Albania protests against Kushner-linked resort enter 10th day

/ Lëvizja BASHKË via Facebook

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By bne IntelliNews June 9, 2026

Demonstrators marched through the streets of Tirana on June 9 after gathering outside the prime minister's office, extending protests against a planned luxury tourism development linked to Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, into a 10th consecutive day.

What began as a local campaign against a proposed tourism project in the coastal area of Zvërnec has evolved into a broader protest movement targeting Prime Minister Edi Rama's government. 

Protesters chanted slogans including "Rama in prison, [opposition leader Sali] Berisha in prison" and called for the government's resignation.

The protesters have presented five demands: the resignation of the government, the repeal of legislation governing strategic investors, the cancellation of the so-called Mountain Package, the reversal of amendments to the Law on Protected Areas and the repeal of changes to the Law on Cultural Heritage.

Speaking from a stage outside the government headquarters before the march began, activist Alben Kola urged supporters to continue their campaign.

"It is important to be patient, even though this battle will last several days," Kola said, as reported by Top-Channel TV, adding that Albanian diaspora communities were organising support for the demonstrations.

The protests have been fuelled by opposition to plans backed by a company associated with Kushner to develop tourism projects in the Narta Lagoon area near Zvërnec and on Sazan Island, a former military base off Albania's southern coast.

The Albanian government has granted the investment strategic investor status, arguing that it could attract international capital and boost the country's tourism sector.

Environmental groups and local activists, however, say the developments threaten protected habitats in one of Albania's most important coastal ecosystems. The Narta Lagoon area is a key stopover point for migratory birds and is known for its flamingo populations.

The controversy intensified after video footage circulated online showing a security guard allegedly assaulting a protester near the development site.

Rama acknowledged that the incident had helped broaden public opposition to the project. "This protest was provoked by an ugly act of violence by a security guard against a protester," he told foreign journalists on June 9, according to a transcript posted on his website. 

While acknowledging public concern, Rama argued that criticism of the project had become detached from the facts.

"Something changed because suddenly there is no project," he said. "The protest turned into a mass protest with the refrain 'cancel the project, cancel the project'. I said we are canceling it at this moment, but show me the project. There is no project."

The prime minister has repeatedly defended the development plans, describing them as an opportunity to raise Albania's international profile and attract major investors.

When asked whether the government might reconsider its support for the investment, Rama replied: "Step back from what?"

Rama said Albania's environmental record should be taken into account, pointing to hunting and logging restrictions introduced during his years in office.

"We have fantastic documentation of how the wildlife in Albania came back thanks to the 10 years moratorium of hunting," he said.

The dispute has also attracted the attention of Albania's anti-corruption authorities, which have launched an investigation into aspects of the project, including questions surrounding land ownership and privatisation procedures.

‘Act without delay’: Brussels warns Albania over Trump-linked resort project

By Mared Gwyn Jones
Published on 09/06/2026 - EURONEWS

A spokesperson for the European Commission has said that Tirana must “refrain from actions that could undermine” its bid to join the European Union, amid concerns that a sprawling coastal development linked to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is in breach of EU environmental standards.

The European Commission has issued a veiled warning to the Albanian government over a €1.4 billion real-estate project linked to US President Donald Trump’s family, as protests over the plans for an ecologically protected area on the Adriatic coast enter their second week.

Responding to a question by Euronews on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the EU executive urged Albanian authorities to “act without delay” in order to avoid jeopardising the country’s bid to join the EU, which will require it to align with the bloc’s environmental rules.

“Albania should refrain from actions that could undermine the fulfilment of the closing benchmark, in this case Chapter 27, and so we expect the Albanian authorities to act without any delay,” spokesperson Guillaume Mercier said, referring to the chapter of EU accession talks which requires a candidate country to align with environmental rules.

He added that the Commission has “expressed concerns to (Albania’s) Minister of the Environment about the potential shortcomings of the project,” and that the minister had assured Brussels that construction work has been “suspended”.

Yet Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama has defended the project, telling Euronews on Friday that resistance to the plans formed part of a “hybrid war” wielded by actors that are “using the sentiments of some well-meaning people about the environment.”

Demonstrators have gathered in Albania’s capital of Tirana and the protected Vjosa-Narta lagoon on the country's Adriatic coast for the past nine days, demanding the cancellation of a luxury real-estate project planned for an ecologically protected coastal area.

The pink flamingo, one of the species threatened by the plans, has emerged as a symbol of the resistance, with protesters seen wielding inflatable versions of the animal, many of them calling for Prime Minister Rama’s resignation.

The plans would involve two protected areas: the Narta Lagoon area, a wildlife reserve, and a smaller resort on the uninhabited island of Sazan. Affinity Partners, the investment firm behind the project which has been granted special access by the Albanian authorities, is linked to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

His wife, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, described to an US podcast show last week how she and her husband had discovered Sazan island.

“We were on a friend’s boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it,” Ivanka Trump said. “We swam to the island. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated.”

‘Concerns are not new’

A 2015 Albanian law on strategic investments, which Brussels has long called for to be scrapped, is believed to have made it possible for the investment firm linked to Kushner to acquire special authority.

In its annual temperature check of candidate countries’ progress towards becoming EU members last year, Brussels raised concerns about an amendment made to the law in February 2025 which included special exemptions for any investment worth €50 million or more.

“While these measures are designed to boost economic activity, they have also raised concerns about transparency and equitable access, favouritism and lack of competitive processes,” the Commission’s report said.

In the same report, Brussels cautioned Albania against amendments to a law on protected areas which had led to the “unravelling of their protection”, raising concerns over environmental crimes.

Crucially, Albania is considered a frontrunner behind Montenegro in its bid to join the EU. Accession negotiations, which are split into 33 chapters under four thematic clusters, are currently ongoing, including on the chapter related to environmental standards.

Closing the chapter will be critical if the country is to sustain its momentum in its accession bid.

The project is currently being probed by Albania's independent anti-corruption and anti-mafia prosecution body, SPAK. The agency is believed to be investigating changes made to a 2024 Albanian law which removed long-standing protections from the country’s most sensitive ecosystems.

  

Amid widespread protests, Albanian island project also sparks flood of fake claims

By Estelle Nilsson-Julien & Noa Schumann

Published on 09/06/2026 EURONEWS

The heated controversy surrounding the multi-billion-euro property development project across various Albanian beauty spots has triggered a stream of misleading online claims.

A raft of false claims has emerged around the controversial Albanian property development project linked to Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, concerning the uninhabited island of Sazan, as well as an area of the Vjosa-Narta coastal landscape.

Supporters say the project could boost tourism and investment. Critics argue it risks damaging one of the country's most important natural habitats, as well as selling the country out to foreign investors.

Among the false allegations, one video circulated across social media claimed to depict the home of Albania's prime minister, Edi Rama, burning during the protests in the country.

In reality, the footage can be traced back to February 2026 and displays protesters linked to the Democratic Party burning the former villa of Enver Hoxha, the communist leader who ruled Albania for more than 40 years.

One of the most widely circulated claims alleges that the Albanian real estate project is backed by or tied to the state of Israel.

However, there is no available information to support these theories, which have been fuelled by misleading connections with Kushner's Jewish background, his past role in peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas, and investments by his hedge fund Affinity Partners in Israel.

Social media users have falsely alleged that the state of Israel is behind the real estate project X

One widely circulated social media image depicting a barbed-wire fence, with two flags — one Israeli and one Albanian — has been presented as a new border on the Zvërnec Island. This is false; in reality, the image was digitally manipulated to include the signs with the flags denoting the supposed border.

Other videos claim to show "Israeli settlers" taking over land in Albania, who are chased out by locals. The viral social media clip actually shows protestors in northern Albania, protesting against a separate luxury resort in Baks-Rjoll in Velipojë, and dates back to February 2026.

Prime Minister Rama also denied false allegations that the development project is part of a plan to relocate Palestinians — a claim which has repeatedly surfaced over the years.

He told Euronews, "There is a narrative in the whole thing that this is about a hidden deal between [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu and I, through Jared Kushner, to bring the Palestinians in that part of Albania, which is a total fantasy."

Amid the misinformation, the resort project backed by Kushner's Affinity Partners firm has sparked a real anti-corruption probe.

Albania's anti-corruption prosecutor has opened an investigation into controversial legislation voted in 2024, loosening protections around the country’s most sensitive ecosystems.

Specifically, the investigation centres on the rapid regulatory approvals, potential fraudulent property titles, and questionable land transfers tied to the project, which is slated for the ecologically sensitive Vjosa-Narta wetland area — an important habitat for nesting sea turtles and migratory birds

Albania's PM posts AI video of himself in miniskirt in swipe at online influencers

Copyright Instagram/ediramaal

By Gavin Blackburn

Published on 09/06/2026 - EURONEWS

In a speech, Rama argued that many influencers make money by promoting themselves on social media while paying no taxes to the state.

Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama reposted an AI video of himself wearing a leather mini skirt and bra on his Instagram profile in an apparent swipe against influencers.

“Whoever made this, well done,” he wrote in the post accompanying the video.

The video refers to remarks Rama made during a public event on 7 June, where he mocked bloggers and influencers who supported ongoing protests against a controversial luxury development linked to Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kusher, part of which is due to be built in a conservation area.

In that speech, Rama argued that many influencers make money by promoting themselves on social media while paying no taxes to the state.

Rama said that “bloggers should challenge each other, one dressed as a flamingo and another dressed as me and see who wins.”

Protesters have carried cardboard cut-outs of pink flamingos, one of the protected migratory bird species, at rallies in the capital Tirana.

Earlier, Rama claimed that influencers joined the protests mainly for attention and lacked a real understanding of the situation.

The government says the development on the Adriatic coast would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership.

But the venture, spanning a protected island and a nearby stretch of seafront on Albania’s southern coast, has drawn opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of long-time Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.

The luxury project has two components: a coastal development in the Narta Lagoon area, which is a wildlife reserve, and a smaller resort on the nearby uninhabited island of Sazan, a communist-era military base.

Protesters with a poster depicting Prime Minister Edi Rama take part in a rally in Tirana, 6 June, 2026 AP Photo

The planned development of hotels, apartments, villas and a marina is linked to Kushner and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.

An investment firm linked to Kushner has been granted special investor status by Albanian authorities.

Albania has 450 kilometres of coast that remained largely underdeveloped during decades of communist rule.

Protest groups fear the sections of that pristine coastline could be snapped up by powerful investors. And public anger grew after video showed an activist being dragged by a private security guard while demonstrating at the site.

The development is planned within a nature reserve and one of Albania’s most valuable biodiversity areas, a key stopover for migratory birds along the Adriatic coast.

Protesters take part in a rally in Tirana, 6 June, 2026 AP Photo

Since late May, excavators and other heavy machinery have entered the area, opening access routes, digging into the sand, clearing land among pine trees and installing fencing.

Environmental groups from Albania and elsewhere in Europe condemned the work, with one prominent local group charging that long-protected habitats are being "irreversibly destroyed.”

How overexploitation of sand is threatening ecosystems and livelihoods

In Morocco alone, an estimated 40 to 50 percent of sand extraction is believed to occur illegally.

Found on beaches, in rivers, across deserts and on the seabed, sand has long been seen as abundant and virtually inexhaustible. But it has become the world's second most exploited natural resource after water, and scientists warn rising demand will cause "enormous environmental damage".


Issued on: 07/06/2026 - RFI

Miners shovel sand into trucks in an area destroyed by sand mining on the outskirts of Gunjur in the Gambia. © AFP - JOHN WESSELS


From concrete towers and motorways to glass, microchips and cosmetics, modern economies depend on sand. Yet the vast scale of sand extraction remains largely ignored, despite mounting concerns among scientists over its environmental and social consequences.

According to the latest report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), nearly 50 billion tonnes of sand are extracted worldwide every year, and demand for buildings is expected to rise by 45 percent by 2060.

"To give an idea of the scale, it would be equivalent to building a wall 27 metres high and 27 metres wide that circles the entire Equator every year," says Pascal Peduzzi, director of GRID-Geneva, UNEP's environmental data centre. "You cannot extract that much material without causing enormous environmental damage."

Warnings of a sand shortage may seem counterintuitive. But not all sand is suitable for construction.

Desert sand, shaped by wind erosion, is too fine and too smooth to bind effectively in concrete. The construction industry instead relies on angular grains found in quarries or produced by the erosion of glaciers, rivers and coastlines.

As a result, extraction is concentrated in riverbeds, estuaries, coastal zones and shallow seabeds – areas that also play a vital role in maintaining ecosystems.

Six bn tonnes of sand extracted from world's oceans each year: UN

Damage beneath the surface

Sand performs essential functions in nature. It filters water, stabilises rivers and provides habitats for countless species, from crabs and turtles to birds and other wildlife.

"If you dig into a riverbed, you change its shape," says Peduzzi. "That alters how water flows."

The consequences can include increased flooding, drought, falling groundwater levels and the degradation of aquatic ecosystems.

Scientists also warn of implications for food security. Excessive extraction can increase water acidity, reducing soil fertility and making farmland less productive.

In some regions, the problem is already visible. Researchers have documented rising saltwater intrusion in major rivers, particularly in the Mekong Delta, where millions depend on fresh water for cultivating rice.

"With rising sea levels and riverbeds being lowered through sand dredging, the Mekong is becoming increasingly saline," says Nelo Magalhaes, an economist and environmental historian.

A similar process has been observed in France's Loire River since the 1970s, although the impacts are now far more pronounced in Southeast Asia.

A farmer pulls up dying rice plants from a paddy filled with salt water at Que Dien commune in Vietnam's Ben Tre province in July 2010. © AFP - HOANG DINH NAM


At sea, industrial dredging vessels pose another threat. By scraping the seabed, they destroy microscopic organisms that form the foundation of marine food chains. Fishing communities are already feeling the effects.

"In parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, beaches have been stripped down to the bedrock," says Peduzzi. "Virtually every major river system in Asia has been affected by large-scale sand extraction."

Sand also serves as a natural barrier against rising sea levels. As beaches are depleted, coastlines become increasingly exposed to erosion and flooding linked to climate change.

Small island states are among the most vulnerable. In places such as the Maldives, scientists say the consequences are already becoming apparent.

"Today, we can directly link the disappearance of some beaches to overconsumption of sand," Peduzzi says.

Cheap, yet valuable

The problem is often associated with developing countries, but Europe and North America are also major consumers of sand.

Researchers have documented large-scale river dredging across industrialised nations since the 1960s.

"When river levels fall, extraction intensifies," says Magalhaes. "That alters river profiles, damages ecosystems and destroys spawning grounds where fish lay their eggs."

The growing scarcity of suitable sand is also fuelling political tensions.

"There's a paradox," says Grégory Salle, a social scientist at France's National Centre for Scientific Research. "Sand is both a cheap, ordinary resource and, in some places, an increasingly valuable one."

Labourers transport sand from boats to the shore after excavating it from the bed of River Yamuna in Allahabad, India, 22 May 2007. © AP - Rajesh Kumar Singh

That value has led to disputes over access and supply. While unlikely to trigger conflicts on the scale of those linked to oil or water, sand has already become a source of diplomatic friction in Southeast Asia.

Singapore, which has expanded its territory through land reclamation projects, imports vast quantities of sand from neighbouring countries. The trade has generated tensions with countries including Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia, alongside allegations of environmental destruction and illegal trafficking.

Elsewhere, sand provides profits for organised crime. In countries such as India, Kenya, Morocco and Colombia, illegal networks known as "sand mafias" control parts of the trade.

Because sand is relatively easy to extract, enforcement is often weak and corruption widespread.

"People investigating these activities can face serious risks," says Peduzzi, citing cases involving violence and intimidation linked to illegal mining operations.

In Morocco alone, an estimated 40 to 50 percent of sand extraction is believed to occur illegally.

Overlooked resource

Experts disagree over whether the world is facing an actual shortage of sand.

UNEP argues that extraction has already exceeded the natural replenishment rate of some deposits.

China illustrates the scale of modern consumption. The country uses more than half of all the sand extracted globally and consumes around 33 times more than the United States each year.

Others urge caution. Magalhaes argues that vast reserves remain available, particularly offshore. The issue, he says, is not the imminent exhaustion of supplies but the increasingly destructive methods required to obtain them.

Why China’s decades-long ambition to green the desert could run dry

Ultimately, the debate goes beyond sand itself and raises broader questions about economic development and consumption.

Recycled concrete, alternative building materials and more sustainable construction practices are frequently proposed as solutions. But for some researchers, such measures will only go so far unless accompanied by a deeper reassessment of growth-driven models of development.

UNEP is now calling for stronger global governance of sand resources, including national inventories, improved monitoring and recognition of sand as a strategic material.

Yet when the European Commission recently published its list of critical raw materials, sand was notably absent – a sign, perhaps, that the world's dependence on this seemingly ordinary substance has yet to fully register among policymakers.

This article was adapted from the original in French by Claire Laville.

