Wednesday newspaper round-up: Brexit meeting, advertising, lending, Sainsbury's

Theresa May summoned her cabinet to an emergency meeting on Wednesday afternoon to sign off her long awaited final Brexit deal, prompting hard-Brexit Tories to call for senior ministers to stand up and block it. The critical meeting is the culmination of months of negotiations and will see May’s senior ministers consider whether they can personally endorse the agreement that the prime minister has been able to reach. - Guardian

...The prime minister was trying to sell the divorce deal and pact on the future relationship with Europe last night to a reluctant cabinet, which is due to meet at 2pm [today] to agree it. Leave-supporting cabinet ministers were coming under intense pressure to reject the deal as senior Brexiteers and the DUP launched a pre-emptive strike on what they claimed was an abject surrender. - The Times

Ministers will publish up to 5,000 pieces of legal advice on the Brexit deal after losing a parliamentary battle. In a bad omen for Theresa May in getting the agreement through the Commons, Brexiteers and the DUP joined with Labour to force the concession. - The Times

Labour MPs are to be presented with personalised polling evidence showing that their constituents “silently” back a second Brexit referendum. In an attempt to shift Labour’s opposition to a second vote, each of the party’s MPs is being sent an individual breakdown of voter sentiment in their area based on a poll of 25,000 people. - The Times

UK advertisers are cutting almost £44m from their TV ad campaign budgets in the run-up to Christmas, as a shift in focus to targeting shoppers on digital media could give Google, Facebook and YouTube a bumper festive season. As the annual Christmas advertising battle hots up – Burberry’s campaign featuring Matt Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas and Naomi Campbell the latest to be unveiled – TV companies are feeling the squeeze. - Guardian

Lenders should consider bringing back controversial 100 per cent mortgages to combat falling home ownership rates among young people, according to the Building Societies Association, a key industry body. The mortgages, which mean a homebuyer does not need a deposit to purchase a property, could be offered to select customers, the BSA said in a report on the growing reliance on the “bank of mum and dad” in the housing market. - The Times

The National Farmers Union has warned that its members will feel the impact of any squeeze on suppliers that will result from the merger of J Sainsbury and Asda. The organisation, which represents more than 55,000 farmers in England and Wales, made the remarks in a submission to the Competition and Markets Authority, which is investigating the proposed merger of Britain’s second and third largest grocers. - The Times

Less than half of rail passengers who have complained to train companies believe they have received an adequate response, analysis shows. Data from the rail regulator shows that fewer than one in five passengers on three particular operators – Govia Thameslink, Great Western and Northern – were satisfied with the outcome or handling of their complaints. - Guardian

Ministers are under pressure to impose cutbacks to HS2 after a report warned that it would cost more than double that of other high-speed rail projects. The scheme would cost £81 million per kilometre compared with £32 million for 20 comparable schemes elsewhere in Europe. - The Times

The short-term office rental company WeWork has secured an extra $3bn (£2.3bn) in funding from its largest investor, SoftBank, in a deal that would make it one of the largest start-ups in the world. WeWork told investors that SoftBank would pay $1.5bn in January 2019 and another $1.5bn in April at $110 a share, according to a presentation to investors. - Telegraph

Oracle has pledged to double its artificial intelligence team in Reading as part of a new investment in the UK. The cloud computing giant said that it plans to take advantage of the "strong local talent pool" to hire skilled data scientists and staff to boost its AI and machine learning team. - Telegraph

Privacy advocates have raised concerns about patients’ data after Google said it would take control of its subsidiary DeepMind’s healthcare division. Google, which acquired London-based artificial intelligence lab DeepMind in 2014, said on Tuesday that the DeepMind Health brand, which uses NHS patient data, will cease to exist and the team behind its medical app Streams will join Google as part of Google Health. - Telegraph

The European Union’s highest court has ruled that the taste of food cannot be protected under copyright law because judgments on the flavour of a product are too subjective, ending a battle between rival cheesemakers in the Netherlands. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) said science was not yet sufficiently developed to find a precise and objective identification of taste in a decision after Levola, the Dutch makers of cream cheese and herb spreadable dip Heksenkaas, brought a case of copyright infringement against a rival. - Telegraph