Albania's leader defies calls to resign as student protesters rampage in capital

In Albania's capital, a student-led protest spiralled into violence for the third day in a row. Protesters are demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama's resignation, saying no one had listened to their concerns during the summer of largely peaceful protests. They're angry about perceived corruption, as well as the cost and quality of education and other public services. The government is corrupted. is corrupted, is led and governed by a corrupted prime minister who has ties with narco-traffickers and who is selling Albania. You can only find a work in your field if I know a guy who knows a guy. That's the only way you can get through. I get paid minimum wage and my rent is $500 a month. How can I survive with that? Police pushed back crowds trying to approach the education ministry and the parliament on Thursday, after they smashed their way into several government buildings on Tuesday and Wednesday, setting at least one ablaze. Eddie Rama posted this video showing him touring the burnt-out remains of a college campus office in Tirana. The Albanian premier has rejected calls to quit and blamed opposition figures for the violent demonstrations. Everyone is accountable before the law, and anyone involved in the violence will, of course, be punished. The anti-government protests have regularly drawn crowds in the thousands for more than four months now. They were initially triggered by a deal to sell off a protected part of Albania's southern coastline to a luxury resort development linked to Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. The project became a symbol of alleged corruption and inequality in a country where salaries are amongst the lowest in Europe.