Biden ends GOP infrastructure talks; VP Harris’s blunt message; NBA’s new MVP. Get caught up.

Today is Wednesday, June 9, 2021. Let’s get caught up.

These headlines are in the news this morning: President Biden ended his infrastructure negotiations with GOP leadership as a new group emerges; Vice President Harris ends foreign trip without concrete deal; Nikola Jokic wins NBA’s MVP award.

Read on for these stories, other top headlines, celebrity birthdays and more.


TOP STORIES

Biden ends GOP infrastructure talks, but new group emerges

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ended talks with a group of Republican senators on a big infrastructure package on Tuesday and started reaching out to senators from both parties in a new effort toward bipartisan compromise, setting a summer deadline for Congress to pass his top legislative priority.

The president is walking away from talks with lead Republican negotiator Sen. Shelley Moore Capito after the two spoke Tuesday, but would welcome her in the new bipartisan group, according to an administrative official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.

Shortly after the Biden-Capito talks collapsed, 10 senators huddled late Thursday over pizza — five Republicans, five Democrats — emerging after three hours with some optimism their new effort could create a viable path forward, said a person familiar with the closed-door talks and granted anonymity to discuss them.

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Blunt message, search for answers mark VP’s 1st foreign trip

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris came to Latin America to deliver a message rather than clinch some kind of concrete deal.

She bluntly told migrants not to travel to the United States. She spoke of the evils of government corruption that lead to dislocation. She urged nations to increase enforcement at their borders.

She completed the journey without securing any commitments to increase immigration enforcement or expand pathways to legal migration.

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Nikola Jokic becomes lowest draft pick ever to win MVP award

DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic was selected with the 41st draft pick when he entered the NBA seven years ago.

Now, by overwhelming consensus, he’s No. 1.

The Nuggets’ big man was revealed Tuesday as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for 2020-21, making him by far the lowest draft pick ever to win the award. “The Joker” now has his name etched alongside the greatest players in league history, which surely seemed unlikely when he was that unheralded prospect out of Sombor, Serbia in 2014.

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Click on the links below for full versions of these stories and scroll further for a look at today in history and celebrity birthdays.

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