Harvey Weinstein found guilty on sexual assault charge in retrial

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has been convicted of a single count of criminal sexual act at his sex crimes retrial, closing one chapter in the yearslong saga of the onetime Hollywood honcho-turned-#MeToo outcast.

The jury found Weinstein not guilty on another count of criminal sexual act and reached no verdict on the single count of rape he had faced. They deliberated for five days before reaching a verdict on Wednesday.

Weinstein, 73, who appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court in a wheelchair after experiencing a litany of health problems, looked at his lawyer in shock when the “not guilty” verdict was read, according to reports. He had decided not to testify in his defense during the six-week trial.

The former producer and Miramax studio co-founder had pleaded not guilty to raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and forcing oral sex on two others, separately, in 2006. He denied the allegations, and his attorneys maintain that anything that happened between him and his accusers was consensual.

He was previously convicted in New York, but it was tossed by an appeals court.

Closing arguments in the retrial concluded on Wednesday with Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, portraying him as the falsely accused “original sinner” of the #MeToo era, while Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg told jurors that Weinstein preyed on less-powerful women he thought would never speak up.

“Members of the jury, he raped three women. They all said, ‘no,’” Blumberg said.

“We heard a lot about ‘policing the bedroom’ yesterday,” Blumberg said, referring to Aidala’s closing argument on Tuesday. “We don’t want to police bedrooms either – unless you’re forcibly raping someone inside them.”

On Tuesday, Aidala accused the alleged victims of lying on the stand.

“They are lying about what happened. Not about everything, but about a small slice – just enough to turn their regret, their buyers’ remorse, into criminality,” Aidala said of the accusers.

During his closing, he veered into folksy jokes — sometimes re-enacting witnesses’ behavior — as he contended that his client engaged in a “courting game,” not crimes, the Associated Press reported.

But Blumberg urged jurors to focus on Weinstein’s accusers and their days of grueling testimony.

“This was not a ‘courting game,’ as Mr. Aidala wants you to believe. This was not a ‘transaction,’” Blumberg shot back. “This was never about ‘fooling around.’ It was about rape.”

Aidala argued that everything that happened between the ex-producer and his accusers was a consensual, if “transactional,” exchange of favors. The attorney accused prosecutors of “trying to police the bedroom” and zeroing in on the man seen as ”the poster boy, the original sinner, for the #MeToo movement.”

“They tried to do it five years ago, and now there’s a redo, and they’re trying to do it again,” he told jurors.

His hours-long summation touched on matters from the acclaimed, Weinstein-co-produced 1994 film “Pulp Fiction” to his own marriage and his grandmother’s Italian gravy, at times playing for — and getting — laughs from jurors and Weinstein.

Aidala depicted the former studio boss as a self-made New Yorker, while painting Weinstein’s accusers as troubled and canny “women with broken dreams” who plied him for movie opportunities and other perks, kept engaging with him for years and then turned on him to cash in on his #MeToo undoing. All three received compensation through legal processes separate from the criminal trial.

Blumberg countered that Weinstein interpreted a sexual “no” as a cue to “push a little bit more, and if they still say no, just take it anyway.”

She argued that his accusers stayed in friendly contact with Weinstein because they were trying to work in entertainment, and they feared their careers would be squashed if they crossed him.

“He chose people who he thought would be the perfect victims, who he could rape and keep silent,” the prosecutor said. “He underestimated them.”

Weinstein had a decades-long run as one of the movie industry’s most influential people. In 2017, allegations of sexual assault and harassment tanked his career and catalyzed the #MeToo movement, which seeks accountability for sexual misconduct. More than 100 women, including famous actresses, have accused Weinstein of misconduct.

He was subsequently convicted of sex crimes and sentenced to prison in New York and California. His California appeal hasn’t been decided.

Since the New York retrial opened April 23, prosecutors have brought in more than two dozen witnesses. The prosecution centered on Weinstein’s three accusers, who each faced days of questions.

In often graphic and sometimes tearful testimony, the women said the Oscar-winning producer used his showbiz stature as a hook to prey on them.

Jessica Mann, who accused Weinstein of rape, was a hairstylist hoping to make it as an actress when she met him. The sexual assault accusers also were trying to build careers in entertainment: Miriam Haley was a production assistant and producer, and Kaja Sokola was a teenage model who wanted to get into acting.

