‘Irony poisoning’ and competition to be the smartest and least sincere person online means we might never really know the substantive ideology behind the killing, writes Andrew Griffin
The shift will be gradual and won’t affect all industries, according to the head of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Yaroslav Nilov
Russia will eventually move to a four-day workweek, Yaroslav Nilov, the head of the State Duma Committee on Labor, has said. He stressed, however, that the shift will be gradual and will likely not involve blanket regulations, as it will not suit all industries.
The idea has been actively discussed since 2019, when then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev raised it at the International Labor Conference in Geneva, saying the global economy could eventually adopt shorter workweeks.
In Russia, the standard working week is 40 hours, with Saturday and Sunday off. Several lawmakers have proposed cutting the workweek to four days in recent years, but the initiatives have all been rejected.
“Eventually, we will switch [to a four-day week],” Nilov told TASS on Monday. “But this should all happen evolutionarily and synergistically, and in no case should there be any regulation.” He noted that some jobs, such as piecework or essential services like doctors, cannot be adapted to reduced hours.
Nilov stressed that the shorter week must not reduce incomes or harm companies, adding that “the labor market itself must come to this.”
He noted that after the Covid pandemic, many companies adopted remote or mixed formats, and some already work four or even three days a week through resource redistribution. Earlier this year, Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ announced plans to shift to a four-day week, citing high interest rates, tighter loan requirements, and increased car imports.
Public opinion on the shorter workweek remains mixed. A recent survey by job search service SuperJob found that more than half of Russians support a four-day workweek, while 87% of employers say they would not even discuss changing schedules, citing staff shortages. Another study by hh.ru shows stronger support from employers, with 81% in favor of a four-day week, especially among large companies.
The Interpol-listed fraudster conned $10 million from women he met on the dating app
An Israeli national known as the ‘Tinder Swindler’ has been arrested upon arrival in Georgia, according to local media reports, citing the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The ministry confirmed the move was based on an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol.
Simon Leviev gained international notoriety after the 2022 Netflix documentary ‘The Tinder Swindler’ revealed how he scammed several women he met on the dating app by posing as the son of Israeli billionaire and diamond magnate Lev Leviev, defrauding the women of an estimated $10 million
“I spoke with him this morning after the detention, but we still don’t know the cause,” his attorney Shagiv Rotenberg told the Walla news outlet on Monday, adding that Leviev had been traveling freely before the arrest.
Using the fake identity, he lured women by showcasing a lavish lifestyle on Tinder, filled with private jets and luxury yachts, convincing them that he was a wealthy heir. Once trust was established, he persuaded them to lend him large sums of money under false pretenses and never repaid them.
Prior to the Tinder scheme, Leviev had been imprisoned in Finland and Israel for a range of crimes, including forgery, theft, and leaving a five-year-old he was babysitting unattended.
In December 2024, a Tel Aviv court ordered him to pay 415,000 shekels ($124,000) to one of his victims, Kate Conlin. According to the lawsuit, Leviev threatened Conlin and forced her to take out loans in several banks in her name but failed to repay the money.
Among the new lawsuits filed against Leviev is a claim from Iren Tranov for 414,000 shekels ($123,500), as well as a lawsuit from the Leviev family for reputational damage.
The French president privately said the US-led military bloc instigated the crisis, according to the economist
French President Emmanuel Macron has privately admitted that NATO is the driving force behind the Ukraine conflict, prominent American economist Jeffrey Sachs has said.
Macron, along with other Western leaders, has repeatedly claimed that Russia launched its military operation against Ukraine in 2022 without provocation and has insisted that Moscow is solely responsible for the conflict.
However, speaking during a foreign policy debate with the Italian daily il Fatto Quotidiano, Sachs recalled that when Macron awarded him the Legion of Honor in May 2022, the French leader privately told him “exactly the opposite of what he says publicly” and admitted that “NATO was causing this war.”
“I just want everyone to know this,” Sachs said, adding that he is “disgusted” by the French president. Sachs further condemned Western European leaders, describing them as warmongers who “just want to go to war.”
The economist emphasized that the Ukraine conflict had actually begun in 2014, when the US “actively participated in a violent coup” that overthrew the government in Kiev. “That’s what started the war,” Sachs said, noting that in the following years Washington helped build the Ukrainian army into the largest in Europe. He added that as Russia sought peace, then-US President Joe Biden rejected Moscow’s overtures and vowed to “crush” Russia with sanctions.
