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  • Herds On the Road: 20,000km Climate Quest with Life‑Sized Animal Puppets

    The Herds finish a 20,000‑km odyssey — from jungle vibes to Arctic chills

    What the journey was all about

    The Herds was a bold, climate‑change art stunt that followed a strange convoy of animals across continents. Think Congo rainforests turning into Norwegian tundra — all while partying with a narrative that made the planet’s urgent conversations unforgettable.

    Key milestones on the trek

    • Congo (Start) – The expedition kicked off in the dense, green heart of Africa, echoing the urgency of deforestation.
    • East Africa – The herd pushed through sprawling savannahs, testing the limits of herd dynamics and long‑haul human support.
    • Middle Kingdoms (Turkey, Iran) – These stop‑overs turned into natural “layer‑ups” of cultures and climate advocacy.
    • Mediterranean Crossing – Swimming across a sea of voices, the project captured the winding dialogue on climate policy.
    • North‑European Finale – The crew arrived in the frigid Arctic Circle of Norway, a chilling reminder of the angles of global warming.

    Why it matters

    Touring 20,000km on foot, bike, and ship, The Herds turned ecological science into a visual, lived experience. It filled a storytelling gap: real‑world physics meets “feel‑good” art, and the result was a swell of community buzz and renewed calls for a more sustainable future.

    Quick takeaways for the eco‑skeptics

    • The journey highlights how far carbon footprints travel.
    • It proves movements can
    cross borders.
    • It gives us a tangible seconds‑long
    soundtrack to the intangible
    consequences of climate change.

    From Congo to the Arctic: The Giant Puppet Herd’s Epic Trek

    The Curious Cast of Characters

    Picture this: a lineup of life‑sized animal puppets—elephants, giraffes, antelopes, and lions—hang their heavy boots in Kinshasa, deep in the Congo rainforest, and hit the road in April. These weren’t just plush toys; they were fully rigged, human‑backed figures meant to symbolize the journeys of wildlife and people fleeing climate turmoil.

    Stepping Stones Across Two Continents

    As the herd marched northward, they turned the trek into a living canvas, bringing climate change to the streets in a way that felt incredibly personal and visceral, not just numbers on a chart.

    • 20,000 km of waggle, wiggle, and swag
    • Crossed two continents—Africa and Europe

    Picking Up New Companions Along the Way

    In every country they passed, the troupe adopted new “family” members—local animals fashioned from recycled cardboard and plywood. Think of it as a traveling zoo that doubles as a recycling workshop.

    Training the Team

    Over the course of this odyssey, they rallied 1,000 puppet‑savvy volunteers, each taught to bring these heroes to life. That’s a full‑time crew in a circus‑style international rollout!

    • 56 public events
    • 11 countries touched by the stage’s humor and heart

    Finite Destination: Jostedalsbreen & Nordkapp

    Finally, the herd scaled Norway’s Jostedalsbreen glacier—the biggest ice sheet on the European mainland. From there, they headed north for a dramatic arrival at Nordkapp, the point that reaches the Arctic Circle, and were set to greet the sunrise on 1 August. A snowy finale, indeed.

    Why This Matters

    It’s more than a puppet parade; it’s a storypoint that turns the climate crisis into something audiences can feel and follow. And who knew a clown car of elephants and giraffes could get a sleep‑over on a glacier?

    Life size animal puppets from The Herds perform in London on 27 June 2025.

    London’s Plot‑Twist: The Herds Brings Life‑Size Animal Puppets to the Stage

    Picture this: the bustling streets of London, the scent of fresh pastries drifting from the cafés, and right in the heart of the city, an unforgettable spectacle that goes something like, “What’s that creeping along the aisle?” It’s the The Herds – a troupe of budget‑friendly, oversized animal puppets – ready to put the “wild” in “wild‑life.” The big day? 27 June 2025.

    What Makes This Performance Tick?

    • Huge, hearty puppets – Think giraffes with necks that could poke the ceiling, ferocious lions that roar in a thousand-yard radius, and goats that just keep saying “blee… blee.”
    • Central London venue – The show kicks off at the iconic Leicester Square, bringing theatre vibes and a dash of chaos into the concrete jungle.
    • Audience engagement – The Herds love a good crowd joke. Get ready to laugh, cheer, and maybe even throw a few sarcastic spots of applause.

