Kushner Island? Why a planned resort has provoked protests in Albania

To Ivanka Trump, Sazan was a ‘find’. Thousands of Albanians however fear that it could be their loss. In an interview with US podcaster David Senra this week, vanka – eldest daughter of US President Donald Trump – described the uninhabited island off Albania’s west coast almost as a patch of land that she and her husband Jared Kushner were the first to discover. Recommended Stories list of 4 items end of list “We were on a friend’s boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it,” she said, speaking of the island where a proposed luxury development plan linked to Kushner has provoked widespread anger across Albania. “We swam to the island. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated.” That captivation ultimately led to a project which was unveiled more than two years ago involving the construction of luxury hotels. But when the bulldozers arrived on the beaches in recent days, protesters rallied in the thousands. The government says the development on Albania’s Adriatic coast will be hugely valuable for the country – but it has drawn opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of long-time Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama. …