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Experimenting with cutting back one workday per week is about to go nationwide in Spain. A three-year pilot project will be using 50 million euros ($59 million) from the European Union’s massive coronavirus recovery fund to compensate companies as they resize their workforce or reorganize production workflows to adapt to a 32-hour working week. While several companies have already embraced the trend, the pandemic has accelerated it. Supporters say that shorter schedules could benefit work-life balance and three-day weekends could boost consumption. But critics argue that a pandemic-shaken economy is no ground for experiments.

Israelis will once again hold large family gatherings this weekend to celebrate Passover, the festive Jewish holiday recalling the biblical flight of the Israelites from Egypt. That's thanks to a highly successful coronavirus vaccination campaign that has inoculated 80% of the country's adult population. Authorities have reopened restaurants, hotels, museums and theaters, and permit indoor gatherings of up to 20 people. It's a stark turnaround from last year, when Israel was in its first of three lockdowns, with people largely confined to their homes. Many had to celebrate last year's Thanksgiving-like Seder feast via video conference, or even in solitude.

The Sweet 16 gets going on Saturday for both the men and women at the NCAA tournaments. On the men's side, the top game is Villanova against Baylor. The Bears have an exceptional backcourt trio while Villanova is chasing its third national championship in the last six years. The women's draw features UConn against Iowa. The game matches two freshman phenoms in the Huskies' Paige Bueckers and the Hawkeyes' Caitlin Clark. The two happen to be good friends.

The head of Myanmar’s junta has used the occasion of the country’s Armed Forces Day to try to justify the overthrow of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, as protesters marked the holiday by calling for even bigger demonstrations. He made only an oblique reference to the nationwide protests that show no signs of stopping. People in cities and towns around Myanmar marked the public holiday by again demonstrating against the Feb. 1 coup. In several locations, security forces sought to disperse them forcefully, as has become standard practice. Reports on social media, not immediately verified, said several demonstrators were shot dead Saturday morning. The death toll since the takeover has reached 328, according to a group that documents deaths and arrests.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's administration has less than a week to decide on extending the nationwide eviction moratorium, a measure that housing advocates say has helped keep most cash-strapped tenants across the country in their homes during the…

James Harden scored 44 points and Blake Griffin added 17 in his return to Detroit to lift the Brooklyn Nets to a 113-111 victory over the Pistons. Harden was back after missing his team’s previous game because of neck soreness and he added 14 rebounds and eight assists in addition to his big scoring night. Brooklyn was still without Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving but the Nets had enough to hold off the last-place Pistons. Jerami Grant scored 19 points for Detroit.

Alex Ovechkin scored twice to lead the Washington Capitals past the New Jersey Devils 3-0 for their ninth victory in 10 games. They're back in first place in the NHL's East Division. Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves for his first shutout in more than 14 months. Nicklas Backstrom and Conor Sheary also scored, while Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson each had two assists. Ovechkin's goals give him a team-best 17 this season and 723 in his career. New Jersey has lost two in a row to Washington after winning four of its previous five.

Shaka Smart is leaving Texas to return to his home state to coach Marquette.. The move comes a week after Marquette fired Steve Wojciechowski and Smart’s Texas team was upset 53-52 by Abilene Christian in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Smart’s decision to head north ends a six-season tenure at Texas that fell short of the lofty expectations that accompanied his arrival. Smart went 109-86 with no NCAA Tournament victories at Texas after a remarkably successful six-year run at VCU. He went 163-56 at VCU and led the Rams to a Final Four appearance in 2011. 

Mark Emmert acknowledged the glaring failures to give the coaches and players in the women’s tournament the same attention the NCAA gave the men was a result of a lack of communication between the two basketball staffs along with focusing on trying to tip off both events safely during a pandemic. The NCAA president said the oversights resulted in overlooking differences that led to inequities that have cast a dark, looming cloud over the women’s tournament.

Never has a Dell Technologies Match Play been this frenetic on a Friday. Sergio Garcia ended one of a record eight playoffs with a hole-in-one. Bob MacIntyre keeps making a name for himself. The 24-year-old Scot drove the 371-yard 18th green to 3 feet to advance from a group that included Dustin Johnson. When it was over, Jon Rahm at No. 3 was the highest of 20 seeds who made it to the weekend for the knockout stage. Half of the 16 players left came from the bottom 16 seeds in the bracket at Austin Country Club.

Amazon workers and labor advocates are making a final push for the union vote at the company's warehouse outside Birmingham, Alabama. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont headlined a Friday rally. He says a labor victory against the tech and retail giant would resonate across the country. If voted down, it would be another loss for organizers hoping to win a rare labor victory in the Deep South. Workers supporting the union say they face relentless quotas and poor working conditions. Amazon is fighting the union effort. The company argues the warehouse created jobs with an average pay of $15.30 per hour and benefits including health care, vision and dental insurance.  

HONG KONG (AP) — H&M disappeared from the internet in China as the government raised pressure on shoe and clothing brands and announced sanctions Friday against British officials in a spiraling fight over complaints of abuses in the Xinjiang region.…

A federal appeals court has sided with a photographer in her copyright dispute against a foundation that has marketed a series of Andy Warhol works of art based on her pictures of Prince. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday in favor of renowned photographer Lynn Goldsmith over the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. It said the artwork created by the legendary artist before his 1987 death was not transformative enough to overcome obligations to Goldsmith's copyright protections. Warhol created a series of 16 artworks based on a 1981 picture of the famed late singer that was taken by Goldsmith. The Andy Warhol Foundation plans to challenge the ruling. Goldsmith says she is grateful for it.

The Dell Technologies Match Play already has its first No. 64 seed into the weekend. Now another record has fallen. Eight groups were decided by playoffs. The previous record since group play began six years ago was five playoffs in 2017. The extra holes include Jon Rahm, the No. 3 seed. He looked like a winner when he was 1 up playing the 18th. But Ryan Palmer made a 15-foot birdie putt and Rahm missed from 7 feet. Patrick Cantlay barely beat Brian Harman on the first day. They also headed to a playoff.

President Joe Biden’s administration is cutting things close on a nationwide eviction moratorium, which is set to expire in less than a week. Housing advocates are expressing confidence that the ban running through March 31 will be extended. But they also warn that the existing moratorium hasn’t been a blanket protection and that thousands of families have still been evicted. Many of these advocates are calling for the moratorium to be strengthened. Meanwhile, a host of lawsuits across the country have sought to chip away at the moratorium’s foundation.  

A sweep of the women’s medals further stamped Russian dominance of these World Figure Skating Championships. Yet the two American women did just enough to earn a third berth at next year’s Olympics. Three-time national champion Anna Shcherbakova made her first appearance at worlds golden despite finishing second to countrywoman Alexandra Trusova in the free skate. Shcherbakova, who turns 17 Sunday, won the short program. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, the 2015 world champion, earned silver in her return to the event, ahead of Trusova. It was the second 1-2-3 finish in the modern era, matching the United States with Kristi Yamaguchi, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan in 1991.

Tom Fontana can look back with satisfaction on the series he’s created or helped make. They include some of TV’s best: “St. Elsewhere,” “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Oz.” But he’s using retrospection in service of another worthy drama, Showtime’s “City on a Hill.” It’s back for its second season on Sunday, with Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge as increasingly fierce adversaries in early 1990s, crime-bedeviled Boston. Its eight new episodes focus on Boston's Roxbury neighborhood and a federal housing project beset with drug violence. “City on a Hill” was inspired by the so-called “Boston Miracle” that saw gun deaths sharply reduced by a reform effort.