The COVID inquiry is now into its second round of public hearings – examining how key decisions were made in Westminster as the coronavirus began to take hold around the world in early 2020. The evidence from those at the heart of Downing Street has certainly provided plenty of bombshell headlines but does the inquiry need to move quicker to make recommendations on how the country could be better prepared for the next pandemic? There is no specific timescale for how long the inquiry could last and it could be years before its final report is published. On this episode of the Sky News Daily ..read more

Qatar has announced key details of the planned pause in fighting and release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas. In the first phase of the agreement, Hamas is due to release 50 hostages from Gaza and Israel will free 150 Palestinian prisoners. On today’s episode of the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson sits down with James Alvarez, a hostage negotiator who’s worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gaza itself, to talk about what it takes to negotiate with hostage takers. Plus, we hear from our Middle East correspondent, Alistair Bunkall, about the events that led up to this temporary truce. Pro ..read more

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has revealed his autumn statement. Among the proposals National Insurance is to be cut by two percentage points, and NI payments for the self-employed have been abolished. There have also been increases to Universal Credit and the state pension. But the chancellor also announced new tougher measures for job seekers, saying those who fail to find work after 18 months of "intensive support" will be given mandatory work placements. Those who do not engage with the process for six months will lose their benefits altogether. On the Sky News Daily, host Niall Paterson sits d ..read more

Police who investigated the disappearance of Nicola Bulley from beside a riverbank have been heavily criticised in a damning report. Lancashire Police's decision to reveal the mother-of-two's mental health issues was condemned as "avoidable and unnecessary". The College of Policing's chief executive officer Andy Marsh said there was "substantial learning" for the Lancashire force. On the Sky News Daily, host Niall Paterson is joined by former chief constable of Northumbria Police Sue Sim, who was the top officer at the force when gunman Raoul Moat shot his ex-girlfriend and killed her new lo ..read more

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described al Shifa hospital in Gaza City as a "death zone" - it said there was a mass grave at the entrance and a "desperate situation" inside. A joint UN team led by the WHO assessed the hospital for one hour following its occupation by the Israeli military and as some patients and those seeking shelter there began to evacuate it. The team said they saw evidence of shelling and gunfire and observed a mass grave at the hospital's entrance. On the Sky News Daily, host Sarah-Jane Mee talks to our international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn and OSINT (Op ..read more

Endometriosis is a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, causing pain and affecting fertility. It is estimated to cost the UK economy £8.2bn a year in treatment, loss of work and healthcare costs. Up to 30% of women who have surgery for endometriosis experience a recurrence within five years, according to the National Institutes of Health. There is still no cure for the condition. On the Sky News Daily, host Sally Lockwood is joined by Charline Bou Mansour, a Sky News reporter who has endometriosis, and Andrew Horne, Professor of Gynaecology an ..read more

On 29 December 1969, Alick McKay returned home from work to his house in Wimbledon, southwest London, to discover that his wife, Muriel, was not at home. The lights were on and the contents of her handbag strewn all around the stairs. Then he received a phone call. "We are Mafia M3. We are from America. We tried to get Rupert Murdoch's wife. We couldn't get her so we took yours instead. You have a million by Wednesday night or we will kill her." Muriel was never found, her body never recovered. Now, after more than fifty years, the man guilty of Muriel's murder tells her daughter he will le ..read more

The government's Rwanda plan, devised to tackle illegal migration, has been ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court, ending more than 18 months of legal battles in the UK. The prime minister has said he will introduce emergency legislation to make sure his Rwanda plan will work, and said "flights will be heading off in the spring as planned". On this episode of the Sky News Daily, Jayne Secker sits in for Niall. She’s joined by political editor Beth Rigby to unpick the fallout. Plus, Nicolas Rollason, the head of business immigration at Kingsley Napley, digs into the legal aspects of the case ..read more

There have been 16 housing ministers in the last 13 years of Conservative rule – seven of those in the last two years alone. With Lee Rowley taking over the housing brief after the prime minister’s latest reshuffle, on the Sky News Daily we’ll be exploring why there has been so many, and if any of them managed to make a difference to the housing crisis. Presenter Sally Lockwood is joined by Gurpreet Narwan, our political correspondent, on why there has been so much churn. Plus, Sally speaks to Lord Gavin Barwell, who was housing minister for a year under Theresa May, and Polly Neate, CEO of ..read more

David Cameron is back in government as the new Foreign Secretary. Whilst many commentators had predicted that Suella Braverman would be sacked as Home Secretary, none predicted that the former Prime Minister would be walking down Downing Street into a new job and a place in the House of Lords. On this episode of the Sky News Daily, Sally Lockwood looks over Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle with political editor Beth Rigby. She’s also joined by former Tory MP, and cabinet minister during Mr Cameron's government, Anna Soubry, and deputy editor of Conservative Home, Henry Hill – to analyse if Mr Sunak h ..read more