Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 23 Apr 2015

1. MIGRANT DEATHS: FUNERALS IN MALTA

Funerals have been held in Malta for 24 of the estimated 800 people who died on Sunday when a boat carrying migrants capsized. David Cameron will today support an EU deal to boost operations to save lives in the Mediterranean, where 1,500 migrants have drowned since 1 January. EU leaders are holding an emergency summit in Brussels.

Islamic State targets vulnerable refugee children for recruitment

2. IFS: VOTERS IN THE DARK OVER CUTS

The Institute of Financial Studies has slammed the four major parties for failing to provide voters with "anything like full details" on their plans to cut the deficit. After analysing the party manifestos it said the electorate had been left "somewhere in the dark" over cuts planned by the Tories, Labour, Lib Dems and SNP.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Foreign bankers warn against Labour – surprise, surprise

3. ENGLAND FOOTBALLER ON SEX CHARGES

England footballer Adam Johnson has been charged with child sex offences over allegations he slept with a 15-year-old girl. The Sunderland winger faces three counts of sexual activity with a child under 16 and one offence of grooming. The 27-year-old was initially arrested on 2 March and had been on bail.

4. NEWBORN BABY WAS YOUNGEST DONOR

A baby who lived for just two hours became the UK’s youngest organ donor last year, it has emerged. Teddy Houlston died in Cardiff, one of a pair of twins, after developing anencephaly. His kidneys and heart valves were used to save an adult’s life in Leeds. Father Mike Houlston said Teddy “died a hero”.

Britain's youngest ever organ donor 'lived and died a hero'

5. 'CORRUPT' MAYOR THROWN OUT OF OFFICE

Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets in east London, has been thrown out of office after being found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices during last year's election. Judge Richard Mawrey QC said Rahman had "driven a coach and horses through election law". He ordered him to pay £250,000 costs and banned him from standing again.

6. US ADMITS AL-QAEDA HOSTAGE DEATHS

The US has admitted that a drone strike against al-Qaeda in January killed two Western hostages. The attack, on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, killed American Warren Weinstein, held captive since 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian national taken hostage in 2012. President Obama called the deaths a "painful loss".

7. WOMEN BECOMING NUNS AT 25-YEAR HIGH

More women became nuns last year in the UK than in any year since 1990, the Catholic church in England and Wales says. In 2009, just 15 women took the holy vows – but last year there were 45. A majority of 27 chose to become ‘active’ religious sisters, taking up a ministry outside of their convent.

8. JAMES MAY 'WILL NOT GO BACK TO TOP GEAR'

Top Gear presenter James May has said he will not return to the show without sacked host Jeremy Clarkson. May, who fronted the programme alongside Clarkson and Richard Hammond, said it was "a bit of a daft idea" to try and do the show with a "surrogate Jeremy". However, he hinted that all three could return in the future.

Jeremy Clarkson to become a character in Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour Game

9. DIET, NOT EXERCISE, IS KEY TO LOSING WEIGHT

Exercise is not the key to tackling the obesity epidemic say scientists, who have accused food companies of implying that physical activity can counteract an unhealthy diet. Writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine the experts said exercise was beneficial to health but the only way to lose weight was to "eat less".

10. BRIEFING: SOLAR POWER TO RIVAL COAL

Renewable energy has long been seen as an expensive alternative to fossil fuels – especially coal, the cheapest and dirtiest among them. Yet new manufacturing techniques could soon mean that electricity generated by solar power is cheaper than that which comes from coal.

Solar power will be 'as cheap as coal' amid new advances