Out today on Black Truffle, BAUR BENTUR, a new release from DEWA ALIT, master of radical Balinese gamelan. Previous Black Truffle releases introduced international listeners to the magical sound-world of Alit’s GAMELAN SALUKAT, who perform on instruments tuned to a unique scale derived from modified versions of two traditional Balinese scales. BAUR BENTUR now highlights another aspect of Alit’s work, presenting pieces composed in 2024 & 2025 where Gamelan Salukat performs alongside virtuoso pianist SRI HANURAGA. BAUR BENTUR is a stunning next step in Alit’s radical combination of tradition & innovation. LP+Digital: https://t.co/EHO6U0M9F9
The critically endangered Philippine eagle is one of the largest and most powerful eagles on Earth.
This magnificent predator is threatened by deforestation and habitat loss, with fewer than 1,000 thought to remain in the wild.
(Photos Shauming Lo, Alain Pascua)
I'm reluctantly posting on X again because the world needs to read this.
My daughter Zoe Rogers gave her own closing speech at the Filton trial, as did 4 other defendants, while their barristers looked on.
This is what she said 🧵 1/
When people say “antisemitism is on the rise” what I see in my mind is the most beautiful hot air balloon anyone has ever seen. And in the basket I’m there with sonic and Mario and Wallace and gromit, and we’re peacefully drifting up, up, and up towards Nasrallah and Khamenei
It is the year 2025. The Israel lobbyist and former member of the German Bundestag, Hartmut Ebbing (FDP), is caught with videos of sexual violence against children. According to the prosecution, he even distributed them.
He then writes a letter to the Berlin public prosecutor’s office and the Tiergarten district court. In the letter, Ebbing asks that no public trial be scheduled. Among other reasons, he cites his prominence, but more importantly: to prevent damage to the German-Israeli Society. The German-Israeli Society (DIG) is the most influential and aggressive pro-Israel lobbying group in Germany, which describes itself as “pro-Zionist” and, according to Reporters Without Borders, exerts pressure on the German press not to report critically on Israel. Hartmut Ebbing is a board member and treasurer of this organization.
The state agreed and, in February 2025, sentenced him without public proceedings to just 10 months’ probation, and he remained treasurer of the DIG. The public did not hear about any of this.
However, Ebbing later had to appear in court again. Once more for child sexual abuse offenses. He is alleged to have abused a 7-year-old child together with the child’s mother, his partner at the time, a teacher. The Braunschweig Regional Court sentenced him in March to two years and ten months in prison. The partner was also convicted.
In his earlier letter to the Berlin judiciary, Ebbing referred to “October 7th” and emphasized that it was important to prevent damage to the German-Israeli Society, reports Die Zeit. In this way, Ebbing invoked the “but Hamas” argument in a case of child abuse.
Only after the second charge in Braunschweig became public, nearly a year after the first conviction, did Ebbing leave his party FDP and step down from his position as treasurer of the DIG. For almost a year, a convicted pedophile managed the finances of the pro-Israel lobbying group, which is largely funded by German taxpayer money. The state continued to channel funds into the DIG. In 2025 alone, despite Ebbing’s conviction, the DIG received around one million euros in taxpayer money from the federal government and the state of Berlin.
Had Ebbing not been charged again in Braunschweig, much of this might never have come to light. And he might still be using German taxpayer money to advocate for Israeli actions.
In the DIG’s “Bremer Declaration” of September 2024, Hartmut Ebbing called for Israel to “completely conquer” Gaza, for calls to boycott Israel to be criminalized, for Germany to supply weapons to Israel, and even for mosques and media critical of Israel to potentially be shut down or banned.
These are anti-democratic and inhumane positions, though not unusual within the DIG.
Although Ebbing had been convicted for nearly a year for possession and distribution of child pornography, both the DIG and the FDP claim they were unaware of it. In a press release, the DIG stated it was “shocked” by the allegations and distanced itself from Ebbing. Despite the prior conviction, Ebbing remained for months, until the very end, the second most important figure on the DIG’s website.
According to the DIG, during his time in the Bundestag Ebbing also served on boards of trustees of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum Foundation. In doing so, he was part of bodies that help shape political connections, funding decisions, and public debates around Holocaust remembrance.
In short, Ebbing was one of those who sought to define for the country what constitutes antisemitism and what does not. That he was in no way qualified for this, and indeed entirely lacking in character, was never considered relevant.
Ebbing, a father of three, was born in Berlin, served as an FDP member of the Bundestag from 2019 to 2021, is Protestant, and, as a member of parliament, claimed to advocate for youth protection. His primary profession was as a tax advisor.
