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TIRANA, Albania – A $4.6 billion luxury coastal development project tied to Jared Kushner, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and Ivanka Trump has become the center of mounting public outrage and political tension in Albania, pitting the country’s government against environmental activists and anti-corruption campaigners.

Albania’s ruling Socialist government, led by long-time Prime Minister Edi Rama, frames the ambitious initiative as a transformative step toward the country’s core goals: breaking into the global high-end tourism market and advancing its bid for European Union membership. Rama has doubled down on his support for the scheme, insisting it will not be halted during his tenure. “Albania should not be a country that fears an extraordinary project like this one, where exceptional partners have come together to invest 4 billion euros ($4.6 billion),” Rama stated, emphasizing the project’s alignment with Albania’s ambition to establish itself as a top global travel destination.

The development spans two ecologically sensitive sites on Albania’s southern Adriatic coast: a stretch of coastline within the Narta Lagoon Wildlife Reserve, a critical biodiversity hub and migratory bird stopover, and the nearby uninhabited island of Sazan, a former closed communist military outpost. Plans call for the construction of luxury hotels, private villas, residential apartments, and a large marina. According to Ivanka Trump, the pair stumbled upon the location by chance during a leisure trip. “We were on a friend’s boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it,” she recounted in a recent interview with U.S. podcaster David Senra. “We swam to the island. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated.” Albanian authorities have already granted special investor status to an investment firm connected to Kushner, clearing the way for early construction work. Since late May, heavy machinery including excavators has moved into the protected site, carving access roads, clearing pine forest, grading sand dunes, and erecting boundary fencing. A Kushner-linked investment firm has already received special investor status from Albanian regulators to move the project forward.

But the venture has sparked fierce opposition from environmental groups, local communities, and government critics, who warn the project will cause irreversible damage to one of Albania’s last untouched coastal ecosystems and raise questions about opaque land dealings. For decades under isolationist communist rule, Albania’s 280 miles of Adriatic and Ionian coastline remained largely undeveloped, leaving large swathes of pristine, ecologically rich shoreline intact. Activists argue that this rare unspoiled habitat is now at risk of being exploited by well-connected foreign investors.

Public anger boiled over after video footage emerged showing a private security guard dragging a local environmental activist during an on-site protest, galvanizing larger demonstrations across the country. In the capital Tirana, protesters have held repeated rallies carrying cardboard cutouts of pink flamingos — a protected migratory bird species that relies on the Narta Lagoon as a key stop along its annual route. Environmental organizations from both Albania and across Europe have condemned the construction work, with one leading local advocacy group accusing the government of allowing “irreversible destruction” of long-protected natural habitats.

Compounding the controversy, Albania’s state anti-corruption agency has confirmed it has opened an investigation into irregularities linked to the project, though it has not released public details about the scope of the probe. While the government maintains all land marked for development is now privately owned, competing legal claims have challenged the validity of past privatization deals for the site, a recurring source of legal conflict in the country’s post-communist transition.

The unfolding standoff in Albania also echoes a recent high-profile collapse of a similar Kushner-linked project in neighboring Serbia, which offers a cautionary precedent for the Albanian venture. Last November, Serbia’s parliament passed special legislation to clear the way for a luxury complex on a historic former military site in downtown Belgrade, also backed by a Kushner-affiliated investment firm. Just one month later, Serbia’s organized crime prosecutor charged four individuals — including a sitting government minister — with abuse of office and document forgery to pave the way for the development. Kushner ultimately withdrew from the multi-million project, which would have seen construction on a designated heritage zone after its protected status was improperly lifted by officials now on trial.

BERLIN – In a landmark cross-border drug bust that exposes a sprawling West African-to-European smuggling network, German law enforcement officials announced Wednesday that they have seized more than 8 metric tons of cocaine hidden in a shipping container falsely labeled as holding cacao beans. Two suspected ringleaders of the operation were taken into custody days later in southern Spain, following a coordinated multinational investigation.

German customs investigators put the estimated street value of the confiscated narcotics at roughly 500 million euros, equivalent to $582 million – one of the largest cocaine seizures in the country in recent years. The contraband was first discovered during a routine inspection at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven on February 9, more than three months before the arrests were carried out.

According to an official statement released by German investigative authorities, the shipping container originated from West Africa and was marked for final delivery in Spain. When officers opened the container to conduct a compliance check, they did not find the cacao beans listed on the cargo manifest. Instead, they uncovered more than 400 individually wrapped black foil packets, each holding roughly 20 compressed blocks of high-purity cocaine.

After documenting the find and removing the entire drug shipment, German authorities arranged to have the emptied container continue its scheduled route to the port of Barcelona, Spain, to allow investigators to track the smuggling ring’s leadership. Working off forensic and tracking evidence gathered during the port inspection, German and Spanish law enforcement identified the two primary suspected organizers of the shipment. The pair was arrested on May 14 in El Ejido, a municipality in Spain’s southern Almería province, during a planned handover of the container, when law enforcement moved in to take them into custody.

