Good morning from the newsroom of the Financial Times.

Today is Tuesday, February 11th,

and this is your FT news briefing.

Sprint shares surged on Monday on the news that the long-awaited Sprint T-Mobile deal is expected to finally go through.

Donald Trump is proposing big U.S. spending cuts while holding on to the 2017 tax cuts in his

latest budget and the woman widely seen as the next leader of

Germany is standing down. Plus nearly half of the American population was

affected by the 2017 Equifax data breach.

The FT's Kedham Shubber will explain why the US is blaming China.

I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. A federal judge is set to approve T-Mobile's $59 billion takeover of U.S. rival Sprint.

That's according to people briefed on the ruling.

Legal representatives for each company were told yesterday about the general direction of the judge's

ruling, but the full details, if there were any conditions on the approval were unclear.

T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint attracted scrutiny after it was announced in spring 2018.

A group of Democratic states said that consumers could see lower quality service and higher prices if Sprint leaves the market.

The ruling will be handed down today, but there could be some renegotiation of the financial terms of the deal.

News of the judge's decision sent shares in Sprint

surging nearly 70% in after hours trading on Monday

to more than $8 each.

Donald Trump has a spending plan that is starkly different from the Democrats' vision. The White House released a 4.8 trillion dollar budget proposal yesterday.

In it, the President plans to make key cuts to the country's social safety net,

all while holding on to the sweeping tax cuts from 2017.

...