Prosecutors added Sokola’s allegations to the case for the retrial. But some other accusers from the first trial weren’t part of the second. The appeals court said it was prejudicial to include their accusations, which never resulted in charges.

Weinstein, who has been held at New York City’s Rikers Island jail since his conviction was overturned, now faces a maximum sentence of up to 29 years in prison.

He already will likely spend the rest of his life in prison due to a 16-year prison sentence given to him after being found guilty of rape in California in December 2022.

Brian Wilson, shy genius of The Beach Boys, dies aged 82

Brian Wilson, Beach Boys co-founder, singer, songwriter, producer and one of the most innovative and pioneering figures in pop music, has died aged 82.

The news was confirmed by his children, who shared a statement on Wilson’s official X (Twitter) account.

“We are heartbroken to announced [sic] that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” their statement reads.

“We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family grieving [sic]. We realise that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.”

News of his death has been met with an outpouring of support.

Revered as the shy genius whose arrangements and songwriting talents spurred The Beach Boys on to become one of the most successful pop groups in history, Wilson was as complicated as he was brilliant.

Wilson grew up in Hawthorne, California, the eldest of three brothers raised by their mother, Audree, and father, Murry. His prodigious musical talent was evident from a young age.

His 2016 memoir recalled sporadic episodes of physical and psychological abuse he and younger brothers Dennis and Carl suffered at the hands of Murry, whom he described as “violent” and “cruel”. Yet he also credited his father as a driving force when it came to nurturing his and his siblings’ musical gifts, from church choirs to playing the upright piano his parents acquired when he was 12 years old.

For his 16th birthday, Wilson received a reel-to-reel tape recorder and taught himself how to overdub, which would later become one of the signature techniques he used to create the layered harmonies of The Beach Boys.

With his two brothers, their cousin Mike Love and classmate Al Jardine, Wilson formed his first band, The Pendletones, in 1961 and wrote their first song, “Surfin’”, with Love. They changed their name to The Beach Boys after “Surfin’” became a hit, signing a new deal with Capitol Records and releasing their debut album, Surfin’ Safari, the following year.

By 1963, Wilson was already beginning to limit his public appearances with the band in order to produce their second album, Surfin’ USA, which peaked at No 2 on the Billboard charts that summer and established The Beach Boys as one of the country’s biggest new pop acts.

The media and fan frenzy the band’s fame attracted, along with Wilson’s concern over the threat posed by Beatlemania – which by then was sweeping the US – to The Beach Boys’ supremacy, pushed him to respond with “I Get Around”, their first No 1 hit.

Yet it wasn’t enough to soothe the psychological toll on Wilson, and he suffered a breakdown during a flight from Los Angeles to Houston ahead of a two-week tour. After making it through the Houston show that evening, he was replaced by session musician Glen Campbell for the rest of the tour. By the time the group continued recording their next album, Wilson announced that he was withdrawing from all future live tours. He later told a journalist that his decision was a byproduct of his “f***ed-up” jealousy over The Beatles and producer Phil Spector.

Wilson was also suffering from strains in his marriage to his first wife, Marilyn Rovell, which would later inform the lyrical content on the groundbreaking album Pet Sounds, considered by many critics as one of the greatest records of all time. Recorded and released in 1966, it is often viewed as the first “concept album” and was described by Rolling Stone as “by far the best album [Wilson] had delivered”.

“Previous Beach Boy albums were also based on strong conceptual images — the dream world of Surf, wired-up rods with metal flake paint, and curvaceous cuties lounging around the (implicitly suburban and affluent) high school,” the publication said. “It was music for white kids; they could identify with the veneration of the leisure status which in 1963 was the ripest fruit of the American dream.

“But Pet Sounds… nobody was prepared for anything so soulful, so lovely, something one had to think about so much. It is by far the best album Brian has yet delivered, and it paradoxically began the decline in mass popularity that still plagues this band.”

Wilson often baulked at being branded a “genius”, feeling it exacerbated the pressures he already felt from the music industry. After completing Pet Sounds, a critical hit but a commercial disappointment, Wilson began abusing drugs and developed what he later called a “Jesus Christ complex”. His mental condition worsened, and he began to suffer from paranoid delusions to the point that he was admitted to hospital shortly after the birth of his and Rovell’s first child.

