{"id":7048317,"date":"2026-08-26T13:10:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/how-jared-kushner-sparked-a-political-crisis-in-albania\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T13:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:10:49","slug":"how-jared-kushner-sparked-a-political-crisis-in-albania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7048317","title":{"rendered":"How Jared Kushner Sparked a Political Crisis in Albania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div id=\"article-title-block_c18624d666ce427049d7e9594e263ce8\" class=\"article-title \">\n<div class=\"article-title__container\">\n<div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>Outraged Albanians are targeting the presidential son-in-law for pursuing a $4 billion luxury resort deal in a business climate rife with corruption and environmental neglect. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"ad-block ad siderail-ad float-r-w-3 break-r-4\">\n<p>                                    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/advertising-policy\" class=\"ad-policy\" target=\"_blank\">Ad Policy<\/a><br \/>\n                                    <\/aside>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"907\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Albania.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-600135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Albania.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Albania-275x173.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Albania-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Albania-810x510.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Albania-340x215.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Albania-168x106.jpg 168w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Albania-382x240.jpg 382w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Albania-793x500.jpg 793w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\n<p>Protesters in Tirana, Albania seek to stop a luxury resort development that presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner wants to streamline on environmentally sensitive land.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"credits\">(Olsi Shehu \/ Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"is-style-dropcap\">Dozens of protesters gathered at a scenic lagoon outside the Albanian coastal city of Vlore on May 23 to oppose the development of a luxury resort by an international consortium led by Jared Kushner. The demonstration received scant attention from Albania\u2019s media establishment, which is controlled by many of the same oligarchic forces that support the Kushner project.<\/p>\n<p>But over the next two weeks, the public mood in Albania turned sharply against the resort, in addition to another Kushner-helmed development. The projects have reportedly amassed some $4 billion from global investors, including Kushner\u2019s long-standing partners who run sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East. The developers of the Vlore resort sent a stark message by erecting a barbed-wire fence around the property and unleashing a retinue of private security guards to administer beatings to the next round of anti-development protesters in early June. These draconian measures reinforced the broader Albanian public\u2019s impression that their country is becoming a plaything of privileged oligarchs; the protests continued to gain momentum, and built into a major political crisis by the end of last week, with thousands of people now turning out for near-daily protests.<\/p>\n<p>The Albanian government, led by the semi-autocratic and pro-development Prime Minister Edi Rama, now faces a unique coalition of environmental activists, local residents claiming corrupt developers and government officials screwed them out of their property, and ordinary people concerned that Albania\u2019s explosion of luxury development is linked to money laundering. Among other things, the mounting protests in Albania are demonstrating that the Trumpian model of oligarchic impunity is not only aging badly in America but also proving to be an increasingly toxic export.<\/p>\n<p>The complicated and messy scandal has galvanized anti-government sentiment among Albanians, who have long endured rule by powerful oligarchs and corrupt politicians with extensive ties to an Albanian organized crime diaspora. Rama\u2019s Socialist Party and the opposition Democratic Party (with neither socialism nor democracy being anywhere close to either party\u2019s actual governing agenda) often trade accusations of corruption that the Albanian people have credited\u2014often with sound justification.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a political battle between two sets of criminals,\u201d one local journalist remarked about the Albanian governing duopoly. \u201cThere\u2019s no good guys here, so people accept the accusations are true and apply to both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"current-issue-block_0c0658a8d56c65d157e0a97a472458cd\" class=\"current-issue  float-l-w-2\">\n<h4 class=\"current-issue__title\">\n                    Current Issue<br \/>\n            <\/h4>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/issue\/september-2026-issue\/\" class=\"current-issue__cover\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/09-26-Cover-1.jpg\" alt=\"Cover of September 2026 Issue\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Still, the disillusioned-to-cynical Albanian public seems to have found a new common enemy in Jared Kushner and his high-rolling investor consortium. The conflict harks back to 2024, when Rama unilaterally approved Kushner\u2019s controversial development proposal for Sazan Island, a waterless rock covered in Cold War\u2013era bunkers off the coast of Vlore\u2014along with a smaller, but still disruptive, project that would level a nearby coastal wetlands. Albanian environmental regulators were sidelined as Rama fast-tracked the deal. He was initially able to contain public discontent by touting the tourist revenues from the Kushner projects to one of the smallest and poorest countries in southern Europe\u2014a pitch very much in line with Rama\u2019s campaign to get Albania approved for European Union membership.