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Hello, and happy Wednesday! As I write this, I’m also enjoying a virtual “holiday party” with my fellow TechCrunchers. Hey leaves on a jet plane, but he comes back tomorrow. Let’s dive into the news. — Christine

The australiabusinessblog.com Top 3

• You can’t handle the jet: Elon Musk stated that he was going to protect free speech even for the person behind Elon Jet, the Twitter account that tracks his flights, but unfortunately the account has been permanently suspended. Amanda has more.
• If you can’t beat them, join them: Apple used to fight what they call “sideloading” of alternative app stores on the iPhone, but to comply with European law, the consumer tech giant is now considering allowing them iOS 17, which will be released next year, Ivan reports.
• Cash flow riddle: Mary Ann reports on Nilus, a startup that raised $8.5 million to automate corporate finance workflows to more easily manage customer payments.

Startups and VC

Wow, you were all eating up the fintech news today. OK, here’s another one. Bondaval, a London-based B2B firm that provides credit teams with assurance that clients will pay their bills, has raised $15 million in Series A funding with Catherine write that Bondaval has now expanded into new use cases for credit managers at large companies, including those in the energy sector.

And we have four more for you:

• You look great: Bollywood star Deepika Padukone has a hit on her hands with her $7.5 million skin care start-up, Manic writes.
• To take off: Ingrid reports on a new funding round for Shield AI, giving it a $2.3 billion valuation. With its military autonomous flight technology, the company is a bright spot in the defense sector, which continues to attract investment.
• I need a dollar, or 1 billion: Visa pledges $1 billion to Africa over the next five years to build partnerships and invest in companies addressing issues ranging from food insecurity to underbanking, Tage writes.
• You can bet on this: Blockchain has faced its fair share of challenges this year, between crypto winter and other scandals, Mike writes, but it seems to be making its way into the sports betting market.

Dear Sophie: When can I register my employee for the H-1B lottery?

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/australiabusinessblog.com

Dear Sophie,

We are a pre-seed startup thinking about sponsoring an early worker’s H-1B visa to stay in the US and work for us.

How does the process work?

— Looking in San Mateo

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.

The US National Security Agency warned that Chinese hackers were exploiting a zero-day bug in two Citrix networking products. Carly writes that “The critical vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to remotely execute malicious code on vulnerable devices – no passwords required.” Oof!

Another warning that Twitter news is coming. Natasha L writes that Elon Musk is reportedly forcing tracking ads on Twitter to get him shortlisted for talks with the European Union. Also, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey had a good one-day run on Revue, Twitter’s newsletter platform, before the social media giant announced it was shutting down. Amanda has more on that.

And we have four more for you: