Portrait of the week: vapes banned, Sunak fasts and royals leave hospital

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Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, the Foreign Secretary, set off on his fourth visit to the Middle East after saying: ‘We – with allies – will look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations.’ The Democratic Unionist party agreed to return to the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, in return for a change in the law surrounding the Windsor Framework post-Brexit agreement with the European Union. Separately, from the end of January veterinary certificates were legally required for fresh food and plant imports from the EU to England. The population of the United Kingdom would reach 70 million by 2026, the Office for National Statistics forecast, and by 2036 would reach 73.7 million, after 7.6 million people had left the country and 13.7 million arrived. At the weekend, 388 migrants in small boats crossed the Channel, bringing the total for January to 1,169, compared with 1,180 last January.

The government told Vodafone that its relationship with its largest shareholder, the UAE-controlled group Emirates Telecommunications, posed a risk to national security. The government announced that it would ban the sale of disposable vapes. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said fasting from 5 p.m. on Sunday until 5 a.m. on Tuesday each week was ‘an important discipline’. Train drivers went on strike; train operators decided not to use a new law requiring minimum service levels. The King left hospital after three nights, following treatment for an enlarged prostate. The Princess of Wales left hospital after 13 nights, following abdominal surgery; she was expected to spend months recuperating. Three-quarters of measles cases reported in an outbreak in England since October were found to have been in the West Midlands. George Freeman MP said he had resigned as a minister because he could not afford to pay his mortgage on a salary of £118,300.

Nottingham Police and Leicestershire Police referred themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct after it emerged that assaults by Valdo Calocane had been alleged five weeks before he killed three people in Nottingham, for which he has been sentenced to be detained at a high-security hospital.