Presidential relatives: Jared Kushner, Hunter Biden, et al.
TalkPro and Con
Join LibraryThing to post.
1margd
Jared Kushner Has Big Plans for Delta of Europe’s Last Wild River
Fred Pearce • April 9, 2024
Albania’s Vjosë River is known as Europe’s last wild river, and its pristine delta is a haven for migratory birds.
...The Vjosë delta and its lagoon are under siege. They are set to become the victims of a series of massive coastal tourist developments, partly bankrolled by a company set up by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. {Beginning with Saudi Aria's $2 billion?} The hotels and luxury villas will accommodate up to a million visitors arriving annually at a new international airport currently being built on salt marshes around the lagoon.
Until the fall of the Iron Curtain that walled off communist Eastern Europe from the capitalist West, Albania was the 20th century equivalent of North Korea, a virtual prison state under the control of strongman Enver Hoxha. But today, its government wants to welcome the world and is bent on turning the country’s previously remote southern coastal region into what it calls an Albanian Riviera...
The delta “is one of the most vital sites for biodiversity, not only within Albania but across Europe,” says an environmentalist.
The Albanian parliament approved a measure that allows the prime minister to override existing protections for the delta.
While Western European nations are tearing down barriers to rewild rivers, those in the east are going in the opposite direction.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has accused environmentalists of “raving about the destruction of an imaginary national park.”
...In an address to a political assembly last month, Prime Minister Rama blasted his environmental critics, accusing them of “raving about the destruction of an imaginary national park that has never been a protected area,” of “releasing thunderbolts of accusations and slanders about me,” and of “making Albania seem unfairly ridiculous in the eyes of the world.”
Whatever the critics might say, he lauded the claim of developers that “Albania is the new rising star of tourism in the Mediterranean.”
https://e360.yale.edu/features/jared-kushner-albania-vjose-vjosa-river-hotel
Fred Pearce • April 9, 2024
Albania’s Vjosë River is known as Europe’s last wild river, and its pristine delta is a haven for migratory birds.
...The Vjosë delta and its lagoon are under siege. They are set to become the victims of a series of massive coastal tourist developments, partly bankrolled by a company set up by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. {Beginning with Saudi Aria's $2 billion?} The hotels and luxury villas will accommodate up to a million visitors arriving annually at a new international airport currently being built on salt marshes around the lagoon.
Until the fall of the Iron Curtain that walled off communist Eastern Europe from the capitalist West, Albania was the 20th century equivalent of North Korea, a virtual prison state under the control of strongman Enver Hoxha. But today, its government wants to welcome the world and is bent on turning the country’s previously remote southern coastal region into what it calls an Albanian Riviera...
The delta “is one of the most vital sites for biodiversity, not only within Albania but across Europe,” says an environmentalist.
The Albanian parliament approved a measure that allows the prime minister to override existing protections for the delta.
While Western European nations are tearing down barriers to rewild rivers, those in the east are going in the opposite direction.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has accused environmentalists of “raving about the destruction of an imaginary national park.”
...In an address to a political assembly last month, Prime Minister Rama blasted his environmental critics, accusing them of “raving about the destruction of an imaginary national park that has never been a protected area,” of “releasing thunderbolts of accusations and slanders about me,” and of “making Albania seem unfairly ridiculous in the eyes of the world.”
Whatever the critics might say, he lauded the claim of developers that “Albania is the new rising star of tourism in the Mediterranean.”
https://e360.yale.edu/features/jared-kushner-albania-vjose-vjosa-river-hotel
2margd
Jared Kushner's Real Estate Deal Comes Under Scrutiny
Jordan King | 5 June 2024
...In May, Affinity Partners, Kushner's investment firm, announced it had signed a $500 million deal with the Serbian government to build a luxury hotel in Belgrade, the country's capital.
The hotel is set to go up on the site of the former Defense Ministry, which was bombed in 1999 during the Kosovo War, and the deal includes a pledge to build a "memorial dedicated to all the victims of NATO aggression."
During the war, the U.S. joined forces with NATO to launch airstrikes against the Serbian government under President Slobodan Milosevic, who had unleashed a program of ethnic cleansing against Albanians in Kosovo.
Retired General Wesley Clark, who served as NATO's supreme allied commander at the time, has criticized the planned memorial, ... it is "worse than a reversal" of U.S. policies ... "It's a betrayal of the United States, its policies and the brave diplomats and airmen who did what they could to stop Serb ethnic cleansing" ...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/jared-kushners-real-estate-deal-comes-under...
---------------------------------------------
Jared Kushner’s Latest Real Estate Deal Comes With Shocking Condition
Talia Jane | June 5, 2024
Jared Kushner received a massive real estate deal in Serbia—with some interesting fine print...
https://newrepublic.com/post/182304/jared-kushner-real-estate-deal-serbia-condit...
Jordan King | 5 June 2024
...In May, Affinity Partners, Kushner's investment firm, announced it had signed a $500 million deal with the Serbian government to build a luxury hotel in Belgrade, the country's capital.
The hotel is set to go up on the site of the former Defense Ministry, which was bombed in 1999 during the Kosovo War, and the deal includes a pledge to build a "memorial dedicated to all the victims of NATO aggression."
During the war, the U.S. joined forces with NATO to launch airstrikes against the Serbian government under President Slobodan Milosevic, who had unleashed a program of ethnic cleansing against Albanians in Kosovo.