Investigative records show that one of the two suspects, who works as the manager of a registered import company, was already linked to a prior large-scale cocaine smuggling attempt uncovered by Spanish customs authorities. If convicted on drug trafficking charges in Spanish courts, the two suspects could face lengthy prison sentences under Europe’s strict drug control regulations.

In a coordinated attack timed to overshadow Russia’s flagship international economic gathering, Ukraine launched a wave of drone strikes on the outskirts of St Petersburg early Wednesday, just hours before the opening of the annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum, an event designed to draw foreign direct investment back to Russia amid sweeping Western sanctions. As dawn broke over Russia’s second-largest city, thick plumes of black smoke billowed into the sky from a burning oil terminal, a visible marker of the attack that disrupted operations across the region. Local Russian authorities confirmed that air defense systems intercepted 59 drones launched overnight, but debris from the downed unmanned vehicles hit three separate districts of St Petersburg. Remarkably, no fatalities were reported in the strikes, though critical infrastructure was impacted: mobile internet connectivity was disrupted across parts of the city, and St Petersburg’s Pulkovo International Airport was temporarily shut down to all air traffic as a security precaution. The ripple effects of the attack extended beyond Russia’s borders, with neighboring Latvia and Estonia both issuing temporary air raid alerts for their northern border regions. Hours after the initial attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly confirmed responsibility for the strikes, confirming that targets included the burning St Petersburg oil terminal and a key Russian naval outpost in Kronstadt, a coastal town just off St Petersburg’s shoreline. In a post on his official social media channels, Zelensky framed the attack as part of what he called Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions plan” — a widely understood euphemism for long-distance strikes against Russian infrastructure that supports its invasion of Ukraine. “The Ukrainian plan of long-range sanctions is being implemented exactly as it is needed to bring peace closer,” Zelensky wrote. Kronstadt holds major strategic significance for Russia, as it serves as the primary forward base for the Russian Navy’s Baltic Fleet. Unverified footage posted to social media by Ukrainian military personnel showed drones approaching docked Russian naval vessels at the base, with the video cutting out moments before expected impact. Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces, later claimed via Telegram that the Russian corvette Boikiy had sustained direct damage in the attack. The timing of the strike carries significant symbolic weight, as the St Petersburg International Economic Forum — long nicknamed the “Russian Davos” — is the cornerstone event on Russia’s annual political and economic calendar. Prior to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the forum regularly drew high-profile Western delegations, including Fortune 500 CEOs and sitting heads of state. This year, for the first time in nearly 10 years, a low-profile unofficial delegation from the United States is scheduled to attend, led by Rodney Mims Cook Jr., head of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the official overseeing former President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom renovation project. Controversial U.S. right-wing commentator Candace Owens and pro-Putin American actor Steven Seagal are also listed as attendees. A senior official with Ukrainian defense technology firm Fire Point, Denys Shrilierman, leaned into the timing of the attack in a playful post on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “Due to such distinguished guests and the importance of the event itself, we couldn’t ignore it – and urgently flew to [St Petersburg].” The post was paired with drone footage of unmanned vehicles crossing the Baltic sky followed by clips of thick black smoke rising from unnamed locations along St Petersburg’s seafront. The St Petersburg strikes mark a notable milestone in Ukraine’s evolving strike capabilities: in the more than four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Kyiv has built a rapidly expanding domestic defense sector, allowing it to regularly produce and deploy long-range drones that can strike targets deep inside Russian territory. Ukraine has focused most of these long-range attacks on energy and oil infrastructure, framing these facilities as critical components of Russia’s war machine that fund its military operations. The strikes on St Petersburg came amid continued tit-for-tat attacks across the front lines and behind enemy lines. On the same Wednesday as the St Petersburg attack, a Russian-installed official in the Moscow-controlled Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine reported that seven civilians were killed when a drone struck a passenger bus traveling along a regional highway. For its part, Russia continues to launch large-scale combined missile and drone strikes across major Ukrainian cities, resulting in consistent civilian casualties. Just two days before the St Petersburg attack, Russian strikes across multiple Ukrainian regions killed at least 22 civilians and injured dozens more, according to Ukrainian emergency officials. In the wake of the St Petersburg strikes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Moscow planned a coordinated response to the Ukrainian attack. “Our responses will be systemic in nature,” Peskov told reporters Wednesday, offering no additional details on what form the retaliation would take.

On Wednesday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared to open his country’s flagship annual international economic forum in St. Petersburg, Ukrainian forces launched a wave of long-range drone attacks that penetrated hundreds of kilometers into Russian territory, striking multiple key targets including a coastal oil terminal in the city. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the attack in a social media statement, noting that the drones successfully traveled more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to reach their target. Footage and on-the-ground reports showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the oil terminal near St. Petersburg’s port area following the strike.

