An ancient chieftain gathered the community and gave them instructions: bury dozens and dozens of weapons as a sacrificial offering. The community complied.
Over 1,500 years later, archaeologists in Denmark just found the “sensational” artifacts.
Archaeologists started excavations along a highway in Løsning as part of a road expansion project, the Vejle Museums said in a Nov. 21 Facebook post.
“From the very first preliminary surveys, we could see this would be something spectacular, but the excavation has exceeded all our expectations,” the excavation’s leader Elias Witte Thomasen said in a news release from the museum.
Archaeologists unearthed “close to 200 weapons,” a “very rare” chainmail shirt and other items from the Iron Age. Photos show a few of the half-buried artifacts, which included “lances, spears, and swords.”
Based on the types of artifacts and their arrangement, archaeologists believe the 1,500-year-old items were buried by a “powerful chieftain” as a “sacrifice” or “an offering to higher powers.”
The ancient offering was originally buried at a demolished house and at a newly built house, the museum said. At the demolition deposit, “the large, load-bearing posts were removed, and the weapons placed in the holes left behind.” At the construction deposit, the “weapons and military equipment (were) tightly packed around the load-bearing posts.”
The long-gone houses may have been “a chieftain’s residence,” the museum said.
One of the rarest finds at Løsning was the 1,500-year-old chainmail shirt. “Only a very small number of chainmail shirts from the Iron Age have been found in the southern Scandinavian region,” archaeologists said. The newly found shirt is “incredibly valuable” and “the first discovered in association with a settlement.”
Photos show the dusty metal clothing during excavations. Its intertwined metal loops are clearly visible, but the overall shape of the item is not.
Excavations also uncovered “fragments of two highly distinctive bronze neck rings,” the museum said. These rings, known as “oath rings,” were likely symbols of the power and influence of a ruler and may have belonged to the chieftain.
Archaeologists described the “massive and exceptionally well-preserved” collection as having “enough weapons for a small army.”
The weapons could have come from “local warriors,” from the “spoils of war” or a combination of both, the museum said. Experts hope to answer those questions in follow-up laboratory analysis.
“The sheer number of weapons is amazing in itself, but what truly fascinates me is the glimpse into the social structure and daily life of the Iron Age that these finds provide,” Thomasen said. “We suddenly feel very close to the people who lived right here 1,500 years ago.”
Excavations at the site in Løsning began in August and are ongoing. Løsning is a small town on continental Denmark and a roughly 160-mile drive west from Copenhagen.
Shel Talmy, the American record producer who helped foment the British Invasion by capturing the scabrous guitar riff in the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” and Roger Daltrey’s stuttering vocal line in the Who’s “My Generation,” died Wednesday. He was 87.
His death was announced in a post on his Facebook page, which said he “passed away peacefully at home” in Los Angeles “after suffering a stroke over the weekend.” The post included a message from Talmy in which he wrote that “if you’re reading this now, this is my final vignette, as I am no longer residing on this plane of existence, and have ‘moved on,’ to wherever that may be.”
“I’d like to think that I’m thoroughly enjoying my new ‘residence,’ and that the countless rumors that there is a big working ‘studio in the sky’ are true,” the note continued.
Though he was born in Chicago, Talmy was an architect of the catchy if rough-hewn sound that propelled many a British band to pop stardom in the mid-1960s; in addition to the Kinks and the Who, he oversaw hits by Manfred Mann and Chad & Jeremy and worked with a young David Bowie (back when he was performing under his real name, Davy Jones).
Talmy’s live-wire production style — as immortalized in a catalog of classic tunes that also includes the Kinks’ “All Day and All of the Night” and “Tired of Waiting for You,” the Who’s “I Can’t Explain” and the Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” — emphasized fuzzy guitars and bashing drums that created a sense of a band fighting against the establishment to be heard.
Yet one of his best-regarded productions was the Kinks’ 1967 “Waterloo Sunset,” a gently psychedelic pop song about a guy watching two lovers cross a bridge over the River Thames. In an interview with The Times last year, the Kinks’ Ray Davies remembered “Waterloo Sunset” — which Davies said he produced, though Talmy insisted otherwise — as a favorite of his mother’s, adding that the song “says a lot about people of her postwar generation living in austerity in London.
“I was a strange kid, not very sociable, but I think with this song she finally understood me a bit.”
