Prospect's Friday morning news roundup

UK chancellor George Osborne has unveiled tax breaks for companies operating in the UK's shale gas industry. These plans would make the country the "most generous" regime for shale gas in the world, according to the government.

It has proposed cutting the tax levied on income generated from producing shale gas–a complex process known as fracking, that involves the capture of gas found in underground rock formations–from 62 per cent to 30 per cent.

The decision has drawn fierce criticism from environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth, who described the plans as a "disgrace". Greenpeace added that communities affected by fracking faced "a lot of disruption for very little gain."

The former capital of the US car industry, Detroit, has filed for bankruptcy. It is the largest American city ever to do so, with debts of at least $18bn– equivalent to £12bn. Once a major manufacturing centre, Detroit has faced decades of problems linked to its declining industry. City Mayor Dave Bing has vowed that public services will keep running and public workers' wages will be paid.

Italy's prime minister Enrico Letta has urged the country's parliament to support his deputy in a no-confidence vote today which threatens the fragile governing coalition.

"What I am asking you for is a new vote of confidence in the government which I have the honor to lead," he told the Senate, before a vote on the motion against Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, who is also the deputy prime minister.

Alcohol-related deaths among women born in the 1970s is on the rise, a study has found. While deaths from alcohol in England and Scotland have broadly been falling, this is not the case among women in their 30s and 40s, according to figures from the Glasgow Centre for Population Research. The GCPR has described this as a "worrying trend" that needs immediate action if this is to avoid becoming an even larger public health issue in decades to come.