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Why so many Albanians hate the Trump-Kushner resort deal so much · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: These protests are about real estate development as a tool
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of geopolitics. They're also about people being fed up with
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the Albanian government and political system, and about flamingos. This
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  Speaker 1: resistance points to uneven relations between countries because the would
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: be developer is Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son in law.
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  Speaker 1: It's all put the prime minister under pressure.
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  Speaker 2: We'll not discuss about people, about characters and about ideological
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  Speaker 2: fight with people. These are your fights, you can make them,
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  Speaker 2: but this is not my fight.
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  Speaker 1: So is it a good idea for little countries to
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  Speaker 1: try to use their assets in this case coastline for
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  Speaker 1: geopolitical favors or are places like Albania bound to lose
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  Speaker 1: the idea that's made people so angry. Plans to develop
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  Speaker 1: a coastal nature preserve into a luxury resort with up
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  Speaker 1: to ten thousand hotel rooms shown here in an architects
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  Speaker 1: rendering from Jared Kushner's own social media account. The investment
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  Speaker 1: group headed by Kushner it fit into Albanian government plans
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  Speaker 1: to attract foreign capital and raise the country's profile. That's
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  Speaker 1: key because the Kushner name doesn't just mean money. He's
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  Speaker 1: married to Ivanka Trump the president's daughter, so it means
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  Speaker 1: potential access to the White House, and that's a big
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  Speaker 1: deal for a small place like Albania. The Kushner family
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  Speaker 1: is tight with the president. Jared's dad is Charles Kushner,
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  Speaker 1: a major New Jersey real estate developer who's now the
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  Speaker 1: US Ambassador to France. All this has helped to make
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  Speaker 1: Jared Kushner a powerful player in the Trump administration. He
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  Speaker 1: led ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, Ukraine, and Iran along with
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  Speaker 1: Steve Whitkoff. But Kushner's position is informal. His only title
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  Speaker 1: is Special Peace Envoy, and he's never been confirmed by
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  Speaker 1: the Senate, as figures like the Secretary of State must be.
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  Speaker 1: So why wouldn't a tiny country like Albania, with a
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  Speaker 1: population of two point four million get involved with Kushner
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  Speaker 1: on a multi billion dollar development project. This mixing of
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  Speaker 1: American business and politics is nothing new, right I.
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  Speaker 3: Think the degree to which business interests and the political
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  Speaker 3: activities of the family are intertwined in the United States
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  Speaker 3: in the Trump administration, the second Trump administration in particular,
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  Speaker 3: is unique. Probably in the United States. We have had
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  Speaker 3: members of the family who have tried to use their
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  Speaker 3: family connections for influence of various kinds. Going back to
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Billy Carter in the Carter administration, of course, Hunter Biden
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  Speaker 3: got a lot of attention for attempting to use his
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  Speaker 3: connections in the Ukraine and elsewhere. But in the way
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  Speaker 3: the Trump family has used the political their political positions
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  Speaker 3: to enrich themselves, I think it's fair to say is
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  Speaker 3: relatively is unique.
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  Speaker 1: Albania has historically been one of the most pro American
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  Speaker 1: countries in Europe. It's also negotiating to join the European Union.
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  Speaker 3: This, in the Prime Minister's view, fits very nicely with
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  Speaker 3: that investment ties reinforcing political ties to the West and
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  Speaker 3: to the United States, and the United States right now
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  Speaker 3: is the Trump administration, So why not economic gain and
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  Speaker 3: political gain? I think that's the way the Prime Minister
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  Speaker 3: portrays it, or would think about it.
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  Speaker 1: We'll hear more from the Prime Minister in a second.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Let's break down what a real estate deal between Albania
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  Speaker 1: and Jared Kushner's investment group means. Albania trades access to
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  Speaker 1: its land, not oil, not products, in exchange for it
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  Speaker 1: hopes money and access to political power, displacing thousands of
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  Speaker 1: flamingos seals and turtles in the process. Now, let's take
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  Speaker 1: a look at the money. Sovereign wealth funds in Saudi
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  Speaker 1: Arabia and Qatar invested in Jared Kushner's Affinity Partner's investment
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  Speaker 1: firm to the tune of billions of dollars despite his
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  Speaker 1: lack of financial experience. So what do they get out
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  Speaker 1: of it?
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's a controversial point. He would make the argument,
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  Speaker 3: this is an economic decision on their part and purely economic,
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  Speaker 3: and they're going to He's going to make great investments.
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  Speaker 3: They're going to make great returns, and that's all there
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  Speaker 3: is to it. When he set up Affinity Partners when
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  Speaker 3: I believe it was twenty twenty one, he had no
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  Speaker 3: experience in finance. He was a real estate person to
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  Speaker 3: a degree from his family background. So the idea that
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  Speaker 3: he was going to get major investments from investors in
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  Speaker 3: the Middle East on the basis of his financial expertise
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  Speaker 3: seems a little bit implausible, I would say, And yet
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  Speaker 3: he did. So one has to assume there's an expectation
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  Speaker 3: on the part of these partners that there is perhaps
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  Speaker 3: some political influence that they would gain.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody it seems gets access to something beyond just dollars.
