PARIS, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The head of the European Space Agency (ESA) has warned economic damage from heatwaves and drought could dwarf Europe's energy crisis as he called for urgent action to tackle climate change.

Director General Josef Aschbacher told Reuters successive heatwaves along with wildfires, shrinking rivers and rising land temperatures as measured from space left no doubt about the toll on agriculture and other industries from climate change.

"Today, we are very concerned about the energy crisis, and rightly so. But this crisis is very small compared to the impact of climate change, which is of a much bigger magnitude and really has to be tackled extremely fast," he said.

MILAN, Aug 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Italy’s likely next government has some big spending plans. A coalition of rightist parties looks poised to win general elections in September, making Giorgia Meloni of the nationalist Brothers of Italy party prime minister. High public debt and European Union vigilance will puncture the group’s wildest trial balloons.

The abrupt fall of Mario Draghi’s executive last month paves the way for yet another Italian government. An alliance including Brothers of Italy, the anti-immigration League and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia would command 49% of votes, opinion polls show, well ahead of its divided political rivals. Meloni’s party, which has roots in post-war neo-fascism, opposed Draghi’s agenda and has a eurosceptic past, may capture 24% of the vote.

High on the alliance’s agenda is slashing taxes to boost consumer demand. While the group has yet to publish an official manifesto, its plans include extending a flat...

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - China's war games around Taiwan have led Biden administration officials to recalibrate their thinking on whether to scrap some tariffs or potentially impose others on Beijing, setting those options aside for now, according to sources familiar with the deliberations.

President Joe Biden's team has been wrestling for months with various ways to ease the costs of duties imposed on Chinese imports during predecessor Donald Trump's tenure, as it tries to tamp down skyrocketing inflation.

It has considered a combination of eliminating some tariffs, launching a new "Section 301" investigation into potential areas for additional tariffs, and expanding a list of tariff exclusions to aid U.S. companies that can only get certain supplies from China.

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Entain (ENT.L) is on a dealmaking spree. Jette Nygaard-Andersen, chief executive of the $10 billion UK bookie, has bought five companies this year for over $1 billion in total. Her swoop for Croatia’s SuperSport, announced on Thursday, exemplifies the logic. Entain wants to plant flags across the map so that a regulatory crackdown in one country, like the United Kingdom, makes less overall difference. There are also savings in switching smaller bookies’ systems for Entain’s. Investors bid the Ladbrokes owner’s shares up by more than 5%.

The question is what this all means for Entain’s M&A dance with perennial $14 billion suitor MGM Resorts International (MGM.N), with which it has a U.S. sports-betting joint venture. MGM would like to control its own destiny in that burgeoning market and get its hands on Entain’s technology. But the UK group rebuffed its advances last year. At current market prices, and assuming MGM paid a 20%...

Aug 11 (Reuters) - The average price of U.S. retail gasoline fell below $4 per gallon on Thursday for the first time in months, giving some relief to drivers in the world's largest consumer of the fuel.

The national average price for regular unleaded gas fell to $3.990 a gallon on Aug. 11, according to the American Automobile Association.

Gasoline prices peaked at a record $5.02 in June. That high cost curbed spending, and prices have also dropped as market fears of severe restrictions on supply have ebbed since Russia first invaded Ukraine in February.

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - M&G (MNG.L) recorded net inflows into its asset management business in the first half, the British insurer and asset manager said on Thursday, helping its operating profit to come in above forecast and sending its shares higher.

M&G, which split off from Prudential (PRU.L) in 2019, has suffered from net outflows and failed to boost its share price since listing.

A reduction in fees, improved risk analysis and rationalisation of some funds enabled M&G to post inflows from retail and institutional investors totalling 1.2 billion pounds ($1.47 billion) versus 2.0 billion in outflows a year ago.

Aug 11 (Reuters) - Insurer Aegon (AEGN.AS) raised its forecasts for full-year operating capital generation and 2021-2023 free cash flow on Thursday after a quarterly earnings beat, lifting its shares more than 8%.

The Dutch group, which has significant operations in the United States, forecast full-year operating capital generation of around 1.4 billion euros ($1.44 billion), from about 1.2 billion previously.

It said cumulative free cash flow over the period 2021 to 2023 was expected to be at least 2.2 billion euros, well above its previous target of 1.4 to 1.6 billion.

ZURICH, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Siemens (SIEGn.DE) said on Thursday it continued to see strong industrial demand during its third quarter, as costs related to its Siemens Energy investment and decision to quit Russia pushed the engineering group into the red for the first time in nearly 12 years.

The maker of industrial software and trains reported higher revenue and orders for the three months to the end of June, a positive sign for the health of the broader industrial sector.

In factory automation, all regions reported orders 20% higher than a year earlier, Siemens said, while elevated component and logistics costs were being tackled by passing on the costs to customers.

LOS ANGELES, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) edged past Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) with a total of 221 million streaming customers and announced it will increase prices for customers who want to watch Disney+ or Hulu without commercials.

The media giant will raise the monthly cost of Disney+ without advertising by 38% to $10.99 in December, when it begins to offer a new option that includes ads for the current price.

Shares of Disney rose 6.9% in after-hours trading to $120.15 on Wednesday.

FRANKFURT, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp's third-quarter operating profit nearly tripled on the back of higher steel prices, the German conglomerate said on Thursday, but it added that it faced headwinds from high raw material prices and rising interest rates.

The company's adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) reached 721 million euros ($743 million) in the April-June period, up from 266 million in the same period last year.

More than half of that, or 376 million euros, came from the company's steel business, Europe's second-largest, which benefited from higher selling prices that offset rising energy and raw materials costs, Thyssenkrupp (TKAG.DE) said.

ZURICH, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Siemens (SIEGn.DE) will not sell its stake in Siemens Energy (ENR1n.DE) despite a 2.7 billion euro ($2.79 billion) writedown in the value of its investment, Siemens Chief Financial Officer Ralf Thomas said on Thursday.

Siemens Energy plans to finance its 4 billion euro bid for loss-making Siemens Gamesa (SGREN.MC) partly through a capital increase. Siemens owns 35% in Siemens Energy, which it spun off in 2020.

"It would be unwise in such a situation to add extra volatility to the share price of Siemens Energy price by selling our shares at this point in time," Thomas told reporters.

($1 = 0.9683 euros)

FRANKFURT, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Global growth in container fleets through new orders and building activity will outstrip shipping demand from next year and ease current market tightness, the chief executive of Hapag-Lloyd (HLAG.DE) said in an analyst call on Thursday. read more

"Over the upcoming 24 months, we clearly see that supply growth will outpace demand growth," said CEO Rolf Habben Jansen after presenting figures for the first half of 2022.

Presentation slides he referred to predicted demand growth at 3% next year over 2022 and fleet growth of 7%.

ZURICH, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) shareholder Harris Associates' increased holding in the Swiss bank reflected an adjustment in how it reports stakes to the U.S. regulator, Finanz und Wirtschaft reported its Chief Investment Officer as saying.

"Our stake has remained roughly stable, typically between 9 and 10%," David Herro told Finanz und Wirtschaft in a report published by the Swiss newspaper on Thursday after Harris Associates became the largest shareholder in Credit Suisse.

"We manage assets for a large number of clients," he said, adding some had previously reported their shares independently.

BERLIN/LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Zurich Insurance Group (ZURN.S) reported a better-than-expected 25% rise in operating profit in the first half on strong performance across the board and announced a bumper 1.8 billion Swiss francs ($1.91 billion) share buyback on Thursday, sending its shares higher.

Europe's fifth largest insurer said it was on track to beat all its 2022 targets.

Zurich's ability to exceed its three-year financial goals despite the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine "gives us great confidence that we can handle unexpected, unprecedented things and still deliver", CEO Mario Greco told Reuters.

HONG KONG, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Chinese insurer Ping An Insurance Group (601318.SS) believes HSBC (HSBA.L) has overstated the challenges and difficulties of spinning off the bank, said a source with direct knowledge of the thinking of the Asia-focussed bank's biggest shareholder.

The bank came under pressure from Ping An in April to explore options including spinning off its mainstay Asia business to increase shareholder returns. read more

Details of Ping An's internal discussions come after HSBC on Aug.1 pushed back on the Chinese investor's proposals while reporting its half-year earnings.

SEOUL, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) unveiled its latest high-end foldable smartphones on Wednesday, keeping prices at the same level as last year's in a bid to cement its leadership in an expanding niche market.

The smartphone maker priced its clamshell Galaxy Z Flip4 at $999.99, and the 5G-enabled top-line Galaxy Z Fold4 with a 7.6-inch main screen to start at $1,799.99 in the United States, the same as the launch prices of last year's models.

"We've successfully transformed this category from a radical project to a mainstream device lineup enjoyed by millions worldwide," said TM Roh, president and head of mobile experience at Samsung Electronics.

Aug 11 (Reuters) - Swiss lender Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S) sought permission from an English court last week to initiate formal legal proceedings against Japan's SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) over a $440 million dispute, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The claims relate to Credit Suisse client funds that the now-defunct Greensill Capital had lent to Katerra, a U.S. construction group backed by Softbank's Vision Fund, FT said. https://on.ft.com/3JLWswM

Katerra subsequently filed for bankruptcy with more than $1 billion in liabilities.

FRANKFURT, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp's third-quarter operating profit nearly tripled on the back of higher steel prices, the German conglomerate said on Thursday, but it added that it faced headwinds from high raw material prices and rising interest rates.

The company's adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) reached 721 million euros ($743 million) in the April-June period, up from 266 million in the same period last year.

More than half of that, or 376 million euros, came from the company's steel business, Europe's second-largest, which benefited from higher selling prices that offset rising energy and raw materials costs, Thyssenkrupp (TKAG.DE) said.

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - China's war games around Taiwan have led Biden administration officials to recalibrate their thinking on whether to scrap some tariffs or potentially impose others on Beijing, setting those options aside for now, according to sources familiar with the deliberations.

President Joe Biden's team has been wrestling for months with various ways to ease the costs of duties imposed on Chinese imports during predecessor Donald Trump's tenure, as it tries to tamp down skyrocketing inflation.

It has considered a combination of eliminating some tariffs, launching a new "Section 301" investigation into potential areas for additional tariffs, and expanding a list of tariff exclusions to aid U.S. companies that can only get certain supplies from China.

PARIS, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The head of the European Space Agency (ESA) has warned economic damage from heatwaves and drought could dwarf Europe's energy crisis as he called for urgent action to tackle climate change.

Director General Josef Aschbacher told Reuters successive heatwaves along with wildfires, shrinking rivers and rising land temperatures as measured from space left no doubt about the toll on agriculture and other industries from climate change.

"Today, we are very concerned about the energy crisis, and rightly so. But this crisis is very small compared to the impact of climate change, which is of a much bigger magnitude and really has to be tackled extremely fast," he said.

LOS ANGELES, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) edged past Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) with a total of 221 million streaming customers and announced it will increase prices for customers who want to watch Disney+ or Hulu without commercials.

The media giant will raise the monthly cost of Disney+ without advertising by 38% to $10.99 in December, when it begins to offer a new option that includes ads for the current price.

Shares of Disney rose 6.9% in after-hours trading to $120.15 on Wednesday.

HONG KONG, Aug 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A tweak to an archaic takeover rule in the Caribbean will help Thomas Lau to succeed where his sibling did not. The Hong Kong billionaire is offering $240 million to buy out minority shareholders in Caymans-registered Lifestyle International (1212.HK), his department store chain. His timing means the deal won’t have to pass the so-called headcount test that ended a similar tilt at developer Chinese Estates (0127.HK) by the family of his brother Joseph. Dropping the rule makes governance sense, although it removes one means for small shareholders to scupper poor offers.

Several Hong Kong tycoons have fallen foul of the notorious tests, which the Cayman Islands will scrap at the end of this month. The rule stipulates that a deal needs to be approved by a majority of voting shareholders present, as well as by ownership. Joseph Lau’s family failed to buy the 25% it didn’t own in developer Chinese Estates, valuing it at $979 million,...

Aug 9 (Reuters) - Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) said on Tuesday it had raised $10 billion in its first-ever bond offering, as it looks to fund share buybacks and investments to revamp its business.

The offering would help Meta, the only one among big technology companies without debt on its books, to build a more traditional balance sheet and fund some expensive initiatives, such as its metaverse virtual reality. read more