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Thunder rout Pelicans in Game 2

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER — ALL-PRO REELS

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER scored 33 points and Chet Holmgren added 26 as the host Oklahoma City Thunder beat the New Orleans Pelicans 124-92 on Wednesday to take a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference first-round playoff series.

Oklahoma City owns its first 2-0 edge in a playoff series since the 2013 first round. Game 3 in the best-of-seven series is set for Saturday in New Orleans.

Mr. Gilgeous-Alexander, who shot 13 of 19 from the floor, produced his best scoring total in a postseason game. Mr. Holmgren hit 9 of 13 as the Thunder shot 59 percent from the field, including 14-of-29 (48.3 percent) from be-yond the arc. Jonas Valanciunas scored the Pelicans’ first 11 points and finished with a team-high 19 after scoring 13 points in the Pelicans’ 94-92 Game 1 loss. His rebound total dropped from 20 in the opener to a team-high seven on Wednesday. New Orleans’ Herbert Jones and Brandon Ingram added 18 points apiece. The Pelicans led by two after Mr. Jones hit a 3-pointer just more than four minutes into the game for the team’s first non-Valanciunas points.

Oklahoma City then ripped off a 21-6 run to seize control for what proved to be the rest of the game. After the Thunder took a 13-point lead late in the first quarter, New Orleans never pulled closer than eight in the second quarter and never was closer than 12 in the second half.

Outside of Valanciunas, who went 5 of 7 from the floor, New Orleans was just 3 of 14 from the field in the first quarter.

While Valanciunas made a big impact on the inside early, so did his Thunder counterpart, Holmgren. The Oklahoma City rookie hit three 3-pointers in the first six minutes, including one that put Oklahoma City ahead for good just after Mr. Jones’ trey.

Much of the Thunder’s early offensive production came thanks to strong defense, as Oklahoma City scored eight first-quarter points off five Pelicans’ turnovers while not committing a turnover in the period. — Reuters

Heat tie series

JIMMY BUTLER — MICHAEL MCLOONE-USA TODAY SPORTS

Heading into Game Two of the Celtics’ first-round series against the Heat, the nagging question wasn’t whether the former would win; it was by how many points. And, nope, conventional wisdom wasn’t simply engaging in homerism. Never mind that the set-to was scheduled to be held at the TD Garden, where the green and white sported a dominant 37-4 slate en route to a league-leading 64-win regular season. After all, they hitherto made short work of the visitors in Game One, leading to prognoses that they would again do the same before 19,156 rabid fans.

As things turned out, the Celtics found themselves in a real battle yesterday. Any notion that they would again assert their supremacy, particularly in the middle quarters, was promptly disabused by the scrappy Heat. As heavily favored as they may have been, their opponents wore underdog tags proudly, overcoming a glaring lack of talent (including the absence of leading light Jimmy Butler due to injury) with trademark grit and determination. And when the battlesmoke cleared, they were the ones who suffered a double-digit defeat — thereby surrendering the very advantage their pacesetting standing afforded them.

In retrospect, what’s telling is that the Celtics wound up on the wrong end of counting stats yesterday. They finished with significantly worse shooting percentages, enabling the Heat to beat them at their own game. In the face of stifling coverage, their vaunted five-out offense suffered; they attempted and made 11 less tries from three-point territory. Which essentially told the story of why they played catch-up ball for much of the second half. As visiting head coach Erik Spoelstra noted, it was “a very good response … We also made some shots. It always looks better when you make shots.”

To be sure, the Celtics remain the favorites to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals. On paper, they’re too stacked to be beaten by a roster missing its best player. That said, they still need to meet expectations on the court moving forward; yesterday, their executions left much to be desired. The good news is that they have two days between contests to make the requisite adjustments. The bad news is that the Heat likewise have the same, and Spoelstra will, if nothing else, make sure his charges are eminently prepared. Needless to say, they would do well to meet the challenge.

 

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.

Cloud seeding sought for hydro plants

By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter

A PHILIPPINE senator urged the government on Thursday to explore cloud seeding, a method that induces sudden and significant rainfall, to activate hydropower plants that have stopped working due to the drought caused by the El Niño weather pattern.

