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Good morning.

From the Newsroom of the Financial Times, today is Friday, March 8th, and this is your

F.T. news briefing.

Today, U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, is sentenced to nearly four years in prison.

Airbus, all but rules out paying back millions in outstanding loans for development of the

A380 Superjumbo. Facebook's pivots to privacy raises questions about its business model, and a new

report shows that gender wealth gap could take two centuries to close.

Then the FT's Richard Waters explains how the business software apps many of us use every day

are helping tech stocks make a comeback. I'm Eric Krepky and here's the news you need to start your day.

Late on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manifort, was sentenced to 47 months, or nearly four years in prison. The sentence was far more lenient than prosecutors

had recommended. He was convicted of tax and bank fraud last year after a three-week

trial. The charges relate to income Manfort made from political consulting work in Ukraine.

And the sentence is the result of a case brought by Robert Mueller, the

Special Counsel investigating links between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.

But Manifort's charges were not connected to Russian interference

in the presidential campaign.

The guideline range for sentencing was 19 to 24 years.

But the judge overseeing the trial said those guidelines were

excessive and that Manifort had quote lived an otherwise blameless life.

Manifort addressed the court on Thursday saying his life was in shambles and that the last two years had been the most difficult

...