As people trickled into polling stations scattered across Myanmar to vote in the country’s first elections since the 2021 military coup, much of the nation remained consumed by war.

On a TV screen at polling stations, a smiling woman sang and danced: “Hey dear friends, so that a colorful future may bloom, let us choose those who will shape tomorrow.”

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The military junta has billed the vote, which was held in three stages concluding this Sunday, as a return to democracy. International observers, however, have widely dismissed the election as illegitimate, held amid ongoing conflict and mass displacement. The junta-backed party has already claimed a lead in the first two rounds held in late December and early January.

Hundreds of people were killed in military crackdowns on protests and tens of thousands more arrested in the months after the coup five years ago that overthrew the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Thousands of people fled to the countryside, where they coalesced into anti-junta resistance groups or joined ethnic armed groups.

By May 2021, Myanmar was plunged into a civil war that has since killed 90,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. According to the U.N., more than three million people have been displaced from their homes, with some fleeing mandatory conscription imposed by the junta in February 2024. The junta has bombed towns, weaponized internet shutdowns, and restricted much-needed humanitarian aid to civilians in areas controlled by resistance forces, even as it has lost control over large areas of the country to resistance groups.

Observers have warned that the elections could legitimize the junta’s rule both at home and abroad, especially at a time when it is seeking to secure backing from China. But for many Burmese people, already living in the throes of war, the outcome of the election is unlikely to change much.

“We are not interested in this election,” says a man in his 50s from the Mandalay area, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. He tells TIME he and many of the people around him still ended up voting out of fear, in his case that his sons will be conscripted, but few were excited to head to the polling station or learn about the candidates. “We only know who we should not vote for,” he says, even if the results seem pre-determined.

“This so-called ‘election’ is an attempt to prolong the junta’s relentless violence and entrench impunity,” Yadanar Maung, a spokesperson for Justice for Myanmar, a group of activists, tells TIME.

Low turnout

Voter turnout during the first phase of the election was 52% and during the second phase 56%, according to the junta. That’s a stark contrast from the roughly 70% of people who came out to vote in the country’s 2015 and 2020 elections—the first democratic national elections in more than half a century of military rule. The excitement was palpable in those elections, with many wearing red in support of Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, which swept the 2020 election.

Suu Kyi, now 80, has been in prison since February 2021, serving a 33-year sentence over allegations of election fraud, which she denies and which independent election observers have said lack evidence. The NLD and other major opposition parties have been disqualified from running in the election. Even if a party besides the junta’s proxy party, the Union Solidarity & Development Party, gains a foothold in the election, the military is already guaranteed a quarter of the seats in both houses of parliament under the 2008 constitution. (Still, the junta has maintained that the election is free and fair. “Even in developed democratic nations, there are situations where voter turnout does not exceed 50%,” a junta spokesperson, Zaw Min Tun, told ABC.)

“If the parties are not credible or not broadly representative, it undermines the claim that the elections are the reflection of the popular will,” says Maung Zarni, a Burmese academic and human rights activist exiled in the U.K.

The junta also enacted a law against undermining elections last year, which penalizes criticisms of the election—including online discourse or calling for an election boycott—from three years in prison to the death penalty.

Large swathes of the country are not holding elections at all. The junta controlled only around 21% of the country, as of December 2024, with ethnic armed groups and resistance forces controlling more than 40% of the country.

Much of the remaining contested areas are engulfed in intense fighting, making going out to vote an unrealistic task. Earlier this week, the junta canceled voting in two Kachin State townships and 11 villages due to clashes with forces aligned with the Kachin Independence Army.

“The reality of staggering the elections in phases and cancelling polls in several townships (a larger number than in past elections) points to ongoing security concerns,” says Moe Thuzar, a senior fellow at the Singapore-based think tank ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute with a focus on Myanmar.

Even in areas where people can vote, many, especially the youth, are choosing not to. The man from Mandalay says while there was a queue of people at his polling station, young people were conspicuously absent.

“I think this is for them to change their soldier uniforms into civilian ones and to hold onto their power,” a 35-year-old from Rakhine state, which is largely controlled by the Arakan Army, told AFP.

“The junta has been decisively rejected by the people of Myanmar, with this sham election met by widespread boycotts and protests at great personal risk,” Yadanar tells TIME.

War rages on

The election has been widely dismissed by international observers and governments as illegitimate. U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, called the election a “sham.”

“Elections cannot be free, fair or credible when held amid military violence and repression, with political leaders detained and fundamental freedoms crushed,” Andrews said. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Myanmar is a member of, has also refused to certify the vote.

Some have described voting out of fear, with security personnel in traditional clothing and sunglasses and armed policemen skulking around polling areas, according to ABC. People who turned up at voting stations said they were afraid that if they didn’t vote, they or their loved ones would be conscripted or that something bad might happen.