“In Dubai they tried cloud seeding and it started raining over there, if we can try cloud seeding to get our hydropower plants working since maybe (if El Niño worsens) our other plants may also stop working,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, speaking in Filipino, told a forum at the Senate.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman noted how in this month, so far, 21 hydropower plants have stopped amid a lack of rain, dried up rivers, and episodes of drought. This was lost opportunity to produce 800 megawatts of power, he said.

Last February, the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office 2 in Cagayan province successfully conducted cloud seeing operations in select areas of Region 2, causing light to moderate rains.

The DA-RFO2 said Piper Navajo flyers had scattered 33 sacks of sodium chloride on cloud formations 4,500 feet above the ground for precipitation to aid parched farmlands.

Last Wednesday, the country’s main grids saw a shortfall of energy supply for the seventh time in April, with a yellow alert being raised over the Mindanao power grid for the first time this year.

These alerts are issued when the supply available to a grid falls below a safety threshold, while a red alert is raised continues to fall.

Luzon and Visayas power grids on Wednesday were under red and yellow alerts respectively, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said in a statement.

EXPLORING GAS RESERVES
Meanwhile, Mr. Gatchalian said that oil and gas will still be important energy sources in the coming years even as the government tries to transition to renewable energy.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. told foreign journalists earlier this month that his administration is looking into exploring gas reserves in nonconflict areas in the country’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, to boost its power generation capacity.

This comes as the Malampaya gas field, which supplies a fifth of the country’s power requirements, nears depletion.

It is expected to run out of easily recoverable gas using current techniques by 2027.

“Not all of the service contracts (for gas exploration) are in the West Philippine Sea as many of those are outside, and we can start exploration in those areas,” he said in Filipino.

“And I know the DoE (Department of Energy) is planning on trying to convince (companies) with service contracts there to start exploring (gas reserves) since we need energy for the coming years.”

The government is aiming to boost renewable energy (RE) in the power generation mix to 35% by 2030 and to 50% by 2040.

Renewables account for 22% of the Philippine energy mix.

TikTok artists and advertisers to stay with app until ‘door slams shut’

SOLEN FEYISSA-UNSPLASH

BAN or no ban, TikTok’s partners in the music and advertising world plan to stick with the massively popular short-form video platform until the bitter end, seven industry leaders told Reuters. The US Senate passed a bill late on Tuesday that gives Chinese tech firm ByteDance up to a year to divest TikTok, or the app will be banned altogether. President Joseph R. Biden has signaled he would sign the bill, capping a four-year battle over concerns the Chinese government could influence content or access user data.

TikTok has rivaled larger companies such as Meta Platforms for user attention and advertisement budgets, and its cultural power is reflected in its ability to catapult emerging artists into viral hits, changing how young people discover music.

As long as TikTok’s users remain engaged with the app, “advertisers will ride it all the way until the door slams shut,” said Craig Atkinson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of digital marketing agency Code3.

Adamm Miguest, CEO and founder of Rapid Launch Media, which creates marketing campaigns designed to make songs go viral, said he will advise clients to stay on TikTok as long as they can.

Even Universal Music, whose artists’ songs disappeared from TikTok in March as licensing talks stalled, has resumed negotiations in recent weeks, according to two people close to the discussions. The talks reflect the realization that, whatever the outcome of the legislative process, TikTok is not going away tomorrow, one of the sources said. Universal declined to comment.

The app’s importance is also underscored by how superstar Taylor Swift, a Universal artist, defied her label by putting her music back on TikTok just weeks later.

“I think we have to look and ask, why did Taylor Swift do that? Even she recognizes the power that TikTok yields,” said Johnny Cloherty, CEO of Songfluencer, a creative marketing firm that has worked with artists like Dolly Par-ton and Miranda Lambert.

Musicians aim to get songs circulating on TikTok or other platforms such as Instagram Reels and then have users listen to the music on streaming services. TikTok posts are far more likely to lead to streams, Mr. Miguest said, who has worked with musicians including Muni Long and Sueco.

“From what I’ve seen, you have to get 10 to 20 times the amount of posts on Reels for it to even come close to translating to what you might get on TikTok,” he said.

TikTok also beats Google’s YouTube as the most common music discovery source for teens in the US, said Tatiana Cirisano, a senior music industry analyst for Midia Research.

