We are now closing the blog. Here is a summary of today’s events. The UK Covid inquiry heard from the former prime minister’s top aide Dominic Cummings, and Lee Cain, the former Downing Street director of communications. We were told that: Boris Johnson suggested “Covid is nature’s way of dealing with old people”, according to Sir Patrick Vallance. Dominic Cummings said vulnerable people were “appallingly neglected”. Cummings frequently called for the sacking of Matt Hancock and other cabinet ministers. Cummings used misogynistic language to denigrate the deputy cabinet secretary, Helen MacNamara. But he claimed foul-mouthed messages about his colleague were not misogynistic, saying he was “much ruder about men”. Johnson urged Cummings to end an “orgy of narcissism”. Cummings was unrepentant about his trip to Durham at the height of lockdown. Cummings said Johnson’s relationship with the press was “extremely damaging” to the government’s Covid response. Cummings defended helping to make Johnson PM even though he thought he was unfit to handle the pandemic. Cummings claimed he told Johnson in early February containing Covid was impossible - but accepted there’s no written record of this. Cummings said the UK could have avoided lockdown if massive test and trace capacity had been in place by March 2020. Cain tried to resist Sunak’s “eat out to help out” scheme in the summer of 2020. Cain said it was a “huge blunder” to ignore Marcus Rashford’s campaign on free school meals. Susie Flintham, a spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said there was “nastiness, arrogance and misogyny at the heart of government during the pandemic”. Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she has “nothing to hide” as 14,000 messages to be handed over to the UK Covid inquiry. Rail ticket office closures in England have been scrapped in a government U-turn Gillian Keegan says she hopes much-delayed trans guidance for schools in England to be out before Christmas. English councils seek £100m to avert collapse of homelessness services. Rishi Sunak spoke with the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas telling him the UK will continue to support diplomatic action to protect Palestinian civilians. Rishi Sunak also spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu about the importance of minimising civilian casualties. Human rights campaign group Amnesty International was among several organisations that were critical of Keir Starmer’s stance on the conflict in Gaza, following a speech the Labour leader gave today.