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.

SHANGHAI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi's joint venture with Li Auto has applied for bankruptcy, according to a court filing, pointing to the end of a four-year-old partnership to make electric vehicles (EV).

The company, 51% owned by Didi while 49% held by Li Auto, submitted the bankruptcy application to Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court on Thursday, a statement on a website run by the Supreme Court showed.

Didi and Li Auto did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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.

Aug 11 (Reuters) - Walmart Inc (WMT.N) could face an uphill battle to reclaim U.S. shoppers who opted for the neighborhood dollar store or Aldi rather than driving farther to a Walmart Supercenter when gasoline was $5 a gallon.

While gasoline prices have dropped nearly 20% over the past month, there are no signs shoppers are returning to the nation's biggest retailer, according to foot traffic data reviewed by Reuters and analysts.

Inflation remains at a 40-year high, devouring a large chunk of the grocery budgets of many Americans, especially Walmart's legions of cost-conscious shoppers.

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.

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Britain will supply Ukraine with more multiple-launch rocket systems that can strike targets up to 80 km (50 miles) away.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the supply of weapons would help Ukraine defend itself against Russian heavy artillery.

"This latest tranche of military support will enable the Armed Forces of Ukraine to continue to defend against Russian aggression and the indiscriminate use of long-range artillery," Wallace said in a statement.

"Our continued support sends a very clear message, Britain and the international community remain opposed to this illegal war and will stand shoulder-to-shoulder, providing defensive military aid to Ukraine to help them defend against Putin's invasion."

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.

COPENHAGEN, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Renewables firm Orsted (ORSTED.CO) raised its full-year outlook on Thursday thanks to high power prices, after a disappointing showing in its offshore wind business led to weaker-than-expected second quarter core earnings which knocked its shares.

Europe's power crunch, largely the result of the conflict in Ukraine, means the world's largest developer of offshore wind farms now expects full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), excluding new partnerships, of 20-22 billion Danish crowns.

This was up from a previous range of 19-21 billion crowns.

PINGTUNG, Taiwan, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Even before last week's visit to Taiwan by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fish farmer Chen Sheng-You was on the lookout for new business, with trade curbs cutting him off from his major source of revenue - China.

Amid simmering tension between China and self-ruled Taiwan,

Beijing suspended purchases of grouper fish, Chen's main product, in June after repeatedly detecting banned chemicals. read more

Aug 11 (Reuters) - Over an earnings period that appeared to signal the end of Netflix envy, Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) restored hopes that growth in the streaming business will continue.

But Disney, which edged past Netflix as streaming leader by global subscribers last quarter, is the outlier among its media peers. read more

The industry-wide scramble of the last few years to copy Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) has slowed to a more deliberate pace over the last two weeks, as companies change their tune on the streaming business. Rather than placing streaming at the center of their strategy, it is now just one of several lines of business.

SYDNEY, Aug 11 (Reuters) - At an indoor pool in a western Sydney suburb, about 20 Afghan women who recently reached Australia as refugees listen to former asylum seeker Maryam Zahid as she offers them swimming classes and talks about the country's beach culture.

Zahid, who arrived in Australia from Afghanistan 22 years ago, said her sessions help the women develop "an identity for themselves" and deal with the trauma of the war that ravaged their home country.

"That is something that will impact psychological and emotional aspects of their life ... to have an identity for themselves as a human being first," Zahid told Reuters at the Ruth Everuss aquatic centre in the suburb of Auburn.

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Expectations for activity in Britain's housing market have dried up quickly thanks to a worsening economic outlook and rising interest rates, an industry survey showed on Thursday.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said its gauge of sales expectations for the coming 12 months slid to -36% in July from June's -21%, the lowest reading since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

The survey was conducted before the Bank of England last week announced its biggest rate hike since 1995. read more

SEOUL, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The heaviest rain in Seoul in 115 years has spurred the South Korean capital to revive a $1.15 billion plan to improve drainage after floods exposed how even the affluent Gangnam district is vulnerable to climate change-driven extreme weather.

Experts say the city's capacity to drain water is far behind what's needed to handle a deluge like the one suffered this week. That has disasterous implications for low-lying areas like Gangnam, as these bouts of extreme weather are becoming increasingly common.