TikTok has long said it has not and never would share US user data with the Chinese government. It is expected to challenge the bill. “This is the beginning, not the end of this long process,” TikTok told staff on Saturday, Reuters previously reported.

“This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court,” a spokesperson said on Wednesday. “We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail.”

The company did not respond to a request for further comment.

RIVALS ON THE HUNT
Other tech platforms are waiting in the wings for TikTok’s users and advertising revenue.

YouTube has been particularly aggressive in going after TikTok marketing budgets, asking advertising agencies to test one of its advertising products to see how it performs against TikTok specifically, according to one advertising agency director, who declined to be named to discuss conversations with the platforms.

Recent surveys have shown that Gen-Z are increasingly using TikTok to search for information and businesses rather than Google. Google did not respond to the request for comment.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told investors on Tuesday that short-form video content is “a big focus of ours,” which would make its way to the service’s music streaming product in 2024.

Even with their commitment to the platform, advertisers are beginning to shift from their theoretical contingency plans, which have long been in place, to actively testing plan Bs, Atkinson said.

“If we imagine a continuum of ‘maybe this will happen someday,’ to the idea that TikTok will be turned off, we’ve moved one step over,” he said.

Both advertisers and music artists have taken steps to test and diversify their strategies across other platforms, including Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. “But none of them have quite garnered the attention that TikTok did,” said Gabriel Lister, managing partner of record label Independent Co.

“The question is whether any of those platforms could replace TikTok’s cultural heft — I don’t believe it would simply be a case of TikTok users migrating over to the competitors,” said Midia’s Ms. Cirisano.

Amid the uncertainty, TikTok will host a glitzy evening presentation for advertisers in New York City next week as part of an annual event organized by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a trade group.

There were no changes to the plans as of Tuesday, the IAB said. — Reuters

Songs for a drive down memory lane

By Brontë H. Lacsamana, Reporter

Album Review,
Don’t Forget Me
Maggie Rogers
Capitol Records

BACK in 2016, then 21-year-old Maggie Rogers went from a largely unknown college student with vast creative potential to a globally admired music prodigy with a cult following, almost overnight.

This fame was the result of a viral video where musician Pharrell Williams reacted to her song “Alaska” as part of an artist-in-residence program. He was speechless and in awe of the uniquely original demo. The electronic folk pop track that he praised was so refreshing at the time, and is still her biggest song to date in terms of streams and plays.

Ms. Rogers’ more mature, self-assured sound is a far cry from that first foray into finding her voice as a singer-songwriter. The best part is, it is absolutely just as deserving of the same speechless awe.

Her latest offering is Don’t Forget Me, a reflection of moments in a life and a glimpse into truthful snapshots throughout her 20s. Produced by Ian Fitchuk, it’s relaxed, honest, and reliant on the emotional power of acoustic in-struments, more so than her other two albums.

Ms. Rogers’ voice is distinct and familiar, beautifully nuanced in its approach to recalling the past amid a thick soundscape. “I’m fine but feel I’m breaking through. My world’s a honey shade of blue,” she sings in the album’s first track, “It Was Coming All Along.”

The next one is the fast-paced and dynamic “Drunk.” Here, her strong vocals are driven forward by the guitar-led backdrop, excited as she talks of a fiery yearning for another person. The energy it gives off, while akin to songs from her previous album Surrender — released in 2022 following pent-up emotions from the pandemic — is that of a woman returning to a vivid memory.

“So Sick of Dreaming” is the third track and the lead single of the album. It represents the entire collection best, blending Ms. Rogers’ folk-country voice with commercially viable soft-rock. The guitars accompany her heart-rending vocals perfectly, weaving a tapestry of complex emotions.

The fourth track, “The Kill,” is a standout. It laments a dysfunctional past relationship with striking, gritty guitar and bass lines, making it a quick favorite for anyone seeking hard-hitting tunes. It’s the kind of track that induces both head bopping and self-reflection.

“If Now Was Then” follows with a catchy drum beat on loop and Ms. Rogers singing of things we wish we could take back but can’t. The upbeat pace is akin to early 2000s pop-rock, her voice delicate in just the right moments.

The sixth song, “I Still Do,” is a sad, slow ballad played on piano, approached with that same delicacy rather than the powerful belting that other singers might use. “Love is not a debt you pay. It’s not something you can give away,” she sings.

