New administration reverses expropriation of property founded by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer, leaving victims in limboWith its Germanic crosses and colourful toy-town facades, the village square of the tiny Chilean settlement of Villa Baviera gives little indication of the horrors of its past.Until 1991, this cattle town of a few hundred people was a compound known as Colonia Dignidad. Its leader, Paul Schäfer, a former Nazi and weapons smuggler, bought a swathe of land in the valley in 1961, eventually holding as many as 300 people in a fenced enclave with minimal contact with the outside world. He sexually abused and even tortured the children in the camp. Continue reading...
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Chile’s far-right government rips up plan for memorial at Pinochet torture site
The Guardian World
April 08, 2026
13:00 GMT
New administration reverses expropriation of property founded by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer, leaving victims in limbo With its Germanic crosses and colourful toy-town facades, the village square of the tiny Chilean settlement of Villa Baviera gives little indication of the horrors of its past. Until 1991, this cattle town of a few hundred people was a compound known as Colonia Dignidad. Its leader, Paul Schäfer, a former Nazi and weapons smuggler, bought a swathe of land in the valley in 1961, eventually holding as many as 300 people in a fenced enclave with minimal contact with the outside world. He sexually abused and even tortured the children in the camp. Continue reading...
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Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann pleads guilty
Architect admitted to strangling eight women, whose remains were mostly found along Long Island’s coast Rex Heuermann, a Long Island architect accused of seven murders known as the Gilgo Beach killings dating back to 1993, pleaded guilty on Wednesday – and added an eighth murder to his gruesome tally. Heuermann, who has been held in custody since he was arrested on a Manhattan street in July 2023, appeared in court in Riverhead, Long Island, and changed his plea to guilty in the murders of women whose remains were found years after they disappeared. Continue reading...
The Guardian World•Apr 08, 2026
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The Guardian World•Apr 08, 2026
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JD Vance claims US is not interfering in Hungary election
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The Guardian World•Apr 08, 2026
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Starmer warns ‘lot of work to do’ to make ceasefire permanent at start of talks in Gulf - UK politics live
PM will meet leaders in the region to discuss diplomatic efforts to support the ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is proposing the extension of the four-day working week, as a response to AI taking over some of the work done by humans. But for the Conservative party the four-day working week, at least in the public sector, is viewed as a menace. Officially, that’s a value-for-money position, but it also overlaps with their opposition to civil servants working from home, which has some of the traits of a culture war obsession. Today the Conservatives have announced that, if they were in government, they would ban councils from letting staff work a four-day working week on full pay. Explaining why, the Tories say in a news release: The four-day working week, as introduced by Liberal Democrat-run South Cambridgeshire district council, has left residents with more council tax for less public service. Bin collectors and social housing officials receive 100 per cent of their pay for around 80 per cent of their originally contracted hours. The Labour government have failed to act. As communities secretary, Angela Rayner scrapped [Whitehall opposition to the South Cambridgeshire policy]. Labour are refusing to legislate against a four-day week, giving councils an effective green light to get away with charging more for less work. Consequentially, Labour-run Cambridge City Council has become the second council to sign up to the four-day week. Those areas which saw a statistically significant improvement include: the percentage of calls answered by the contact centre; the average number of days taken to update housing benefit and council tax support claims; the average number of weeks for householder planning applications to be decided; the percentage of planning applications (both large and small) decided within target or agreed timescales; the percentage of council house repairs complete within 24 hours; [and] the percentage of complaints responded to on time. If performance variations caused by Covid are discounted, every single service monitored either got better or stayed the same. Continue reading...
The Guardian World•Apr 08, 2026