Headlines: Scottish independence back on the table after SNP victory
Audio 05:19
Outgoing Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, May 7, 2021. AFP - ANDY BUCHANAN
By: Véronique Rigolet Follow
10 mins
Publicity
The standoff has indeed started between the British conservative government of Boris Johnson and the
Scottish separatist Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon
after the large victory of her party in the local elections last weekend. The Scottish press is jubilant, the
National
affirms that the Prime Minister has "
imposed her law
", responding to a phone call from Boris Johnson, "
we will have our referendum
"
, headlines the Scottish daily. For its part, the
Glasgow
Daily Record
displays on the front page the warning launched by Sturgeon in London: “
the question is not whether, but when.
", Will take place this referendum, and failing that argues the newspaper,"
the conflict could be resolved in court
.
“
Despite the challenge to Boris Johnson,
” procrastinates the
Guardian,
“
Sturgeon suggested that she did not expect the dispute to end in court
”. According to the Scottish Prime Minister "
it would be absurd and scandalous to come to this
". In fact, such a move further explains the
Guardian
"
would force the British government to ask the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to overturn Scottish legislation, which would risk strengthening popular support for Scottish independence.
".
But we are not there, insists the British daily, which emphasizes that Nicola Sturgeon agrees at least on one point with Boris Johnson, on the fact that "
the end of the pandemic is the priority
".
"
The big bang on Scotland will perhaps wait for years to come,
" said the
German
TagesZeitung
, "
the Scottish 1st Minister will have to play a tightrope
walk between the pressure of the activists and the refusal of Boris Johnson
", also judges the Swiss daily
Le Temps
, which nevertheless wants to believe that "
the independence of Scotland is now a really serious scenario
".
Dozens of schoolgirls killed in Kabul bombing last weekend
The heartbreaking images of families in tears, burying their daughters, the youngest of whom were just 11 years old, appear on the front page of the entire American press. The attack left 53 dead, more than a hundred injured, "
an incredible brutality
", says the
Washington Post
, "
an absolute massacre
", for the
New York Times
, whose correspondent in Afghanistan describes the horror scenes of a veritable carnage in which "
the shredded backpacks, the books and the school notebooks riddled with bullets, and certain young girls so disfigured by the explosions - she writes, that they could not be identified
"
mingle.
. "
Preventing girls from going to school was probably the goal of the terrorists,
”notes the
Wall Street Journal,
which underlines that“
access to education for women was one of the most tangible achievements of the American presence in Afghanistan for 20 years
”, and that it risks“
disappearing with the departure of American forces
”this year. The Shiite minority targeted, "
the Hazaras are the permanent target of the Taliban
", even if the latter deny having committed this attack, specifies the
Washington Post,
which also points to "
the Islamic State group
". "
In any case, this massacre provides further proof that Afghanistan may be on the verge of collapse,
”worries the American daily.
Covid: Nepal overwhelmed by a new wave of contamination from India
In the wake of the big Indian neighbor where the epidemic still seems out of control, Nepal "
is in the grip of an outbreak of infections
", headlines the Swiss daily
Le Temps,
which gives
rise to
fear of the worst, because of the "
failure of the health system
”in this small, extremely poor Himalayan state of 28 million people. Her correspondent in Kathmandu describes "
overwhelmed hospitals, patients left to fend for themselves wandering the corridors, and the lack of ventilators
." A country completely dependent on India which must itself manage its own shortages. In Kathmandu, writes
Le Temps
, “
the endless round of cremations has begun
”.
The Chinese rocket continues to fuel the controversy between Washington and Beijing
Even if it finally disintegrated over the Indian Ocean, the controversy continues as "
the boss of NASA accused China of irresponsibility
", facing the
"
chaotic fall of the rocket
"
towards the earth , points out the
South China Morning Post
. "
Hype and vain defamation
", retorts for its part the
Global Times
, the daily newspaper of the Chinese PC which indicates that "
nothing and nobody will prevent China from continuing its space program
". New fears therefore to come while Beijing has yet to launch "
10 new missions to complete its space station,
" said the
Guardian
.
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