His treatment by the controversial Eugene Landy following a band intervention was documented in the critically acclaimed 2014 biopic Love & Mercy, starring Paul Dano and John Cusack as the young and older Wilson, respectively, and Paul Giamatti as the psychologist. Wilson’s second wife, Melinda Ledbetter – who was credited with helping to initiate a court-ordered separation for Wilson from Landy and getting him proper medical care – claimed that Landy’s treatment of the musician was “even worse” than the film portrayed.

Evidence of the level of control Landy exerted over Wilson’s career was evident when he was credited as “executive producer” on Wilson’s debut self-titled solo album in 1988. He was described as a constant disruptive presence who created tension with the rest of the production team, while the album’s release was largely overshadowed by scrutiny surrounding his treatment of Wilson. A conservatorship suit was filed by his family in 1991, dissolving the partnership with Landy and handing him a restraining order.

Wilson’s productivity increased during the Nineties, leading to the release of works including an album of songs with Van Dyke Parks called Orange Crate Art. He also appeared in The Wilsons, a collaborative project with his daughters Carnie and Wendy, and co-produced the Beach Boys album Stars and Stripes Vol 1. He also embarked on his first solo tour between March to July 1999, telling the press that he felt “much more comfortable” on stage than he had in The Beach Boys’ heyday.

He continued to tour, including the first full live performance of Pet Sounds, where he was backed by a 55-piece orchestra. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 along with his bandmates, including brothers Carl and Dennis (posthumously as he had died five years earlier), and cousin Mike Love.

In 2020, Wilson expressed his disappointment upon learning that Love’s touring version of The Beach Boys would headline Donald Trump’s campaign benefit in Newport Beach: “We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it,” he told US media, referring to himself and bandmate Al Jardine, with whom he had been touring in recent years.

His wife of 28 years, Melinda Ledbetter, died in January 2024. “Our five children and I are just in tears,” Wilson wrote in an emotional statement. “We are lost. Melinda was more than my wife. She was my saviour. She gave me the emotional security I needed to have a career. She encouraged me to make the music that was closest to my heart. She was my anchor. She was everything for us.”

Wilson was placed in a court conservatorship in 2024 following Ledbetter’s death, in order to manage his personal and medical decisions, following a petition filed by his family and inner circle. He was found to consent to the arrangement.

He is survived by his five children, and his grandchildren.

LA Curfew enforced for second night as more than 400 arrested

More than 400 people have been arrested in Los Angeles during the ongoing unrest, including 330 undocumented migrants and 157 individuals facing charges of assault or obstruction.

Los Angeles officials have enforced a curfew in the downtown area for a second night as protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids pop up in other major cities.

The Trump administration has filed a response to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s lawsuit to stop the “unnecessary” deployment of US Marines to Los Angeles, in addition to the 4,000 federalized California National Guard troops ordered into the city.

Protests and confrontations with police sparked wider problems of vandalism and looting in downtown Los Angeles. LAPD reported mass arrests. Local residents blame the president for exacerbating tensions through the deployment of troops.

Mayor Karen Bass said the curfew was a response to the president’s “chaotic escalation” of the situation through his deployment of the Guard and the upcoming addition of 700 Marines, who are training 30 miles south of the city.

Troops are authorized to temporarily detain individuals until law enforcement agents arrive to make an arrest, Major General Scott Sherman said this morning, and have begun to do so. They are backed up by unarmed Predator drones, which are being used for high-altitude surveillance.

Newly discovered ‘Dragon Prince’ dinosaur is crucial ancestor of T rex

A newly discovered dinosaur from Mongolia, named Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, or “Dragon Prince,” is believed to be a crucial ancestor of the Tyrannosaurus rex (T rex), shedding light on the T rex’s complex evolutionary history.

Living approximately 86 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, Khankhuuluu predates the Tyrannosaurus by around 20 million years. This mid-sized dinosaur, measuring about 13 feet in length and weighing roughly 1,600 pounds, walked on two legs and possessed a long snout filled with sharp teeth.

In comparison to the more heavily built T rex, Khankhuuluu’s body proportions suggest it was a swift predator, likely hunting smaller prey such as oviraptorosaurs and ornithomimosaurs. The largest known T rex specimen reached a length of 40-1/2 feet.