“Whether it’s legitimate or illegitimate, sham or real,” says Zarni, “it’s not going to change anything.”

The years of transition to democratic rule from 2011 to 2020 saw foreign investment pour into the country and the government implement political reforms, shoring up job opportunities and roughly halving the poverty rate from 2005 to 2017. After the 2021 coup, much of that investment was withdrawn, inflation ballooned, and the country’s currency, the kyat, collapsed.

The man from Mandalay tells TIME that life after the 2021 coup was marked by curfews under martial law, security checkpoints, and the sounds of explosions. Those aspects have become less frequent over the years in the city area, but people are still afraid.

And, he says, people know nothing will change after the election.

The elections aren’t designed to address the country’s economic conditions, the civil war that is continuing to displace and kill Burmese people across the country, or the fracturing of the country into territories controlled by groups, says Zarni.

International diplomatic pressure on the junta towards a cease-fire is possible, but analysts suggest that that is a less likely outcome of the election than a continuation of conflict and fragmented rule. Western governments have largely isolated the junta through sanctions already, and they are less likely to intervene given their own problems, Zarni says. Europe is focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine and a renewed push by U.S. President Donald Trump to take control of Greenland, while the U.S. is both retreating from the world stage and focused elsewhere.

“People in Myanmar may be weary of the daily challenges to personal, socio-economic, and community security that they have had to confront as a consequence of the 2021 coup,” says Thuzar.

Zarni tells TIME that the point of the election is to “improve the optics” of the regime in the eyes of the world. Last year, the country was rocked by a powerful earthquake, which forced the junta to make a rare appeal to the international community for help, even as ethnic armed groups claimed the junta carried out strikes in areas damaged by the earthquake and attacked aid convoys. Myanmar is also on trial at the International Court of Justice for genocide over its ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims; the International Criminal Court opened its own investigation into alleged crimes of humanity committed by the junta, including the persecution of the Rohingya.

Reducing Myanmar’s isolation and increasing its economic engagement would be in the junta’s interests. In that regard, it matters less what western governments or international agencies think, says Zarni. The junta is likely more interested in regional actors with which it already has a relationship, like China and Russia, which have provided diplomatic cover, arms, and economic engagement since the coup, and India and Vietnam, which have maintained pragmatic or economic relations with the junta.

“The junta’s tyranny is sustained by allied authoritarian governments, multinational corporations, international banks and Myanmar cronies that fund, arm, equip and train the military, aiding and abetting its international crimes, enabled by global inaction,” Yadanar, the Justice for Myanmar spokesperson, tells TIME.

The junta may also have in mind its involvement in ASEAN, which downgraded the country’s participation, barring senior generals from high-level meetings. ASEAN membership offers the military a regional diplomatic foothold and a channel—however limited—for engagement that the junta appears keen to preserve.

“The junta doesn’t need the whole world to survive,” Zarni says. “It only needs a handful of technologically advanced and economically wealthy external actors to be its partner.”

But mostly, Zarni says, the junta are holding the election for themselves. After seizing power in 2021, the military repeatedly justified the coup by alleging fraud in the 2020 election and promising a temporary return to military rule. Senior generals, including Min Aung Hlaing, said at the time that new elections would be held and power handed to the winning party.

Even if its opponents see through the junta’s election, with some ethnic armed organizations denouncing the election, the vote could provide reassurance to its own ranks, civil servants, and supporters and shore up morale and discipline within the armed forces.

“The elections give them a chance to stand up in front of a television camera and tell a lie with a straight face,” says Zarni. “They need to tell their own rank-and-file that the military is not just there with their guns, they’re in accord with the constitution of the country, therefore they are a lawful government.”

“Even the bad guys,” Zarni says, “have to tell themselves they’re good guys.”

Tired from work and craving a sweet treat or a spa day? Young people in China have a new mantra for that: “Ai ni laoji!”

The phrase, meaning “love you, dear friend,” took off on Chinese social media at the end of last year as users tacked the phrase onto videos, posts, and comments to justify spending on the dearest friend of all: themselves. 

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It’s a familiar concept to many outside of China: through the 2010s, Western social media was inundated with the phrase “YOLO” (You Only Live Once) and “Treat Yo’Self”—popularized by the sitcom Parks and Recreation—and in recent years, the concept of self-care has powered a booming wellness industry.

Read More: Self-Love Is Making Us Lonely

But the Chinese phrase reflects a starker generational shift in the East Asian nation of 1.4 billion, where older generations have long emphasized hard work and personal sacrifice and where younger generations are now struggling to build their lives according to traditional expectations amid a sluggish job economy and rapid urbanization.

