The five House Democrats running for re-election in districts won by former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election face a giant hurdle this week that raises doubts about whether they could survive facing off against their Republican challengers in the November midterm elections.

The House is set for a high-stakes vote Friday on a massive social spending and taxation bill, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act, that many economists have said would have no actual impact on inflation, and instead add to the already sky-high national debt.

Today, Accountable.US released its updated and conclusive report on Big Oil’s massive second-quarter earnings, showing that the 28 largest oil companies made a record-breaking $90 billion in profits – a 183% increase over the same quarter from last year.

Chile’s National Geology and Mining Service, Sernageomin, ordered a temporary suspension of activities at Lundin Mining’s (TSX: LUN) Alcaparrosa mine following the opening of a giant sinkhole above the underground operation.

The sinkhole, which emerged on July 30, is 50 meters in diameter and 200 meters deep.

It can certainly be said that the risk for nuclear war is far greater today than it was less a year ago. Ever since the conflict in Ukraine began, the collective West and its vassals, also known as the “international community” have been engaged in a hybrid war against Russia, stopping just short of direct confrontation.

Obviously, Geico plans to sell insurance in California, but just not with real people manning real offices and - presumably - taking real checks or (worse) real paper money as payments. Better to  just go online, and use your debit card to use electronic blips to pay for insurance that itself is issued in a policy of electronic blips.

Why maintain those costly store fronts with real people?

US offshore oil drillers Shell, Chevron and Equinor halted operations at facilities pumping hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day on Thursday, citing an onshore pipeline leak that a port official said should take about a day to fix.

More than 150 House members are currently registered as able to vote remotely, with the chamber set to consider Democrats' major social spending and taxation bill Friday. 

According to the clerk of the House, 152 members submitted proxy letters as of late Thursday morning. Those letters designate a certain member as able to vote in-person on behalf of the member sending the letter.

Five U.S.-listed Chinese state-owned companies unexpectedly announced plans to delist from US exchanges over SEC audit requirements, Bloomberg reported. In separate filings on the Hong Kong stock exchange, PetroChina, China Petroleum & Chemical, China Life Insurance, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, and Aluminum Corp.

A former British Prime Minister has called for the nationalization of energy utilities that cannot offer their customers lower electricity prices.