Vertu has welcome a consultation on the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, but Mr Forrester has warned it is unlikely to go far enough

The boss of car retailer Vertu has talked of a strong start to the year following the firm’s second profits upgrade within three months.

Gateshead-based Vertu told investors to expect full year profits ahead of £26m as sales have increase across the national showroom operator’s new and used cars offer. CEO Robert Forrester said he believes the group – which runs 194 sales and aftersales sites in the UK – is growing its market share amid a significant marketing push that has included becoming the main shirt sponsor at Burnley FC and TV campaigns.

In a trading update for the five months to the end of July, Vertu reported a 4.6% rise in group revenues. Volume of new vehicles was up 8.7% while used sales were up 4.4.%. A rise in aftersales revenue has also helped grow group profits year-on-year. Bosses also said new vehicle order books for July-September were ahead of previous years.

Vertu has moved to open new outlets for Chinese brands in recent years and now runs 18 such sites, with the group’s first Omoda and Jaecoo sites launched in Burton last month. This month it opened its first Leapmotor outlets in Harrogate and Crewe, with work under way to bring a Geely forecourt to Teesside.

In Nottingham, Vertu has opened its first site for Renault Group-owned performance brand Alpine, alongside existing Renault and Dacia outlets. Closer to home, the group’s Morpeth-based Ford, Honda and BYD showroom has outgrown its current pitch and will expand into premises across the road. While in Hartlepool, £800,000 will be invested to create a major redevelopment of a dealership for BYD.

Mr Forrester said: “It’s our second profits upgrade in three months, which is good. We’ve had a strong start to the new financial year.

“I think the business is in a very strong position, operational we are in a good place. We’ve got lots of good initiatives that are adding value. And we’re making a lot of changes to the portfolio to reflect the changing nature of the sector – particularly the growth of the Chinese manufacturers – and everyone on the team has done a very, very good job.

“I don’t think it’s the easiest of sectors but we’re giving a good account of ourselves.”

Meanwhile, Vertu has welcomed the Government’s consultation on the controversial Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate, which has been criticised by the industry for pushing manufacturers to sell battery electric vehicles (BEV) ahead ahead of demand. Mr Forrester, who has been outspoken on the issue, said “something needed to happen” but pointed to concerns about the “almost prescriptive” nature of the consultation.

He said: “For example, the industry has been asked to consult on whether it wants a target for 2030 of 50% for BEVs, 60%, 70% or 80%. Well, to be honest its ‘none of the above’. When we get to vans, the lowest they’re proposing for 2030 is 40% – well the industry is currently on 9%.”

Mr Forrester added: “The manufacturers of new cars are making the cars far more affordable, actually. They’re trying to drive the new car market. It’s very difficult for them because of the ZEV Mandate and the electric targets – that’s make life very difficult for the manufacturers – but they are putting their best foot forward and there are some great offers out there.

“I think if you’ve got an older car that is starting to go wrong and you’re starting to click into big repair bills then actually it can make more sense to get a newer car or even a new car, or perhaps another used car with a warranty as well.”

The UK has its own measures in place to protect children online.

The Online Safety Act mainly put restrictions on what content young people can see online.

But the UK government has gone further than the US ban already.

Earlier this year, it announced an outright social media ban for under-16s, which will take effect in 2027.

Some other measures will apply to 16 and 17-year-olds, such as curfews and restrictions during certain hours of the day.

The US has to some extent followed the same path: Start by policing the content on the platforms, then move on to restricting access to social media.

But the core difference is children in the US will not be banned completely.

Instead, they will not have access to Facebook and Instagram overnight, have to follow time limits, and there will be prompts for children who use them for a long time.

Unlike in the UK, these are not put in by law, and will only apply to the two platforms so far (more on that below).

The UK government said it was “following developments closely” in the Meta settlement.

But now those safety features have been accepted by Meta in the US, other countries may start asking for them too.

“These tech platforms don’t usually do anything unless they are told to do it,” said Trevor Johnson, a former senior figure at Meta and TikTok, who spoke to Radio 4’s Today programme.

“But I do think the UK will feel empowered to at least ask for the same restrictions.”

Another former Meta director, Zvika Krieger, said Meta agreed to the changes because it saw “the writing on the wall”.

“They’re trying to demonstrate, ‘Oh, you don’t need to go and do a complete ban’,” he told 5 Live Breakfast.

“I think that they probably would roll out a lot of these features to the rest of the world as well.”

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A new study is complicating the long-standing use of body mass index as a measure of health in older adults, finding that waist circumference may offer a more reliable signal of early death risk than the widely used BMI formula.

The research, published Aug. 19 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, found that among adults 65 and older, having a larger waist circumference was linked to a higher risk of early death. But being classified as overweight by BMI was, counterintuitively, associated with a lower risk of early death in the same population — a seemingly contradictory finding that has prompted closer examination from medical experts.

What the study found

Researchers analyzed data from nearly 7,000 adults age 65 and older who were tracked as part of a large, nationally representative study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Participants were followed for up to 14 years, allowing scientists to examine how changes in BMI and waist circumference correlated with mortality risk over time.

Compared with men whose BMI fell in the normal range, men classified as overweight, with a BMI between 25 and 29.9, had a 46% lower risk of death. Men with class I or II obesity, defined as a BMI between 30 and just under 40, also showed a lower risk of death relative to the normal-BMI group.

Among women, those classified as overweight had a 27% lower risk of death compared with those in the normal BMI range. However, class I or II obesity was not associated with a statistically significant difference in mortality risk for women, and for both men and women with class III obesity, defined as a BMI of 40 or higher, there was no statistically significant difference in mortality risk compared with the normal-BMI group.

The pattern shifted considerably when researchers instead examined waist circumference. Men with a waist circumference greater than 40 inches and women with one greater than 35 inches had a 24% higher risk of early death compared with those below those thresholds — and that elevated risk held up even after researchers statistically accounted for participants’ BMI.

Making sense of the contradiction

The findings touch on what researchers sometimes call the “obesity paradox“: the puzzling pattern in which obesity is strongly linked to increased risk of conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, yet appears associated with lower mortality risk in some older populations.

Dr. Leana Wen, CNN’s wellness expert, an emergency physician and clinical associate professor at George Washington University who previously served as Baltimore’s health commissioner, cautioned against reading the results as evidence that gaining weight is protective in older age. The study’s authors explicitly caution against interpreting the findings as evidence that excess body fat is biologically beneficial, Wen said.

Wen pointed to several possible explanations. One is reverse causation: serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease can cause people to lose weight, which could make lower body weight appear linked to higher mortality risk when an underlying illness is actually driving both outcomes. A related factor is survivorship bias — people who reach older age despite having obesity may differ in meaningful ways from those who developed obesity-related disease and died earlier in life. Wen also noted that BMI itself may simply be an imperfect measure of body composition.

Why BMI can be misleading with age

BMI is calculated using only height and weight, without accounting for what actually makes up that weight. Two people of identical height and weight could have very different body compositions — one with substantial muscle mass and relatively little fat, the other with less muscle and more fat — yet register an identical BMI.

That limitation becomes more pronounced with age, according to Wen. Older adults tend to lose muscle mass over time, and can also lose height and experience shifts in where fat is stored on their bodies. As a result, a higher BMI in an older adult could actually reflect greater preservation of lean muscle mass, while someone with a BMI in the “normal” range might have lost substantial muscle while retaining excess body fat — a combination that can leave a person more vulnerable despite an outwardly reassuring number.

Why waist size matters

Fat that accumulates around the waist and deep within the abdomen, often referred to as visceral fat, is associated with inflammation, insulin resistance and other metabolic changes that raise the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Waist circumference offers a simple way to estimate that visceral fat, and Wen said many experts now advocate using waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, or direct body fat measurements alongside BMI when assessing whether someone has overweight or obesity.

Measuring waist circumference requires no specialized equipment, allowing people to track it at home using a simple tape measure placed around the abdomen, between the bottom of the ribs and the top of the hip bones, kept level and snug without compressing the skin.

The risks of being underweight

The study also identified a particularly elevated mortality risk among older adults who were underweight, with men and women in that category facing nearly double the risk of early death compared with those in the normal BMI range. Wen said this finding aligns with known risks tied to frailty, since older adults depend on muscle strength to perform daily activities, maintain mobility and reduce their risk of falls. Someone losing weight due to muscle loss could become more vulnerable even as their BMI moves toward a range conventionally considered healthier. Still, Wen cautioned that being underweight may often be a consequence of poor health rather than its cause, since chronic disease can itself drive unintentional weight and muscle loss.

What older adults should focus on instead

Rather than fixating on a specific weight or BMI target, Wen recommended that older adults prioritize overall health and physical function — including the ability to perform everyday tasks independently, maintain muscle strength, and stay physically active through a mix of aerobic exercise and strength training, along with adequate protein intake.

She also advised paying attention to changes over time rather than single measurements: an expanding waistline can signal rising abdominal fat even when overall weight and BMI remain largely unchanged, while unexplained weight loss should prompt a conversation with a healthcare provider. Wen recommended that older adults discuss with their doctors what a healthy weight looks like for them individually, incorporating not just BMI but body composition, fat distribution, physical function, and metrics such as blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol.

This story touches on health and mortality-related research; readers experiencing concerns about their own weight, health or mental wellbeing are encouraged to speak with a licensed healthcare provider.

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Unknown Executive

Good morning, everyone, in Europe. Good afternoon to those in Asia. Thank you for joining Jinhui Shipping and Transportation Limited Q2 and First Half 2026 financial results. Can everyone hear me? Sorry, there are other people joining, so I’ll accept…

I trust that you’ve all had a look at the financial results announcement, and you have a copy, and I’ve shared the presentation on the screen. So going through the highlights of current quarter. For Q2, we recorded USD 36 million for revenue, EBITDA of USD 17 million and a net profit for the quarter, USD 5 million. Basic earnings per share, USD 0.048 for Q2. For the first half of 2026, we recorded a revenue of USD 69 million, EBITDA of USD 34 million, a net profit of $10 million, basic earnings per share, 0.088 and a gearing ratio as of the end of June, 7%.

Compared to Q2 2025, Q2 2026 recorded a slight decrease. This should be a 9% decrease. This should be quite apparent because we — there’s a reduction in the number of ships we sold some secondhand ships. Net profit, $5.3 million in Q2 2026, which represents a 374% quarter-on-quarter increase. Average daily TCE stands in Q2 2026, USD 18,015 per day, which is a 30% increase compared to Q2 2025 number. For the first half, first half 2026 revenue compared to first half 2025 is a 13% drop. Again, this is due to the lower number of vessels in our fleet, given that we’ve sold some. Net profit, $9.6 million, 37% drop compared to the first half of 2025.

Average TCE in the first half 2026, USD 17,150 per day, a 30% increase compared