Friday briefing: Does a four-day week work? These companies are about to find out

In today's newsletter: In the biggest trial of its kind, sixty UK companies are experimenting with a four-day week - Nimo Omer finds out why

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How much of today are you going to spend thinking about what you're going to do this weekend? Well, imagine a world where that Thursday feeling signified the last day of the working week - and Friday's were the first day of a three-day weekend.

That's the reality for over 3,000 workers at 60 companies across Britain whostarted a six-month trial of a four-day week on Monday. Think of it: they're probably asleep right now.

Ukraine | Two British men and a Moroccan national captured fighting in the Ukrainian army in Mariupol have been sentenced to death by pro-Russia officials. Russia is believed to be using the process in part to put pressure on the UK and may seek a prisoner exchange.

Conservatives | Boris Johnson could face the prospect of another no-confidence vote within a year after Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee, refused to rule out changing the rules.

Brazil | The sister of a British journalist missing in the Amazon has said she still has hope he will be found. Sian Phillips led a vigil for her brother Dom as newspaper editors, led by the Guardian and Washington Post, called for more action to investigate his disappearance with Indigenous affairs official Bruno Araujo Pereira.

US politics | The chairman of the House select committee investigating the deadly Capitol attack has said Donald Trump was at the centre of a sprawling conspiracy to overturn the election that culminated in an attempted coup".

Smoking | The legal age to buy tobacco in England should rise from 18 by one year every year until eventually no one can buy it, a government-commissioned review has said. Ministers are said to be sceptical about implementing the review's most radical suggestions.

Sirin Kale spent a day watching a Citizens Advice centre at work. The stories she hears are a stark indictment of the impact of the cost of living crisis. Archie

In this brilliant interview, Ben Beaumont-Thomas spoke with singer-songwriter Beth Orton about her first new album in six years, Weather Alive. The piece takes a look at grief, Orton's diagnosis of Crohn's disease when she was young and living in a new neighbourhood. Nimo

The trial of the Bataclan attackers ends this month. Madeleine Schwartz has been attending since September. Her diarised account of its proceedings is devastating in its lack of a prescription that will explain how France can find some kind of closure". Archie

Everyone is sick, Brigid Delaney writes, and we can't stop talking about it. Delaney explores how, 2 years into a pandemic, our relationship to getting ill has transformed. Nimo

Rachel Aroesti skewers a tired TV trope she identifies as the Messy Milennial Woman: a good-time girl who lurches from chaos to crisis, from euphoria to despair." Archie