Sheldon Talmy was born in 1937 and moved to L.A. from Chicago as a teenager. He graduated from Fairfax High School in 1955 and started working as an engineer at an early version of the studio that became Conway Recording Studios on Melrose Avenue. Talmy went to England in 1962 and quickly fell in with a scene he described as “energy-filled” in a 1990 interview with Mix magazine. “Nobody got a lot of sleep, but nobody gave a damn,” he said. “We all worked long into the night, and then we’d go out to parties.”
Talmy later collaborated with Pentangle, the Small Faces and the Damned. In the late ’70s, he moved back to L.A., where he continued to work in music as well as in computers, including for a company he co-founded called Superscan that charged other firms between 95 cents and $10 a page to feed documents into a “photocopy-like machine,” as a 1987 Times article put it. “Using a small camera, the scanning machine takes pictures of the text and does electronically what a typist working a word processor does at a keyboard.”
According to Variety, Talmy’s survivors include his wife, Jan Talmy; a brother; a daughter and a granddaughter.
Rudy Giuliani is playing hide-and-seek with “the vast majority” of belongings he was ordered to hand over to the Georgia mother and daughter he was found liable for defaming, the women’s lawyers said in court filings Tuesday.
Around four weeks ago, Giuliani emptied his multimillion-dollar E. 66th St. apartment, save for “some rugs, a dining room table, some stray pieces of small furniture and inexpensive wall art, and a handful of smaller items, like dishes and stereo equipment,” according to Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and Ruby Freeman’s legal team.
A Manhattan federal judge two weeks ago ordered Giuliani to turn over control of his stake in the Upper East Side co-op apartment, along with its contents, his cash accounts, sports memorabilia, furniture, jewelry and various other valuables to Freeman and Moss toward satisfying the $148 million judgment a Washington, D.C., federal jury ordered him to pay for falsely accusing the pair of ballot fraud.
The women’s lawyers made the startling discovery on Halloween after trying to gain access to the unit for two hours. The beleaguered former New York City mayor and Donald Trump lawyer and his counsel “have provided no information regarding when that property was moved, where it was taken, or the conditions under which it is being stored,” Moss and Freeman’s lawyer Aaron Nathan wrote.
Days after Giuliani said he’d comply with the order, inquiries by Freeman and Moss “have been met predominantly with evasion or silence,” Tuesday’s filing states. Giuliani informed them that “he does not actually know” where the apartment’s share certificates or proprietary lease are; he said items had been moved to a storage facility on Long Island — the aptly named “The America First Warehouse” — though without specifying which items.
Shortly after learning about the hide-and-seek game, Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Liman ordered Giuliani to appear before him on Thursday, rejecting Giuliani’s request to push it back so he could record a broadcast from Palm Beach.
In a filing later Tuesday, Nathan flagged to Liman that Giuliani had been photographed in the 1980 Mercedes-Benz once owned by Lauren Bacall — which Giuliani also must give up — at Trump’s poll site the morning of Election Day. The former mayor’s lawyers had told Freeman and Moss that the vehicle was in Florida — though not exactly “where it is garaged.”
“This latest revelation indicates that he either does not understand (his) obligations or, more likely, is knowingly disregarding them,” Nathan wrote.
Giuliani’s spokesman, Ted Goodman, who was with him in Palm Beach, claimed to The New York Daily News earlier Tuesday that Giuliani was waiting for paperwork from Moss and Freeman’s lawyers to transfer the car “and (we) haven’t heard back.”
“This is yet another attempt to render Mayor Rudy Giuliani — a man who has improved the lives of more people than almost any other living American — penniless and homeless,” Goodman said in a follow-up statement.
Giuliani has similarly come up with excuses for not wiring money owed from his cash accounts, the women’s lawyers said in their initial Tuesday letter. His lawyers claimed to Moss and Freeman that a restraining notice on his Citibank account only allows $3,907.99 to be transferred.
Nathan contested the excuse and said it raised “significant questions about the location of other cash assets” in light of five-figure funds moved out of the same account in July and August.
Judge Liman is still mulling whether to force Giuliani to give up his $3.5 million Palm Beach condo, where Giuliani claims he’s been living, and his Yankees World Series rings, which his son, Andrew, claims Giuliani gifted to him and which Andrew is suing to keep. The former mayor appeared to be wearing at least one of the rings at a virtual hearing last week in his sexual assault lawsuit attended by the Daily News.
Giuliani was ordered to pay the Atlanta election workers the eye-popping sum in December after a judge found him liable for repeatedly and maliciously accusing the two women of corruptly trying to help Joe Biden in the 2020 election. His lies prompted a deluge of racist death threats that forced the mother and daughter into hiding.
