Archive January 31, 2026

Myanmar’s military-backed party secured a sweeping victory in the country’s three-phase general election, according to state media, following the tightly controlled voting held amid civil war and widespread repression.

The final of three rounds of voting last weekend wrapped up an election that began on December 28, more than four years after the military seized power in a coup that overturned the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Dominating all phases of the vote, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won an overwhelming majority in Myanmar’s two legislative chambers, state media reports.

The USDP secured 232 of the 263 seats up for grabs in the lower house and 109 of the 157 seats announced so far in the upper chamber, according to results released on Thursday and Friday.

A spokesman for the country’s military rulers, Zaw Min Tun, said Myanmar’s parliament is now expected to convene to elect a president in March, with a new government set to take over in April, according to a report in the pro-military Eleven Media Group.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been in political turmoil since the 2021 coup, with the crushing of pro-democracy protests prompting a nationwide rebellion. Thousands have been killed, and about 3.6 million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations.

‘Vote purely out of fear’

The 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has said it will not endorse Myanmar’s electoral process, and human rights groups and some Western countries have also expressed concerns about the credibility of the election.

The UN human rights office said that large segments of the population, including minorities such as ethnic Muslim-majority Rohingya, were excluded from voting since they have been denied citizenship, and many have also been displaced outside the country.

At least 170 civilians were killed in air strikes during the election period, and about 400 people were arrested, according to the UN.

“Many people chose either to vote or not to vote purely out of fear,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said.

Myanmar’s military rulers insist the polls were free and fair, and supported by the public.

A spokesperson for the United States Department of State, which has muted its critiques of foreign elections in the second Trump administration, said it was monitoring the situation and “will assess the military regime’s next steps”.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy was dissolved along with dozens of other parties, and some others declined to take part, drawing condemnation from critics who say the process was designed to legitimise military rule.

The United States government has entered what is expected to be a brief shutdown after Congress failed to approve ⁠a deal to keep a wide swath of operations funded ahead of a midnight deadline.

After hours of delay, ​the US Senate passed the spending package by a bipartisan vote of 71 to 29 late on Friday, but the House of Representatives is not expected to vote on the new budget bills until Monday at the earliest.

US President Donald Trump must then sign the bills into law.

As a result, the partial shutdown of the US government took effect at 12:01 am Eastern time (0501 GMT). The shutdown is likely ‍to be brief.

⁠Lawmakers from both parties have been working to ensure a debate over immigration enforcement does not disrupt other government operations, despite mounting Democratic anger over the killing of two people by immigration agents in Minnesota.

This is a marked contrast from last fall, when Republicans and Democrats dug into their positions in a dispute over healthcare, prompting a shutdown that lasted a record 43 days and cost the US economy an estimated $11bn.

“Technically, there will be a partial government shutdown come midnight on Saturday,” Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan said earlier on Friday, reporting from Washington, DC.

“The earliest that the House of Representatives can take a look at the changes, which the US Senate approved late on Friday, is not before Monday. That’s because they’ve been in recess all this week. They should be coming back to Washington this weekend,” Jordan said.

But there is also a concern the shutdown could drag out longer, given political polarisation around Trump’s administration’s harsh immigration raids and the killing of US citizens at those operations.

“So there is the expectation that this could be resolved early next week. But there is the possibility that it may not be,” Jordan added.

The funding impasse has been driven by Democratic anger over aggressive immigration enforcement following the fatal shootings of two US citizens – Alex Pretti and Renee Good – by federal agents in separate incidents this month in the northern city of Minneapolis amid a violent operation against undocumented migrants.

The killings in Minneapolis have become a flashpoint that has hardened opposition to approving new money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without changes to how immigration agencies operate.

“The nation is reaching a breaking point,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote. “The American people are demanding that Congress step up and force change.”

“Instead of going after drug smugglers, child predators, and human traffickers, the Trump Administration is wasting valuable resources targeting peaceful protestors in Chicago and Minneapolis,” Senate Democratic Minority Whip Dick Durbin posted on social media.

“This Administration continues to make Americans less safe.”

As lawmakers in both parties called for investigations into the fatal shootings, Trump said he didn’t want a shutdown and negotiated the rare deal with Schumer, his frequent adversary. Trump then encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”

Under the deal negotiated between the White House and Senate Democratic leaders, lawmakers approved five outstanding funding bills to finance most of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year in September.

The deal approved by the Senate separates funding for the DHS – which oversees immigration agencies – from the broader government funding package, allowing lawmakers to approve spending for agencies such as the Pentagon and the Department of Labor while they consider new restrictions on how federal immigration agents operate.

More than 200 people have been reported killed in a collapse at the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, spokesperson for the rebel-appointed governor of the province where the mine is located, told the Reuters news agency.

The mine, located some 60km (37 miles) northwest of Goma city, the provincial capital of North Kivu province, collapsed on Wednesday, and the precise number of casualties was still unclear as of Friday evening, Reuters reports.

“More than 200 people were victims of this landslide, including miners, children and market women. Some people were rescued just in time and have serious injuries,” Muyisa told Reuters, adding that about 20 injured people were being treated in health facilities.

“We are in the rainy season. The ground is fragile. It was the ground that gave way while the victims were in the hole,” he said.

Eraston Bahati Musanga, the governor of North Kivu province appointed by the M23 rebel group, told the AFP news agency on Friday that “some bodies have been recovered”, without giving a specific figure of the number of those killed and injured, but suggesting a potentially high death toll.

An adviser to the provincial governor put the death toll at more than 200, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters because he was not authorised to brief the media.

AFP said it was unable to confirm the death toll with independent sources as of Friday evening.

Franck Bolingo, an artisanal miner interviewed at Rubaya by AFP, said people are believed to still be trapped inside the mine.

“It rained, then the landslide happened and swept people away. Some were buried alive, and others are still trapped in the shafts,” Bolingo said.

Rubaya produces about 15 percent of the world’s coltan, which is processed into tantalum, a heat-resistant metal that is in high demand by makers of mobile phones, computers, aerospace components and gas turbines.

The mine, where locals dig manually for a few dollars per day, has been under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group since 2024, after previously changing hands between the DRC government and rebel groups.

The heavily-armed M23 rebels, whose stated aim is to overthrow the DRC government in the capital Kinshasa, captured even more mineral-rich territory in the east of the country during a lightning advance last year.

The United Nations has accused M23 rebels of plundering Rubaya’s resources to help fund their rebellion, backed by Rwanda, an allegation that the government in Kigali denies.