BLOOMBERG German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Finance Minister Christian Lindner are thrashing out a plan to close a €20 billion ($22 billion) shortfall in the 2024 budget with expenditure cuts in all departments except defense — a move which risks angering their coalition partners, the Greens. Scholz and Lindner have agreed to spending reductions of 2% to 3% for almost …

BLOOMBERG Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc was hit by a record €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) European Union (EU) privacy fine and given a deadline to stop shipping users’ data to the US after regulators said it failed to protect personal information from the American security services. The social network giant’s continued data transfers to the US didn’t address “the risks …

BLOOMBERG European luxury stocks including LVMH and Gucci owner Kering SA fell as a wave of Covid infections in China weighed on sentiment — extending a rout that’s wiped about $56 billion from the sector over the past two days. Shares in Birkin bag maker Hermes International and UK trench coat company Burberry Group Plc also declined, with concerns about …