“America’s Mayor” filed for bankruptcy in the wake of the judgment, but that filing has since been thrown out, in part, because Giuliani failed to be forthcoming about his finances and disobeyed court orders. After the bankruptcy effort was dismissed, Freeman and Moss brought the ongoing enforcement action.
Also this year, Giuliani was stripped of his law licenses in New York and Washington, D.C., because of his election subversion efforts. He is additionally facing a sky-high stack of lawsuits stemming from a wide range of allegations and two criminal cases in Arizona and Georgia regarding his election fraud claims, in which he’s pleaded not guilty.
Star comedian Jim Gaffigan expressed regret during an interview on Wednesday that supporters of President-elect Donald Trump thought he was criticizing them in a series of negative social media posts against Trump during the 2020 presidential election.
Gaffigan, who recently was a featured guest alongside Trump at the Al Smith dinner and played former Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on “Saturday Night Live” during the 2024 election cycle, expressed his regret during an interview on a podcast episode of The Daily Beast’s “The Last Laugh” that aired on Wednesday.
“I regret that people think that I was criticizing people that support Trump. And that was never the intention,” Gaffigan said. “I regret— someone said like, now I can’t follow you anymore and I kind of said ‘F you’ to them.”
Gaffigan explained that while he regrets the way Trump supporters took offense to his posts, he does not regret sharing the statements on social media.
“It’s weird because I think authenticity is really an important thing, not only as a comedian, but also with your children,” the comedian said. Gaffigan added, “For me, I don’t regret it, but I also do acknowledge that there are true die-hard Trump fans who probably enjoyed my comedy, but because they feel so passionately will .”
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In August of 2020, Gaffigan criticized Trump and made fun of Trump supporters. He tweeted, “Look Trumpers I get it. As a kid I was a cubs fan and I know you stick by your team no matter what but he’s a traitor and a con man who doesn’t care about you. Deep down you know it. I’m sure you enjoy pissing people off but you know Trump is a liar and a criminal.”
In another post on X, formerly Twitter, Gaffigan slammed Trump for his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying, “You know Trump just creates enemies. You know you can’t trust him. You know he been incompetent during this crisis. You know all those people didn’t need to die. Trump talks about the Space Program and you can’t safely go to a movie. Wake up.”
During Wednesday’s podcast episode, Gaffigan noted that one of the lessons he has learned while working as a stand-up comedian is that “you’re going to lose people.”
“You’re also going to attract people,” he added. “But there are going to be people who are like, you know, ‘I don’t have kids, I think he’s funny, but I don’t get this.’”
An increased law enforcement presence continued across Las Vegas Thursday, a day after a Tesla Cybertruck carrying fuel and commercial fireworks exploded outside the Trump International hotel on the Strip.
The Tesla vehicle’s lone occupant — identified as an Army military member from Colorado — took his life seconds before Wednesday morning’s blast, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Thursday.
The sheriff classified the explosion as a bombing. Seven people suffered minor injuries.
A City of Las Vegas marshal police vehicle is seen with flashing lights at Carson Avenue near Main Street in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
While investigators said they hadn’t determined a motive, McMahill said he was confident the community was safeguarded.
“We don’t believe that there’s any further threat from this subject or anybody associated with him here in Las Vegas,” said McMahill about Matthew Livelsberger, 37.
The explosion occurred hours after hundreds of thousands of revelers rang in 2025 on the Strip and downtown Las Vegas.
Every New Year’s Eve, a plethora of local, state and federal law enforcement converge on the tourist corridor in efforts to keep attendees safe. McMahill said Tuesday night’s celebrations went off without a hitch.
A Las Vegas police vehicle is seen with flashing lights at Ogden Avenue near 3rd Street in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
A separate military veteran mowed down scores of pedestrians celebrating the holiday in New Orleans’ French Quarter Wednesday morning. Fourteen victims and the suspect died.
McMahill noted “very strange similarities” between both incidents. However, he said no evidence had emerged to link them.
‘Level of safety’
Reacting to the explosion, the sheriff extended the Metropolitan Police Department’s New Year’s Eve staffing levels through Friday.
McMahill said his officers were stationed across the valley “just to make sure that we have the community feeling that level of safety that they need to feel after an event such as this.”