This exact same strain on her voice, similar to that of folk and country singers, is utilized in great effect in the seventh track, “On & On & On.” This time, it’s more upbeat, carried by a playful bass and guitar line.

Ms. Rogers then gives us a tune to dance to with “Never Going Home,” a playful take on another story of heartbreak. “I can’t behave but I don’t wanna be alone. You kept me waiting and now I’m never ever going home,” she says.

The second to the last song is “All the Same,” proof that she is just as insightful a songwriter as the likes of Patti Smith and Joni Mitchell. The simple strumming of a guitar adds to the comforting vocals, where the young Ms. Rogers admits her inexperience and immaturity, sounding all the more mature for it.

“All the same, day by day, and suddenly you look around and find the ground still feeling like it’s yesterday. The lights are on and nothing’s wrong and still you can’t remember when you played the game,” she softly sings.

“Don’t Forget Me” closes the album, steady in its slow pop-rock lamentations about love. Ms. Rogers’ raw voice leaves an impact as the journey through bittersweet, youthful thoughts and memories comes to an end.

“Won’t you promise me that when it’s time to leave, don’t forget me,” are the final words from the album.

The spaces that Ms. Rogers’ persona inhabits fill the air indefinitely, from nights with a lover coming to an end, to regretful choices that one can only return to in memories. Her artistry blooms as much as it did when she was first discovered, and it’s safe to say she won’t be forgotten.

Don’t Forget Me is out now on all streaming platforms.

Record giant HYBE audits NewJeans label as infighting returns to K-pop

RECORD giant HYBE auditing sub-label ADOR which represents, among other talents, the group NewJeans (photo) as it suspects it of planning to break away.

SEOUL — South Korea’s largest music company is auditing the management of one of its labels as it suspects they are planning to break away, the latest case of infighting in K-pop, one of the world’s most popular and profitable music industries.

HYBE houses multiple labels behind globally renowned groups including BTS and Seventeen, and its shares fell nearly 8% on Monday largely due to the internal dispute.

A HYBE representative told Reuters in an e-mail on Wednesday that the audit was launched earlier this week on suspicion that Min Hee-jin, Chief Executive Officer of sub-label ADOR, was plotting to become independent, and take over management rights of the artists the label represents.

Ms. Min is credited with creating popular girl group NewJeans, and together with other executives owns a 20% stake in ADOR. NewJeans is set to release a new single next month.

Earlier this week, Ms. Min denied HYBE’s allegations in a statement to local media, and accused the company of infringing on her intellectual property rights.

The law firm representing Ms. Min declined to comment.

The dispute is one of several to hit the industry in recent years as it continues to grow globally. Last year, the takeover of SM Entertainment by South Korean social media giant Kakao triggered an internal battle over management.

Fifty Fifty, a girl group behind TikTok hit “Cupid,” also saw their career fizzle out following a legal battle with its agency Attrakt in 2023.

The K-pop industry is suffering “growing pains” which are affecting its shares in the short-term, said Soo-jin Lim, an analyst at Daishin Securities.

“After going through this process, things might move in a direction where agencies can better protect their artists and intellectual properties,” Soo-jin Lim said.

In a report on Tuesday, analyst Oh Ji-woo at eBest Investment & Securities, said HYBE shares will be volatile for some time following the audit.

K-pop is one of South Korea’s biggest cultural exports, accounting for nine out of the 10 most-sold albums in 2023 and selling tens of millions of units, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). — Reuters

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and the art of melodrama

TAYLOR SWIFT album drops have become cultural moments — whether or not you are a fan of her music. Each album in the Swift catalogue seeks to open up new themes, discussion, sounds and ideas, while retaining a sense of familiarity that doesn’t alienate fans. Lyrically, The Tortured Poets Department is a euphoric rejection of societal expectations. It embraces all the Taylor-isms her fans have come to know and love, from her one-note melodies to her recitative delivery (sung in the rhythm of ordinary speech). And it features her signature frank and open autopsies of relationships, delivered with maturity not only in the choices of language and obscenities (“fuck you if I can’t have us”) but in Swift’s outlook on her life and relationships. This is accompanied by the rich electro-pop production of longtime collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. The first striking thing about the album (including its title), is the many references to poetry. The title track declares: “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith,” pointing to other famously troubled (or “tortured”) lyrical po-ets.

