International
Will Colombian Congress approve President Petro’s reforms?
August 9|
The change of the boards of directors of Congress, in this second legislative year that has just begun in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, is not a guarantee that the Colombian government will be able to move forward with the first three social reforms promoted during the first legislative year that did not see the green light due to timing: the health, pension and labor reforms, said political scientist Guillermo Segovia.
”The three could not pass in the normal procedure in the debates because they evidenced not only that there is a big problem that in part was the justification for the election of this government, the government was elected on the basis that there was an accumulation of protests related to the health issue, with labor issues and with the pension issue,” said Segovia.
“But once the Government and the criteria of the reforms were established, the sectors that traditionally manage the sectors of economic power, that manage those sectors of social rights have opposed in a very powerful way through the media, through the unions, the associations, the parliamentarians that have been financed by those unions, to the advancement of the reform”, he added.
In this second legislative year, the outlook for the passage of these three social reforms is uncertain.
Internal problems in the Historical Pact, the rupture of the broad front of the Government due to different scandals will force the current administration to make a greater effort to achieve the necessary votes in Congress to pass them into law.
Another important point to move forward the Health, Pension and Labor reforms will be the social mobilization in the streets and the will of the majority of Colombians who elected the progressive Government of Gustavo Petro precisely to advance the great social transformations never executed.
Once again, the unions, the traditional parties, the media and the lobbyists of the private health operators such as the EPS, Health Care Providers Companies, and the Private Pension Funds managed by the owners of the banks in Colombia will be in charge of preventing the reforms from succeeding and being sanctioned by the Executive.
International
Trump to build $200M ballroom at the White House by 2028
The U.S. government under President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that it will begin construction in September on a new 8,000-square-meter ballroom at the White House.
The announcement was made by Karoline Leavitt, the administration’s press secretary, during a briefing in which she explained that the expansion responds to the need for a larger venue to host “major events.”
“Other presidents have long wished for a space capable of accommodating large gatherings within the White House complex… President Trump has committed to solving this issue,” Leavitt told reporters.
The project is estimated to cost $200 million, fully funded through donations from Trump himself and other “patriots,” according to a government statement. Construction is scheduled to begin in September and is expected to be completed before Trump’s term ends in 2028.
The Clark Construction Group, a Virginia-based company known for projects such as the Capital One Arena and L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C., has been selected to lead the project.
The new ballroom will be built on the East Wing of the White House, expanding the iconic residence with a space designed for state dinners, official ceremonies, and large-scale events.
International
Three salvadorans in Florida sentenced in $146 million construction tax fraud scheme
Three Salvadoran residents living in Orlando, Florida, were sentenced for conspiracy to commit tax fraud and wire fraud involving a scheme exceeding $146 million in the construction industry, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. The sentence was handed down by federal judge Timothy J. Corrigan on Tuesday, July 29.
Eduardo Aníbal Escobar (45) was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison, Carlos Alberto Rodríguez (36) to 3 years and 4 months, and Adelmy Tejada (57) to 18 months in prison, followed by 6 months of house arrest. All three pled guilty on April 3, 2025.
In addition to the prison terms, the court ordered restitution payments totaling $36,957,616 to the IRS for unpaid payroll taxes, and $397,895 to two insurers for workers’ compensation claims related to the scheme.
Escobar and Rodríguez are permanent legal residents originally from El Salvador, while Tejada is a naturalized U.S. citizen of Salvadoran origin.
International
Kremlin hails preparedness after Kamchatka quakes leave no casualties
The Kremlin expressed relief that the earthquakes that struck Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula today —the first being the strongest since 1952— resulted in no casualties, and emphasized that the region is well prepared to face such natural disasters.
“Thank God, there were no victims,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov during his daily press briefing.
The presidential representative stated that “all alert systems were activated in time, and evacuations were organized for residents in areas requiring it in response to tsunami threats.”
“Overall, the seismic resilience of the buildings proved effective (…) Therefore, we can say that the technological preparedness demonstrated a high level,” Peskov added.
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