<\/p>\n<p>Sazan Island, about five square miles of rocky scrub an hour off the coast, historically has been a closed military zone\u2014a monument to the paranoid, autocratic reign of Albania\u2019s former communist dictator Enver Hoxha. The rocky outcropping had been heavily fortified with a welter of bunkers, minefields, and artillery emplacements, all to fend off an impending invasion by an unlikely alliance of NATO, the USSR, and neighboring Yugoslavia that never materialized.<\/p>\n<p>After the Hoxha regime\u2019s fall in 1991, Sazan remained empty, apart from the odd hiker or curious Italian tourist. The island has no water source, almost no beach, and a prohibition on camping because of forgotten minefields, long-abandoned stocks of rotting antique artillery shells, and a population of extremely poisonous vipers. With Vlore\u2019s hospital more than an hour away by boat, a snakebite would prove fatal, so hikers are forced to leave at sunset. Albanians had long greeted any proposal to build a resort on Sazan as a punch line, insisting that there\u2019s a reason it remained uninhabited over the past 6,000 years or so.<\/p>\n<p>But that all changed in 2021, when Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump took a holiday yacht trip\u2014accompanied by the banking heir Nathanial Rothschild, who introduced the pair to Rama. The power couple fell in love with Sazan and the neighboring Zv\u00ebrnec peninsula on the mainland. Zv\u00ebrnec, a more viable spot for a resort and home to marshlands, pristine beaches, monk seals, and about 70 species of endangered birds including flamingos. By 2024, Kushner\u2019s investment fund Affinity Partners, backed by a trio of Qatari billionaires, had proposed a series of developments anchored by luxury hotels on Sazan and Zv\u00ebrnec.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cta-block_76c42f9ab49cb955bdbb1681040f9737\" class=\"cta float-l-w-3\">\n<p>From there, Rama went into oligarch-appeasing overdrive\u2014environmental impact be damned. As work on both developments proceeds, Albanians are becoming outraged over the thoughtless damage wrought on the country\u2019s ecosystem. \u201cA protected landscape of global importance is under attack, and people are demanding an end to the devastation,\u201d said Anouk Puymartin, Birdlife International\u2019s head of policy for Europe and Central Asia. \u201cNature belongs to everyone, not a handful of investors. The horrendous situation in Vjosa-Narte shows why laws are crucial to protect both people and nature. But those protections mean little if governments fail to uphold them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rama had no doubt calculated that the Kushner projects would escape close attention because he\u2019s already done so much to despoil the Albanian landscape. Since he came to power in 2013 after a popular stint as Tirana\u2019s mayor, Rama has worked closely with real estate developers across the country to approve a seemingly endless number of construction projects, including huge apartment towers sprouting across Tirana. These projects are adding tens of thousands of luxury apartment units to a city of a few hundred thousand people that continues to lose population each year to economic migration across the continent. Nobody thinks these apartments will be occupied.<\/p>\n<p>Rama has remained defiant in support of the Kushner deal and other commercial development plans, even as thousands of protesters continue to camp out in front of his office every day for a week. \u201cIf it was not Jared, they would not give a shit about what is happening in Albania,\u201d said Rama from an EU summit in neighboring Montenegro on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s not wrong. Albania hardly commands the attention of the world media, while the exploits of Trump and his family are reliable sources of global news coverage. But Rama has also mishandled the government\u2019s response to the protests, further inflaming grassroots opposition to the Kushner projects. He\u2019s said that builders won\u2019t be pouring concrete on the heads of flamingos\u2014a botched attempt at humor that only underscores his administration\u2019s profit-driven end runs around environmental regulation. He\u2019s also promised to launch Albania into the \u201cChampion\u2019s League\u201d of European tourism without addressing the open corruption and self-dealing that are fueling the protests. All the while, he\u2019s failed to address what most Albanians and European regulators see as the elephant in the room: Albania\u2019s growing prominence as a haven for organized crime in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Albania is a lovely, welcoming place for visitors and virtually free of street crime. Albanians follow strict codes of personal honor so stealing a mobile phone is unthinkable, lost wallets are returned with the money inside, laptops can be left in cafes unattended, and muggings are unheard of. At the same time, however, the country\u2019s tightly knit social ethos has proved hospitable to organized crime: the same sense of honor, combined with a strong network of family clans, a complete distrust of government authority, and close cultural and geographic proximity to southern Italy\u2019s mafia heartland, has helped to foster prime conditions for mafia control. Over the past two decades, Albanian clans have taken over much of Europe\u2019s cocaine trade, which has immersed an otherwise poor country in illegal, hard-to-spend cash. And the government isn\u2019t about to spurn the economic benefits of this influx.<\/p>\n<p>The luxury construction boom in Albania is a prime case in point. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously money laundering by organized crime,\u201d said my journalist colleague, who investigates crime and corruption. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to turn cocaine money from the cartels working in the UK and northern Europe into assets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s all a recipe for corruption on a massive scale, as powerful business interests coordinate new development projects with the government, and the international mafia ecosystem. Kushner and his consortium of investors aren\u2019t direct players in this system\u2014but it\u2019s unthinkable that his local business backers and government officials friendly to the projects aren\u2019t involved.