Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 22 Sep 2015

1. Migrant crisis: EU ministers meet to discuss quota

EU home ministers are meeting in Brussels today to try to end a dispute over a proposed quota of migrants which member states will be required to take in. Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic all oppose quotas, but they can still be forced through if a majority of member states agree.

Refugee crisis: why so many risk all to reach Europe

2. Addenbrooke’s hospital put on special measures

World-renowned hospital Addenbrooke’s in Cambridgeshire has been put on special measures by inspectors who have concerns over staffing levels, delays in treating patients and failings of governance. The regulator Monitor says the trust which runs the hospital, one of the biggest in the country, will run a £64m deficit this year.

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Addenbrooke's hospital: what it says about the state of the NHS

3. Lord Sewel will not face drugs charges

Lord Sewel will not face police action over allegations of drug use, which led to his resignation from the House of Lords. The Labour peer quit earlier this year after being filmed by The Sun newspaper allegedly taking drugs in the company of prostitutues. Police said there was "insufficient evidence to proceed" after an investigation.

4. VW sets aside £4.7m after emissions scandal

Volkswagen has set aside £4.7bn to cover the cost of the emissions scandal, which could affect 11 million vehicles worldwide. VW was found to have fitted 500,000 diesel cars in the US with software that 'cheated' on emissions tests, making the output of harmful pollutants appear 40 times lower than under normal driving conditions. VW shares plunged almost 20% on Tuesday.

VW Scandal: Emission fix leaves thousands with problems

5. David Cameron: Ashcroft book accusations continue

After revealing that the PM once allegedly did something bizarre with a pig’s head, Lord Ashcroft has now published accusations that David Cameron’s handling of Libya has left the country more dangerous. Ashcroft says a leading general and a Tory grandee have accused the PM of rank incompetence in Syria and Libya.

David Cameron laughs off piggate with 'little prick' joke

6. US presidential race: Walker’s surprise withdrawal

Scott Walker has unexpectedly dropped out of the race to become the next Republican presidential candidate – and called for the other candidates to unite against Donald Trump, once regarded as a joke but now looking more plausible. He said he was leading by “helping to clear the field” and wanted to see a positive alternative to Trump.

Trump travel ban: Judge expands definition of relatives

7. 50 staff and pupils hospitalised during school trip

Fifty staff and pupils from a school in Leeds have been hospitalised during a trip to battlefields in France and Belgium. The 46 children and four adults, from Guiseley School, were taken to hospital in Zeebrugge. They were checked by doctors and kept in hospital for observation. They are not thought to be contagious and are expected to be discharged.

8. Ginger-haired man guilty of 'Aryan terror plot'

A man who planned a cyanide attack and wanted to kill Prince Charles because he felt "belittled" for being white and ginger-haired has been found guilty of preparing terrorist acts "for the Aryan people". Mark Colborne was convicted after a retrial. He had likened himself to Norwegian mass murderer Ander Breivik and wanted to shoot Charles so Prince Harry could be king.

9. Courts to decide if card game bridge is a sport

A judicial review has opened into Sport England’s refusal to recognise the card game bridge as a sport. The English Bridge Union is challenging the decision after a judge said that “with all that dealing” players do more physical activity than in rifle shooting. Classfication as a sport would open up funding for bridge.

10. Briefing: invisibility cloak 'about to become a reality'

Scientists have demonstrated an "ultra-thin invisibility skin cloak" that can be used to hide objects by guiding light around them. The cloak uses "meta-material" which serves to distort light waves approaching an object so that they bounce off it as though the object were a flat mirror. "The fact that we can make a curved surface appear flat also means that we can make it look like anything else," co-lead author Xingjie Ni, a professor of electrical engineering at Pennsylvania State University, told Inforum. "We can also make a flat surface appear curved."

Invisibility cloak is 'about to become a reality', scientists say