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- Albania assures EU of environmental compliance for Kushner tourism project
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Albania assures EU of environmental compliance for Kushner tourism project
Environmental Assurance
Albania has assured the European Commission that a full environmental impact assessment will be conducted for a €1.4 billion luxury tourism project linked to Jared Kushner.
Albania has assured the European Commission that a full environmental impact assessment will be conducted for a €1.4 billion luxury tourism project linked to Jared Kushner.
Strategic Compliance
Albania’s commitment to a thorough environmental assessment underscores its alignment with EU standards, crucial for advancing its candidacy and securing investments worth over €1.4 billion.
Albania’s commitment to a thorough environmental assessment underscores its alignment with EU standards, crucial for advancing its candidacy and securing investments worth over €1.4 billion.
Official Statement
“We have received assurance from the government of Albania that a full environmental impact assessment will be carried out and that European environmental standards will be respected,” said Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos.
“We have received assurance from the government of Albania that a full environmental impact assessment will be carried out and that European environmental standards will be respected,” said Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos.
Albania assures EU its Kushner-linked tourism project will meet environmental standards
The Albanian government has assured the European Commission that a controversial project linked to US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will comply with environmental law, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos has said.
“We have received assurance from the government of Albania that a full environmental impact assessment will be carried out and that European environmental standards will be respected,” Kos told a press conference.
Albania is currently a frontrunner for EU membership, widely considered the second most advanced of the current candidate countries, behind Montenegro.
To complete accession, however, Tirana must align with the EU’s legal framework, including on environmental protection.
The luxury tourism project, worth over €1.4 billion, has sparked mass protests in the Western Balkan country in recent weeks. The plans would affect an ecologically protected area on the Adriatic coast.
Last week, after the EU executive expressed concerns about the project, European Commission enlargement spokesman Guillaume Mercier warned that Albanian authorities should “act without delay” to avoid jeopardising the country’s EU accession bid.
Those comments drew irritation from Tirana, as they appeared to suggest the Commission had already drawn its conclusions, while Albania’s environmental assessment is still under way.
Kos struck a more conciliatory tone, welcoming the right to protest as a fundamental liberty for the EU and all aspiring members.
“The fact that this is happening while Albania is going through the accession process is important. This process is legally and politically binding and subject to constant scrutiny and assessment. So this offers the strongest guarantee that Albania’s nature and environment will be protected in line with the European standards,” she said.
In its annual temperature check of candidate countries’ progress towards becoming EU members last year, the Commission raised concerns about an amendment made to the law in February 2025 which included special exemptions for any investment worth €50 million or more.
This would include the investment project led by the Kushner-backed Affinity Partners, which has been granted special access by the Albanian authorities.
**”**Regarding foreign investments, these are important for every candidate country, but also for the member states,” Kos added. “What matters to us is not so much where they are coming from, but if they are happening in accordance with the EU legislation.”
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs.
To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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