    Why You’ll Want to Be There

    Besides the literal, laugh-out-loud fun, the performance is a clever commentary on how our urban animals are a blend of the real and the imagined. It’s a chance to beat the tourist crowds and see London’s creative side in a fresh, eye‑popping way.

    © AP Photo

    Puppeteers move cardboard animals in canoes at the Makoko Slum in Lagos Nigeria, 19 April 2025, as part of "The Herds,"

    Picture This: Cardboard Zoo Goes on a Canoe Cruise in Lagos

    Imagine a bunch of puppeteers pushing tiny cardboard beasts through a swampy lagoon, right in the heart of Makoko’s river‑side slum. On April 19, 2025 they pulled off this quirky spectacle as part of a bigger show called The Herds. If you’re wondering what’s going on, let’s break it down.

    The Crew Behind the Curtain

    The Walk Productions is the mastermind here. They’re the folks who built Little Amal, the 12‑foot giant puppet that journeyed across 15 countries in 2021 to shine a light on refugees. Now they’re tackling a climate change headline, but with a theatrical twist.

    Emotion Over Data: The Big Idea

    David Lan, the producer, said the goal of The Herds is to make climate change feel real without drowning us in graphs and jargon. “We want people to feel the heat, the storms, the sinking of coastlines,” he told Euronews Culture. “It’s all about the human heart, not just the numbers.”

    Amir Nizar Zuabi: A Humble Hero

    Amir Nizar Zuabi, the artistic director who helped bring Little Amal to life, is honest about impact. “I’m not claiming we’ll change the world,” he told us, “but if we stir even a flicker of emotion, that’s worth it. It’s less about preaching science and more about tasting the crisis through art.”

    Why It Matters

    • Clothing the catastrophe with a feel‑good, heart‑warming narrative.
    • Giving people a safe space to discuss climate without feeling like a lecture.
    • Strengthening the connection between the audience and the environment.

    Catch the Show

    Number one, check the video above to see the cardboard animals paddle to victory. Feeling inspired? Join the movement; support climate drama that feels human, not humorous.

  • Apple gets ready for AI in the enterprise with new ChatGPT configuration options

    Apple gets ready for AI in the enterprise with new ChatGPT configuration options

    As AI technology makes its way into the enterprise, Apple is rolling out new tools that will give businesses more granular control over where and how their employees can tap into artificial intelligence. With the release of Apple’s software updates arriving in September, the tech giant is adding another option for enterprise customers: the ability to configure the use of an enterprise version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

    Apple has already seen the demand for ChatGPT for Enterprise, which OpenAI says now has over 5 million business customers. These companies use the AI service to connect with their own internal data when using AI agents.

    However, what’s interesting about the way Apple’s integration with ChatGPT for Enterprise has been structured is that it’s not hard-coded to only restrict or allow ChatGPT itself.

    Instead, Apple’s support documents indicate that IT administrators will be able to restrict or allow any “external” artificial intelligence provider, not just OpenAI’s technology. That leaves the door open for Apple to forge other deals with large AI players used in the enterprise environment, without having to recode things at the protocol level.

    As Apple has rolled out new AI features aimed at its devices’ end users — like writing tools or visual intelligence, for example — it’s also rolled out ways for IT departments to control access to those features.

    While the company fully believes in its Private Cloud Compute architecture, it knows that it can take time for companies to agree to make changes to sensitive systems and data. That’s why it leaves it up to businesses to decide if data should be processed in the cloud or on the device, for example.

    In addition to letting businesses pick and choose which AI features to enable, this setup allows businesses to decide whether employees’ AI requests can go to ChatGPT’s cloud service, even when the business doesn’t have its own enterprise deal with OpenAI. (ChatGPT, you’ll recall, has been integrated with Apple Intelligence across Apple’s software platform to handle AI requests that Apple’s own cloud can’t. Because requests never go from Apple’s cloud to ChatGPT directly — it’s either/or — it’s easier to disable the ChatGPT setting.)

    While AI updates are a highlight of the enterprise-related updates due out in the fall, Apple is also rolling out other new features to its largest customers.

    It will launch an API for its Apple Business Manager service, which will allow the service’s functions to be integrated into other IT tools, like MDM products, inventory management services, or help desks, among others. It’s also debuting new tools for Device Management to make it easier to migrate devices to a different management service — something that often comes up in M&A scenarios when a new company takes over employee devices and assets.