This track sets the tone for an album where lyrics are the central feature, with Swift choosing developed imagery over catchy pop hooks. The title track is also a clear rejection of any notion that Swift is presenting herself as a bohemian, and asserts that she does not struggle for her art. In fact, she appears to mock those who do, sneering: “Who uses typewriters anyway?”

TORTURED MELODRAMA

One of the unapologetic lyrical themes of the album is Swift’s intense commitment to love, relationships, and their aftermath. To help convey this, Swift uses melodrama as a narrative device. Melodrama is a genre of performance that uses heightened and often over-the-top expressions of emotion. In “Down Bad” she evokes fantastic celestial imagery of “cosmic love” and being “heavenstruck,” but balances this with discovering the harsh realities of a relationship. She asks: “Did you really beam me up / In a cloud of spar-kling dust / Just to do experiments on?,” perhaps suggesting that her passionate love is being taken advantage of.

Swift tempers this with the extreme assertion that: “If I can’t have him, I might just die.” This melodrama pervades the rest of the album to celebrate emotional vulnerability as she shares her innermost thoughts. On “I Can Do it With a Broken Heart” Swift declares: “I’m so depressed, I act like it’s my birthday every day,” before proudly owning her emotion, declaring: “I cry a lot, but I am so productive, it’s an art.” Here, she claims that she can use heartbreak as a stimulus for creativity, rather than allow it to dictate her everyday life. In his book Melodrama (1973), author James L. Smith draws on philosophical critiques and analyses of music, poetry, and theater to help define the core characteristics of the genre. “In melodrama,” he explains, “man remains undivided, free from the agony of choosing between conflicting imperatives and desires.” Swift often exhibits this in her lyrical retellings of past relationships, either positioning listeners at the beginning (“Enchanted”) or end of a relationship (“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”). Smith also asserts that “melodrama presses its own extreme conflicts to extreme conclusions.” This speaks to the extremes of emotion explored in The Tortured Poets Department, including frequent references to death. “I might just die, it would make no difference,” Swift opines on “Down Bad.” “Lights, camera, bitch, smile / Even when you wanna die” is how she describes her emotional state during the recent Eras Tour in “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.”

Art forms like songs and poetry can be extremely valuable for artists to process and channel their emotions. Not only does this seem to hold true for The Tortured Poets Department, but the album functions as something of an invitation for listeners to process their own grief and heartbreak alongside Swift. An “alchemy” that turns for her own “tortured” nights into communal therapy.

 

Samuel Murray is a lecturer in Music, University of Liverpool.

Klimt’s Portrait of Miss Lieser fetches $32 million at auction

https://imkinsky.com/presse/auktionshaus-im-kinsky-freut-sich-ueber-erfolgreiche-auktion

VIENNA — Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Miss Lieser, a painting of a young woman left unfinished when the Austrian artist died, sold at auction on Wednesday for €30 million ($32 million) despite open questions about its subject and previous ownership.

The work was long thought to have been lost when in fact it was hanging in a private villa near Vienna for decades, according to the auction house Im Kinsky that put it on display in January before putting it under the hammer. Im Kinsky had estimated its value at €30 million to €50 million.

It shows its likely teenage subject in a turquoise dress draped in a flowing floral gown against a red background, her alabaster skin and piercing, pale brown eyes contrasting with her dark, curly hair.

Despite depicting her so clearly, it remains unclear who Fraeulein Lieser actually was. The brothers Adolf and Justus Lieser were wealthy industrialists in the Austro-Hungarian empire, having built their wealth on jute and hemp, making twine and rope.

Henriette Amalie Lieser-Landau, nicknamed “Lilly,” was married to Justus until their divorce in 1905 and became a well-known patron of the arts. It is possible she commissioned the painting of one of her daughters, or Adolf Lieser could have done so with his daughter Margarethe as the subject.

“According to the latest provenance research, Klimt’s model was possibly not Margarethe Constance Lieser, Lilly Lieser’s niece, but one of her two daughters (with Justus), either Helene, the older one, born in 1898, or her sister Annie, who was three years younger,” the auction house said on its website.

What happened to the painting after Klimt’s death in 1918, when it would have been in his studio, remains unclear, particularly what happened after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938 and the country’s Jews were perse-cuted, expropriated, and sent to concentration camps.

