Senators Ossoff and Kelly have proposed a bill to prohibit members of Congress (and their families) from buying and selling stocks.

A Republican proposed something similar.

The bloodthirsty cruelty of Islamic law was on public display in Aceh. Nearly all the Islamic states deny religious freedom to their inhabitants by punishing blasphemy and by prohibiting Muslims from converting to any other belief.

Negotiation between the US and Russia has failed. Putin demands that NATO make major concessions or he will attack.

Putin would be more likely to forego war if Ukraine were more strongly defended. The US should have made sure to strengthen Ukraine enough to deter war; there was no danger in doing that.

Threatening sanctions never had much chance of success. Indeed, sanctions have usually failed to change other countries' foreign policy. They often hurt the people of the targeted country, but its dictator generally doesn't care about them.

The sanction that would worry Putin is to refuse to buy Russia's gas, but Europe hasn't got the courage to do it. Indeed, Russia is cutting its gas sales to Europe to provoke distress there and make European leaders timid. The courageous response for Europe would be to boost construction of renewable generation facilities, while meanwhile using temporary measures to help people get along with less gas.

It would have been wiser all along for the US not to try to extend NATO to Ukraine and Georgia. But the way Putin has shaped this confrontation, to agree to the demand now would be an abject surrender.

8000 workers in Kroger supermarkets near Denver are on strike.

More info.

The big supermarket conglomerates nowadays use many different brands. Wikipedia lists the names Kroger stores use. These stores are labeled "King Sooper".

The UK government is telling Afghan and Yemeni refugees that their home countries are safe to return to.

In the case of the specific Afghan refugee, it could well be true that the Taliban have no specific interest in bothering him. But Afghanistan is a violent, dangerous place, and is facing hunger because of sanctions. As for Yemen, that is still a war zone, facing hunger because of sanctions and combat.