech leaders, with some calling for the EU to adopt his deregulatory agenda. sifted.eu/articles/elo...

One depressing side-effect of the new era in US politics is that phrases like "FUCK YOURSELF in the face" now appear in the pink pages

Does Europe need to be more like the US to build global champions? The debate has intensified at a time where Europe's economic progress has stagnated and countries are battling to dominate the next wave of critical technology. More in the Sifted Daily: sifted.eu/articles/eur...

Maga vs the billionaires https://www.ft.com/content/b7694d70-2c5a-4531-b8d0-446ee12a489a

Ian Slater set up a family office called Gloucester Circus to invest in VCs at time when fundraising was tough. But while the VCs circling him for cash were real, his promises of money were often not. We tell the story of the man who catfished the VC ecosystem. sifted.eu/articles/glo...

German neobank N26 reported its first ever profitable quarter in Q3 after regulators lifted a limit on customer numbers imposed on the company in 2021 for failing to impose effective money-laundering controls. sifted.eu/articles/n26...

✈️ Germany's Volocopter has hired Oliver Vogelgesang — who held the role at fellow German electric aircraft startup Lilium until earlier this year — as its new CFO. Volocopter previously flagged it was at risk of insolvency, while Lilium filed for insolvency in October. sifted.eu/articles/vol...