    Apple’s Return to Service solution, which lets devices quickly get wiped and readied for the next user, will now offer the option to leave all apps installed, saving time and bandwidth since IT admins and users won’t need to reinstall them. Plus, Return to Service will become available for Vision Pro for the first time.

    On shared Macs, an authenticated Guest Mode lets employees log in with account credentials from their identity provider, then has their data (but not apps) erased upon logout. Another option lets businesses add NFC readers to Macs, so employees can just tap their watch or phone to log in.

    These tools will also roll out in September as part of Apple’s broader software updates for iPhone, iPad, Mac and more.

    We’re always looking to evolve, and by providing some insight into your perspective and feedback into TechCrunch and our coverage and events, you can help us! Fill out this survey to let us know how we’re doing and get the chance to win a prize in return!

  • US sanctions fraud network used by North Korean 'remote IT workers' to seek jobs and steal money

    US sanctions fraud network used by North Korean 'remote IT workers' to seek jobs and steal money

    The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned an international fraud network used by North Korea to infiltrate U.S. companies with hackers posing as legitimate job seekers, agency officials announced Wednesday.

    The sanctions are the latest action taken by the U.S. Treasury in recent months aimed at combating North Korean government workers from seeking employment at American companies using fake identities and documents to apply for jobs. Once employed, the hackers earn a wage from the company, but also steal sensitive company data and extort their employers by demanding a ransom.

    In a statement Wednesday, the Treasury said the fraud network generated at least $1 million in profits for the North Korean regime, one of many such schemes that have helped raise billions of dollars in stolen funds, including cryptocurrency, to fund its internationally sanctioned nuclear weapons program.

    As part of its latest round of enforcement, the Treasury sanctioned Vitaliy Sergeyevich Andreyev, a Russian national accused of working with the North Koreans to facilitate payments to a company called Chinyong. The Treasury, which sanctioned Chinyong in 2024, says the company employs delegations of fraudulent IT workers based in Russia and Laos.

    The U.S. says Andreyev worked with a North Korean consular official based in Russia called Kim Ung Sun to launder close to $600,000 in stolen money into cryptocurrency for the regime.

    The Treasury sanctioned Shenyang Geumpungri, a Chinese company that the U.S. says also employs fraudulent IT workers on behalf of the North Korean government, as well as Sinjin, another North Korean front company for the IT workers’ scheme.

    This is the latest round of sanctions targeting North Korea, as well as the U.S.-based facilitators who help support the North Korean’s sprawling money-stealing schemes. North Korea remains highly dedicated to stealing money and converting it into cryptocurrency to skirt the country’s ban on accessing the global financial system. 

    While the scheme is not new, North Koreans are increasingly effective at getting jobs at U.S. and other Western companies.

    Security researchers in the past couple of years began raising the alarm about the North Korean IT workers’ schemes. Security firm CrowdStrike says North Korean hackers have infiltrated hundreds of companies in the United States alone by using fake documentation and deception techniques to gain employment. 

    The new sanctions mean U.S. companies, or any company doing business with a U.S. company, are barred from transacting or working with those listed by the Treasury. In practice, the Treasury rules put the legal responsibility on hiring companies to ensure they are not hiring North Koreans or other sanctioned individuals by mistake.

  • TeaOnHer App Leaks User Personal Data and Driver Licenses

    When Apps Go Rogue: The Curious Case of TeaOnHer

    Picture this: you’ve just downloaded a trendy new app, TeaOnHer, promising a fresh twist on the original Tea craze, built for men to brag about the women they’ve supposedly dated. Instead of a harmless social platform, you discover a bonafide vault of personal data, ready for the wrong hands.

    What’s in the Hack Closet?

    • Government IDs & driver’s licenses – those are usually for passports, not dating apps.
    • Selfies that look as if someone tried to prove they’re not a hologram.
    • Randomly left open public URLs that let anyone click and view anyone’s ID photo.
    • Emails and user names, ta‑da! Guess what… don’t (or do?) say it out loud.