Russian official confirmation of the attack was limited, with authorities only acknowledging that the strike targeted civilian infrastructure in the city. In response to the incursion, St. Petersburg’s main airport temporarily halted all flight operations overnight, and local mobile internet services were temporarily shut down as a security precaution.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which Putin is scheduled to address on Friday, has long been framed by the Kremlin as a major prestige event designed to showcase Russia’s global economic standing amid mounting international isolation. Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago, however, all major Western business leaders and government officials have boycotted the gathering. This year, Saudi Arabia holds the position of special guest and is set to dispatch a large business delegation to the event.

The brazen attack on St. Petersburg marks a fresh political embarrassment for Putin, coming just weeks after he was forced to drastically scale back Moscow’s annual Victory Day military parade over widespread security concerns about potential Ukrainian drone strikes on the capital.

Wednesday’s wave of Ukrainian strikes was launched just 24 hours after Russian forces carried out a massive, widespread assault across Ukraine using a combination of drones and cruise missiles. That attack killed at least 22 civilians and left 138 others injured, carrying out Moscow’s stated threat to ramp up regular long-range barrages against Ukrainian targets.

After more than four years of full-scale conflict, the front line across eastern and southern Ukraine has remained largely static, with both sides relying heavily on swarms of drones that have slowed large-scale troop movements and stalled major offensives. To break the stalemate, both Moscow and Kyiv have increasingly turned to long-range strike operations to gain strategic leverage over their opponent.

For Ukraine, these strikes on Russian energy and industrial infrastructure serve two core strategic goals: cutting into revenue from Russian oil production, which remains the single largest source of funding for Moscow’s war machine, and disrupting Russian manufacturing facilities that produce weapons and military equipment. Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine has repeatedly targeted oil and port facilities in the St. Petersburg region and surrounding coastal areas in recent months.

Beyond the St. Petersburg oil terminal, Zelenskyy confirmed that overnight strikes also hit two additional high-value targets: the Kronstadt naval base, a historic installation that serves the Russian Baltic Fleet, and a weapons manufacturing plant located in Russia’s Tambov region, roughly 600 kilometers (370 miles) northeast of the Ukrainian border.

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that its air defense systems intercepted and downed a total of 354 Ukrainian drones launched during the overnight wave of attacks across multiple Russian regions.

The cross escalation of strikes also resulted in civilian casualties on both sides. In Russia-occupied portions of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a Ukrainian strike hit a civilian bus traveling from Moscow to Crimea. Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-appointed head of the occupation administration, reported that the attack killed seven people and injured 11 others. In Russia’s western Smolensk region, regional governor Vasily Anokhin said a Ukrainian drone strike killed two responding firefighters and wounded two other firefighters plus one local civilian.

On the Ukrainian side, Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russia launched 198 long-range attack drones at Ukrainian targets overnight, with Ukrainian air defenses successfully intercepting and neutralizing 189 of the incoming weapons. In Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, local authorities confirmed that Russian strikes over the preceding 24 hours killed one civilian and injured 15 more, including three children. In the southern Kherson region, overnight Russian shelling and drone attacks killed an 86-year-old civilian woman and wounded five other residents, according to regional officials.

With both sides continuing to escalate long-range attacks and no diplomatic negotiations underway to end the conflict, the war now stretching into its fifth year shows no sign of a near-term resolution.

A fatal drone strike targeting a passenger bus traveling through a Russia-occupied portion of Ukraine has left seven people dead and 11 others wounded, according to a Moscow-appointed regional official. The attack unfolded in the early hours of Wednesday, when the bus—en route from Moscow to Simferopol, the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea—was hit, stated Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-installed head of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

The bus strike comes just 24 hours after a large-scale Russian air offensive against multiple cities across Ukraine claimed at least 22 lives, among them several women and children. In simultaneous overnight developments, Russian defense officials claimed that air defense systems downed more than 350 Ukrainian drones launched across multiple occupied and Russian territories.

Among the intercepted drones, at least 50 were shot down over Leningrad Oblast, a region in northwest Russia that includes St. Petersburg, according to regional governor Alexander Drozdenko. This interception comes as St. Petersburg prepares to open the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) Wednesday, a flagship event designed to project Russia’s global standing and economic openness to the international community.

Event organizers confirm that delegations from over 130 countries and territories are scheduled to attend the forum, including high-profile attendees such as Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng, and the sitting presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania. The exchange of cross-border attacks comes amid an ongoing stalemate in the Russia-Ukraine war, with both sides ramping up drone and missile strikes on each other’s territory in recent months. A photo of a Ukrainian-manufactured Vampire heavy bomber drone, taken last month, accompanies this report, distributed via Getty Images.