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Former Trump advisor Paul Manafort has been jailed for fraud. Library picture: Paul Manafort is seen leaving a courthouse in Washington after being indicted, 30 October 2017. Photo credit: Shutterstock 

Ex-Trump campaign chief Manafort gets 47 month sentence

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, has been sentenced to four years in prison for bank and tax fraud. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence between 19.5 and 24 years. The 69 year old was also ordered to pay $24m in restitution. The crimes were uncovered as part of the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 US election by the special counsel Robert Mueller, however the fraud concerns Manafort’s work for Ukraine’s previous government. Reported by the AP, BBC, DW, Guardian and Reuters.

Trudeau stops short of apology

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, admitted that he made mistakes but insisted there was no wrongdoing in a growing political crisis. Trudeau was accused of pressuring his attorney general in a high profile criminal case. Reported by France 24, the Guardian and NPR.

Brussels Jewish Museum murderer convicted

Mehdi Nemmouche, a French jihadi, was convicted of four “terrorist murders” at a Jewish museum in Brussels in May 2014. It was the first attack carried out in Europe by a fighter returning from Syria. Reported by the BBC, DW and France 24.

EU opens Luxembourg-Huhtamaki probe

The European Commission has started investigating if favourable tax rulings given by Luxembourg’s government to Huhtamaki, a Finnish food packaging firm, constitute illegal state aid, according to Reuters. One of the rulings was discovered as part of the Luxleaks revelations. The commission has ordered Amazon, Engie and Fiat to pay Luxembourg millions of euro in back taxes in similar cases. The news agency did not publish any comments from the company.

ECB makes stimulus U-turn

The European Central Bank revived a scheme to offer cheap loans to banks (after ending a bond-buying programme 3 months ago) and promised to keep interest rates low until next year (previously it said “through the summer”). The bank cited gloomier-than-expected economic forecasts in the eurozone. The news sent the euro and eurozone bank stocks down. Reported by the BBC, Bloomberg and the Financial Times.

Brexit: BoE & ECB announce “emergency” currency swap lines

The Bank of England and European Central Bank activated a currency swap exchange to avoid a cash crunch in case of a no deal Brexit. Reported by the Independent, Reuters and Sky News.

Paris introduces, but EU ditches, digital tax plan

France formally unveiled its plan to tax tech giants--such as Amazon, Facebook and Google--3% of their digital turnover. The move was criticised by French tech executives. Meanwhile, EU leaders are expected to scrap a plan to implement the levy across the entire bloc. Reported by the AFP, Financial Times and Reuters. Background on this issue in Delano’s February/March 2019 cover story.

Artificially intelligent

40% of European “artificial intelligence” startups do not use any AI in their products, according to study covered by the Financial Times.

Cargolux bans lion bones

Europe’s largest freight airline, Cargolux, said it no longer transports lion bones as part of a crackdown on illicit wildlife trafficking, per Air Cargo News.

Bankers’ office wear

The investment bank Goldman Sachs has loosened up it conservative dress code. Suits and ties are now optional. Reported by the BBC, GQ and Reuters.

Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Aaron Grunwald

Correction: A previous version of this briefing conflated two European Central Bank stimulus programmes. This was corrected on 11 March at 11am.