TOKYO (AP) — Honda’s net profit rose 66% in the first half of its fiscal year, the Japanese automaker reported Tuesday, driven by strong motorcycle sales.
Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. reported a profit of 516.76 billion yen ($3.3 billion) for the six months through September, up from 311.83 billion yen a year earlier. First half sales rose 13% to 12 trillion yen from 10.6 trillion yen.
The robust results came despite costs in its electric vehicle program, where it dropped some models. Honda said EV-related losses erased 484.8 billion yen from its operating profits.
But officials stressed that Honda expects battery EVs might eventually become more popular and it will remain flexible enough to switch to EV production in the future.
Honda raised its full-year operating profit forecast to 780 billion yen from 650 billion yen.
Honda attributed the more optimistic forecast to favorable exchange rates and efforts to reduce the impact of U.S. tariffs, including shifting production to the United States.
The maker of the Super Cub motorcycle and Accord sedan also announced major production investments in North America and Brazil.
Honda plans to build a new auto production plant in Ohio, increasing production capacity in North America to 1.91 million vehicles by 2029 from 1.67 million. The company expects U.S. demand to grow, especially for its hybrid models.
Honda also plans to expand production of its motorcycle business at its Manaus factory in Brazil, increasing capacity to 2.3 million motorcycles by 2029 from the current 1.6 million.
Honda marked a record for fiscal first half sales in its motorcycle division, as its models proved popular in Brazil and India. It sold 11.9 million motorcycles during the six months, up from nearly 10.8 million the previous year.
However, Honda sold 1.57 million automobiles globally in the first half of the year, down from 1.68 million.
Honda shares, which have risen over the past year, had slipped 1.6% in Tokyo trading on Tuesday before the financial results were released.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
FILE - This is the Honda logo on a Honda Civic Sport Touring automobile on display at the Pittsburgh International Auto Show in Pittsburgh, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
LONDON (AP) — British children’s author and comedian David Walliams used his fame to groom girls and young women for sex, two British news outlets reported on Tuesday.
ITV News and the Guardian newspaper said they spoke with multiple women who accused Walliams of preying on them. One woman said he sexually assaulted her when she was 15.
Walliams, 55, denied the allegations. He had sought a court injunction to bar ITV News and the Guardian from identifying him in their reporting. His lawyers claimed that publication of sexual misconduct allegations would lead him to take his own life.
A judge rejected his injunction request last week, but protected his identity until late Monday.
“I am not a sexual predator,” Walliams said, according to ITV. “I have not broken the law."
Lawyers for Independent Television News and the Guardian newspaper’s publisher told the High Court last month that the allegations they wanted to publish were about the man’s “abuse of power and status” and his attempts to contact a number of young women to engage them in “inappropriate sexual activity.”
Walliams’ lawyer, Sara Mansoori, earlier told the court that he had made a suicide attempt when he received letters from ITN and Guardian News and Media seeking his response to the allegations. He later made another attempt, she said, and he was recently admitted to the hospital for psychiatric care.
The case has drawn widespread attention in Britain because it highlights questions over public figures’ right to privacy and what media can report on the basis of public interest.
Gavin Millar, representing the media companies, has said that the allegations were gathered after “a wide-ranging and rigorous investigation” and that there was a strong public interest in publishing them.
“The defendants allege that, over a period of years, the claimant used his status and influence as a well-known public figure to establish contact with young women, some considerably younger than him, and that he engaged or sought to engage in seriously inappropriate conduct,” according to a summary of Tuesday’s judgment.
Some of the alleged conduct could amount to criminal offenses if proven, it said.
Justice Matthew Nicklin dismissed the injunction bid, saying the legal measure would mean “an exceptionally serious interference” with the rights of the media companies.
He noted that the man had a “serious and longstanding psychiatric vulnerability” which must be taken seriously, and said a decision allowing the allegations to be published will substantially increase his risk of suicide. However, he added that the evidence did not “establish that suicide is inevitable.”
The man’s statements are “not a reliable basis for concluding that no future treatment or intervention could alter that risk,” the judge said.
Walliams was dropped last year by publisher HarperCollins after allegations were made of inappropriate behavior.
Walliams has published over 40 children’s books and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, according to his website. Several of them, including “Gangsta Granny,” have been adapted into BBC comedy dramas and stage productions.
Walliams left his role as a judge on “Britain’s Got Talent” in 2022 after apologizing for making “disrespectful comments” about auditioning contestants.
FILE - The Royal Courts of Justice are seen in London, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
FILE - David Walliams poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "The Choral " during the London film festival in London, on Oct. 12, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)