Albanians protest Jared Kushner-backed resort plan on nature reserve

Protesters on Saturday gathered at the Vjosa-Narta lagoon, a nature reserve on the Albanian coast, to denounce a plan by US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to build a ​luxury resort inan ‌environmentally sensitive area. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has insisted that "top" experts will be involved in the project, which has yet to be approved.


Issued on: 06/06/2026 - 
By: FRANCE 24

Protestors against a plan to build a luxury seaside resort by a company linked to the Trump family gather in a nature reserve in Zvërnec, Albania, June 6, 2026. © Adnan Beci, AFP

Several hundred people gathered Saturday in a protected nature reserve on the Albanian coast to protest at plans for a luxury beach resort by a company linked to the Trump family.

Answering a call from environmental organisations, activists from across the country as well as local residents flocked midday to the Vjosa-Narta lagoon, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of the capital Tirana.

"The whole of this marine area is a protected zone. To destroy it would be fatal for this region's biodiversity," Emiljona Puja, a finance worker, told AFP.

Protesters gathered on a sandy beach facing azure waters, some waving red Albanian flags, others carrying inflatable flamingos -- the movement’s symbol -- while chanting "cancel the project!".

There had been unrest at the location during an initial protest in late May against preparatory onsite work during installation of barbed wire to cordon off the area. The barbed wire has since been removed.

People rushed there after seeing videos on social media showing construction work and bulldozers on the beach. Those machines were not there on Saturday either.

AFP journalists observed concrete foundations for a fence on the ground that had also been removed.

Protests against a project whose cost is estimated at some four billion euros ($4.6 billion) and is linked to Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner are gaining momentum in the Balkan country.

Thousands of protesters have been gathering every evening for nearly a week in Tirana to denounce what they view as the planned destruction of entire sections of the Vjosa-Narta Nature Reserve and its conversion into a luxury tourist destination.

According to the plan, developers also hope to transform the uninhabited island of Sazan -- once a secret communist military base -- into a glitzy tourist destination.

The coastal lagoon on the southern Adriatic coact is home to many migratory birds, including flamingos.

"This is a problem not only regarding the transparency of this whole process, but also everything has happened with a complete disregard of the environmental importance of this area," said Denisa Kasa, of the Albanian Association for the Protection of the Environment (PPNEA).

"This area is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the Mediterranean," added Kasa.

Prime Minister Edi Rama on Friday downplayed the protests, insisting there was "no reason to worry" and added the project had yet to be approved.

He insisted that "top" world experts were involved in the plan and that the aim was "to make something unique".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Kushner-backed Albania resort sparks protests, EU concerns

Rashela Shehu

DW

06/04/2026

Donald Trump's son-in-law is linked to a megaproject on Albania's protected coast that has triggered protests and EU scrutiny over risks to flamingos and endangered habitats.

A protestor to Jared Kushner's proposed development, which would bring luxury tourism to a stretch of protected coastline in Albania

Image: Hameraldi Agolli/AP Photo/dpa/picture alliance

Bulldozers, barbed-wire fences and security guards dragging protesters across the sand are not the images Albania hoped would dominate headlines just days after it received positive signals from Brussels over progress in its EU accession talks.

Yet that is precisely what happened in the Narta Lagoon area, a protected landscape on the country's southern coast.

At the center of the dispute is the proposed Zvernec Peninsula development, a tourism project linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump. What started as a fight over construction in a protected area has grown into a wider debate about development, environmental protection and Albania's future in Europe.

Just 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the city of Vlora, developers are planning what could become one of the largest tourism projects in Albania's history. The company behind it says it could exceed €4 billion ($4.6 billion) and create more than 10,000 jobs. Prime Minister Edi Rama has described it as a strategic investment that could help move Albania into the top tier of global tourism.
Why is the Kushner-linked resort facing protests?

Pishe Poro–Narta is one of Albania's most important protected coastal landscapes. Its lagoons, wetlands, pine forests and sand dunes provide habitat for hundreds of species and serve as an important stopover point for migratory birds traveling between Europe and Africa, including protected pink flamingos.

Protesters shouted anti-government slogans during a demonstration in Tirana on TuesdayImage: Armando Babani/Matrix Images/picture alliance

On the morning of May 30, activists walked through pine forests and sand dunes to reach the construction site. Waiting for them were construction equipment, newly erected fences and private security guards.

Videos shared on social media showed demonstrators being forcibly removed from the area, sparking public outrage. In the days that followed, thousands of people joined solidarity protests in Tirana under the slogan "Albania is not for sale," calling for the project to be halted.

Environmental organizations have also called for full disclosure of documents related to the project, arguing that key decisions have not been made transparent to the public.

For more than a decade, Besjana Shehu, the conservationist and co-founder of the Albanian Ornithological Society, has worked to protect the wetlands, forests and lagoons of Pishe Poro–Narta. But she said the scenes that unfolded on May 30 marked a turning point in a much longer battle over the area's future.

"This is not simply a local dispute over a fence, a road or a construction site, but also about how decisions like this are being taken, and the lack of transparency surrounding them," she told DW.

"What is at stake is the ecological integrity of more than 18,000 hectares of one of Albania's most important natural corridors."

Rama: 'We must enter the Champions League of global tourism'

For more than an hour on Monday, Rama devoted much of a public address to the controversy surrounding the Zvernec Peninsula project.

The prime minister condemned the private security guards who were filmed dragging a protester across the sand, calling their behavior "disgusting." But his remarks left little doubt that he had no intention of stepping back from the project.

"What do I need power for if I have to abandon the vision I have shared with you all these years?" Rama asked. "We must enter the Champions League of global tourism," he said, arguing that Albania should move beyond mass tourism and compete for a more exclusive, high-end market.