<\/p>\n<section aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"ad fullwidth-ad contained row position-relative ad-block alignfull \">\n    <!--Ad policy starts here--><br \/>\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/advertising-policy\" class=\"mid-ad-policy\">Ad Policy<\/a><br \/>\n        <!--Ad policy ends here--><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>This kind of corruption is simply priced into most major investment projects in Albania. Dozens of suits are wending their way through the courts alleging that land allotted for potential development was fraudulently seized by alliances of local officials and business concerns. These charges are part of a larger pattern of big-money players preying on Albania\u2019s chaotic system of property ownership, which has yet to work through the fallout from mass communist-era land seizures. Prominent lawyer and developer Pellumb Petritaj, whose client base included several owners of disputed development parcels, was <a href=\"https:\/\/boldnews.al\/2018\/04\/27\/the-businessman-convicted-of-forgery-allegedly-alienated-500-hectares-of-land\/\">convicted of fraud in 2018<\/a> for forging property ownership documents in a welter of other real estate deals.<\/p>\n<p>Shefqet Kastrati, meanwhile, is perhaps Albania\u2019s most powerful oligarch. He owns the international airport and most of the country\u2019s gasoline stations, and has built much of the country\u2019s infrastructure. Kastrati is reportedly a party in the Kushner deal, even though the exact nature of his alleged involvement has yet to come to light. Still, Kastrati\u2019s son, Musa, was photographed standing next to Ivanka Trump at the press event announcing the project\u2014suggesting that the inner workings of the Albanian oligarchy, like the American one, are very much a family affair.<\/p>\n<section id=\"popular-block_6bfcb79eb5419219b783b07ad972ec9f\" class=\"popular-articles\">\n<div class=\"swiper\">\n<p><h2>Popular<\/h2>\n<p>            <span class=\"swipe-msg\"><span class=\"sr-only\">\u201cswipe left below to view more authors\u201d<\/span>Swipe \u2192<\/span>\n        <\/p>\n<ol class=\"popular-articles__list\">\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>Like their counterparts in the Rama government who counted on sneaking the developments by the public, the protesters have promoted opposition to the Kushner developments as part of a broader strategic assessment. Albania\u2019s political and business class is too influential to be effectively challenged outright\u2014so protesters have privately said that Kushner and his partners, a Qatari-based consortium controlled by billionaire investor Moutaz Khayyat and his two brothers, are a prime target of opportunity, since they symbolize an ethos of reckless and self-interested exploitation all too familiar to the struggling Albanian population. \u201cThey\u2019re easier to attack in public but the result is the same,\u201d said one anti-corruption activist. \u201cIt\u2019s hopeless to go after the government and mafia, but we can go after Trump\u2019s son-in-law as a way to hurt [the local actors] and make some progress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Albania\u2019s embattled but independent anti-corruption task force, known by its acronym SPAK, seems to be following the same logic as it seeks to quell concerns from the European Union about the role of moneyed influence in the country\u2019s judiciary. On June 2, SPAK prosecutors announced the seizure of bank accounts and business records of Albania Land Development, a local company managed by a Netherlands shell company, pending an investigation into fraudulent property title and other unspecified concerns surrounding the Kushner deal. I tried to visit the offices of Albania Land Development last week, only to find them empty. But one key data point about the firm is resounding among the growing crowds of protesters in Albania: It turns out that its ultimate owner is Kushner\u2019s Qatari crony Moutaz Khayyat.<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-end-\" class=\"article-end \">\n<div class=\"article-end__authors\">\n<div class=\"article-end__author\">\n<h5 class=\"article-end__author-name\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/mitchell-prothero\/\">Mitchell Prothero<\/a><br \/>\n                    <\/h5>\n<div class=\"article-end__author-bio\">\n<p>Mitchell Prothero has covered international crime, terrorism, intelligence and security issues from the Middle East and Europe for over two decades. Previously Iraq bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers, he\u2019s written about security and terrorism in Europe for <em>BuzzFeed News<\/em> and as a senior writer for <em>Vice World News<\/em>. He\u2019s currently based in Tirana, Albania.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>        <!-- Tag ID: thenation_incontent_2 --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<!-- Tag ID: thenation_registration_billboard --><\/p>\n<section class=\"collections collections--col-0\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<h2 class=\"collections__title\">More from <span class=\"not-italic\">The Nation<\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"collection__row\">\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/world\/ukraine-russia-nuclear-war-risk\/\" aria-label=\"Ukraine and Our Wildly Reckless Flirtation With a Nuclear War\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Bivens-Ukrainenuclear_war.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Bivens-Ukrainenuclear_war-275x173.jpg 275w, 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first time in the lifetime of most of us, there are no remaining US-Russian arms control agreements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/matt-bivens\/\">Matt Bivens<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/world\/american-left-ukraine-peace\/\" aria-label=\"\u201cA Decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind\u201d Mandates a Search for Peace in Ukraine\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kyiv_august.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kyiv_august-275x173.jpg 275w, 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November, and of the presidency in 2028.