Khankhuuluu means “Dragon Prince” in the Mongolian language. Tyrannosaurus rex means “tyrant king of the lizards.”

“In the name, we wanted to capture that Khankhuuluu was a small, early form that had not evolved into a king. It was still a prince,” said paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky of the University of Calgary in Canada, co-author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Tyrannosaurs and all other meat-eating dinosaurs are part of a group called theropods. Tyrannosaurs appeared late in the age of dinosaurs, roaming Asia and North America.

Khankhuuluu shared many anatomical traits with tyrannosaurs but lacked certain defining characteristics, showing it was a predecessor and not a true member of the lineage.

“Khankhuuluu was almost a tyrannosaur, but not quite. For example, the bone along the top of the snout and the bones around the eye are somewhat different from what we see in tyrannosaurs. The snout bone was hollow and the bones around the eye didn’t have all the horns and bumps seen in tyrannosaurs,” Zelenitsky said.

“Khankhuuluu had teeth like steak knives, with serrations along both the front and back edges. Large tyrannosaurs had conical teeth and massive jaws that allowed them to bite with extreme force then hold in order to subdue very large prey. Khankhuuluu’s more slender teeth and jaws show this animal took slashing bites to take down smaller prey,” Zelenitsky added.

The researchers figured out its anatomy based on fossils of two Khankhuuluu individuals dug up in the 1970s but only now fully studied. These included parts of its skull, arms, legs, tail and back bones.

The Khankhuuluu remains, more complete than fossils of other known tyrannosaur forerunners, helped the researchers untangle this lineage’s evolutionary history.

They concluded that Khankhuuluu was the link between smaller forerunners of tyrannosaurs and later true tyrannosaurs, a transitional animal that reveals how these meat-eaters evolved from speedy and modestly sized species into giant apex predators.

“What started as the discovery of a new species ended up with us rewriting the family history of tyrannosaurs,” said University of Calgary doctoral student and study lead author Jared Voris. “Before this, there was a lot of confusion about who was related to who when it came to tyrannosaur species.”

Some scientists had hypothesized that smaller tyrannosaurs like China’s Qianzhousaurus – dubbed “Pinnochio-rexes” because of their characteristic long snouts – reflected the lineage’s ancestral form. That notion was contradicted by the fact that tyrannosaur forerunner Khankhuuluu differed from them in important ways.

“The tyrannosaur family didn’t follow a straightforward path where they evolved from small size in early species to larger and larger sizes in later species,” Zelenitsky said.

Voris noted that Khankhuuluu demonstrates that the ancestors to the tyrannosaurs lived in Asia.

“Around 85 million years ago, these tyrannosaur ancestors crossed a land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska and evolved in North America into the apex predatory tyrannosaurs,” Voris said.

One line of North American tyrannosaurs later trekked back to Asia and split into two branches – the “Pinnochio-rexes” and massive forms like Tarbosaurus, the researchers said. These apex predators then spread back to North America, they said, paving the way for the appearance of T rex. Tyrannosaurus ruled western North America at the end of the age of dinosaurs when an asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago.

“Khankhuuluu was where it all started but it was still only a distant ancestor of T rex, at nearly 20 million years older,” Zelenitsky said. “Over a dozen tyrannosaur species evolved in the time between them. It was a great-great-great uncle, sort of.”

High Court hears company linked to Baroness Mone must pay back £121m for ‘faulty’ PPE

A company linked to Tory peer Michelle Mone should pay back more than £121 million for breaching a Government contract for 25 million surgical gowns during the coronavirus pandemic, the High Court has heard.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is suing PPE Medpro for allegedly breaching a deal for the gowns, with lawyers for the Government telling the court they were “faulty” because they were not sterile.

The company, a consortium led by Baroness Mone’s husband, businessman Doug Barrowman, was awarded Government contracts by the former Conservative administration to supply PPE during the pandemic, after she recommended it to ministers.

Both have denied wrongdoing.

The Government is seeking to recover the costs of the contract, as well as the costs of transporting and storing the items, which amount to an additional £8,648,691.

PPE Medpro said it “categorically denies” breaching the contract, and its lawyers claimed the company has been “singled out for unfair treatment”.