Referring to the protected status of the lagoon, he argued that the area falls under a category where conservation can coexist with economic activity. Rama also stressed that the project remains in a procedural phase. According to the prime minister, no final environmental permit has yet been issued, while both the environmental impact assessment and the architectural design are still under development.

Could the the resort harm Albania's EU ambitions?

Pishe Poro–Narta is not just another protected area, and the project comes at a particularly sensitive moment for Albania's EU accession process.

The natural area has already been proposed for the Emerald Network, an ecological network based on the Bern Convention, and it is expected to become part of the Natura 2000 network once the country joins the European Union. According to the European Commission, the way the area is managed has become a test of Albania's capacity to preserve such sites as a future member state.

As part of the closing benchmarks for negotiations on environment and climate change, Albania must demonstrate its ability to protect designated habitats and prevent the deterioration of species and ecosystems.

Against this backdrop, the European Commission has said it is "closely following the developments" in Pishe Poro–Narta. In comments to DW, the commission reiterated that the repeated extension of Albania's strategic investments law "continues to raise concerns about possible environmental impacts, particularly in protected areas" and stressed that "EU standards must therefore be fully taken into account in this project."

'Last intact living delta' in the Mediterranean

Few people have followed the ecosystem more closely than Ulrich Eichelmann, head of Riverwatch and coordinator of the Save the Blue Heart of Europe campaign. He was among the leading voices behind the campaign that helped secure national park status for the Vjosa, Europe's last wild river that flows through Albania.

"The Vjosa Delta is the last intact living delta in the entire Mediterranean," he told DW.

The protected Vjosa Delta is an important stopover point for migratory birds traveling between Europe and Africa — and a magnet for coastal tourismImage: Goupi Christian/robertharding/picture alliance

Across much of the Mediterranean Sea, dams, coastal development and decades of human intervention have transformed rivers and coastlines. According to Eichelmann, the Vjosa Wild River National Park remains one of the last places where these natural processes still function largely undisturbed.

"It is a remnant, an example of how our world looked a hundred years ago," he said.

For Eichelmann, the debate ultimately raises a broader question that extends well beyond Albania's borders. "Is there anything that we don't want to destroy?" he asked. "This is something that the international community must fight for."

Edited by: Jess Smee

Rashela Shehu Albania-based reporter specializing in current affairs

‘Nation is Not For Sale’: Thousands of Albanians Protest Kushner Resort Plans in Protected Wetland

“Barbed wire cannot silence people,” said one conservationist. “A protected landscape of global importance is under attack, and people are demanding an end to the devastation.”


Protesters gather under the slogan “Albania is not for sale”, asking for the resignation of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, in front of Albanian Government building on June 2, 2026 in Tirana, Albania.
(Photo by Armando Babani/Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Jun 03, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

As President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner moves forward with plans to build a luxury resort on one of the last untouched parts of the Mediterranean coast, thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets in protest.

On Tuesday evening, a throng gathered outside the office of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in the capital Tirana, holding inflatable flamingos and signs reading “Nation is not for sale” and “I don’t want Albania like Dubai,” Reuters reported.

Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, is seeking to build a €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) resort on the uninhabited island of Sazan and around 10,000 hotel rooms and villas along a stretch of coastline near the protected wetland of Vjosa-Narta.

According to BirdLife International:
The area shelters over 70 endangered species and more than 200 bird species, including flamingos and Dalmatian pelicans. It sits on the Adriatic Flyway, a critical migration corridor for millions of birds traveling between Africa and Europe each year. The surrounding waters are among the last Mediterranean refuges for the Mediterranean monk seal, one of the world’s most endangered marine mammals, and a key nesting ground for the loggerhead sea turtle.

In February 2024, Albania’s parliament amended its protected areas law to allow the development of luxury resorts. Just weeks later, Kushner announced plans to build in Albania, which spurred an investigation by anti-corruption prosecutors.

Kushner himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but protesters view the construction of the sprawling complex as a symbol of the country being sold out to powerful oligarchs without their consent.

“We have a protected area, but above all, our state has allowed construction work to continue without consultation and without transparency,” said Klajdi Belo, an activist who attended a demonstration on Monday, told Euronews.

Activists have said bulldozers have begun tearing through the coastline and gravel has already been dumped on age-old sand dunes—damage that could take hundreds of years to repair. Meanwhile, a large barbed-wire fence has been erected, blocking public access to the beach.



Over the weekend, protesters assembled outside the barricades surrounding the development near the coastal village of Zvërnec.

“Don’t defend the oligarchs!” one man was seen shouting into a megaphone. “Those are the citizens’ properties!”

During these protests, a video captured an activist being dragged along the ground by a group of black-shirted security contractors.

“There is great public outrage over what is happening in Albania, but the spark was what happened in Zvërnec,” said Arilda Lleshi, who said the man and others were there because they were “protesting against a fence that had been installed there illegally.”

As activists have called for heavy machines to be removed from the protected area, Rama has said no amount of public backlash will lead him to abandon the project.

“Under no circumstances do we receive the stigma of being ⁠a country where investors are met with hostility,” he said in a statement to Reuters. “There is absolutely no chance that the investment will stop as long as I am here.”

Anouk Puymartin, head of policy for BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, said that it’s not just the habitat of endangered species at stake, but the question of whether longstanding environmental protections can be shredded at the whim of the wealthy.

“Barbed wire cannot silence people. Thousands have taken to the streets of Tirana to defend Vjosa-Narta from destruction driven by private profit,” Puymartin said. “A protected landscape of global importance is under attack, and people are demanding an end to the devastation.”



Ivanka Trump, the US president’s daughter and Kushner’s wife, has come under scrutiny for her comments about the development project recently, which were blasted as “out of touch.”

In a recent interview, the Trump heiress described being inspired to purchase the island of Sazan while vacationing there years ago: “We were on a friend’s boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it. We swam to the islands. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way, up to the top. And we were just captivated.”

