SINGAPORE - Catch up on the hottest topics on The Straits Times' weekday talk show.

The Big Story, broadcast every weekday at 5.30pm on Facebook and YouTube, has reporters and senior editors discussing the top stories of the day in the heart of the newsroom.

The show is helmed by multimedia correspondent Hairianto Diman and assistant video editor Olivia Quay, and airs live from ST's digital studio.

Passengers on Singapore Airlines, Silkair and Scoot flights departing from parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand can now transit through Changi Airport.

Separately, airlines and airports around the world are also pushing for alternatives to mandatory quarantine for travellers, in a bid to boost travel.

We speak to journalist Toh Ting Wei about how the resumption of these transit flights through Changi can benefit Singapore's aviation sector.

He also weighs in on the challenges and feasibility of implementing the alternatives to mandatory quarantine.

Health authorities in Malaysia say a new strain of the coronavirus has emerged that is 10 times more infectious.

However, Singapore experts believe that there is no basis for the claim.

Director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School Professor Wang Linfa explains further.

Topics covered in previous episodes of The Big Story include the extension of the wage subsidies under the Jobs Support Scheme by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, and the first look at clinical human trials in Singapore for a Covid-19 vaccine.