Opening the trial on Wednesday, Paul Stanley KC, for the DHSC, said: “This case is simply about whether 25 million surgical gowns provided by PPE Medpro were faulty.

“It is, in short, a technical case about detailed legal and industry standards that apply to sterile gowns.”

Mr Stanley said in written submissions the “initial contact with Medpro came through Baroness Mone”, with discussions about the contract then going through one of the company’s directors, Anthony Page.

Baroness Mone remained “active throughout” the negotiations, Mr Stanley said, with the peer stating Mr Barrowman had “years of experience in manufacturing, procurement and management of supply chains”.

But he told the court Baroness Mone’s communications were “not part of this case”, which was “simply about compliance”.

He said: “The department does not allege anything improper happened, and we are not concerned with any profits made by anybody.”

In court documents from May this year, the DHSC said the gowns were delivered to the UK in 72 lots between August and October 2020, with £121,999,219.20 paid to PPE Medpro between July and August that year.

The department rejected the gowns in December 2020 and told the company it would have to repay the money, but this has not happened and the gowns remain in storage, unable to be used.

In written submissions for trial, Mr Stanley said 99.9999% of the gowns should have been sterile under the terms of the contract, equating to one in a million being unusable.

The DHSC claims the contract also specified PPE Medpro had to sterilise the gowns using a “validated process”, attested by CE marking, which indicates a product has met certain medical standards.

He said “none of those things happened”, with no validated sterilisation process being followed, and the gowns supplied with invalid CE marking.

He continued that 140 gowns were later tested for sterility, with 103 failing.

He said: “Whatever was done to sterilise the gowns had not achieved its purpose, because more than one in a million of them was contaminated when delivered.

“On that basis, DHSC was entitled to reject the gowns, or is entitled to damages, which amount to the full price and storage costs.”

In his written submissions, Charles Samek KC, for PPE Medpro, said the “only plausible reason” for the gowns becoming contaminated was due to “the transport and storage conditions or events to which the gowns were subject”, after they had been delivered to the DHSC.

He added the testing did not happen until several months after the gowns were rejected, and the samples selected were not “representative of the whole population”, meaning “no proper conclusions may be drawn”.

He said the DHSC’s claim was “contrived and opportunistic” and PPE Medpro had been “made the ‘fall guy’ for a catalogue of failures and errors” by the department.

He said: “It has perhaps been singled out because of the high profiles of those said to be associated with PPE Medpro, and/or because it is perceived to be a supplier with financial resources behind it.

“In reality, an archetypal case of ‘buyer’s remorse’, where DHSC simply seeks to get out of a bargain it wished it never entered into, left, as it is, with over £8 billion of purchased and unused PPE as a result of an untrammelled and uncontrolled buying spree with taxpayers’ money.”

He also said there was a “delicious irony” that Baroness Mone was mentioned in the DHSC’s written submissions, when she had “zero relevance to the contractual issues in this case”.

Neither Baroness Mone nor Mr Barrowman is due to give evidence in the trial, and Baroness Mone did not attend the first day of the hearing on Wednesday.

A PPE Medpro spokesperson said the company “categorically denies breaching its obligations” and will “robustly defend” the claim.

The trial before Mrs Justice Cockerill is due to last five weeks, with a judgment expected in writing at a later date.

The E2E Tech 100 Track 2025 revealed

The E2E Tech 100 is a celebration of the UK’s most dynamic and fast-growing technology businesses. These companies are redefining the future through innovation, digital transformation, and remarkable revenue growth, with artificial intelligence playing a central role in many of their business models.

Our headline partner for the E2E 100 2025 is Universal Partners.

The Tech 100 showcases groundbreaking tech companies, each surpassing £10 million in turnover over past 2 years, and setting new standards for innovation and growth across the tech sector.

Featured in the track and demonstrating extraordinary growth are:

Revolut Ltd – One of the world’s fastest-growing fintech super-apps, Revolut has revolutionised the way millions manage their finances. With services spanning banking, crypto, stock trading, and travel insurance, the company has scaled across continents under the leadership of CEO and Co-Founder Nikolay Storonsky. Now serving over 40 million users globally, Revolut’s seamless digital-first approach has set a new benchmark for financial innovation.

Cleo AI Ltd – At the cutting edge of artificial intelligence in personal finance, Cleo is reshaping how Gen Z manages money. Founded by Barney Hussey-Yeo, Cleo combines humour, data, and conversational AI to make budgeting and saving both intuitive and engaging. With tens of millions of interactions every month and strong traction in the US market, Cleo has emerged as a disruptive force in fintech.

Zilch Technology Limited is a leading UK-based buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintech company revolutionising consumer spending with a transparent, interest-free model. Founded by Philip Belamant, Zilch combines open banking and AI to offer smarter, responsible credit to over 3 million users. With a rapidly growing presence in both the UK and US markets, Zilch is redefining flexible payments for the digital age.

This initiative stands as a compelling testament to the UK’s thriving tech ecosystem, showcasing companies that not only drive significant revenue growth but also foster digital inclusion, enhance user experience, and shape global tech trends.

With founders from across the country, the E2E Tech 100 demonstrates the depth and diversity of talent in the UK, spotlighting entrepreneurs who are leading change through creativity, data, and purpose in an increasingly tech-driven world.

As the Founder and CEO of E2E said: “The E2E Tech 100 track recognises the exceptional achievements of technology companies that are scaling with speed, vision, and impact. From AI-driven solutions to inclusive fintech platforms, these businesses are solving real-world problems and transforming industries. It’s an honour to celebrate their growth, resilience, and leadership as they navigate and shape a digital-first future.”

Andrew Morley, CRO at The Independent, added: “We are delighted to partner with E2E in celebrating the UK’s top 100 tech innovators. These businesses embody what’s best about British entrepreneurship: bold thinking, digital excellence, and global ambition. Their stories inspire and remind us of the extraordinary potential within the UK tech landscape. Congratulations to all those featured in this year’s Tech 100.”

The track was carefully curated using trusted data from Experian and Creditsafe, ensuring only the most impactful and high-performing businesses have been recognised in this track.

Each E2E 100 track is supported by our partners: Universal Partners (Headline Partner), Fora, Lioncroft, Creditsafe, OakNorth, and Experian.

With London Tech Week underway, it’s an exciting time to spotlight innovation and entrepreneurship across the UK. As the nation celebrates tech talent, the E2E Tech 100 recognises the businesses driving real impact and growth.

For more information and to see the full E2E Tech 100 2025 track, click here.

To find out more about E2E, visit https://www.e2exchange.com/

House price rises over 20 years revealed as one area jumps 124%

House prices in the UK have jumped by 74 per cent in the last 20 years, adding over £150,000 to the average property value, according to Zoopla.

The property website found that the typical house price has risen from £113,900 to £268,200 in the past two decades. However, sharp rises in some locations could mean that some people are priced out of the areas they grew up in.

London has seen the biggest increase, with average house prices more than doubling (119 per cent) in the last 20 years. The South East and eastern England have also seen large jumps, with average property values rising by 87 per cent in both regions.

In contrast, house prices in the north-east of England have risen by 39 per cent during the same period. In Blackpool, Lancashire, average house prices have increased by 26 per cent, while in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, they have risen by 22 per cent.

Meanwhile, in Kensington and Chelsea (124 per cent) in London, Elmbridge (110 per cent) in Surrey, and St Albans (108 per cent) in Hertfordshire, average property values have more than doubled over the past two decades.

Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, said: “If you grew up in north-east England, bought in London and are now returning to your roots, you’re in luck.

“You will get significantly more bang for your buck and the equity accumulated means your mortgage could be wiped out altogether.

“The gap between the capital and the rest of the country has narrowed in recent years as more affordable parts of the UK have seen stronger house price growth. The squeeze in London means more buyers are looking beyond the M25, and that often includes locations where they have roots, a trend that was accelerated by the pandemic and shifting work patterns.”

Daniel Copley, a consumer expert at Zoopla, which has affordability tools on its website, said: “Our latest analysis certainly brings to light the profound impact that two decades of house price growth has had on the dream of ‘returning home’.

“UK house prices have soared by 74 per cent since 2005, making that nostalgic return financially unattainable for many, especially in hotspots in the South East and eastern England.

“However, the picture is far from uniform across the UK. Our data shows that while some areas have seen dramatic increases, house prices have risen slowly, in line with incomes in northern regions. This means that for some, the dream of returning to their roots might be much more attainable than they think.”