She described the project of developing the island as part of an effort to “help realize its potential” and described it as “the culmination of all of my experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live.”

But Puymartin describes the project as an encroachment by private wealth onto land that was previously held for the benefit of everyone.

“Nature belongs to everyone, not a handful of investors,” she said. “The horrendous situation in Vjosa-Narta shows why laws are crucial to protect both people and nature. But those protections mean little if governments fail to uphold them.”

'Go home!' Ivanka Trump inundated with backlash over dubious private island scheme

David Edwards
June 3, 2026 
RAW STORY


Ivanka Trump waves during a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets — and the internet — to rage against a planned luxury resort linked to Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, with protesters demanding the government cancel the project and chanting "Ivanka, go home."

The flashpoint is a proposed €4 billion ($4.7 billion) development — described by Prime Minister Edi Rama as an "extraordinary investment" — on Sazan Island and the protected Vjosa-Narta coastal wetlands in southern Albania. Ivanka described it in dreamy terms on a recent podcast.

"It's an unbelievable, beautiful, 1,400-hectare private island in the middle of the Mediterranean," she told host David Senra. "We swam to the island, we went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated."

She did not mention the protests.

On the ground in Albania, the mood was rather less romantic. Anadolu Agency reported thousands gathering in Tirana under the slogan "Albania is not for sale." TV Klan presenter Leftioni Peristere flagged AFP wire coverage of the demonstrations, which have now stretched into a fourth consecutive day — with police firing water cannons at crowds that included children.

One Albanian, posting a video of the country's stunning Adriatic coastline, put the stakes simply: "Do you know what we are protesting for?"

Another, in a widely shared video, was blunter. "All the blood, sweat, and tears that our people and ancestors have fought for is being sold by a leader who has betrayed us," he said, calling out Prime Minister Edi Rama by name.

Protest crowds have echoed that sentiment, chanting "Thieves!" and demanding Rama's arrest by SPAK — Albania's Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutors, who opened a formal investigation into the project this week.

Ivanka told Senra the resort is "the culmination of all of my experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live, how I think people increasingly want to live."

Albanians, it seems, have thoughts about that too.

Jared Kushner's luxury resort hit with anti-corruption probe as protests explode: report

Nicole Charky-Chami
June 1, 2026 
RAW STORY


Jared Kushner looks on during a swearing-in ceremony of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. on May 6, 2025. 

REUTERS/Kent Nishimura

Jared Kushner's luxury coastal resort project in Albania was under investigation by the country's anti-corruption prosecutors amid growing protests against the development, Politico reported on Monday.

President Donald Trump's son-in-law is the head of Affinity Partners, a private equity firm behind a project slated to include 10,000 hotel rooms located "on the uninhabited Adriatic island of Sazan and several hundred hectares of the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape, a sensitive coastal wetland area home to flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites," according to Politico.

Albania's special anti-corruption prosecution office, SPAK, said it had launched a probe into the change in land ownership in 2024, as questions have been raised about the land's protected status.

Kushner is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and has a multi-billion dollar real estate portfolio. He has been serving as the president's special envoy for peace and has been involved in negotiations involving Iran, Gaza and the war in Ukraine, which has raised eyebrows among critics over potential conflicts of interest.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has confirmed to Politico that the negotiations around the project were ongoing. He has "denied that the project encroaches on a protected wildlife reserve and said that the final proposal has yet to be submitted and the environmental study is not complete."

Protests have broken out in the country over the project since May, with people calling for the project to be halted and to protect the area. Activists have also called for the prime minister to resign.

Some of the demonstrations have become violent.

"Footage emerged — after protests Saturday — of private security guards appearing to assault and then drag a protester along a cliff, while threatening other demonstrators who attempted to remove fences and halt construction," Politico reported.

That Colossal Wreck


Former White House and current “busted-ass trash palace” prepping for America’s 250th anniversary
Image from Instagram

Abby Zimet
Jun 01, 2026
Further

COMMON DREAMS

Amidst the ongoing awful, we take wary solace in the modest routs newly inflicted on our wannabe Great Dictator. He lost yugely in multiple courts as judges reopened his bogus IRS suit, froze his slush fund, ripped his name from a D.C. landmark and, in Kenya, told him to take care of his own. Meanwhile, his trashy shitshow of a 250th celebration has devolved into “red-meat-for-the-rubes” blood sport and a dud of a concert after most of the low-rent performers bailed because, “Nobody wants the stink.”

The buffoon who would be king keeps trying and flailing to rise to the authoritarian task in a spiraling presidency in free fall. Seeking to regain control of the narrative, he continues lashing out in increasingly deranged ways: After months of courts blocking his efforts to get state voter lists to steal elections, his Postal Service has proposed a Hail Mary move of only sending mail-in ballots to voters registered with the feds; he’s proposed sweeping changes that would allow his toadies to kill NIH and other grants vaguely not “aligned with” his “priorities”; fighting for the dubious right to go after enemies like sacking James Comey’s daughter from a New York U.S. Attorney’s Office, he’s argued he has the power to fire anyone, even for pure political malice, which the latest court to shut him down called “a novel and breathtaking theory” about presidential power.


It's Time to Abolish Columbus Day


Purchased With Blood and Lies

To deflect from the stubbornly enduring issue of pedo bestie Epstein, he’s reflexively pivoted to his once-winning scapegoat of immigrants with maybe the most racist and “lamest shit ever”: A website declaiming, “THEY WALK AMONG US” of “millions of illegals who have arrived under the cover of darkness and embedded themselves directly into our society.” Complete with “alien arrest map” and more AI slopaganda - a UFO lifts a man over a wall as YMCA plays WTF - the text hisses that, for years, “Aliens (have) shopped in the same stores, attended the same classes (and) and lived seemingly normal human existences. With one exception — They do not belong here,” all until when one “bold” bigot had “the courage (to) call out the real danger Aliens pose” to every American family and community. Alas, notes Dem. Gov. Ned Lamont, “We are still looking for intelligent life in the White House.”