This week's torrential rain killed at least 11 people across the northern part of the country, as of Thursday morning. The downpour, which began on Monday and shifted southwards on Wednesday, knocked out power, caused landslides and flooded roads and subways. read more

SHANGHAI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - China's auto sales surged 29.7% in July from a year earlier to 2.42 million units, extending a recovery that began in June with the help of eased COVID curbs and government incentives.

Sales for the first seven months, though, were still 2% lower than the corresponding period in 2021, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed on Thursday.

Sales of new energy vehicles, which include pure electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, increased 120% in July from the previous year.

WASHINGTON, Aug 11(Reuters) - A former Virginia police sergeant who joined Donald Trump's supporters in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could be sentenced to up to eight years in prison on Thursday if a judge agrees with federal prosecutors' recommendation.

A jury in April convicted Thomas Robertson, a former police sergeant for the town of Rocky Mount, Virginia, of six criminal charges, including obstructing an official proceeding and obstruction of justice.

Eight years would be the longest sentence handed down so far in a Capitol riot case, if U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper agrees with prosecutors, who say that Robertson abused his position of trust as a law enforcement officer.

Najib Mohammadi had high hopes for his life in the United States when he, his pregnant wife Susan and two small children left Afghanistan in July 2021.

But for most of the past year, the family has lived in a cockroach-infested, one-bedroom apartment in Sacramento unable to find affordable housing in California’s capital. He has struggled to find work.

The former interpreter for the U.S. military arrived last year under the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, just two weeks before tens of thousands of his fellow Afghans were evacuated when Kabul fell to the Taliban. Mohammadi, 37, feels lucky he is safe and knows he is better off than others: he speaks English and the SIV program gives his family a pathway to citizenship. But “it’s a really hard life,” he said.

Earlier this year, an Afghan evacuee living in Pennsylvania whom Mohammadi had trained in the Afghan army called and asked him if life was easier in Sacramento. Mohammadi told him: Don’t...

NEW DELHI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Google has grave reservations about developing a self-regulatory body for the social media sector in India to hear user complaints, though the proposal has support from Facebook and Twitter (TWTR.N), sources with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters.

India in June proposed appointing a government panel to hear complaints from users about content moderation decisions, but has also said it is open to the idea of a self-regulatory body if the industry is willing.

The lack of consensus among the tech giants, however, increases the likelihood of a government panel being formed - a prospect that Meta Platforms Inc's (META.O) Facebook and Twitter are keen to avoid as they fear government and regulatory overreach in India, the sources said.

HONG KONG/LONDON, 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 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.

PINGTUNG, Taiwan, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Even before last week's visit to Taiwan by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fish farmer Chen Sheng-You was on the lookout for new business, with trade curbs cutting him off from his major source of revenue - China.

Amid simmering tension between China and self-ruled Taiwan,

Beijing suspended purchases of grouper fish, Chen's main product, in June after repeatedly detecting banned chemicals. read more

Aug 11 (Reuters) - European shares edged higher on Thursday after a strong rally in the previous session on signs of U.S. inflation cooling, while Aegon climbed after the Dutch insurer raised its full-year forecast.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) rose 0.1%, after clocking its best session in nearly two weeks on Wednesday on bets that the softer-than-expected inflation reading will encourage the Federal Reserve to become less aggressive on interest rates hikes. read more

"The markets are riding higher on the fact that the peak has been passed in terms of inflation in the United States," said Sebastian Paris-Horvitz, head of research at La Banque Postale Asset Management.

NEW YORK, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he declined to answer questions during an appearance before New York state's attorney general in a civil investigation into his family's business practices, citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and daughter Ivanka Trump had fought unsuccessfully to avoid appearing for testimony in state Attorney General Letitia James's probe into whether the Trump Organization inflated real estate values to obtain favorable loans and understated asset values to get tax breaks.

"I declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution," Trump said in a statement issued roughly an hour after he arrived in a motorcade at the attorney general's office in lower Manhattan for the deposition behind closed doors.

TAIPEI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Thursday that at present the Chinese military threat has not decreased and while Taiwan will not escalate conflicts or provoke disputes, it will firmly defend its sovereignty and national security.

TOKYO, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed to establish a new Japan-based affiliate of the WHO, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Thursday.

They are hoping to have the new organisation set up in time for the G7 Hiroshima summit scheduled for May 2023, the report added, citing multiple unnamed foreign ministry sources.

The new organisation would aim to achieve universal health coverage, as well as work to strengthen the medical systems of developing countries and create an international framework to help prevent the spread of infections, Kyodo said.