Zoopla used its house price index, comparing the difference between average house prices in April 2025 and April 2024, as part of its research.

It also commissioned an Opinium survey among 2,000 people across the UK in June, which indicated that more than half (52 per cent) would consider moving back to the location where they grew up.

Toby Leek, president of NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents) Propertymark, said: “Rural and picturesque areas across the county are popular destinations that many people choose to move to, especially those that are looking for a quiet escape, such as certain coastal locations. However, this sometimes comes with a bigger price tag.

“As places increase in popularity, this raises house prices to levels that mean many current or ex-locals who may wish to move back to their home towns where they grew up could find it hard to afford to purchase a home. It also has the potential to be extremely challenging for people to migrate around the locality as well, due to higher prices.”

Here are the increases in average house prices over the past 20 years, according to Zoopla. Figures show the average house price in 2025 followed by the average house price in 2005 and the percentage increase over the past 20 years:

Here are the local authority areas with the biggest house price increases over the past 20 years in each region or nation, according to Zoopla. Figures show average house prices in 2025 followed by average house prices in 2005 and the percentage increase (figures for Northern Ireland were not included):

Here are the local authority areas with the lowest house price increases over the past 20 years in each region or nation, according to Zoopla. Figures show average house prices in 2025 followed by average house prices in 2005 and the percentage increase (figures for Northern Ireland were not included):

US pulls non-essential embassy staff from Iraq amid growing Middle East tensions

Donald Trump said he was withdrawing some of the American personnel deployed in the Middle East because it could be a “dangerous place” amid rising tensions.

The State Department said it had ordered the departure of all non-essential personnel and their dependents from its embassy in Baghdad.

Simultaneously, a US official said, defence secretary Pete Hegseth had authorised the voluntary departure of military dependents from countries across the region, including Bahrain and Kuwait. American soldiers in the region were not affected by this order, however.

The decision comes amid heightened tensions as Mr Trump’s push to reach a deal with Iran to halt its nuclear programme is deadlocked and intelligence suggests Israel is making preparations for a strike against Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

“They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens,” Mr Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “We’ve given notice to move out.”

Asked if anything could be done to de-escalate tensions in the region, particularly with Iran, the president said: “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. Very simple – they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

News of the Baghdad evacuation drove oil prices up by more than 4 per cent. Oil futures climbed $3, with Brent crude futures at $69.18 a barrel.

The US maintains a military presence across the oil-rich region, with bases in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE.

A US official told Reuters that the State Department was “set to have an ordered departure for the embassy in Baghdad”.

“The intent is to do it through commercial means, but the US military is standing by if help is requested,” the officials said.

Iraq‘s state news agency reported, citing a government official, that Baghdad hadn’t recorded any security indication warranting an evacuation. Sources in Iraqi and US governments did not explain what security risks had prompted the decision, although heightened tensions with Iran were widely speculated to be a reason.

The sixth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the US is scheduled to happen over the weekend in Oman, with Tehran expected to hand over a counterproposal after rejecting an offer by Washington.

Iran says it does not plan to build a nuclear weapon and is only interested in peaceful use of its nuclear programme. The US, though, wants Tehran to stop uranium enrichment entirely.

Speaking on the Pod Force One podcast on Monday, Mr Trump said he was growing “less confident” about getting a deal with Iran. It wasn’t clear, he said, that Tehran would accept the key US demand to stop enriching uranium. “I don’t know. I did think so, and I’m getting more and more – less confident about it,” the president said.

Iranian defence minister Amir Aziz Nasirzadeh warned that “the situation may escalate into conflict” if negotiations with the US failed.

“If a conflict is imposed on us,” he warned on Wednesday, “all US bases are within our reach, and we will boldly target them in host countries”.

Tensions in the Middle East are also rising due to Israel’s war on Gaza. Israel and Iran exchanged fire twice last year – the first direct attacks between the region’s most entrenched enemies – with missiles and war drones hurtling across Iraqi airspace.

Strategic experts and former officials said Israel could consider taking matters into its own hands if nuclear talks with the US didn’t yield a favourable outcome.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that a flawed agreement would be more dangerous than no deal at all.

Mr Trump recently revealed he had cautioned Mr Netanyahu against taking unilateral action, such as a military strike, which could jeopardise the ongoing negotiations with Tehran.