Other horrors go on. Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins - net worth $15 million - boasted thanks to $186 billion in long-term cuts they’ve “lifted” 4 million hungry people off SNAP benefits so they can now achieve “the American Dream”; though cuts were in the name of “fraud,” she admitted they “don’t have actual data” (in reality zilch) got people “kick (ed) down the elevator shaft.” “Testifying” before the House,Pam Bondi threw her deputy under Epstein’s bus, refused to answer questions and argued it was “not appropriate” to acknowledge survivors standing behind her. Bald mini-Nazi Stephen Miller sneered Texas’ James Talarico (cis, straight, meat-eating) was the Dems’ “first transgender Senate candidate.” When Dems retorted, “Shut up you ugly fuck,” Miller’s wife blasted “violent rhetoric.” Chill Talarico: “I’m an 8th generation Texan - I’ve been eating BBQ since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment.”

Sadist Greg Bovino crawled out of his fetid cave to tell Nazis at a “Remigration Summit” in Portugal he is now “in battle” against MAGA cowards who have “lost their will” to deport brown people: “Mullin’s a great plumber...But a hundred million illegal aliens is not a leaky faucet.” Vietnam has had to exhume bodies from ancestral gravesites to make room for a shitty new Trump golf course and hotel supposedly at another site; one 72-year-old is “outraged” the U.S. paid him just $2,660 compensation for the grievous removal of his son and parents. Always classy, Trump also just posted more AI garbage, literally: He throws Colbert into a dumpster and portrays Obama’s presidential library as a giant trash can. And displaying their usual lofty priorities, Minnesota Republicans at their state convention held a moment of silence to honor...George Floyd’s killer Derek Chauvin.

In glad contrast, many judges are holding the line against the darkness and stupidity. The law, and the justice it can bring, inevitably moves more slowly and quietly than the atrocities we’re daily bombarded with. But it is moving, and last week several judges took the ball and damn near ran with it toward MLK’s blessed arc of justice. In perhaps the least substantive but most killingly symbolic move, Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District Court in D.C. ruled the boy-king can’t just slap his name on the Kennedy Center when his fragile ego needs a boost. Rejecting a final, desperate board “argument” the removal of the world’s most despised name would render the Center “financially nonviable” (add many LOLs here), Cooper found “no competent evidence” and ruled the Center’s statute “makes crystal clear” no name can be added to it without Congress’ approval.

In his decision, a response to a lawsuit brought by much-abused Dem ex-officio Board member Rep. Joyce Beatty after Trump brazenly hijacked the Board and chairmanship in 2025 - prompting pretty much any sensible performers to abandon it - Cooper ruled the foul Trump stain must come off everything - building facade, website, materials - within two weeks. An unexpected cherry on top: Cooper also found the Board was “derelict in discharging (its) responsibilities to the Center” when it voted to close it for two years of Trump’s suddenly announced “renovations,” and no they can’t exclude Dem members, like Beatty from decisions, because democracy. Kennedy niece Maria Shriver offered a “Translation: ”Due to the name change...no one wants to perform there any longer, so it’s best to close it and build a new one so everybody will stop talking about that.“

Ever gracious, the world’s worst loser responded with a fuming, whining, 700-word tantrum. “There has never been a (boy-king) treated so unfairly by the Courts as I,” he wailed. “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, and bring this failing Institution” - rust, rot, rats oh my! - back,“ he has ”no interest“ and will transfer said empty shell back to Congress. He also attacked both ”Trump-Hating Barack Hussein Obama Judge Cooper“ and his wife, a former Dem federal prosecutor, who ”probably told him to do so!“ Cooper ”has a total Conflict of Interest,“ he raved, ”and should be brought up on charges for not revealing these facts.“ God, still a prince among men. Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III: JFK ”would remind us it is not buildings that define the greatness of a nation. It is the actions of its people and its leaders...and our commitment to the rights of all.“

Now judges are also coming down hard on his “felon-to-felon” slush fund. A federal judge in Virginia just froze its scuzzy $1.8 billion until a June hearing; Judge Leonie M. Brinkema barred any action “pursuant to (its) creation or operation” because “taxpayer dollars should not reward blind, and sometimes violent, loyalty to a single politician.” Her ruling came as Democracy Forward filed another legal challenge charging “blatant abuse of power.” Too bad, so sad: Now MAGA cronies, including dozens of convicted Jan. 6 thugs since charged or convicted for serious new crimes - child sex abuse, rape, burglary, home invasion, death threats against officials, fatal DUI crashes - may have to wait for their payouts. Even then, state Dem lawmakers - New York and New Jersey Assembly members, Gavin Newsom et al - plan to slap 100% taxes on them, with the House and Senate to wisely follow suit.

Digging even deeper in the Southern District of Florida, Judge Kathleen Williams just re-opened Trump’s bullshit $10 billion lawsuit against himself - his DOJ vs IRS - after three dozen bipartisan retired judges filed a motion against his “fraud on the Court.” Friday, Williams ordered Trump to respond to charges his suit, from which he laundered his billion-dollar-plus payout and lifetime audit immunity, was “premised on deception” to “avoid judicial scrutiny of a lawsuit collusive from the start.” Even Kenyan courts are rejecting his outrageous schemes. After gutting international aid and facing an Ebola outbreak in DRC that’s killed hundreds, Trump moved to simply bar immigrants or Americans who might have it and send them to...Kenya? As they scrambled to replicate in days care the US built over decades, the day the clinic was set to open a Kenyan court blocked a plan that, like all his others, “raises grave constitutional concerns.”