    The Parallel Troll‑War

    Remember the original Tea app, the one where women post about the men they date? It’s topped with a “women’s safety” badge and a splashy 6 million‑user count. The fans fought back at TeaOnHer by creating a mirror‑image platform, only to copy the same questionable slogans and let the same problems show up in a fresh coat. The developers clearly didn’t keep a diary of better security practices.

    Viral Chaos and Data Disaster

    After 404 Media exposed a data dump saturated with 72,000+ images – from selfies to IDs – cyber‑enthusiasts waddled on the internet, sharing a million private messages that Tea had to shutter its messenger. The fallout? An app that was supposed to mean “girls are safe” became a personal data dispenser.

    Security Blunders in the Spotlight

    • Access with a single click – Any web visitor can pull up a user’s full profile, complete with email and location, purely by tumbling through the link list.
    • Admin credentials exposed – The founder’s email and plain password are sitting on the server side, unlocking the “admin” panel for anyone who can guess or resembles a random email address.
    • Guest view hypocrisy – You can get a “guest” glimpse without logging in, and teensy‑weens of the app reveal graphic or spam material (like repetitive nude images, defaming tags “easy”) riding the same data stream.
    • Estimated 53,000 users over exposed, a number that hints about how many “miracle” matches are actually absorptive social media consumption.

    Who’s Running the Ship?

    Newville Media Corporation slotted the app in the Apple store—right on the “Lifestyle” shelf, where you’d expect to find fitness trackers or travel journals. The CEO, Xavier Lampkin, tries to rate his credentials but gets caught in the loop of leaving his email as a marketing splash.

    Takeaways & Where to Crood‑waft

    Never underestimate the importance of data hygiene. If you’re a developer, put a lock on your app before publishing it into the wild. If you’re a user, set expectations that each app is not a passport office. And for the record, TeaOnHer is playing a hotter chess battle than Netflix or Instagram when you look at how it’s scored in the free-app arena.

  • Bounce launches a service for moving accounts between Bluesky and Mastodon

    Bounce launches a service for moving accounts between Bluesky and Mastodon

    Bounce, a new technology that adds a critical component to the open social web, launches to the public on Monday. The cross-protocol migration tool offers a service that allows users of open social networks like Bluesky and Mastodon to move their follow graphs between their accounts, even though the networks rely on different underlying protocols.

    Today, Mastodon users unhappy with the service can opt to move their account to a different Mastodon server, while Bluesky is developing technology that allows users to migrate their account to a new PDS (Bluesky’s term for “personal data server”) on its network. However, Mastodon runs on the ActivityPub Protocol and Bluesky on the AT Protocol, which has limited the ability to migrate accounts across the two platforms until now.

    To work, Bounce uses technology first developed for Bridgy Fed, a tool that connects Mastodon and Bluesky by making users’ profiles on one service visible on the other.

    To move accounts, Bounce first moves a user’s Bluesky account to a bridged account that straddles the two networks, then to the user’s Mastodon account. This migration also supports Pixelfed, an Instagram-like social app that also runs on ActivityPub, like Mastodon.

    At launch, Bounce can migrate users from Bluesky to Mastodon or Pixelfed, but not the other way around. That’s because Bluesky’s infrastructure currently only allows users to move off their servers, but doesn’t allow migrations back. When that changes, Bounce will launch migration in the opposite direction, too.

    In addition, early adopters should be aware that once they move their account off of Bluesky, they won’t be able to use their Bluesky credentials to log into the app again or other AT Protocol-based services again.

    Developed by a nonprofit called A New Social, which is also the maker of Bridgy Fed, Bounce’s launch is particularly timely for Bluesky users in Mississippi. On Friday, Bluesky announced that it would block its service in the state rather than comply with a new age assurance law that it considers overly invasive from a privacy standpoint and that would require too many resources for Bluesky’s small team to manage. This has left Bluesky users in the state without access to the social network, highlighting the need for tools that would allow users to take their accounts elsewhere.

    Techcrunch event

    Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda

    Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They’re here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $600+ before prices rise.

    Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda

    Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They’re here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise.

    San Francisco
    |
    October 27-29, 2025

    REGISTER NOW

    Bounce’s beta is available starting Monday and is aimed at early adopters and open web enthusiasts who are willing to try the service and offer feedback. While the service is open to the public, users should familiarize themselves with the migration process before making the commitment to move their accounts, given that it’s not yet possible to move back to Bluesky after they leave.