The self-love memes resonate because of their irony, says Sylvia Zhu, a 25-year-old from Beijing who now lives in Seattle. Many of the stories people share online are “about struggling in life and slowly getting through it by relying on yourself,” which many young people in China can relate to, she says, adding that some of her friends have also started saying “life is too short” or “you never know what will happen tomorrow.”

Zhu tells TIME that she and her friends in China enjoy spending on things for themselves like Pop Mart’s viral Labubu dolls, personal luxuries like handbags, or hobby-related gear like camera lenses.

“After I started working, I realized that to keep life feeling exciting, material things sometimes play a role,” Zhu says. “If it’s something you can afford, it’s often seen as a self-reward.”

The mentality is just one example of how young people in China are reacting and adapting to a fast-changing and often atomizing urban society. Ashley Dudarenok, who runs a China- and Hong Kong-based consumer research consultancy, tells TIME that these trends among China’s Gen Z are a “rational response” to a hyper-competitive job market, stagnant wages, and rising costs of living.

“When traditional markers of success like marriage and homeownership become structurally inaccessible for many, young people are forced to redefine what a ‘good life’ means,” Dudarenok says. “If they cannot afford a house, they can at least afford to treat themselves to a nice meal or a Pop Mart toy that brings them joy.”

Read More: Party of One: As Some Restaurants Bemoan Solo Dining, Others Embrace It

Modern anxieties

Chinese families have traditionally lived close to each other, at times with several generations living under one roof. But in recent decades, many Chinese, especially younger generations, have left their homes in rural areas to live and work in big cities like Beijing and Chongqing.

The country has seen a dramatic rise in people living alone, with more than 100 million single-person households, according to an annual report from the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2024, a number that is estimated to reach 150 to 200 million by 2030.

“People enjoy having their own space and being able to live at their own pace without family pressure,” Zhu says, but living alone “can also be isolating, especially in big cities where social connections can feel shallow.”

That reality has also fueled a surge of products and services catering to people living alone, including restaurants catering to solo diners, a fast-growing pet market, and even AI pets.

“Rapid urbanization and the rise of the digital economy have created a new social landscape,” says Dudarenok. The Chinese government has taken steps to regulate AI companions amid global concern over AI-fueled psychotic delusions and self-harm. The move, Dudarenok adds, is “recognition that these new forms of companionship and social interaction are becoming a permanent feature of Chinese society.”

The app “Si le ma”—Are you dead yet?—has attracted worldwide attention as it’s become one of the most downloaded apps in China in recent weeks. It has just one function: users tap a button on their phones everyday as virtual proof of life to their social network. If a user fails to do so for two consecutive days, the app automatically sends an email to a chosen emergency contact.

Ian Lü, one of the app developers, told the Associated Press that the app serves as an effortless way to let your loved ones know that you’re safe.

But to Zhu, who lives across the globe from her family, the app’s popularity is proof that social isolation has become an accepted reality. The idea of living, and dying, alone may be most closely associated with the elderly, but the app is largely marketed to the young.

“It reflects a sense that young people also feel they could die at any time while living alone, and that because of isolation, friends or family might not notice or do regular wellness checks,” Zhu says. “Rather than making me feel more secure, it shows how lonely and disconnected modern life can be, even for people who are young.”

The app may take a unique approach but it addresses a phenomenon that is not unique to China, underscored by its popularity in places like Singapore, the U.K., India, the Netherlands, and the U.S., and by the wave of copycat apps that has followed. Last week, the app’s developers said they planned to change its name to “Demumu”—a portmanteau of the word “death” and the babble-like naming pattern of Labubu—to cater more to a global market. The announcement disappointed many users, who have commented on social media that they could connect with the matter-of-fact name. Developers said they would crowdsource name suggestions in exchange for a 666 yuan ($96) reward.

“Some netizens say that the ‘Are you dead?’ greeting feels like a carefree joke between close friends—it’s both heartfelt and gives a sense of unguarded ease,” writer He Tao wrote in a commentary for Yicai, the Chinese Business Network. “It likely explains why so many young people unanimously like this app.”

Whether or not young people in China are actually concerned about a premature death, He wrote, the app’s success “serves as a darkly humorous social metaphor, reminding us to pay attention to the living conditions and inner world of contemporary young people. Those who downloaded it clearly need more than just a functional security measure; they crave a signal of being seen and understood.”

‘Reshaping’ traditional values

The individualism taking form among Chinese youth is different from the “rugged, self-reliant individualism often associated with the West,” Dudarenok says. “Chinese youth are not necessarily breaking from their families or culture,” but “they are carving out more space for personal expression and emotional needs within those structures.”

The Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, which begins this year on Feb. 17, is the most significant holiday in China, and it has historically centered on family and relatives. That view hasn’t changed among young people, according to a 2025 survey of Gen Z’s attitudes towards the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, but some of their ways of celebrating it have. More than a third of the nearly 6,000 respondents said they spend more time socializing online than in person during the holiday, while digital traditions like sending virtual hongbaos or red packets and celebrating with “cyber relatives”—group chats, online communities, and even influencers that young people digitally “visit” during the festive period—have become more popular.