Other woes, born of his boundless incompetence, beset him: At a DOJ rapidly spiraling down, the lead prosecutor for the absurd James Comey Seditious Seashell case just withdrew; experts agree it’ll never make it to court. His grifty, flaking, no-bid paint job on Lincoln’s Reflecting Pool - from sober grey to tacky motel pool blue - has soared from $1.8 to $13.1 million skimmed from National Park entrance fees and is getting trashed. Five countries from his Board of Peace (sic), which promised 20,000 troops to help “ease Gaza’s transition to a peaceful Jared Kushner theme park,” has delivered no troops, no money, nada. His beloved gazillion-dollar ballroom remains a rubble-strewn hole in the ground amidst “a busted-ass trash palace” after another judge ruled “no statute comes close” to giving him the authority to build it. And Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket exploded on its Florida launchpad; NYT Pitchbot warns of new layoffs at The Washington Post.

Finally, whaaa, nobody wants to come to his birthday party and “testament to his vision to celebrate America’s monumental 250th anniversary” with the lamest, trashiest, most corrupt and barbarous show on earth, even though after heedlessly turning the White House environs into a hoarders’ trailer park he then plastered the city with banners proclaiming, “We are making D.C. safe and beautiful” Maybe the whole, crude debacle, “our latest national concussion,” stems from the fact - just hear us out - a Malignant-Narcissist-In-Chief has made America’s anniversary “about one hideous thing - himself.” Starting with the grotesque call to mark the date by “watching men beat each other senseless in a cage on the same grounds where Lincoln walked.” It’s gladiatorial bread and circus - food and fun to dispel questions about empire - but “he’s keeping the circus and taking away the bread.”

His UFC match, with day-trading on the side, will feature combatants pummeling each other often to bloody pulp in a “sport” so violent John McCain called it “human cockfighting”; many states banned it at its inception, though its almost non-existent rules now prohibit gouging out opponents’ eyes. It’s an unsettling but unsurprising choice from a long “violence-curious“ (except in Vietnam) bully who weirdly wears more makeup and hairspray than your average drag queen while urging supporters to beat up protesters, joking about extrajudicial killings, and injecting inane bing-bong noises into descriptions of missile strikes. Decades ago, he tried to create a mixed-martial-arts brand with a brutal fighter named Fedor the Russian: ”His thing is inflicting death on people.“ It became Affliction Entertainment - really - but crashed after two fights, because everything he touches, even that, dies.

As a ghastly arena rises on the White House lawn, Trump is clearly hyped by the approaching blood-fest: “I have never seen anybody want anything so much as people want those tickets.” So is his wife-slapping accomplice and $3-million donor UFC CEO Dana White, who admits, “It’s really big for the brand.” About 4,000 supporters will watch in person, with Trump as usual likely close enough ringside to be splattered by blood and sweat. Another 85,000 can watch on giant screens from the Ellipse, home to the Jan. 6 “rally.” The Pentagon is reportedly recruiting hundreds of troops to attend in uniform, but no fatties please; they must meet height and weight requirements to “look good on camera.” They also have to pay for their own travel. In another classy move, sharp-eyed observers note that renderings of the event show an American flag with just 48 stars.

At last count the other big event, a Freedom 250 concert kicking off a 16-day “Great American State Fair,” will feature just two stars - or more accurately two bargain-bin, has-been-or-never-were performers, the only survivors of nine originally announced of which seven quickly dropped out. (Oof. Was it something/everything he said?) They were Young MC, Flo Rida, Bret Michaels, Morris Day & The Time, The Commodores, Vanilla Ice, “real” Milli Vanilli Fab Morvan, Martina McBride and Freedom Williams of C+C Music Factory. Full Disclosure: We haven’t heard of any of them. Michaels evidently won Celebrity Apprentice in 2010, McBride’s a four-time CMA Award winner who’s sold 23 million albums and performed for multiple presidents, Morvan’s the surviving member of a pretty pair of guys brought low by a lip-syncing scandal. Honestly, we dunno who the others are.

Within 48 hours of them being announced, most had cancelled. They cited “misleading information,” “divisive” or partisan politics, miscommunication; a couple said they’d never been contacted in the first place. Reportedly remaining are Flo Rida, Fab Morvan and possibly Freedom Williams, or, per Dean Blundell, “one nostalgia rapper, one lip-syncer with intellectual-property issues, and a guy ranting from a toilet” - that would be Williams, who filmed a seven-minute rant about “niggers,” “motherfuckers,” and how he doesn’t give a fuck about Trump or the rest of us but after the Internet told him to bail he thought he’d fuck them all and play. Despite a broad consensus that watching the entire show as planned would be akin to “staring into a septic tank for hours,” MAGA was pissed at the drop-outs, especially McBride, the headliner, railing she’d even performed for “the Obama regime.”

Trump was gracious about the changes. Just kidding. In “prime wallow,” he railed against “these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists’...getting the yips,” and said he’s thinking instead about “bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar...the man who some say is the Greatest President in History” to give a speech at a “wild MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY” with “Only Great Patriots invited.” While even supporters griped another speech instead of a concert would be “lame and boring,” nobody knows what latest chaos will befall the event. What many of us do know is that all the detritus of this shameful historic moment - the names, arches, gimcracks, breaches, endless cruelties of a tyrant’s resolve to “impose himself on the world” must go. With a nod to Walter White, we look to Ozymandias, a poem “to outlast empires,” for hope and guidance.

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.



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Abby Zimet
Abby Zimet has written CD's Further column since 2008. A longtime, award-winning journalist, she moved to the Maine woods in the early 70s, where she spent a dozen years building a house, hauling water and writing before moving to Portland. Having come of political age during the Vietnam War, she has long been involved in women's, labor, anti-war, social justice and refugee rights issues. Email: azimet18@gmail.com
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