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  Speaker 1: So if you're a tiny country with something big players want,
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  Speaker 1: you stand to make gains by striking a deal. But
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  Speaker 1: it's a gamble and gambles can go wrong. In twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty four, Albanian Prime Minister Edie Rama oversaw a change
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  Speaker 1: to Albania's environmental protection laws, allowing protected ecosystems to be developed.
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  Speaker 1: In an interview with DW, he said it wasn't dramatic.
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  Speaker 2: We didn't change the substance of the law, and our
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  Speaker 2: changes are not in brich with European standards and criterias,
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  Speaker 2: which we will make sure to be verified through a
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  Speaker 2: process that has to do with our negotiations.
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  Speaker 1: We'll get back to whether the European Union agrees. Let's
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  Speaker 1: hear how he talks about the development of public land.
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  Speaker 1: The privatization of public space. Is that a price that
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  Speaker 1: you are prepared to pay for this transformation?
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  Speaker 2: This is this is another lie that is being told
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  Speaker 2: intensively and has become a fact that you are now
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  Speaker 2: using to make a question because there is no privatization
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  Speaker 2: of public space. Simple, there is not. It's a lie.
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  Speaker 1: He dismissed criticism of Albania's involvement with Jared Kushner and
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  Speaker 1: Ivanka Trump.
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  Speaker 2: How a project by Trump and Kushner may look like.
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  Speaker 2: What is this question? How one can answer? I'm not
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  Speaker 2: bringing nor they one either the other as a project
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  Speaker 2: will not discuss about people, about characters and about ideological
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  Speaker 2: fight with people. These are your fights, you can make them,
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  Speaker 2: but this is not my fight. My fight is to
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  Speaker 2: bring in Albania for indiret investment. My fight is to
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  Speaker 2: make happen developments that will be absolutely not simply great
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  Speaker 2: for Albania, but it will be a gift to your.
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  Speaker 1: That's not how many Albanians see it.
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  Speaker 4: Everything was unclear in this project. Who are who the
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  Speaker 4: owners are, who is going to invest there? And the
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  Speaker 4: protest is because of the lack of transparency. Is the
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  Speaker 4: lack of the public consultation. Is Everything that is happening
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  Speaker 4: in those projects, but even in other projects in Albanian
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  Speaker 4: are without their consens.
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  Speaker 1: And that has made people angry, very angry.
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  Speaker 2: Albania is not for sale.
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  Speaker 4: Albania belongs to the Albanian people.
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  Speaker 1: Eddie Rama has tied his own fate to the project,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps unwisely, because it's not just about Flamingos. Protests against
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  Speaker 1: the Kushner project set off a cascade of anger, with
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  Speaker 1: many people on the streets calling for systemic political change.
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  Speaker 4: From in Israeli, Rama said that the project will continue
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  Speaker 4: as long as he will be on power. So now
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  Speaker 4: the protests in Albania are asking him to resign. It
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  Speaker 4: started as because of the investment that's in zone Andsner,
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  Speaker 4: and it started because of that. That was only the
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  Speaker 4: top of the iceberg.
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  Speaker 2: Now we're protesting for our eyes.
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  Speaker 4: And per in Albania. We have involved now in Albania
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  Speaker 4: in one of the biggest, let's say, protests that Albinia
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  Speaker 4: have seen since the fall of the communist regime, because
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  Speaker 4: they are protesting now against the model itself.
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  Speaker 1: Kushner's project may also be getting in the way of
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  Speaker 1: Albania's joining the European Union, a goal for decades. Despite
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Rama's assertions to the contrary, the European Commission has warned
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  Speaker 1: that the development would be at odds with EU environmental
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  Speaker 1: protection rules, and that comes on top of long standing
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  Speaker 1: worries about corruption in Albania, and the political connections may
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  Speaker 1: not last for long. Kushner's father in law, Donald Trump,
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  Speaker 1: is barred by the US Constitution from running for president again.
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  Speaker 3: If a Republican party loses power, and even with Republican support,
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  Speaker 3: I think there will be measures taken to prevent these
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  Speaker 3: types of conflicts of interest taking place in the future.
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  Speaker 3: Now that would take a lot of work, some very
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  Speaker 3: specific legislation probably to prevent this from happening again. But
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  Speaker 3: I do think there will be some pushback, some recoil
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  Speaker 3: from this type of intermingling of business in politics and
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  Speaker 3: in influence in the way that we have seen in
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  Speaker 3: the Trump administration, the second Trump administration in particular.
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  Speaker 1: So little countries looking to add political sway to economic
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  Speaker 1: development by making deals with well connected individuals take on
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  Speaker 1: additional risk because those people may not be around for
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  Speaker 1: long yet not developing. It's also a the risk of
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  Speaker 1: being left behind economically and socially as the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the world builds. But for now, until Jared Kushner's luxury
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  Speaker 1: resorts are built, the Flamingoes can still call Albania their home.