Learn French: Bien qu'il soit coupable, il rassure la presse grâce à son porte-parole. - Although he is guilty, he reassures the press thanks to his spokesperson.

The preposition grâce à is used for a positive, helpful, or successful outcome, translating to "thanks to." Even though being guilty is a negative situation, having a spokesperson who calms the press down is a helpful advantage for the guilty person. If the spokesperson had accidentally made the situation worse, we would use à cause de (because of).

Why does the sentence use soit instead of est?

The conjunction bien que (although / even though) is a classic trigger that always requires the verb following it to be in the subjunctive mood. Here, soit is the subjunctive form of être (to be) for the pronoun il.

How does the compound word porte-parole translate to "spokesperson"?

It is built from the verb porter (to carry) and the noun la parole (the spoken word or speech). Literally, a porte-parole is a "word-carrier" who speaks on behalf of someone else!

Does son in son porte-parole mean the guilty person is male, or the spokesperson is male?

It tells us the spokesperson is male! In French, possessive adjectives agree with the gender of the noun being owned, not the owner. Since the spokesperson is a man, we use the masculine son. If the spokesperson were a woman, it would be sa porte-parole, regardless of the guilty person's gender.