A Las Vegas police vehicle is seen with flashing lights at Las Vegas Boulevard near East Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
City of Las Vegas marshals were on “extra alert with a significant officer presence on the Strip, in downtown and throughout the valley,” Mayor Shelley Berkley said in a post on X on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, marked police vehicles with flashing lights were stationed in downtown.
Metro has beefed up patrols as a precaution following high-profile attacks around the world, such as the Paris terror attacks in 2015 and a mass shooting in an Orlando night club the following year.
A Las Vegas festival was targeted on Oct. 1, 2017, by a perched gunman who killed 60 people and wounded hundreds more.
A Las Vegas police vehicle is seen with flashing lights at East Fremont Street near Las Vegas Boulevard in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
North Las Vegas police officer Djuan Muldrew said Thursday that the department “is continuing to work with our law enforcement partners. Our goal is to remain vigilant to ensure the safety of our citizens and stakeholders.”
Henderson said its police department can deploy additional resources if needed.
“We are also a part of the interagency command post and remain available to assist (Metro),” a spokesperson wrote in an email. “There are currently no known concerns in the City of Henderson.”
The Nevada Highway Patrol said it will continue to collaborate with local law enforcement partners.
They “are prepared to respond to any threats or issues that may come about during this new year,” trooper Shawn Haggstrom wrote in a statement.
A Las Vegas police vehicle is seen with flashing lights at 6th Street near Ogden Avenue in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Haggstrom encouraged motorists to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activity to 911 or *647.
Resorts security protocol
The Trump hotel was evacuated and guests were taken to Resorts World after the blast. The affected property has since reopened with a Metro patrol SUV stationed outside the entrance Thursday.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reached out to Strip resorts to inquire about their security efforts. Private security teams are known to train and collaborate with local police.
“The Venetian Resort Las Vegas has a robust security program in place and is well-prepared to handle any contingencies,” a spokesperson said. “As a matter of practice, we do not provide detailed information regarding our security protocol; however, the resort’s team works closely with local law enforcement agencies daily. The safety of our guests and Team Members is always our top priority.”
Wynn Resorts and Resorts World declined to comment, with the latter referring to McMahill’s comments.
McMahill expressed being surprised by the explosion after “successful” New Year’s Eve police efforts.
“That’s certainly something we’re gonna have to look at,” he said about “hardening” security protocols.
Analyst: limited tourism impact
Josh Swissman, founding partner and managing director of Las Vegas-based GMA Consulting, which analyzes gaming and tourism, said he doesn’t think the Strip incident will have any long-term effects on tourism in Southern Nevada.
“You think about the number of people that come and stay in all the hotel rooms up and down the Strip,” he said. “There really aren’t very many places in the world like that, and so security is a primary focus and that’s why they continue to look at and refine and basically to stay ahead of the bad guys, probably more than most any other place in the country.”
The Consumer Technology Association is days away from opening CES, a massive four-day consumer electronics trade show that is expected to bring up to 150,000 people to Las Vegas.
“CES is the world’s most powerful tech event, bringing together attendees from over 150 countries to showcase innovation and address global challenges,” said John Kelley, vice president and show director of CES. “In response to recent tragic events, we have increased our already robust security protocols.”
Kelley added: “We continue to monitor the situation and are in touch with our security partners and law enforcement officials. Ensuring a secure and seamless experience for all is our top priority. We are working closely with trusted partners, including all levels of government, to deliver robust security, advanced infrastructure, and essential services so attendees can focus on driving growth and forging impactful connections.”
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned on Tuesday that the United States must continue to uphold “judicial independence.” The chief justice’s warning comes just prior to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month.
In the 2024 Year End Report on the Federal Judiciary, Roberts expressed his concerns regarding the need for “judicial independence” to be maintained in the United States. Roberts warned that violence, disinformation, intimidation, and threats to defy lawfully entered judgments are “four areas of illegitimate activity” that he believes can “threaten the independence” of the nation’s judges.
Addressing threats faced by judicial officials, Roberts warned, “Violence, intimidation, and defiance directed at judges because of their work undermine our Republic, and are wholly unacceptable.”
“It is not in the nature of judicial work to make everyone happy. Most cases have a winner and a loser. Every Administration suffers defeats in the court system — sometimes in cases with major ramifications for executive or legislative power or other consequential topics,” Robert stated. “Nevertheless, for the past several decades, the decisions of the courts, popular or not, have been followed, and the Nation has avoided the standoffs that plagued the 1950s and 1960s.”
While Roberts did not list anyone by name, the chief justice of the Supreme Court noted that “elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings” over the past few years.
