House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)'s husband, Paul Pelosi, 82, was reportedly arrested over the weekend for drinking and driving in Napa County, California.

He was arrested close to midnight Saturday by local police, and was booked in a local jail. He is facing two charges: driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol level greater than .08%.

Arrest records show he was arrested at 11:44 p.m. Saturday, and booked at 4:13 a.m. Sunday morning. Bail was set at $5,000.

US government leaders have called for tighter gun control measures in the wake of two major mass shootings in the space of two weeks. While authorities are still getting their story straight about how the atrocity unfolded at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday, the government's message is that civilians need to be prevented from acquiring assault rifles.

Meanwhile, no one bats an eyelid as those same authorities dump vast quantities of assault weapons into Ukraine, where it's known that they end up in the hands of criminal elements who have no qualms about slaughtering innocents with them. No matter, the Russian military is steadily putting out the fire the US government started in Russia's backyard.

This week on NewsReal, Joe and Niall try wringing some sense out of the variable Texas terror timeline(s) and Western 'globalist' designs in eastern Europe and elsewhere.


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Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Saturday phone call with his French and German counterparts Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Moscow stands "ready" to re-engage in peace talks with the Ukrainian government. The phone call came as some Western officials have belatedly admitted that Russian forces are making steady gains in the Donbas, also as the Luhansk is about to come under total Russian control.

The focus of the call included Macron and Scholz urging the Russian leader to immediately hold "serious negotiations" with President Zelensky; however the European leaders reportedly requested that captured Azov battalion members from Mariupol must be released, which the Kremlin balked at, given the group's neo-Nazi identity.

A follow-up Kremlin statement said of the call that

"Special attention was given to the state of affairs on the negotiating track, which is frozen because of Kiev. Vladimir Putin confirmed Russia is open to resuming the dialogue."

But neither side as yet appears willing to make serious concessions. For example, while Zelensky has in past days admitted an increasingly "difficult" situation for Ukrainian forces fighting in Donbas, he's still pledging that he'll never recognize Russian authority over any Ukrainian territory, even including Crimea.

Despite Russian advances in the Donbass, Ukrainian presidential adviser and peace talks negotiator Mikhail Podoliak declared on Saturday that Kiev would not look for a peace agreement with Moscow. His statement contradicts earlier overtures toward diplomacy by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Podoliak declared in a Telegram post:

"Any agreement with Russia isn't worth a broken penny. Russia has proved that it is a barbarian country that threatens world security. Ukraine will fight with Russia until the victorious finale. A barbarian can only be stopped by force."

Podoliak led the Ukrainian delegation during several rounds of unsuccessful peace talks during the initial weeks of Russia's military operation in Ukraine. Now, his denunciation of talks with Moscow stands in stark contrast to President Volodymyr Zelensky's acknowledgement earlier this week that he "may try and go the diplomatic way," should Russian President Vladimir Putin be willing to talk directly.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was skeptical of Zelensky's apparent embrace of diplomacy:

"The Ukrainian leadership constantly makes statements that contradict each other, which makes it impossible to fully understand its intentions and whether it is ready to take a sober approach and acknowledge the real state of affairs."

Testimony in the case of former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann wrapped up Friday after the defendant decided against taking the stand.

Special counsel John Durham's team of prosecutors and Sussmann's defense team made closing arguments on Friday morning before Judge Christopher Cooper handed the case over to the jury for deliberation. Sussmann is charged with one count of lying to the FBI during a September 2016 meeting with then-FBI general counsel James Baker.

Prosecutors told the jury that the evidence of Sussmann's guilt is "overwhelming," according to Politico. Assistant special counsel Jonathan Algor said:

"The defendant knew that he had to hide his clients if there was any chance of getting his allegations into the FBI. It wasn't about national security. It was about promoting opposition research against the opposition candidate Donald Trump."

"There are sometimes close cases," prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis added. "This is not even close to a close case."

The West is considering removing Russian citizens from sanctions lists if they provide funds to rebuild Ukraine, the AP reported on Thursday, citing sources.

According to the report, the idea was proposed by Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland at the G7 meeting in Germany last week.

Freeland said a number of Russian businessmen that fell under Ukraine-related sanctions over the past two months approached her with this proposal. Their names have not been disclosed, but Freeland said she "has known some of them since working as a journalist in Moscow."

AP sources claim that Kiev is aware of the discussions and does not oppose the idea.