Retired General Wesley Clark, who served as NATO's supreme allied commander at the time, has criticized the planned memorial, ... it is "worse than a reversal" of U.S. policies ... "It's a betrayal of the United States, its policies and the brave diplomats and airmen who did what they could to stop Serb ethnic cleansing" ...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/jared-kushners-real-estate-deal-comes-under...
---------------------------------------------
Jared Kushner’s Latest Real Estate Deal Comes With Shocking Condition
Talia Jane | June 5, 2024
Jared Kushner received a massive real estate deal in Serbia—with some interesting fine print...
https://newrepublic.com/post/182304/jared-kushner-real-estate-deal-serbia-condit...
3margd
New York Times Pitchbot @DougJBalloon | 8:56 AM · Jun 12, 2024:
Parody. We know the devil. We have shaken him by the hand, embraced him, and thought his stinking breath was fine perfume.
Now that Merrick Garland has convicted Joe Biden’s son while doing absolutely nothing to Donald Trump, Republicans are certain to admit that the DOJ has not been politicized.
_____________________________________
Republicans stick to attacking criminal justice system, echoing Trump, after Hunter Biden conviction
JONATHAN J. COOPER and ERIC TUCKER | June 12, 2024
PHOENIX (AP) — Republicans are responding to Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges with some version of, “That’s it?”...
https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-conviction-republicans-reaction-trump-eb...
Parody. We know the devil. We have shaken him by the hand, embraced him, and thought his stinking breath was fine perfume.
Now that Merrick Garland has convicted Joe Biden’s son while doing absolutely nothing to Donald Trump, Republicans are certain to admit that the DOJ has not been politicized.
_____________________________________
Republicans stick to attacking criminal justice system, echoing Trump, after Hunter Biden conviction
JONATHAN J. COOPER and ERIC TUCKER | June 12, 2024
PHOENIX (AP) — Republicans are responding to Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges with some version of, “That’s it?”...
https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-conviction-republicans-reaction-trump-eb...
4John5918
Hunter Biden conviction could boost father against Trump, experts suggest (Guardian)
'Hunter Biden’s story is a story that all too many Americans know' (BBC)
Hunter Biden’s conviction on gun-ownership charges may have handed his father, Joe, a boost in the forthcoming presidential election, analysts say, because it undermines the image of a president weaponising the US justice system to pursue Donald Trump. Trump, the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has pushed that line relentlessly to explain his conviction last month on charges related to the concealment of hush-money payments to a porn star to help him win the 2016 election. He has made the claim even though his prosecution was brought in a New York state court that is independent of the Department of Justice, which is overseeing 54 other criminal charges against him that have so far not come to trial. Hunter Biden, by contrast, was prosecuted and convicted under the authority of the justice department, which is part of his father’s administration – an inconvenient fact that weakens Republican claims that it has been turned into a political weapon in the president’s hands. The result, some observers say, is that Hunter’s conviction may help the president in a close race, even though the personal cost of his son’s troubles is heavy. That suspicion was further fuelled by a low-key reaction from Republicans that attempted to switch the focus to other supposed crimes they say, but have never proved, that father and son have committed...
'Hunter Biden’s story is a story that all too many Americans know' (BBC)
“Hunter Biden’s story is a story that all too many Americans know intimately”... “It’s a good thing if, at the end of the day, we shift our conversations and our focus away from just piling on, and instead recognise that addiction is a public health crisis and that recovery is possible.” In 2022, nearly 49 million Americans aged 12 and older struggled with a substance abuse disorder in the past year, according to the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health. And about a third of Americans knew someone who died of a drug overdose, according to a study published in medical journal JAMA in March... Biden's case over several days showed not even America’s first family is immune to addiction, and highlighted a battle millions face across the US. “Every family, whether you’re coastal or in the American heartland, probably has a family member or an extended family member who {has} a substance use disorder,” said Dr Lucas Trautman, medical director at a chapter of American Addiction Centers in Mississippi... “We’re constantly trying to destigmatise substance use treatment, so that people come forward,” said Dr Trautman. “Any time we use a public figure who has a substance abuse disorder for political gain and paint them in a nefarious light, it could stigmatise other people suffering from addiction''... Some advocates argue that the brutal depiction unveiled in the high-profile trial could lead to more beneficial conversations around addiction and accountability. “We need to get substance use out in the public, people talking about it, and developing the policies and strategies and tools put in place to holistically help people,” said Pat Aussem, vice president at Partnership to End Addiction who works on programmes for families. There are precedents for America’s first families forever changing - and improving - the conversation around addiction... Patti Davis, daughter of late former president Ronald Reagan... “Families of presidents have struggled with substance use issues forever,” said Mr Moyers, who works with the clinics founded by first lady Betty Ford, who challenged taboos when she came forward about her struggles with substance abuse in the 1970s...
5margd
Report: Jared Kushner’s $2 Billion Saudi Check Appears Even More Comically Corrupt Than Previously Thought
Bess Levin | May 23, 2022
“The reason this smells so bad is that there is all sorts of evidence he did not receive this on the merits.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/jared-kushner-affinity-partners-saudi-ar...
Bess Levin | May 23, 2022
“The reason this smells so bad is that there is all sorts of evidence he did not receive this on the merits.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/jared-kushner-affinity-partners-saudi-ar...
