Wednesday newspaper round-up: Brexit, National Grid, Tata Steel

European leaders have quashed an attempt by Theresa May to secure an early agreement to guarantee the status after Brexit of EU nationals living in the UK and vice versa. Angela Merkel insisted there could be no side deals before Britain starts formal EU exit negotiations next year, a view backed by European Council president Donald Tusk. – Financial Times

National Grid is investigating whether a boat’s anchor is to blame for knocking out half the capacity from a crucial power link beneath the English Channel — threatening further increases to electricity prices in the UK this winter. Four of eight cables running along the seabed between Folkestone and Calais were damaged during Storm Angus — the first named storm of the season — earlier this month. – Financial Times

Sky has launched its attack on the mobile market, hoping to convince millions of its pay-TV customers to defect from their current provider with the offer of unlimited free calls and texts. Those who switch to Sky Mobile will pay only for mobile broadband access, with a 1GB package £10 per month, 3GB at £15 and the 5GB package at £20. – Telegraph

Motorists could see the price of foreign cars jump by £1,500 if Britain fails to agree a deal on trade tariffs when it leaves the European Union. The warning came from Gareth Jones, president of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, as he predicted a potential £4.5bn bill for the automotive industry and consumers from Brexit. – Telegraph

Global firms behind popular brands such as Kit Kat, Colgate toothpaste and Dove cosmetics use palm oil produced by child workers in dangerous conditions, Amnesty International has claimed. The human rights organisation traced a range of well-known products back to the palm oil company Wilmar, which it alleged employs children to do back-breaking physical labour on refineries in Indonesia. – Guardian

The energy regulator has chosen Co-operative Energy – a company that last month paid out £1.8m compensation to customers – to take over the supply GB Energy’s gas and electricity customers. Ofgem has been working behind the scenes since GB Energy’s collapse at the weekend to appoint a “supplier of last resort” to take over all of the company’s 160,000 customers. - Guardian

Thousands of jobs at Port Talbot are in the balance again after reports that Tata Steel is to close one of the two operational blast furnaces. Tata is planning to reduce output at its largest UK plant as part of a merger with ThyssenKrupp, of Germany, according to reports. Port Talbot in south Wales has been under the threat of closure since March, when the Tata board in Mumbai shocked British ministers by announcing that it wanted to quit the UK steel industry, citing high energy costs, plummeting steel prices because of Chinese stock-dumping and currency fluctuation. – The Times

Rio Tinto faces an inquiry by American authorities over a multibillion-dollar writedown of a site in Mozambique in 2013. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the writedown triggered by a disastrous acquisition of a coal project in the southern African country in 2011. – The Times