What happened
The Labour Party has introduced legislation to prevent fresh oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, fulfilling a manifesto pledge to stop issuing licences for fields. The Energy Independence Bill would strip the North Sea Transition Authority of its power to award new drilling rights while allowing limited additional production from existing fields.

Who said what
The measures will “bring bills down for good” and give Britain greater control over its energy supplies, said Andy Burnham. But the Conservatives have condemned the plan, labelling it “dangerous”, while industry groups are warning that reducing domestic production could increase the nation’s reliance on imports.

Labour is “yet to make a decision on the giant Rosebank oil field west of Shetland, which also has an existing licence”, said Jonathan Leake in The Telegraph. Greenpeace has welcomed the new legislation, but argues that the exploitation of Rosebank – the UK’s largest known untapped field – should also be rejected.

What next?
The bill will now go through Parliament. The government has also established a £2 billion fund that will take tax revenue from oil and gas and invest it in renewable and low-carbon energy projects.

What happened
Children in England aged between 10 and 18 will be offered lessons in how to identify online fraud and protect themselves from financial exploitation.

The government initiative follows a rise in “money muling”, where people’s bank accounts are used by criminals to transfer funds. Last year about 22,000 cases were reported, and nearly 20% of them involved someone under the age of 21.

Who said what
Fraud can have “devastating impacts” on young people, said Minister of State Lord Hanson. Victims’ bank accounts can be blocked or restricted and it may then be more difficult for them to obtain a student loan or mortgage.

The non-mandatory scheme will be designed for children and teachers by specialist police officers in collaboration with the PSHE Association. The response to the move has been “overwhelmingly positive”, according to Chief Superintendent Joe Anthony, who said preventative measures such as this were vital to “building safer, more resilient communities”.

What next?
Parents will also be issued with guidance explaining the “different types of scams that criminals are using, how to spot warning signs and where to access support”, said Sky News.

A slew of fraudsters appears to have found a new target: writers. Many people looking to promote their latest novels are reportedly falling victim to these scammers, who may promise authors access to the reading public while preying on them financially.

Some involve book club scams where “writers with published books have been receiving invitations from reading communities that start to unravel after a basic Google search”, said author Snigdha Poonam at online magazine The Dial. Others include situations that “sound too good to be true” for writers, including offers to “publish our next book, market our book, handle social media for us, represent us as agents and get us book-to-movie deals”.

Once the scammers are able to secure payment, often the “paper trail leads to Nigerian third parties holding bank accounts in America”, added The Dial. Author John Cocks paid a “Mary Brown” $478 “for a book trailer and some commissioned reviews”, said The Guardian, after “Brown” promised to “assist in the distribution to her ‘wide network’ of book clubs”. Cocks later noticed that the PayPal receipt listed a Nigerian named Dayo Oguntuase.

AI also plays a large role as it can “help to tailor emails, produce fake pictures and documents, and create websites” to lure in writers, said The Times.

So what can authors do to protect themselves? Use trustworthy sources. If an author hires a “qualified freelance marketing or PR team, you will pay significantly more ,  but you will also receive actual strategy, real outreach and meaningful expertise”, said Literary Hub. Once authors “know what to look for, the ‘read’ flags are hard to miss”.