Your childhood diet has a lasting impact throughout your life

Eating too much fat and sugar as a child can alter your microbiome for life, even if you follow a healthy diet when you're older, according to new research.

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  • Line of Duty’s Martin Compston labels Scottish Conservatives leader ‘utter disgrace’ after call for Sturgeon resignation

    ‘No interest in answers, only bringing down a political opponent,’ wrote Compston

  • UK announces it will unilaterally change Brexit deal with EU, risking new confrontation with Brussels

    UK to extend grace periods for supermarkets without EU approval

  • Viktor Orban pulls his party out of European Parliament group after EU expresses rights concerns

    Viktor Orbàn, Hungary’s prime minister, has pulled his party out of the largest political group in the European Parliament before they could be expelled over EU concerns over Budapest’s respect for democracy and the rule of law. Fidesz's 12 MEPs were withdrawn from the centre-Right European People’s Party (EPP) coalition before it voted on changes to rules on the expulsion of members. Mr Orbàn has long been at loggerheads with Brussels over his crackdown on media and other freedoms. EPP members have backed EU institutions in their criticism of Fidesz, which they accuse of trampling on “European values”. But he stopped short of leaving the EPP’s pan-EU political party, which has members including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. Fidesz will now have less speaking time and access to less EU funding after leaving the biggest single voting bloc in the Brussels and Strasbourg parliament. It was suspended from the pan-EU party alliance in March 2019 but until now remained part of the European Parliament group. The EPP’s 180 members voted by 148 to 28 in favour of the new rules, with four abstentions, in the culmination of years of strained relations after Fidesz resigned. Mr Orbàn accused the EPP of curtailing the democratic rights of Fidesz MEPs in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic in a letter to group leader Manfred Weber. He branded the vote on rule changes “anti-democratic, unjust and unacceptable” and a “hostile move”. “The message is clear and duly noted. If Fidesz is not welcome, we do not feel compelled to stay,” he wrote. The pressure on the close political relationship between the most influential pan-EU party had increased after Mr Orbàn launched a string of attacks against Brussels, including a poster campaign against then European Commission president, and EPP member, Jean-Claude Juncker. Mr Orbàn is expected to try and join other political groups in the European Parliament such as the Eurosceptic European Conservatives & Reformists or the hard right Identity & Democracy group. A spokesman for the EPP Group said it would not comment on Mr Orbàn’s “personal decision”. David Cameron pulled the Conservatives out of the EPP in 2009, which some in Brussels see as a key moment that eventually contributed to Brexit.

  • Travel news latest: Bookings soar for Spanish holidays after ‘green corridor’ news

    When can I go on holiday The destinations most likely to make the 'green list' this summer The countries already rolling out vaccine passports Which of our 10 favourite summer holiday destinations could reopen by June? Sign up to the Telegraph Travel newsletter Britons are racing to book holidays in Spain this summer following the announcement that a ‘green corridor’ could be set up for vaccinated travellers. The bookings boom has been sparked by comments made by the Spanish Minister for Tourism, Fernando Valdés, who confirmed earlier this week that Spain and the UK are in “discussions” over potentially lifting travel restrictions for those who have been inoculated against Covid, as long as there is no collective EU decision on vaccine passports in the next few months. With the UK government also revealing its roadmap out of lockdown last week, with international travel a possibility by May 17 at the earliest, Spanish holiday firms are now experiencing a surge in demand from UK customers keen to fly south for the summer. One Ibiza hotel, the Nobu Hotel on Talamanca Beach, has already seen a 250% week-on-week spike in bookings, while the Puente Romano Beach Resort in Marbella has already reached 50% occupancy for the whole of August. Villa holidays are in high demand too, with one rental company, The Thinking Traveller, reporting a 100% increase in enquiries compared to this time last year, and a threefold increase compared to last week. Airlines have also witnessed a boost in the last week thanks to renewed passenger confidence: EasyJet sales for June, July and August have more than quadrupled in recent days, while TUI has seen reservations in Spain, Greece and Turkey rise by 600%. Scroll down for more updates

  • ‘You just get on with it’: The Oxford professor carrying the world’s hopes of a coronavirus vaccine

    Sarah Gilbert tells Samuel Lovett how decades of experience (and raising triplets) helped her prepare for the challenge of a lifetime

  • Scotland reels from Nicola Sturgeon vs Alex Salmond warfare

    Their 30-year friendship was one of the closest in politics and together they took on Westminster. But now Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond have turned on each other and it is all out war. What does this mean for Scotland and the union?

  • Brexit: EU ‘simply can’t trust’ Boris Johnson’s government as negotiating partner, says Simon Coveney

    ‘It’s the British government essentially breaking the protocol – breaking their own commitments again’

  • Nadine Coyle reveals Girls Aloud have put feud behind them amid Sarah Harding's cancer battle

    Nadine Coyle has revealed Girls Aloud have put aside their differences as band member Sarah Harding battles cancer.

