Thursday morning news - June 3, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Biden, top Republican hold Oval Office talks on infrastructure » President Biden met in the Oval Office on Wednesday with GOP Senator Shelley Moore Capito who’s representing Republicans in ongoing infrastructure talks.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters earlier in the day not to expect any big developments to come from the meeting.

PSAKI: It would be more of a discussion, and certainly we’ll see what comes out of the meeting and what the appropriate next step is.

The two sides have moved closer on an agreement, but a gap of almost $800 billion remains between the latest GOP and White House proposals.

Privately, the president has sized up the $928 billion Republican offer as unworkable. That’s largely because it taps unused COVID-19 funds to pay for it.

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday…

MCCONNELL: One of the suggestions that we’ve made to the administration is to repurpose some of this extraordinary amount of money that’s gone out to state and local governments across the country.

Republicans consider Biden’s plans to raise taxes for infrastructure spending untenable.

The administration has set a June 7 deadline for a bipartisan deal. Some Democratic lawmakers are now pushing the White House to pull the plug on talks and push a bill through the Senate using budget reconciliation, which would not require any Republican votes.

World’s largest meat processing company largely up and running after ransomware attack » The world's largest meat processing company has resumed most production after a weekend cyberattack.

JBS USA Holdings, which is headquartered in Colorado, said it’s been able to get the “vast majority” of its plants back up and running after a shutdown caused by a ransomware attack.

The hack came just weeks after another cyber attack forced the shutdown of the largest fuel pipeline in the country, causing thousands of U.S. gas stations to run dry.

Former U.S. cybersecurity director Chris Krebs said Wednesday that every company is at risk…

KREBS: You thought that you would be spared, that criminals wouldn’t go after you? Guess what, they went after our gas and they went after our hotdogs. No one is out of bounds here.

JBS reportedly notified the federal government that a ransom demand came from the ransomware gang REvil, which is believed to operate in Russia.

VP Harris gearing up for trip to tackle root causes of migrant surge » Vice President Kamala Harris is preparing for her first international trip as VP. She’ll travel next week to Guatemala and Mexico to discuss root causes of a migrant surge on the U.S. southern border.

Harris told reporters Wednesday that she’ll kick off the trip by meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei

HARRIS: We have a lot to discuss. It is about what we need to do and can do together to both support the folks who need help in terms of hunger, the economic development piece, the extreme weather, and the impact that has had on their economy.

Harris previously held virtual bilateral meetings with the presidents of Guatemala and Mexico. The Biden administration has pledged over $300 million in relief to the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Texas Gov. declares disaster along southern border » Meantime, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says it is the Biden administration’s policies that are fueling the border surge. He has issued a disaster declaration in dozens of counties in southern Texas, citing a crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border in his state. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more .

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The Republican governor declared a disaster in 34 counties along or near the border. In a statement, he said Biden’s border policies have—quoting here—“paved the way for dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers, and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities.”

He said landowners in south Texas are “seeing their property damaged and vandalized on a daily basis.”

The governor added that since March 6th of this year, Department of Public Safety Troops have made more than “1,300 criminal arrests, apprehended over 35,000 illegal migrants and seized over 10,000 pounds of drugs.”

Abbott said declaring a disaster in those counties will free up more resources to—in his words—“protect landowners and enforce all federal and state laws” stemming “from the border crisis.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Business group sues MLB over All-Star game move » A group of business owners in Georgia is suing Major League Baseball over its decision to pull the All-Star game out of the Atlanta area this year. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said the move was in protest of a new law which tightened election laws in the state.

Alfredo Ortiz is CEO of the Job Creator’s Network, which is the group bringing the lawsuit.

ORTIZ: Our small business owners were getting decimated already from COVID. They were looking forward to this for 21 months, so this decision by Manfred was really horrific for them.

Analysts say local businesses may have missed out on tens of millions of dollars in revenue from the 2021 All-Star game.

The suit accuses the league of violating a civil rights law, which is "intended to protect against conspiracies resulting in damages to another in his person or property." It also charges that MLB violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The lawsuit is seeking the return of the All-Star game to Atlanta or $100 million in damages plus a punitive award.

Major League Baseball has not publicly responded to the suit.

I’m Kent Covington, and for more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.