BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A Pride march in Serbia 's capital on Saturday condemned police violence against anti-government protesters while offering support to university students behind the monthslong demonstrations against populist President Aleksandar Vucic.
Organizers said the event in Belgrade was a protest, without festival-style features. Participants instead held a commemorative silence that has marked the past 10 months of persistent student-led demonstrations challenging Vucic.
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Participants hold up a rainbow flag during the Gay Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbian police officers guard street during the Gay Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Participants take part in the Gay Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Participants hold up a rainbow flag during the Gay Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
One of the banners at the gathering in central Belgrade read “Gays against police state!" while another used the “Pump it up!" rallying call of the student-led movement that has drawn hundreds of thousands of people against Vucic.
“We cannot close our eyes at what's happening in our country,” march organizers said in a statement. They cited frequent police brutality and jailing of protesters. “Pride won't take part in creating a semblance of normalcy."
The protests started in November when a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Serbia’s north, killing 16 people. The disaster ignited a wave of anti-corruption demonstrations alleging graft-fueled negligence as its cause.
The i ncreasingly authoritarian Vucic has rejected a student demand for a snap parliamentary election. He has stepped up a crackdown against the protesters, sacking scores of professors and teachers and deploying police inside some faculty buildings.
On Friday evening, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters in the northern city of Novi Sad who gathered at the university campus. Police said they responded to “massive attacks” from masked protesters who threw flares and various objects at them. University students behind the protest said police launched "brutal attacks on their own citizens."
Dozens of people were injured in the chaos as baton-wielding, shielded riot police charged at the protesters to push them away from the campus, sending many fleeing in panic and falling down. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said 13 officers were injured and at least 42 protesters detained.
Police on Saturday secured the Belgrade pride march that has been marred in the past by violent attacks from right-wing extremists. No incidents were reported.
Members of Serbia's embattled LGBTQ+ community routinely face harassment in the highly conservative country. Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership but has done little to boost LGBTQ+ rights, including legalizing same-sex partnerships.
Participants hold up a rainbow flag during the Gay Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbian police officers guard street during the Gay Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Participants take part in the Gay Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Participants hold up a rainbow flag during the Gay Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
BEIJING (AP) — Canada, breaking with the U.S., has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday.
Carney made the announcement after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He said there would be an initial cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada.
China will reduce its tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, to from about 84% to about 15%, he told reporters.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
BEIJING (AP) — Faced with new global challenges, the leaders of China and Canada pledged Friday to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony.
Xi Jinping told visiting Prime Minister Mark Carney that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea.
“It has been a historic and productive two days,” Carney said, delivering a statement to journalists outside a Beijing park Friday afternoon. “We have to understand the differences between Canada and other countries, and focus our efforts to work together where we’re aligned."
“It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China–Canada relations toward improvement,” China's top leader said.
Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as “under great strain.”
He called for a new relationship “adapted to new global realities” and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance.
Those new realities reflect in large part the so-called America-first approach of U.S. President Donald Trump. The tariffs he has imposed have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies. Carney, who has met with several leading Chinese companies in Beijing, said ahead of his trip that his government is focused on building an economy less reliant on the U.S. at what he called “a time of global trade disruption.”
A Canadian business owner in China called Carney's visit game-changing, saying it re-establishes dialogue, respect and a framework between the two nations.
“These three things we didn’t have,” said Jacob Cooke, the CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, which helps exporters navigate the Chinese market. “The parties were not talking for years.”
No announcement was made on tariffs between China and Canada, which is a sticking point in the relationship.
Canada followed the U.S. in putting tariffs of 100% on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carney’s predecessor.
China responded by imposing duties of 100% on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood. It added a 75.8% tariff on canola seeds last August. Collectively, the import taxes effectively closed the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group has said. Overall, China's imports from Canada fell 10.4% last year to $41.7 billion, according to Chinese trade data.
China is hoping Trump’s pressure tactics on allies such as Canada will drive them to pursue a foreign policy that is less aligned with the United States. The U.S. president has suggested Canada could become America's 51st state.
Carney departs China on Saturday and visits Qatar on Sunday before attending the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next week. He will meet business leaders and investors in Qatar to promote trade and investment, his office said.
Associated Press business writer Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, arrives to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, Pool)
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
