International
Biden’s inner circle, key in the political future of the Democrats
In the midst of the political crisis unleashed by the poor performance of President Joe Biden in last week’s presidential debate, Washington’s attention is focused on the president’s inner circle, which can push the president to withdraw or an uncertain recovery towards electoral victory.
A handful of advisers and relatives are the people who have the most access to the president and to whom the 81-year-old president truly listens, according to US media.
The president’s wife, one of his sisters and his son are the members of the Biden family on whom the Democrat relies the most. The first lady, according to sources consulted by EFE, has reinforced her role as an “anchor” of the president, encouring him to continue his re-election campaign despite criticism for his performance in the debate.
Despite the voices of the Democratic Party and the media asking her to retire, Jill is “fully convinced” that her husband can beat Trump and, in fact, if she couldn’t, she would be the first to tell her, sources close to the campaign told EFE.
According to Jill herself at a fundraising event the day after the debate, Biden approached him after concluding the meeting with Trump to confess that “he didn’t feel well,” to which she replied she replied “we are not going to allow 90 minutes to define the four years in which you have been president.”
The president’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, is the one who has led most of his campaigns since he began his political career in 1970 until he decided to run for president in 2020.
On a personal level, she supported Biden when his wife and daughter died in a car accident in 1972, helping him raise his children.
According to the Political portal, Valerie has also defended her brother’s permanence in the presidential race, but has expressed concern about the impact it could have on her brother’s health and his legacy.
For his part, his son Hunter, a controversial figure over the trials against him for illegal possession of weapons and his fight for drug addiction, has redoubled his presence in the president’s life since the presidential debate.
Biden’s son has been present even at White House meetings, and along with Jill, he fervently supports his father’s decision to stay in the presidential race.
The president’s main political adviser and one of his closest allies. He was part of his team in Biden’s campaign for the Senate in 1972 and, since then, he has become a key piece in the Democratic environment.
Kaufman, 85, replaced Biden in his Senate post with the state of Delaware when the president assumed the position of vice president in 2008.
Biden’s sister, Valerie, describes it in her autobiographical book as the president’s “compass”: “Joe has said for a long time that Ted Kaufman is the wisest man he knows.”
He was chief of staff of the White House until February 2023 and currently works as legal director of the technology company Airbnb.
He has known Biden since the Democrat was in the Senate and was part of his first presidential campaign in 1987. He has an extensive career as an advisor to figures of the “blue” party, he worked as a counselor for Al Gore in 2000 and also for Hilary Clinton’s campaign in 2015.
She was one of the people, along with the current presidential counselor Anita Dunn and political strategist Mike Donilon, who helped prepare Biden for the debate.
He is a lawyer and one of Biden’s closest political advisors and strategists. He has worked for the president since 1982, when he was in the Senate, going through the position of number 2 in the Obama administration and during the 2020 presidential campaign.
He is one of the people in charge of the president’s public speeches and deveived the political message of the first race against Trump, focused on the defense of democracy.
According to The New York Times, almost “all” the important decisions of the White House go through Donilon’s filter and together with Dunn and Kaufam, he prepared the president for days in his residence in Camp David for the debate.
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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Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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