“The tradition is still there, but the social unit has shifted from family to chosen communities,” says Zhu. “It’s less about rejecting tradition and more about reshaping it.”

Many young people in China also value the holiday for more personal reasons, with the extended eight-day break from work or school ranking as their top reason to celebrate, according to the survey. Around half of the respondents also said they spend more during the holiday, particularly on livestream shopping or gaming.

The self-love memes are just another example of how young people are rewriting traditional values.

For older generations, “self-love had to be earned,” Zeng Yuli wrote about the trend in an op-ed for Chinese magazine Sixth Tone.

“If you wanted to treat yourself, you had better first finish the project, get a promotion, or reach your weight loss goals,” Zeng wrote. But among China’s younger generations, “regardless of your success, laoji still deserves compassion, is still worth that milk tea or hotpot, and is still allowed an afternoon of doing nothing.”

Familial expectations are still there, Zhu says. The survey notes that young people, especially young women, find themselves overwhelmed by questions about their careers or marriage at family gatherings during the Lunar New Year. The country’s birthrate fell 17% last year to the lowest level since 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was established, in spite of government efforts to encourage couples to have children.

Read More: China Is Desperate to Boost Its Low Birth Rates. It May Have to Accept the New Normal

But increasingly, those pressures are butting heads with an economic reality that is pushing many young people to reconsider what success means for them. A growing “lie flat” movement of young people in China are choosing a “low-desire life,” moving out of big cities to more rural areas or even out of the country, and rejecting the common grueling work hours of “9 9 6,” or 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.

For Zhu’s parents, success “means stability: owning a home, having a stable career, getting married, and raising children.”

“For me,” she says, “success is more about personal fulfillment and mental well-being. Having financial independence, time for hobbies, meaningful relationships, and a sense of freedom.”

President Donald Trump shared what appeared to be a message from French President Emmanuel Macron questioning his moves on Greenland amid the Trump Administration’s renewed push to take control of the territory.

“My friend, We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran,” read the message, which was attached as a screenshot to Trump’s Truth Social post late Monday night, early Tuesday. “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.”

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Macron also offered to host a G7 meeting in Paris after the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week.

“Let us try to build great things : 1) i can set up a g7 meeting after Davos in Paris on thursday afternoon. I can invite the ukrainians, the danish, the syrians and the russians in the margins 2) let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us,” the message read.

Trump did not include a reason for sharing the message, captioning the post only with “Note from President Emmanuel Macron, of France.” TIME has reached out to the White House and Macron’s official residence, the Élysée Palace, for comment. AFP reported that the French President’s entourage confirmed the authenticity of the message.

Trump also shared a message from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte after a phone call concerning Greenland assuring Trump that he is “committed to finding a way forward on Greenland.”

“As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security,” Trump said in a post early Tuesday, adding that he would be meeting with “various parties” about Greenland in Davos. “There can be no going back — On that, everyone agrees!”

Since the U.S.’s military intervention in Venezuela and capture of its leader Nicolás Maduro at the start of the year, Trump has ramped up his effort to wrest control of Greenland, which is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Both the E.U. and Greenland have objected to Trump’s claims over the territory, and the dispute threatens to unravel the NATO defense alliance and upend the U.S.’s relationship with its allies.

Over the weekend, Trump threatened to impose a 10% tariff on European allies from Feb. 1, which would increase to 25% in June, unless Denmark agrees to sell Greenland to the U.S. He also suggested that the use of force was not off the table in a letter sent to Norway’s leader Jonas Gahr Støre.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” Trump said in the letter.

Trump has also sparred with Macron in recent days. While the E.U. weighs potential retaliatory tariffs of €93 billion ($108 billion) on U.S. goods among other countermeasures, Macron has called Trump’s tariff threat over Greenland “unacceptable” and pushed for the E.U. to use its anti-coercion instrument for the first time, which could restrict U.S. participation in the E.U. market. Trump also floated the possibility of imposing 200% tariffs on French wine and champagne after Macron declined to join Trump’s “Board of Peace” over concerns that the board’s charter goes beyond the U.N. mandate allowing it to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza through 2027.

“Nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” Trump told reporters on Monday after his invitation was rebuffed.

Among a number of overnight posts on his social media platform, Trump also shared two apparently AI-generated or edited images depicting a U.S. takeover of Greenland. One showed a photo of him in the Oval Office talking to European leaders back in August with a fake map of Greenland overlaid with the U.S. flag in the background. (Canada and Venezuela were also overlaid with the U.S. flag.) The other showed him, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance, planting the U.S. flag in Greenland soil.