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“These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected. Judicial independence is worth preserving,” Roberts wrote. “As my late colleague Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, an independent judiciary is ‘essential to the rule of law in any land,’ yet it ‘is vulnerable to assault; it can be shattered if the society law exists to serve does not take care to assure its preservation.’”
Roberts added, “I urge all Americans to appreciate this inheritance from our founding generation and cherish its endurance.”
In his report, Roberts warned that both the country’s political system and economic strength are dependent on the “rule of law.” As a result, Roberts warned that federal courts “must do their part to preserve the public’s confidence in our institutions.”
Roberts urged his fellow judges to “stay in our assigned areas of responsibility” and do their “level best to handle those responsibilities fairly.”
A new report claims that President Joe Biden is planning on issuing an executive order that would permanently ban new offshore drilling for oil and gas in some U.S. coastal waters ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month. The president’s executive order would make it difficult for the incoming Trump administration to undo the offshore oil drilling ban for certain areas.
Anonymous sources familiar with Biden’s plan told Bloomberg that the president’s executive order is expected in the coming days and noted that the executive order would block new offshore drilling in areas along the outer continental shelf of the United States.
According to Bloomberg, the Biden-Harris administration’s new oil drilling ban could make it difficult for Trump to carry out his plan to increase energy production in the United States. The outlet noted that while many executive orders can be easily reversed by the next administration, Biden’s plan is based on the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which allows the president to permanently protect U.S. waters from new oil and gas leases and does not explicitly authorize presidents to remove the protections.
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Bloomberg reported that the anticipated move from the Biden-Harris administration comes amid pressure from Democrat lawmakers and environmental groups to “maximize permanent protections from oil and gas drilling.” Environmental groups have encouraged Biden that by banning future oil and gas drilling leases, the president will “safeguard vulnerable coastal communities, advance the transition to clean energy, and build on your climate legacy.”
According to Bloomberg, Biden-Harris administration officials have been considering a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling leases for over two years; however, the administration increased its effort to advance the offshore drilling ban following Trump’s landslide election victory in November.
While Biden is currently on track to issue more protections than any other president for U.S. lands, advocates of the oil industry have warned against additional energy restrictions, according to Bloomberg. While the exact locations of the coastal waters Biden is expected to issue protections for have not yet been revealed, sources told Bloomberg that the locations will be targeted, not widespread.
Law enforcement officials have confirmed that 10 people were injured on Wednesday in a mass shooting outside the Amazura nightclub, which is located in Queens, New York. The New York Police Department has notified the public that the incident was “not a terrorist attack.”
Fox 5 reported that a group of roughly 15 individuals between 16 and 20 years old were standing outside the Amazura nightclub waiting to get inside the building at approximately 11:15 p.m. on Wednesday in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens when they were approached by four male individuals.
“Four males were walking eastbound on 91st Ave. onto 144th Place towards the venue,” Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said during a press conference following Wednesday night’s shooting incident. “Three to four males then opened fire over 30 times in the direction of the group standing outside the event space, striking multiple victims.”
According to Fox News, police officers were notified at roughly 11:18 p.m. that “several people” had been shot at a private event in Queens.
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Rivera confirmed that four male victims and six female victims were transported to local hospitals, were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, and are expected to recover.
According to Fox News, law enforcement officials said the male suspects fled the scene of the crime and escaped in a light-colored sedan that had out-of-state license plates. The New York Police Department told Fox News that police officials are currently searching for a gray Infiniti sedan that was seen leaving the area of the shooting.
While police have not yet determined a motive for Wednesday night’s shooting, Rivera told reporters, “This is not a terrorist attack.”
According to NY Daily News, law enforcement officials are investigating whether the shooting incident could have been caused by gang activity. Rivera said, “That’s one of the avenues we’re pursuing but it’s too early to determine right now.”
“There’s zero tolerance for these senseless shootings, these horrible acts of violence on our streets,” Rivera added. “Those responsible for this crime will be apprehended and brought to justice.”
A Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas killed one individual and injured seven others on Wednesday. Law enforcement officials have discovered that the vehicle contained gasoline containers and firework mortars, while reports have indicated that the incident was “intentional” and may be linked to the New Orleans terrorist attack.
According to Fox News, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters on Wednesday that the Cybertruck involved in Wednesday’s explosion was first detected by Las Vegas license plate readers around 7:30 a.m. McMahill explained that the vehicle exploded within 15-20 seconds of pulling up to the Trump hotel valet area.
