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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIvanka Trump Says She Discovered an Island. Here's What Albania Just Handed Her Husband.
https://kaitjustice.substack.com/p/ivanka-trump-albania-epstein-kushnerKait Justice
Before Jared Kushner's deal, the same Adriatic coastline was appearing in Jeffrey Epstein's files alongside Nat Rothschild, Gulf money, Israeli politics, and plans for the Balkans.
Sazan is the largest island in Albania. It sits at the mouth of the Strait of Otranto, which is the narrow strip of water between Italy and Albania that controls all shipping and naval traffic between the Mediterranean Sea and the Adriatic Sea. Every ship and every submarine that moves between those two seas has to pass through that strait. The island has been classified as a military zone for roughly ninety years, occupied by the Italian Fascist regime in the 1930s, used by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, then fortified by Albania's communist government with more than three thousand soldiers and bunkers built to survive a nuclear attack.
. . .
The Albanian government opened Sazan for limited tourist boat tours in 2015, and international travel publications have been writing about it ever since. It's safe to assume most Albanians alive today know this island as a highly fortified piece of military land in their country.
The friend whose boat Ivanka was describing is Nathaniel Rothschild, a British financier and the son of the late Jacob Rothschild. Kushner confirmed on the All-In Podcast that they got picked up in Montenegro in the summer of 2021 and sailed south toward the Greek island of Corfu, stopping in Albanian waters where Prime Minister Edi Rama came aboard the yacht. Kushner said he hadn't met Rama during the first Trump administration and was "very impressed by his vision."
. . .
Albania's anti-corruption prosecutors, known as SPAK, opened an investigation in late May 2026 into how those legal changes were made and who was behind them. Meanwhile, protests have been going for weeks under the slogan "Albania is not for sale."
So naturally, if they are investigating, I am too. And the first thing that caught my attention is that Nathaniel Rothschild is not just a wealthy guy with a yacht. He has already done this exact kind of deal once before, one country over, on the same coastline.
. . .
erronis
(24,731 posts)Kait pulls together a lot of material that include Russians, Israelis, Saudis, trumpy's. The web is huge.
Bumbles
(550 posts)Corruption runs wide and deep and hidden from the common folk.
TheRickles
(3,553 posts)MagickMuffin
(18,379 posts)British naturalist Gerald Durrell wrote three books about his 19351940 childhood on Corfu: My Family and Other Animals; Birds, Beasts and Relatives; and The Garden of the Gods. His brother, literary author Lawrence Durrell, also wrote a volume about Corfu: Prospero's Cell: A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of the Island of Corcyra (Corfu).
ITV aired a TV series named The Durrells in Corfu in April 2016 and ultimately lasted four seasons, concluding in May 2019. It was a biographical series detailing Gerald Durrell's childhood on Corfu
I watched the series very well done and such beautiful scenery.
erronis
(24,731 posts)Lawrence (Gerald's brother) was also a fascinating author to me as a mid-teenager. Very, very different subjects, usually.
TheRickles
(3,553 posts)Different social strata, and their stay on Corfu in the 1930s preceded the Rothschilds' development of their estate by several decades. Would've been interesting to see what Gerald and Lawrence would've made of the Rothschilds!
Farmer-Rick
(12,817 posts)That's how the filthy-rich think and expect everyone to kowtow to their whims. Some deep bowing and subservient body language is also expected when they tell you what to do.
Who allowed these idiots to have so much wealth?
Midnight Writer
(25,894 posts)PatSeg
(53,813 posts)They see it, they want it, and they take it.
southmost
(836 posts)glad she got stopped
maxsolomon
(39,265 posts)There's 1 beach right next to the harbor. If the harbor weren't there, no beach.
Otherwise, the coast like is rocky or cliffy. There's barely a flat spot to build.
erronis
(24,731 posts)Just like they can destroy US national parks, the East Wing of the WH, etc.
niyad
(134,718 posts)on the island, left over from WWII and the Cold War. The wiki entry on the island is most interesting.
no_hypocrisy
(55,580 posts)The government or the country of Albania?
If so, wouldn't an act of their legislature be mandated for the sale? Or is it an Albanian executive order?
Is the sale a done deal?
Kid Berwyn
(25,291 posts)* De Rothschild 'unequivocally condemns' Epstein's crimes, spokesperson says
* Banker, financier agreed to meet in New York, Paris
* Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell
By Ariane Luthi and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes
Reuters, February 5, 202
ZURICH/LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Ariane de Rothschild, head of the family-owned Edmond de Rothschild Swiss private bank, corresponded dozens of times with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and agreed to multiple meetings over about five years before his 2019 arrest and jailing, U.S. Justice Department files show.
The documents, released by the U.S. Justice Department on Friday, do not appear to contain any sign of criminal wrongdoing. But they raise questions about an earlier characterisation by the bank of their relationship, cited by the Wall Street Journal in 2023, which said she met with Epstein as part of her normal duties at the bank.
Snip...
The correspondence shows the two arranged multiple meetings over several years at Epstein's homes in New York and Paris and that he invited de Rothschild to stay at his apartment.
On March 19, 2019, about four months before his arrest, Epstein wrote to de Rothschild, informing her he was in Paris. She responded: "Are you really ?!! I'm here as well. When would you be free?"
'IT'S BEEN MUCH TOO LONG'
"its (sic) been much much too long," Epstein replied, before they arranged to meet the following day. Reuters could not establish if they met as planned on this occasion or on previous ones as the correspondence suggests.
Continues...
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/epstein-files-show-swiss-bank-ceo-de-rothschild-kept-up-yearslong-personal-2026-02-05/
Small world, going by its few owners "helping" one another allatime.
niyad
(134,718 posts)has been in continuous use for centuries?
I had been wondering what czarina/princess sparkle pony has been up lately. She had seemed oddly quiet. Now, appallingly, we know.
*like columbus "discovering" the "new world", which was populated, and had some remarkble civilizations.
erronis
(24,731 posts)orangecrush
(31,566 posts)LiberalArkie
(19,946 posts)regional VP or so. Never the top dog.
niyad
(134,718 posts)pulling the strings?
TBF
(37,494 posts)who talks like that? Seriously. I can't stand her or the husband.