Twice each month, executives at the dating app company Hinge gather for a team meeting. But rather than dive into discussions about metrics or revenue, they begin by simply talking.

For the first 30 minutes of the two-hour meeting, these coworkers reveal hopes and anxieties — what they worry about, what they're grateful for, what they're feeling. Even at a company focused on connecting people, forging real relationships in the workplace takes effort, Hinge CEO Justin McLeod told an audience at the South by Southwest conference earlier this year. He was co-presenting at the event with Ann Shoket, whose initiative to combat workplace loneliness is called "10 Minutes to Togetherness."

Global shares were mostly higher Tuesday, with Tokyo's benchmark hitting another record.

France's CAC 40 lost 0.5% in early trading to 7,590.35, while Germany's DAX fell 0.3% to 18,418.81. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2% to 8,209.03. The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1% and that for the S&P 500 rose 0.2%.

Denmark has charged the Nordic bank Nordea with laundering 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) for Russian clients, the country's financial prosecutors said Friday.

Shares advanced Friday in Europe after Britain's Labour Party prevailed over the Conservatives in this week's national election.

In London, the FTSE 100 climbed 0.3% to 8,264.59. The British pound rose to $1.2779 from $1.2760 late Thursday. The euro rose to $1.0830 from $1.0812.

Tsenguun Saruulsaikhan, a young and newly minted member of Mongolia's parliament, is unhappy with below-cost electricity rates that she says show her country has yet to fully shake off its socialist past.

Most of Mongolia's power plants date from the Soviet era and outages are common in some areas. Heavy smog envelops the capital Ulaanbaata r in the winter because many people still burn coal to heat their homes.

The German government on Friday agreed on a budget for 2025 and a stimulus package for Europe's largest economy, ending a monthslong squabble that threatened to upend Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left coalition.

Scholz, a Social Democrat, and leaders of the Free Democrats and Greens agreed on the budget early Friday after marathon talks, German news agency dpa reported, citing party sources. The leaders were expected to provide details at a news conference later on Friday.

Turkmenistan and Iran on Wednesday signed a contract for the delivery of 10 billion cubic meters a year of Turkmen gas that Iran will then ship on to Iraq.

The deal was announced by Turkmenistan's foreign ministry, which did not state the monetary worth of the contract.

As Iran's runoff presidential election nears, comments by an official in the campaign of reformist Masoud Pezeshkian raised the possibility of his government increasing government-set gasoline prices — a move that has sparked nationwide protests in the past.

While still tentative, economists long have warned Iran needs to overhaul its system of subsidies, estimated to cost the Islamic Republic tens of billions of dollars a year. In 2019, a similar hike triggered mass demonstrations and a bloody crackdown that grew even more intense after the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini.

After the United States passed new subsidies designed to boost domestic electric vehicle production and cut into Beijing's supply chain dominance, Chinese manufacturers began investing in an unlikely place: Morocco.

In the rolling hills near Tangiers and in industrial parks near the Atlantic Ocean, they have announced plans for new factories to make parts for EVs that may qualify for $7,500 credits to car buyers in the United States.

Tesla's global sales fell for the second straight quarter despite price cuts and low-interest financing offers, another sign of weakening demand for the company's products and electric vehicles overall.

The Austin, Texas, company said Tuesday that it sold 443,956 vehicles from April through June, down 4.8% from 466,140 sold the same period a year ago. But the sales were better than the 436,000 that analysts had expected.