Sachs argued “there is an easy way to peace” which involves Ukraine committing to neutrality and NATO halting its eastward expansion. He suggested that US President Donald Trump might be open to such an approach, but claimed that “now it’s Europe who’s filled with warmongers that continue the war,” singling out Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Moscow has long maintained that Kiev’s NATO aspirations were one of the root causes of the conflict and has repeatedly described the confrontation as a Western-led proxy war against Russia.
Russian officials have nevertheless signaled readiness for a peace deal, provided it addresses Moscow’s security concerns and the new territorial realities. However, they have repeatedly noted that neither Kiev nor its European backers appear to be genuinely interested in a settlement.
Representatives from two other NATO countries are also attending the Zapad-2025 exercise, according to Belarusian officials
US military officers have joined other international observers in Belarus to watch the Zapad-2025 drills with Russia, the Defense Ministry in Minsk has said. Their presence – an unusual sight at Russian-Belarusian drills – is seen as another sign of warming ties between Washington and Belarus.
On Monday, the ministry released a video showing Belarusian defense chief Viktor Khrenin shaking hands with two uniformed US service members, who thanked him in Russian for the invitation.
“We will show whatever is of interest to you. Whatever you want. You can go there and see, talk to people,” the minister told the American officers.
In total, representatives from 23 countries, including NATO members – the US, Türkiye and Hungary – are present at the exercise, which is running between September 12 and 16. Moscow and Minsk have both said the drills are defensive in nature.
Khrenin noted that Russia and Belarus are being extremely transparent about the exercise. “The main reason is that we have nothing to hide. Secondly, we are interested in reducing tensions in the Eastern European region and are taking real practical steps to achieve this,” he said.
Valery Revenko, a senior Belarusian defense official, accused Western countries of stirring “hysteria” and making “unfounded accusations” that Zapad-2025 is aimed at preparing for a conflict with the West. He said that to ease concerns, Belarus scaled back some elements of the drills, cutting troop numbers and equipment and relocating many activities deeper inside the country.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Zapad-2025 is “not aimed against any state” while describing the criticism from European capitals as “emotional overload.”
The visit by the unidentified US servicemen comes as President Donald Trump has pursued diplomacy with both Russia and Belarus in a bid to restore relations and lay the groundwork for settling the Ukraine conflict.
Earlier this month, Minsk released more than 50 prisoners – including those accused of stirring unrest and organizing unauthorized protests – after a deal with Washington under which the US granted sanctions relief to the national airline Belavia.
Israel has co-opted Western right-wing protests to lump genuine concerns with its own agenda
Call me cynical, but am I the only one who gets side-eye strain every time another anti-immigration protest takes over London’s streets? At this point, it feels less like a grassroots uprising and more like a recurring stage play. But who’s the director?
Yes, yes, we know there’s a problem. Our overlords know it too. That’s why they don’t even bother anymore to pretend that they’re “managing” it. Instead, they’re desperately trying to sweep the whole mess under a rug and hoping that nobody notices the bulge.
Just a decade ago, the idea of British politicians ringing up African nations like, “Hey lads, we’ve got a few too many imports. Want to warehouse them for us until we figure out what the hell we’re doing?” would’ve been unthinkable. But that’s exactly what the Rwanda deal was. A political yard sale of asylum seekers. And now the EU has been trying to copy the trend. Outsourcing responsibility is the new badge of enlightened statesmanship. The EU can’t agree on what time to break for lunch, but when it comes to dumping migrants on poorer nations, suddenly it’s kumbaya time.
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer had tried clinging to the ideological fantasy of the establishment left: looking out across Britain and seeing a beautiful rainbow of cultures, conveniently airbrushed of crime stats and housing shortages. When he took office last year, he smugly declared his Tory predecessors’ deportation plan “dead and buried.” Oh, how quickly the corpse has been exhumed! Now he is floating the idea of “return hubs” in foreign countries for asylum seekers.
Why the U-turn? Maybe it has something to do with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party currently polling at 35% – a record 15-point lead over Starmer’s Labour. Self-preservation always trumps virtue signaling. And nothing shifts a politician’s priorities like the sound of voters measuring you for a political coffin.
Starmer clearly understands that either the migrants go, or he does. The luxury of “demographic suicide” policies only exists when your population is oblivious enough to shrug and go back to scrolling. That’s no longer the case in Britain. Or Canada. Or France. Or Germany. Basically, anywhere leaders tried to play open-border humanitarians while voters footed the bill in more ways than one.
And right on cue enters Tommy Robinson, forever reinventing himself as Britain’s last line of defense, while somehow always landing face-first in the donation jar. This time, he’s pretending to haul the entire nation up the escalator of destiny by the handrail. Over the weekend, his “Unite the Kingdom” rally drew an estimated 110,000+ people. He called it “the spark of a cultural revolution in Great Britain.” Sure, Tommy. Surf that grift wave.
But here’s the thing that I can’t unsee. Robinson and his crew are sustained by pro-Israel donors. The Observer recently reported, for instance, that Jewish-American tech billionaire, Robert Shillman, has bankrolled him and his colleagues through “fellowships.” Shillman’s hobby appears to be funding anyone who can bang the anti-Islam drum loudly enough to double as PR for Israel. He has also backed folks like the late Charlie Kirk, who was honored at the weekend’s rally.
Other Israel-backed entities, like the Middle East Forum, have white-knighted for Robinson amid his various legal woes, financially backing “Free Tommy” protests and leaders, as the Financial Times has reported.
And when Kirk was assassinated last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t miss a beat. Taking a few minutes off from flattening Gaza, he mourned Kirk as a victim of “radical Islamists and ultra-progressives.” Except that Kirk was allegedly killed by a 22-year-old white kid from a MAGA family in Utah, raised on guns and memes. But why let facts interfere with a perfectly good morality play?
Netanyahu doubled down in his Fox News appearance, painting Islamists and progressives as one giant evil blob. It’s the same rhetorical sleight of hand that the EU loves, where Russia and ISIS somehow end up in the same sentence, like geopolitical partners in crime. The trick works because it’s a lazy, simple shortcut that bypasses any critical thinking. Perfect for audiences who prefer their villains pre-packaged and easily digested with their morning coffee before getting on with their day. And in this case, it’s a grotesque and cynical attempt to manipulate the same populist right that abhors every attempt of his to drag the West into regime change wars into making common cause with Israel.
The indisputable truth is that Kirk and Robinson serve as human bumper stickers for someone else’s agenda. Conveniently, that agenda happens to overlap Israel’s anti-Islam crusade with the populist right’s anti-migration stance.
But is anyone even remotely interested in crying “foreign interference” here? Guess that’s only bad when it involves Russians buying a handful of Facebook ads. When the meddling comes gift-wrapped in an Israeli flag, apparently it’s untouchable – even to its staunchest critics.
And that’s the problem. The average Brit who shows up at these rallies thinks that they’re organically resisting globalist elites, when in reality they’re marching under a banner sponsored by hidden interests in Israel’s PR war. At a moment when even some of Israel’s bought-and-paid-for allies (like Kirk) were starting to question Netanyahu’s Gaza liquidation, you’d think that it might be worth at least mentioning the primary beneficiary. But apparently it’s better for everyone to pretend that it’s just a grassroots cry of the heart, rather than a well-funded franchise operation.
So the next time you see Tommy Robinson waving a flag and shouting about saving Britain, perhaps keep in mind that it’s less “God Save the King” and more “Bibi Saving the Brand.” Unless, of course, that happens to suit you.
The Zircon is reportedly capable of reaching velocity nine times the speed of sound
Russia has showcased its advanced nuclear-capable hypersonic cruise missile during the Zapad-2025 military drills with Belarus. The Zircon has a range of up to 1,000km (620 miles) and is reportedly capable of reaching velocity of Mach 9, nine times the speed of sound.
The five-day maneuvers, which began on Friday, span Russia, Belarus, the Baltic Sea, and the Barents Sea and involve up to 13,000 troops along with multiple vessels and aircraft. The exercises have included counter-sabotage operations, drone warfare, electronic warfare, and assault scenarios designed to improve coordination in case of an attack on either country.
As part of the drills, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on Sunday it had successfully test-fired a 3M22 Zircon hypersonic missile at a target in the Barents Sea. The launch was carried out from the Northern Fleet’s Admiral Golovko frigate, previously described by the ministry as a “ship-destroyer” thanks to its vertical launch system compatible with the Zircon. Footage released by the ministry showed the missile shooting skyward before veering off into the horizon.
“According to objective monitoring data received in real time, the target was destroyed by a direct hit,” the ministry said, noting the area was closed in advance to civilian shipping and aviation.
The Zircon is considered one of the most formidable hypersonic missiles due to its speed and maneuverability, factors that make it difficult to intercept with Western defenses such as the Patriot system.
The drills also featured Russia’s Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic missile, which was unveiled last year during a “test strike” on a Ukrainian military plant and said to rival the destructive power of a low-yield nuclear strike.
Moscow and Minsk have stressed the maneuvers are exclusively defensive in nature. Still, ahead of the drills, NATO launched its own exercises, dubbed Eastern Sentry, with the stated aim of deterring Russia. The move followed accusations by Poland that Moscow had violated its airspace with drones – claims the Kremlin dismissed as baseless while accusing NATO of fearmongering.