The Russian ruble weakened to a two-week low on Thursday following an extraordinary meeting of the central bank at which the key interest rate was slashed three percentage points to 11%. The regulator suggested that more cuts would follow as inflation risks subside.

The ruble slid to 65 against the dollar, after reaching a four-year high of 56 on Wednesday. The Russian currency lost 14% to trade at 68 versus the euro, also a two-week low, after having touched a seven-year high of 57 in the previous session.

The ruble started plummeting from those multi-year highs on Wednesday as the market anticipated the central bank's decision. It extended losses after Governor Elvira Nabiullina indicated on Thursday that further cuts could follow at the regulator's next meeting on June 10.

The Bank of Russia's latest move was driven by the necessity to stem the ruble's strength, which had raised concerns about the negative impact on Russia's budget revenue from exports. On Monday, Russia cut the share of foreign currency revenue that exporters must convert into rubles to 50%, from the previous 80%. A rapidly appreciating ruble is a problem for both exporters and the government budget.

NBC News' Meet The Press offered their viewers a special treat earlier this month. Under the snappy title "War Games: The Battle For Taiwan," the "news" channel staged a simulation gaming out what would happen in a full-scale military confrontation between the US and China.

Want to know what happened? Let's answer the 5 Ws of NBC's war with China.

WHO Staged the Simulation?

The simulation took place at NBC News' Washington Bureau, but it was staged by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

The CNAS is a Washington think tank that describes itself as a "independent, bipartisan, nonprofit organization that develops strong, pragmatic, and principled national security and defense policies." As usual, though, if you want to know what the think tank is really about, you'll have to follow the money. In this case, you'll find its top two funders are Northrop Grumman and the US Department of Defense (with Palantir, Raytheon, Honeywell, Booz Allen Hamilton and all the usual suspects not far behind), which might explain why it recommends "strengthening nuclear deterrence"; cheerleads the Department of Homeland Security's efforts against "domestic terrorism"; ponders how AI and other future technologies can be effectively weaponized; advocates for "enhancing" NATO and bolstering America's Transatlantic security ties; and fearmongers about China and other bogeymen of the American empire.

The actual participants in the exercise included former government officials (like Michèle Flournoy), current government officials (like Mike Gallagher and Mikie Sherrill), think tank stooges like Becca Wasser and Cristina Garafola, and WEF-listed academics like Bonny Lin.

WHERE Did the Simulated Conflict Take Place?

As mentioned above, the war game took place at NBC's Washington studios, but the simulation itself centered on Taiwan.

Described by Meet The Press host Chuck Todd's as a "self-governed island a little bigger than the state of maryland that sits about 100 miles off the coast of mainland china at the junction of the East and South China Seas," the choice of Taiwan for the subject of such a war game is unsurprising. Taiwan's exact political status has been a point of contention since 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang fled there after a series of defeats at the hands of the Chinese communists during the Chinese Civil War. The breakaway Republic of China — with Taipei as its temporary capital — claims to be the rightful government of China. The communist People's Republic of China, however — led by President Xi in Beijing — claims Taiwan under its "one China" policy.

As those familiar with the Asia-Pacific know, US military planners have long focused on a Chinese invasion of Taiwan as a likely flashpoint for war in the region. This latest war game is just the latest example.

The country is facing a "complete destruction" of its sovereignty amid the conflict with Russia, Viktor Yanukovych warned

Ukraine is facing a complete loss of its sovereignty and, potentially, a merger with Poland, former President Viktor Yanukovych has warned. The ex-president, who was ousted in the 2014 Maidan coup, released an extensive address on Friday in which he shared his thoughts about the roots of the ongoing turmoil and the potential fate of the country.

The current role of Ukraine as an instrument against Russia was outlined by the collective West long before the conflict between Moscow and Kiev broke out in late February, the ex-president believes.

This morning, on one of the WEF's live-streamed panels, Alibaba Holdings President J. Michael Evans claimed that the company is working on an app that could track an individual users carbon footprint.

The former-Goldman Sachs vice-chairman told the audience of the "Strategic Outlook: Responsible Consumption" panel:

We're developing, through technology, an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint. What does that mean? That's where are they travelling, how are they travelling, what are they eating, what are they consuming on our platform. So: An individual carbon footprint tracker."

Now, to clarify, Evans was only talking about Alibaba's platform...but that's a big platform.

The Chinese company is the second-largest e-commerce company in the world after Amazon, with revenues in excess of 715 billion Yuan in 2021 (that's over 110 billion USD).