To get a roundup of australiabusinessblog.com’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3PM PST, register here.

We hope you face the week with open arms, crunchers, and that the week loves you back. Unrequited love of abstract conceptual time measurements is so heartbreaking.

Let’s start by reminding you that there are only 5 days left to save $1,000 on Disrupt passes! — Christine And Hey

The australiabusinessblog.com Top 3

• Nobody likes a cheater: Definitely not Russian game developer Battlestate Games, which banned and doxed 6,700 cheaters from its Escape from Tarkov game. Lorenzo has more.
• You get a loan and you get a loan!: Ingrid writes that UK-based open bank lending platform Abound has secured $601 million in new funding to boost its consumer credit business, which provides loans between £1,000 and £10,000 with a number of generous repayment options of up to five years.
• Microsoft’s next stop: Microsoft’s automation journey sees the software giant pitstop in Business App Suite City to deliver AI-powered Copilot capabilities, Kyle reports.

Startups and VC

Also today, we’re releasing the final episode of our Inside Startup Battlefield podcast miniseries, which is all about australiabusinessblog.com’s pitch competition. It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the winner has been announced!

And we have five more for you:

Create remote work rituals that stick

Image Credits: beep (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images (Image has been modified)

Remote teams have a lot of flexibility when it comes to when and how they work, but adding some structure can improve productivity and transparency without sacrificing freedom.

“Ultimately, you only benefit from asynchronous work if you compartmentalize the work phases with your team,” says Stefanie Palomino, chief product officer and general manager at ROOM 3D.

This post offers several tips that can help managers adopt active listening techniques that promote engagement, improve communication, and ideally reduce the number of meetings.

Says Palomino, “The routines people create are negotiated over time, but it’s something we’ve come to take for granted.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

australiabusinessblog.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams lead the way. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

Natasha L has the latest news about WhatsApp. Meta’s messaging platform agrees to clean up its user posts in the European Union to make its terms of service more transparent to users.

European and US police organizations arrest suspected members of the DoppelPaymer ransomware gang. Carly writes that this particular gang targeted at least 601 companies worldwide, with one of the most serious attacks targeting Düsseldorf University Hospital resulting in the death of a patient.

More for your Monday: