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.

TOKYO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) said on Wednesday it would book a gain of $34.1 billion by cutting its stake in Alibaba Group Holding (9988.HK), as the investment behemoth looks to shore up its cash reserve to weather the market downturn.

The Japanese company will reduce its stake in Alibaba to 14.6% from 23.7% by settling prepaid forward contracts. Alibaba's U.S.-listed shares were down 1.3% in early trade.

SoftBank booked a $50 billion loss at its Vision Fund investment arm in the first half of the year as its tech bets soured, with Chief Executive Masayoshi Son on Monday pledging to further reduce investment activity and cut costs.

NEW YORK, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Oprah Winfrey's company has filed a lawsuit against the creators of the "Oprahdemics" podcast, claiming that the program misleads listeners into thinking she sponsored or approved it.

In a complaint filed late Tuesday in Manhattan federal Court, Winfrey's Harpo Inc said it is neither seeking profits or damages from "Oprahdemics" creators Kellie Carter Jackson and Leah Wright Rigueur, nor trying to stop the podcast.

Instead, it wants a name change, saying the podcast and related live events dilute Harpo's "Oprah" and "O" trademarks, and wrongly capitalize on the goodwill that Winfrey has spent decades building.

Aug 10 (Reuters) - TUI (TUIGn.DE), one of the world's largest tour operators, took a 75 million euros ($77 million) hit in the third quarter from flight disruption across Europe, pushing it to a loss on Wednesday.

Incoming Chief Executive Sebastian Ebel said there would be significant but lower costs related to air disruption in the fourth quarter, with air traffic normalising in recent days.

"The whole system is still very fragile, and we have days with hardly any disruptions, and we have weeks and days with a lot of disruptions," Ebel, who is replacing long-time chief Friedrich Joussen in October, told journalists.

LONDON/NEW YORK Aug 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine's overseas creditors have backed its request for a two-year freeze on payments on almost $20 billion in international bonds, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday, a move that will allow the war-torn country to avoid a messy debt default.

With no sign of peace or a ceasefire on the horizon nearly six months after Russia's invasion began on Feb. 24, bondholders have agreed to postpone sovereign interest and capital payments for 13 Ukrainian sovereign bonds maturing between 2022 and 2033.

Ukraine said it would save around $5 billion over the next 24 months as it manages its dwindling financial resources.

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk sold $6.9 billion worth of shares in the electric vehicle maker, saying the funds could be used to finance a potential Twitter deal if he loses a legal battle with the social media platform.

"In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don't come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock," he said in a tweet late on Tuesday.

Shares of the microblogging site rose 3.5% to $44.35 in early trading, but were still significantly below Musk's offer price of $54.20 per share. Tesla shares were up nearly 4% at $882.

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Slowing U.S. inflation may allow Federal Reserve policymakers to downshift their most aggressive round of monetary policy tightening in decades when they meet next month, though data on tap in coming weeks could still change the picture.

After a U.S. Labor Department report Wednesday showed consumer prices didn't rise at all in July compared with June, traders of futures tied to the Fed's benchmark interest rate on Wednesday slashed bets the central bank would enact a third straight 75-basis-point hike at its Sept. 20-21 policy meeting, and instead would opt for a half-point increase.

One Fed policymaker, while not immediately flagging a rate increase preference, still noted the good news.

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Calling the top of the current wave of inflation has been a painful exercise for economists and central bankers, who have been proven wrong time and again over the past year.

But data on Wednesday, which showed that some measures of inflation had cooled in the world's two largest economies, was likely to rekindle a debate about whether the worst might be over after a year of torrid price growth.

U.S. consumer prices did not rise in July from the month before due to a sharp drop in the cost of gasoline, delivering the first notable sign of relief for Americans who have watched inflation climb over the past two years. read more

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) delivered its first 787 Dreamliner in more than a year on Wednesday after a lengthy halt, stemming from production problems, cost the U.S. planemaker at least $5 billion.

The restart in deliveries comes as a major relief for Boeing, which was struggling with the production of the wide-body jet for more than two years. It could also help the airline industry better tap this year's boom in travel demand.

Here is a timeline of the troubled 787 program since 2020:

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Russian steel producer Evraz (EVRE.L) said on Wednesday it was launching a process to solicit proposals for the acquisition of its North American subsidiaries.

The sale will help unlock the value of its North America business, the company said without disclosing details on the sale process.

Britain sanctioned Evraz in May in response to Russia's decision to send thousands of its troops to Ukraine, but provided a licence allowing business with Evraz's North American subsidiaries.

"Recent geopolitical tensions have given rise to significant corporate governance and operating challenges for Evraz," Chief Executive Aleksey Ivanov said earlier this month.

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Russian former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova was charged on Wednesday with spreading false information about the Russian army, an offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison, her lawyer said on Telegram.

The charges relate to a protest last month, when Ovsyannikova held up an anti-war placard on the Moskva river embankment opposite the Kremlin and posted images of the protest on her Telegram channel.

Ovsyannikova, who was born in Ukraine, came to international prominence in March by walking out in front of studio cameras with an anti-war placard during a live evening news broadcast on Russia's flagship Channel One.

She has since been arrested and fined several times for her continued opposition to Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.

She had announced earlier on Wednesday that federal investigators had forced their way into her house at 6 a.m. to conduct a search before taking her away to charge her.

KAMPALA, August 10 (Reuters) - Ugandan IT student Andrew Njuki spent years hunched over English-language textbooks, often grappling with material that would have been easier to grasp in his mother tongue Luganda.

As of May, the 27-year-old has been able to copy-paste his online teaching materials into Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google translation service and read them directly in Uganda's official language Luganda, spoken by millions across the east African country but not taught in schools.

"To understand something better you need to first understand it in your mother tongue," said Njuki, who also finds the service handy for surfing the internet and social media.

BAGHDAD, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Powerful Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday called on the country's judiciary to dissolve parliament by end of next week, threatening unspecific consequences if it does not do what he says.

The populist leader has helped inflame tensions in Iraq over the last two weeks by commanding thousands of followers to storm and occupy parliament, preventing the formation of a government nearly 10 months after elections.

His political opponents, mostly fellow Shi'ites backed by Iran, have refused to accede to Sadr's demands, raising fears of fresh unrest and violence in a conflict-weary Iraq.

TOKYO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Japan's Honda Motor Co (7267.T) raised the outlook for its full-year operating profit on Wednesday thanks to weaker yen, but warned against over-optimism as it saw the chips shortage continuing and was concerned about an economic slowdown.

The mixed view from Honda reflected sentiment held widely among Japanese carmakers that although demand is strong and recovery from COVID-19 is underway, they have yet to completely shrug off negative factors hindering operations.

Honda raised its operating profit forecast to 830 billion yen ($6.15 billion) from 810 billion for the year ending March 31.

CIJARA, Spain, Aug 10 (Reuters) - A flock of sheep shelter from the midday sun under the gothic arches of a medieval bridge flooded in 1956 to create the Cijara reservoir in central Spain, but now fully exposed as the reservoir is 84% empty after a severe drought.

In Andalusia, one of Europe's hottest and driest regions, paddle-boats and waterslides lie abandoned on the cracked bed of Vinuela reservoir, remnants of a rental business gone with the water, now at a critical level of 13%.

A nearby restaurant fears a similar fate.

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - As weary U.S. military planners wrapped up the evacuation and pullout from Afghanistan one year ago, officials across the government steeled themselves for intense public scrutiny into how America's longest war ended in shambles with the Taliban retaking power.

But as the United States marks the first anniversary of the withdrawal this month, some U.S. officials and experts say President Joe Biden's administration has moved on without properly assessing lessons from the 20-year war and the Taliban victory.

Nor has there been public accountability for the chaotic evacuation operation that saw 13 U.S. service members killed at Kabul's airport and hundreds of U.S. citizens and tens of thousands of Afghans left behind, they said.

LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Wednesday summoned China's ambassador to Britain, Zheng Zeguang, to explain Beijing's actions towards Taiwan following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit.

A furious China has extended its largest-ever exercises around the self-ruled island it claims as its own following Pelosi's visit - the highest-level trip to the island by an American official in decades. read more

"I instructed officials to summon the Chinese Ambassador to explain his country's actions. We have seen increasingly aggressive behaviour and rhetoric from Beijing in recent months, which threaten peace and stability in the region," Truss said in a statement.

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Boeing (BA.N) on Wednesday delivered its first 787 Dreamliner since May 2021, a milestone for the planemaker that has faced production problems with its widebody jet.

American Airlines (AAL.O) said it had taken delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner since April 2021, sending shares up 4.5%. American Airlines Chief Executive Robert Isom in an Instagram post reiterated the airline expects to receive nine 787s in 2022.

Boeing confirmed Wednesday it resumed deliveries following "thorough engineering analysis, verification and rework activities to ensure all airplanes conform to Boeing’s exacting specifications and regulatory requirements." Boeing shares were up 3.3% in trading.

TOKYO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) said on Wednesday it would book a gain of $34.1 billion by cutting its stake in Alibaba Group Holding (9988.HK), as the investment behemoth looks to shore up its cash reserve to weather the market downturn.

The Japanese company will reduce its stake in Alibaba to 14.6% from 23.7% by settling prepaid forward contracts. Alibaba's U.S.-listed shares were down 1.3% in early trade.

SoftBank booked a $50 billion loss at its Vision Fund investment arm in the first half of the year as its tech bets soured, with Chief Executive Masayoshi Son on Monday pledging to further reduce investment activity and cut costs.

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that inflation is showing signs of moderating but that more work is needed to make consumers' lives easier.

"We're seeing some signs that inflation may be beginning to moderate," Biden said after a report showing that consumer prices stayed the same in July. "People were still hurting, but zero inflation last month."

The Labor Department's Consumer Price Index (CPI) data came as a relief for an administration facing voter anger over inflation ahead of Nov. 8 midterm elections for control of Congress. read more

Aug 10 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices did not rise in July due to a sharp drop in the cost of gasoline, delivering the first notable sign of relief for Americans who have watched inflation climb over the past two years.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was unchanged last month after advancing 1.3% in June, the Labor Department said on Wednesday in a closely watched report that nevertheless showed underlying inflation pressures remain elevated as the Federal Reserve mulls whether to embrace another super-sized interest rate hike in September.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.2% rise in monthly CPI in July on the heels of a roughly 20% drop in the cost of gasoline. Prices at the pump spiked in the first half of this year due to the war in Ukraine, hitting a record-high average of more than $5 per gallon in mid-June, according to motorist advocacy group AAA.