In order to draw attention to the fact that Karl Lueger was a rabid antisemite, the City of Vienna is going to tilt his statue 3,5° so as to “strip it of its gravitas and grandeur”.
Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Dalbergia Retusa, an extensive double LP selection of the solo guitar music of HANS REICHEL (1949-2011) one of the great figures of experimental guitar music. Early on, Reichel dispensed with existing guitars to build a series of his own that explored the use of additional strings & fretboards, moveable pickups, extra bridges, special capos, & other innovations documented in the extensive booklet accompanying this release. Illustrated with photos & Reichel’s own plans & drawings of his instruments, Dalbergia Retusa is an essential introduction to the unique world of Hans Reichel. Rarely has music been at once so strange & so beautiful. Preorder 2LP+digital here: https://t.co/g33hIp5Gpa
Excerpt from The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins (2020):
“The fourth way that anticommunist extermination programs shaped the world is that they deformed the world socialist movement. Many of the global left-wing groups that did survive the twentieth century decided that they had to employ violence and jealously guard power or face annihilation. When they saw the mass murders taking place in these countries, it changed them. Maybe US citizens weren’t paying close attention to what happened in Guatemala, or Indonesia. But other leftists around the world definitely were watching. When the world’s largest Communist Party without an army or dictatorial control of a country was massacred, one by one, with no consequences for the murderers, many people around the world drew lessons from this, with serious consequences.
This was another very difficult question I had to ask my interview subjects, especially the leftists from Southeast Asia and Latin America. When we would get to discussing the old debates between peaceful and armed revolution; between hardline Marxism and democratic socialism, I would ask:
“Who was right?”
In Guatemala, was it Árbenz or Che who had the right approach? Or in Indonesia, when Mao warned Aidit that the PKI should arm themselves, and they did not? In Chile, was it the young revolutionaries in the MIR who were right in those college debates, or the more disciplined, moderate Chilean Communist Party?
Most of the people I spoke with who were politically involved back then believed fervently in a nonviolent approach, in gradual, peaceful, democratic change. They often had no love for the systems set up by people like Mao. But they knew that their side had lost the debate, because so many of their friends were dead. They often admitted, without hesitation or pleasure, that the hardliners had been right. Aidit’s unarmed party didn’t survive. Allende’s democratic socialism was not allowed, regardless of the détente between the Soviets and Washington.
Looking at it this way, the major losers of the twentieth century were those who believed too sincerely in the existence a liberal international order, those who trusted too much in democracy, or too much in what the United States said it supported, rather than what it really supported—what the rich countries said, rather than what they did. That group was annihilated.”
Today's NTS show @NTSlive
https://t.co/ck3xksX3rj
Abosahar – Ala Shat Alneel
Rick Strong – Same Old Dream
Ghédalia Tazartès – Une Voix S'En Va
Yorgos Stavridis – Squeak
John Butcher – Fragile Thread (for Eliane Radigue & Lester Young)
Anne Gillis – Itreath
Léo Dupleix with Asterales – Round Sky
Derek Baron – Our Lady of the Mississippi
Poor Isa + Evan Parker / Ingar Zach – Untitled 7
Marc Sabat / Johann Sebastian Bach – Sei Bach-Intonazioni Ia: Sonata Prima - fuga allegro
Bernard Parmegiani – Nature mêlée II
John Lely / Apartment House – Nocturne
John Cage / Apartment House – Dream
Anthony Burr & Charles Curtis – Durations 2 (1960)
Terry Jennings – For Christine Jennings
Jack Sheen & Giusseppe Ielasi – V13
Benjamin Lew – Le Parfum Du Raki
Carl Stone & Asuna – A Salsa Nocturne
Semilanceata – Til Dystra Stygia Siø
Double Goocher Shop – Finding #11
John Bisset – E E B E B B i
John Bisset – E E B E B B ii
Rhodri Davies – Yr Hen Dôn
Llio Rhydderch –Morluniau o fy Ffenest
Luc Ferrari – Far-West News Episode 3, Part 2 - September 25-30, 1998
Artwork by Magnus aka Roberto Raviola 🤩
With a modular design and built-in temperature-controlled slots, STEMprep™ delivers high-quality single-cell suspensions ready for your downstream analysis.
The shaman of Bad Dürrenberg are the remains of a 25-35 year old woman, who was burried 8600 to 9000 year ago in Germany. Around her, were the remains of an extraordinary head-dress, made from the bones and teeth of different animals such as deer, wild boar, crane and turtle