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‘Not for the people’: Myanmar junta prepares for elections designed to legitimise grip on power

Elections will be first since military seized power in 2021, but analysts say vote is far from a step toward democracy

Myanmar is preparing to go to the polls for the first time since its military seized power in a coup in 2021, but with its former leader behind bars, its most successful political party disbanded and roughly a third of the country either disputed or in rebel hands, few believe claims by its military rulers that its 28 December election will be “free and fair”.

“This is not for the people, this is for themselves,” says Pai, 25, who fled Myanmar after the military seized power. “They [the ruling junta] are looking for a way out of the trap they are [in].”

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© Photograph: Sai Aung Main/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sai Aung Main/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sai Aung Main/AFP/Getty Images

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US carries out strikes on Nigeria targeting Islamic State militants, Trump says

President claims strikes targeted militants in country’s north-west, accusing group of attacking Christian communities

Donald Trump has said the US carried out airstrikes against Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria on Thursday, after spending weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.

The president said in a post on his Truth Social platform: “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!

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© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

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Post your questions for Bill Callahan

Ahead of his new album, My Days of 58, the US singer-songwriter will answer your questions for the Guardian’s reader interview

In a career hardly plagued with lows, Bill Callahan has been on a hot streak recently. Since 2019’s Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest, the Maryland-born songwriter has shared his beguiling meditations on being changed by parenthood and marriage, while his music has loosened and expanded accordingly. The latter is in part down to the chemistry that Callahan has formed with his live band – guitarist Matt Kinsey, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi and drummer Jim White also of the Dirty Three – audible on the extraordinary 2024 live album Resuscitate! It’s this ensemble and their facility for improv that powers Callahan’s forthcoming solo record, My Days of 58, the first tastes of which offer up some Callahan wisdom.

The song Lonely City, he said, was an odd one for him to write, being generally more concerned with “humans and the spirit within”.

So writing about concrete and steel felt like a no go. Like I’m going to write a song about a car next? But of course cities are made by humans so they are human, too. You have a relationship with them, like friends.

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© Photograph: Bill McCullough

© Photograph: Bill McCullough

© Photograph: Bill McCullough

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© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

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© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

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