Margarethe left Austria for Hungary and then Britain but the auction house says the painting verifiably never left Austria. Lilly Lieser stayed in Vienna until she was deported in 1942 and then killed in Auschwitz the following year. Her daughters returned to Vienna after World War II to reclaim her assets but the painting was not mentioned in any documents, Im Kinsky said.

“It was these many ambiguities and historical gaps that prompted the current owners to contact the legal successors of the Lieser family and to agree on a ‘fair and just solution’ with them all in 2023,” Im Kinsky said, without identifying the current owners.

“It has been agreed not to disclose the contents of the said agreement; however, it can be stated that all conceivable claims of all parties involved will be settled and fulfilled through the auctioning of the artwork,” it said.

“The agreement essentially means that — from a purely legal point of view — it is immaterial who commissioned the painting from Gustav Klimt and which of the three young ladies in question it portrays.” — Reuters

John Lennon’s lost 1960s acoustic guitar to go up for auction

John Lennon’s Lost Framus “Help!” Hootenanny juliensauctions.com

LONDON —- A previously lost 12-string acoustic guitar that belonged to the late John Lennon will go up for sale at an auction in May after it was recently found in the attic of a home in Britain.

The auctioneers said Lennon played the guitar, which is expected to exceed its estimate of $600,000 to $800,000, on the Beatles’ 1965 album Help!.

The guitar was lying in an attic and was rediscovered by the current owners during a house move.

The founders of US-based Julien’s Auctions said they traveled to Britain to verify the guitar and found the original case — a Maton Australian-made guitar case — in the trash.

Martin Nolan, executive director and co-founder of Julien’s Auctions, told Reuters the owners knew they had the instrument at one point, but thought it had been lost.

The guitar is believed to have ended up in their hands through British musician Gordon Waller, a member of the 1960s pop duo Peter and Gordon.

“Gordon was gifted it from John Lennon, then Gordon gifted it to his road manager, and that’s where the guitar stayed for all these years,” Mr. Nolan said.

The guitar will be auctioned on May 29 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York and on the auctioneer’s website. Earlier this year, a stolen Hofner bass guitar belonging to Paul McCartney was found and returned to Lennon’s fellow Beatle after 51 years following a global hunt.

Musical instruments belonging to prominent members of the Beatles have fetched a high price at previous auction. In 2015, a guitar stolen from Lennon in the 1960s sold for $2.41 million at an auction in California. — Reuters

How US allies are preparing for a possible second Trump term

Trump supporters attend a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump, in Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S., April 20. -- REUTERS

BERLIN/MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON — Germany is waging a charm offensive inside the Republican Party. Japan is lining up its own Trump whisperer. Mexican government officials are talking to Camp Trump. And Australia is busy making laws to help Trump-proof its US defense ties.

Everywhere, US allies are taking steps to defend or advance their interests in the event former President Donald Trump returns to power in November elections, an even chance based on recent opinion polls in swing states.

They want to avoid the cold slap that Trump’s “America First” policies dealt them last time around, which included trade wars, a shakeup of security alliances, an immigration crackdown and the withdrawal from a global climate accord.

Reuters spoke to diplomats and government officials in five continents about preparations for Trump 2.0. It uncovered Mexican deliberations over a new, Trump-savvy foreign minister, an Australian envoy’s role in rushing to protect a submarine deal, and a German official’s talks with Republican state governors.

Some foreign leaders have contacted Mr. Trump directly despite the risk of irking his election rival, Democratic President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Saudi’s crown prince recently phoned Mr. Trump, a source with knowledge of the conversation said; while Hungary’s prime minister and Poland’s president met him in person in recent weeks.

British Foreign Minister David Cameron also held talks with Mr. Trump this month at his Florida resort. He told reporters in Washington afterwards that his meeting was a private dinner where they discussed Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza war, and the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The White House referred Reuters to comments by spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre in which she said meetings such as the one held by Cameron were not uncommon. She declined to answer questions about Mr. Trump’s meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán or the Saudi call, which was first reported by the New York Times.

The Saudi government’s media office and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment about the call

The campaign said he discussed security issues with each of the European leaders, including a proposal by Polish President Andrzej Duda that NATO members spend at least 3% of gross domestic product on defense. Currently, they aim to spend 2%.