A video and picture of Wednesday’s explosion were shared on X, formerly Twitter, by reporter Nick Sortor.
#BREAKING: The Cybertruck explosion outside of Trump Tower in Las Vegas is now being investigated as a possible ACT OF TERR0R, per ABC News.
In an update shared Wednesday on X, Tom Winter, an NBC News correspondent, wrote, “The investigation into the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside of Trump’s Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas shows it was intentional and the incident is now being looked at as a possible terror attack, three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter tell NBC News.”
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk tweeted that officials confirmed Wednesday’s explosion was “caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck” and that the explosion was not related to the Tesla vehicle itself. Musk added, “All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion.”
In another tweet, Musk suggested that the Las Vegas incident “appear likely to be an act of terrorism. “Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo,” he stated. “Perhaps they are linked in some way.”
According to The Daily Wire, the driver of the Cybertruck was killed in Wednesday’s explosion, while seven individuals near the Cybertruck were injured.
During a press conference, McMahill noted that the Cybertruck “really limited the damage” outside of the vehicle because “most of the blast” went “up through the truck and out.”
Commenting on how the vehicle potentially prevented the explosion from causing more damage, Musk tweeted, “The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”
Fox News reported that President Joe Biden confirmed his administration was “tracking” the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas.
“Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there’s any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans,” Biden said. “Thus far, there’s nothing to report on that score at this time.”
Newly empowered Syrian warlord Ahmed al-Sharaa has indicated, in a new interview, that it may take up to four years before the country will hold new presidential elections.
Sharaa, also known by his war name Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, is the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist organization that the United States has designated as a terrorist group. HTS is a rebrand of Jabhat al-Nusra, which was itself an offshoot of al-Qaeda.
Sharaa and his HTS forces led a recent offensive that forced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after more than 24 years in office.
Syria has been locked in a multi-sided civil war since 2011. Even with Assad’s fall, some of the competing factions are still fighting for differing motives.
Assad’s ouster has left the Syrian people and the international community with many questions about the country’s future. For now, Sharaa is among the most influential leaders in post-Assad Syria.
Speaking with the Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya television channel on Dec. 29, Sharaa said he expects the various Syrian militant factions will begin to resolve their differences at an upcoming national conference in March.
“There will be no division of Syria in any way,” he added.
Sharaa said one key goal will be to integrate the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into a newly organized national armed forces. For now, reconciliation with the predominantly Kurdish SDF may be challenging.
Turkey considers the SDF to be closely linked with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish faction Turkey and the United States both have designated as a terrorist group. Sharaa said he intends to integrate SDF into a post-Assad unity government in Syria, but will prevent Syria from becoming a haven for the PKK and a launchpad from which they can attack.
After his HTS forces took the capital city of Damascus earlier this month, Sharaa named several of his HTS allies to positions of power in an interim government. Speaking with Al Arabiya, Sharaa insisted these appointments “were essential for the period and not intended to exclude anyone.”
As for a new government, Sharaa said he expects the March national conference to begin to bridge the inter-factional divides. From there, he said it may take up to three years to draft a new constitution.
He said the first set of new elections could take up to four years, because he first wants to see a comprehensive population census.
Despite his terror designation, President Joe Biden’s administration has been willing to give Sharaa some breathing room following Assad’s ouster.
“Make no mistake, some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses,” Biden said in a Dec. 8 address after Assad fled the country. “We’ve taken note of statements by the leaders of these rebel groups in recent days. And they’re saying the right things now, but as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their words, but their actions.”
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara A. Leaf met with Sharaa on Dec. 20. Following the meeting, she announced the Biden administration had retracted a $10 million bounty the United States had placed on the HTS leader.
Speaking with Al Arabiya, Sharaa appeared to preempt deliberations about the U.S. dropping its terror group designation against HTS. Instead, Sharaa said he plans to announce the dissolution of HTS during the upcoming national dialogue.
Some U.S. lawmakers, such as Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Brendan Boyle (D-PA), have also called for the United States to begin lowering sanctions it had imposed against Syria over the years. Some of these sanctions aimed to block international financial transactions flowing to Syria. Other sanctions barred the flow of medical supplies to the country and targeted Syria’s construction industry, making life difficult in the war torn country.
Sharaa said he aims to see dramatic improvements in Syria’s public services within a year. Much of that may depend on lifting sanctions.
This article was originally published by FreeBase News and is reprinted with permission.