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/anatol-lieven\/\">Anatol Lieven<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/world\/rats-gaza-vermin-crisis\/\" aria-label=\"The Rats Terrorizing Everyone in Gaza\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2268564112.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2268564112-275x173.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2268564112-768x484.jpg 768w, 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people wherever they go.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/huda-skaik\/\">Huda Skaik<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/world\/ukraine-military-conscription-draft-dodgers\/\" aria-label=\"Millions of Ukrainian Men Are Fleeing a Cruel Conscription System\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukraine_draft.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukraine_draft-275x173.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukraine_draft-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukraine_draft-810x510.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukraine_draft-340x215.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukraine_draft-168x106.jpg 168w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukraine_draft-382x240.jpg 382w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukraine_draft-793x500.jpg 793w\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukraine_draft.jpg\" alt=\"Teenagers walk by a military recruitment poster in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, in 2024.\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>They are being written out of the narrative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/dan-storyev\/\">Dan Storyev<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/world\/india-student-protests-cockroach-janata-party\/\" aria-label=\"India\u2019s Cockroaches Were Never Radical Enough\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cjp-inda.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cjp-inda-275x173.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cjp-inda-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cjp-inda-810x510.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cjp-inda-340x215.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cjp-inda-168x106.jpg 168w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cjp-inda-382x240.jpg 382w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cjp-inda-793x500.jpg 793w\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cjp-inda.jpg\" alt=\"In New Delhi, India, on July 26, the words \u201cWE WON\u201d are seen written on the pavement following the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, meeting a key demand of the Cockroach Janta Party.\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>The Cockroach Janta Party protests won a great victory. What will be their legacy?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/wolf-hertzberg\/\">Wolf Hertzberg<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/world\/trump-cia-cuba-covert-operations-regime-change\/\" aria-label=\"The CIA Targets Cuba\u2026 Again\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/castro.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/castro-275x173.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/castro-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/castro-810x510.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/castro-340x215.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/castro-168x106.jpg 168w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/castro-382x240.jpg 382w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/castro-793x500.jpg 793w\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/castro.jpg\" alt=\"A portrait of the late Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, on August 10, 2026. During his life, the United States devised numerous unsuccessful plans to assassinate the Cuban leader.\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>Covert operations add to Trump\u2019s ruthless regime change efforts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/peter-kornbluh\/\">Peter Kornbluh<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>        <!-- Tag ID: thenation_btf_medrec --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"tpContentAuthor\" value=\"Mitchell Prothero\"\/><br \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"tpTags\" value=\"business,class,environmental-activism,europe,finance,globalization,inequality,world,paywall\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"61a5612a6544b7ef2beef14c-text\/javascript\">\n\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n\t\t{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n\t\tif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n\t\tn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n\t\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '233793277040432');\n\t\tfbq('track', 'PageView');\n\t\t\t\t<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Outraged Albanians are targeting the presidential son-in-law for pursuing a $4 billion luxury resort deal in a business climate rife with corruption and environmental neglect. Ad Policy Protesters in Tirana, Albania seek to stop a luxury resort development that presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner wants to streamline on environmentally sensitive land. (Olsi Shehu \/ Anadolu via [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7048318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[28248,11649,28952,6055,13348,21523],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7048317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-albania","tag-crisis","tag-jared","tag-kushner","tag-political","tag-sparked"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Jared Kushner Sparked a Political Crisis in Albania - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7048317\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Jared Kushner Sparked a Political Crisis in Albania - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Outraged Albanians are targeting the presidential son-in-law for pursuing a $4 billion luxury resort deal in a business climate rife with corruption and environmental neglect. 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