  • Trump served with lawsuit accusing him of breaking ‘Ku Klux Klan’ laws on day of Capitol riot

    NAACP accuses Trump of disenfranchising Black voters and trying to ‘destroy democracy’

  • Drone footage shows police shut down 40-guest house party breaking COVID rules

    Bottles were thrown at police and seven officers got injured as they shut down the event in Mapperley, Nottinghamshire.

  • Meghan ignored advice and wore Prince Salman earrings three weeks after Jamal Khashoggi murder

    The Duchess of Sussex wore earrings given to her by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia three weeks after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, against advice from palace aides, The Telegraph understands. The Duchess, 39, had been given the Butani earrings as an official wedding present from the Saudi Royal Family. When she wore them to a formal dinner in Fiji in October 2018, during a royal tour, the media were told that they were “borrowed” but unusually, declined to offer further information or guidance. The dinner took place three weeks after Mr Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Duchess’s lawyers insisted that at the time of the dinner, she was unaware of speculation that the crown prince was involved in the murder of the journalist. However, a royal source claimed that palace staff had advised the Duchess not to wear the jewellery. “Members of Royal Household staff sometimes advise people on their options,” one said. “But what they choose to do with that advice is a very different matter.”

  • Sections of Salmond legal advice 'hidden' ahead of Sturgeon grilling

    Key sections of legal advice received by ministers about Alex Salmond’s court challenge were hidden from MSPs ahead of Nicola Sturgeon’s witness session, it has emerged. John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, finally agreed to release the advice on Tuesday evening, as MSPs prepared to pass a vote of no confidence in him for ignoring repeated demands to publish it. However, it was alleged that important sections had not appeared, with the Scottish Tories refusing to withdraw their plan for a no confidence vote in the First Minister’s most trusted lieutenant as a result. Jackie Baillie, the Labour deputy leader, said that in more than two decades sitting on Holyrood committees, she had never felt “so frustrated” as she had been trying to extract documents from the Scottish Government.

  • Boris Johnson says Keir Starmer ‘could have asked questions about’ UK when Labour leader raises Yemen aid cut

    PM’s response ‘extremely unedifying’ given Britain’s role in long-running war, says Amnesty

  • Stamp duty holiday extension will spark modest rise in house prices

    An extension to the stamp duty holiday announced in the Budget will spark a modest rise in house prices and stimulate additional transactions, the Treasury’s independent forecaster has said. Rishi Sunak announced on Wednesday that the tax relief would continue for another six months, in a boost to the housing market and a major victory for The Telegraph's Stamp out the Duty campaign. As the Chancellor read out the measure, the Prime Minister, who was sitting beside him, gave a thumbs up signal to The Telegraph’s journalist present in the Press Gallery of the Commons. The Chancellor said the current holiday, which sees the nil-band rate apply up to a threshold of £500,000, would be extended for three months until June 30.

  • Ninety percent of Covid deaths are in countries with high obesity rates, study finds

    World Health Organisation warns report is a ‘wake-up’ call to governments

  • Royal rift: Will William and Harry’s relationship ever be repaired?

    The brotherhood of Princes William and Harry – once so powerful, appealing and close – is steadily crumbling. It’s said William now rarely talks to his younger brother and is apparently furious and shocked that Harry has snubbed the Queen, making a tell-all Oprah interview the focus when their 99-year-old grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, remains ill in hospital. William has always been protective of Harry and, until he met Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge happily joined ranks with him. He stood with them on countless engagements, which, despite stating at the time that Catherine was the sister he had always wanted, he later revealed it had made him feel like a gooseberry to the young married couple. When Meghan joined The Firm in November 2017, the young foursome were nicknamed the ‘Fab Four’ – appearing on stage together at the first (and what would turn out to be the last) annual Royal Foundation forum, at which they launched their vision for a shared working future. Harry joked that they were “stuck together for the rest of our lives.” How poignant that seems now.

  • Coronavirus risk for teachers ‘higher in lockdown’

    Teachers have had a “little bit higher risk” of infection with coronavirus during the national lockdown, new figures suggest. People who work in education and childcare appear to have had increased risk of infection compared to people who do not work in these professions, experts said. To date more than 1.4 million people have provided swabs so experts can assess infection rates across the country.

  • Self-Proclaimed Billionaire Trump Now Begging Small-Dollar Donors For Money

    The lies Trump told at CPAC about the election and his record were not new, but his request for supporters to give money to his new political committee was a first.

  • Matt Hancock more optimistic than ever for ‘great British summer’ as Covid vaccines roll out

    The Health Secretary is confidence people will be able to travel across the UK

  • Greek ‘pushbacks’ brought to European court after child refugees ‘towed out to sea and abandoned in raft’

    Exclusive: ‘These pushbacks are used to send a message to future would-be asylum seekers that they shouldn’t attempt to exercise their rights’, lawyer claims