Jeremi Suri, a presidential historian at the University of Texas, said meetings between candidates and diplomats were normal, but said he thought Trump’s meeting with Mr. Orban and the call with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman were unusual.

Mr. Trump adviser Brian Hughes said: “Meetings and calls from world leaders reflect the recognition of what we already know here at home. Mr. Biden is weak, and when President Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, the world will be more secure and America will be more prosperous.”

The campaign did not respond in detail to questions about the other findings in this story, but campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said: “America’s allies are anxiously hoping that President Trump will be re-elected.”

‘BYPASS DIPLOMACY’
Much of the Trump outreach has been less direct than meetings with the candidate.

Germany has been building bridges with Mr. Trump’s Republican base at a state level, reminding party officials that it invests heavily in US industry.

Mindful that Mr. Trump threatened punitive tariffs on Germany’s car industry while president, and now wants to slap a minimum 10% tariff on all imports if returned to office, Germany is using a transatlantic coordinator to ready for Trump 2.0.

As coordinator, Michael Link is leading what Berlin calls “bypass diplomacy,” crisscrossing the union, targeting swing states where Germany is a heavy investor.

“It would be extremely important, if Donald Trump were re-elected, to prevent the punitive tariffs he is planning on goods from the EU,” he told Reuters.

He said he had met Republican governors of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama and Indiana. At each stop, he explains why good trade ties underpin Germany’s US presence. The biggest exporter of US-made cars is BMW, and Germany says it employs 860,000 Americans directly and indirectly.

Mr. Link has also been meeting Democratic officials, but lobbying those who can influence Mr. Trump is his priority.

Reuters could not determine if Mr. Trump was aware of Berlin’s approach.

JAPAN’S TRUMP WHISPERER
To bolster its diplomatic engagement with the Trump camp, Japan is preparing to deploy Sunao Takao, a Harvard-educated interpreter who helped former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bond with Mr. Trump over games of golf.

Another ex-prime minister of Japan, Taro Aso, met Mr. Trump in New York on Tuesday, according to a campaign official.

America’s closest ally in Asia worries Mr. Trump may revive trade protectionism and demand more money for the upkeep of US forces in Japan, government officials say.

Britain’s Labor party, now in opposition but strong favorite to win elections expected by year-end, may have a steeper hill to climb to reach a good relationship with a Trump administration.

Labor’s nominative foreign minister, David Lammy, once wrote in Time magazine that Mr. Trump was a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi sociopath.” Mr. Lammy is now working to build ties with Republicans, said a Labor official.

Mr. Lammy has met Republican figures seen as candidates for roles in a Trump cabinet, including Mike Pompeo, a former US Secretary of State under Mr. Trump, the Labor official said.

Mr. Lammy declined to be interviewed but has said many British politicians criticized Mr. Trump and he would represent British interests as foreign minister regardless of who occupies the White House.

Victoria Coates, a former deputy national security adviser under Mr. Trump, said a Labor victory could mean a rough patch for US-UK relations if Mr. Trump wins, citing “personal vitriol” on the part of Labor.

A representative for Mr. Pompeo declined to comment.

ANXIETY DOWN UNDER
Australia’s US ambassador, Kevin Rudd, recently drew Mr. Trump’s ire over past criticism of the former president.

In a broadcast interview last month, Mr. Trump said he had heard that Mr. Rudd, an ex-prime minister, was “a little bit nasty” and that: “If he’s at all hostile, he will not be there long.”

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has defended Mr. Rudd, saying he would stay as ambassador if Mr. Trump won back power.

Behind the scenes, Mr. Rudd is trying to protect a key defense deal from being unwound by Mr. Trump, an Australia-based diplomatic source said.

The Biden administration has agreed to help Australia take its first step toward developing a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines by selling Canberra three to five Virginia-class attack submarines.

Mr. Rudd has pushed Canberra to act fast on enacting legislation that moves it closer to US arms-control standards and sets up a special nuclear-safety body, in the hope it would make the sale harder for Trump to unpick, the source said.

The embassy declined to comment. Canberra did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Michael Shoebridge, of Strategic Analysis Australia, said Trump’s “America First” could still sink the deal.

“All the levers are there for Trump to say, ‘the US Navy doesn’t have enough, so Australia don’t get any’,” the defense expert said.

Reuters could not determine Mr. Trump’s view on the matter. He has not raised any concerns on the deal on the campaign trail.

SOUTH KOREA’S DISCREET APPROACH
A low-key way for US allies to influence Trump is via lobbyists, especially if they want to be discreet.

A former South Korean government official, now based in Washington, said the Biden administration was watching foreign governments closely and that Seoul preferred to understand Mr. Trump’s thinking via lobbying firms in a “stealthy manner.”

Washington’s lobbyist district is buzzing with South Koreans keen to understand Mr. Trump’s views on trade and investment, including what would happen to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a South Korean government official said.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said it was working with its local missions to prepare for the election and its aftermath but that it had not hired lobbyists for specific candidates.

IRA supports the re-shoring of manufacturing and the energy transition. Mr. Trump also backs re-shoring but not Mr. Biden’s push to switch from fossil fuels to green power.

Some US allies are using lobbyists linked to Mr. Trump, including Ballard Partners, run by Brian Ballard, a Florida lobbyist who is sought out for his close links to Mr. Trump.

Ballard’s clients include Japan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the firm and US disclosure filings. It declined to name others.

“Many members of our firm have been longtime allies of the former president,” said Justin Sayfie, a partner with Ballard.

Japan’s foreign ministry said it sought advice and support from a wide range of experts. It declined to comment on the relationship with Ballard. Congo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. — Reuters

Cisco says hackers subverted its security devices to spy on governments

REUTERS

WASHINGTON — Technology firm Cisco Systems said that hackers have subverted some of its digital security devices to break in to government networks globally.

In a blog post published on Wednesday, the company said its Adaptive Security Appliances — pieces of equipment that roll several different digital defense functions into one — had previously unknown vulnerabilities that had been exploited by a group of hackers they called “UAT4356.”

The blog post described the group as a “sophisticated state-sponsored actor” and said that the company’s investigation found victims that “involved government networks globally.” Cisco said the vulnerabilities have been patched.

In a statement, the company said it urged customers to take “immediate action” to update their software. It did not give further details on the breaches, which it said dated back to earlier this year.

Security equipment like routers and other so-called edge devices has become an increasingly popular vector for advanced hackers because it resides at the perimeter of a target’s network and can be difficult to monitor.

In its post, Cisco warned that it had seen evidence that the UAT4356 hackers were interested in “and potentially attacking” network devices from Microsoft and other vendors. Microsoft did not immediately return an e-mail.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said it had “not confirmed evidence of this activity affecting US government networks at this time.” CISA released an alert on the Cisco vulnerabilities on Wednesday. — Reuters

Venice starts charging entry fee for day trippers

REUTERS

VENICE — Venice becomes the first city in the world on Thursday to introduce a payment system for tourists in an effort to thin the crowds that throng the canals during the peak holiday season.

Any visitor who is not staying the night must pay a 5 euro ($5.35) entry fee online before walking into the lagoon city on April 25 — a national holiday and the first of 29 days this year when visitors are being charged to get in.

Although there are no turnstiles at the city gateways to make sure people have a pass, inspectors will be making random checks and issue fines of between 50 and 300 euros to anyone who has failed to register.

“No one has ever done this before,” Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told reporters earlier this month. “We are not closing the city… we are just trying to make it liveable.”

Some 20 million people visited Venice last year, a city official said, with roughly half of them staying overnight in hotels or holiday lets — an influx which dwarves the resident population currently put at around 49,000.

Venice narrowly escaped being placed on UNESCO’s “World Heritage in Danger” list last year partly because the UN body decided that the city was addressing concerns that its delicate ecosystem risked being overwhelmed by mass tourism.

Besides introducing the entry charge, the city has also banned large cruise ships from sailing into the Venetian lagoon and has announced new limits on the size of tourist groups.

“The phenomenon of mass tourism poses a challenge for all Europe’s tourist cities,” said Simone Venturini, who is responsible for tourism and social cohesion on the city council.

“But being smaller and more fragile, it is even more impacted by this phenomenon and is therefore taking action earlier than others to try to find solutions,” he told Reuters.

Ticketing this year is in an experimental phase and Venturini said that in future Venice might start charging more at certain times of the year to look to discourage arrivals. — Reuters

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