LONDON (AP) — Scotland's former deputy first minister was poised to become its third leader in just over a year after taking the helm of the troubled Scottish National Party on Monday.
John Swinney, who led the SNP two decades ago, was the only candidate to replace First Minister Humza Yousaf as the leader of the party.
The SNP has been in turmoil since long-serving First Minister Nicola Sturgeon abruptly stepped down last year during a campaign finance investigation that eventually led to criminal charges against her husband.
Swinney, 60, who joined the party at age 15, will try to bring stability to the SNP as it fights efforts by opponents to weaken it going into U.K.-wide parliamentary elections expected later this year.
“The polarization of politics does not serve our country well," Swinney said as he was named party leader. “I will reach out to everyone willing to join with us in good faith and seek compromises that serve our nation well. We need to stop shouting at each other and talk. More than that, actually, we need to listen. As first minister, I will do exactly that.”
Yousaf announced his resignation last week after a political miscalculation in which he booted the Green Party from the ruling coalition of Scotland’s semiautonomous government. The SNP is one seat short of a majority in the local parliament with 63 of the 128 voting seats, so it needs to partner with at least one opposition party.
The pro-independence SNP was weakened by the campaign finance scandal and divisions over transgender rights, but was ultimately brought down by Yousaf’s decision to oust the Greens because of differences over climate change goals. Yousaf was unable to persuade other parties to back his minority government in Scotland’s parliament.
Facing the prospect of two no-confidence votes that had been scheduled, Yousaf quit rather than be forced out.
Yousaf will remain first minister until his replacement is elected. Swinney is likely to be elected to that position later this week.
Swinney thanked Yousaf for serving with “grace and dignity,” and said that his “moral leadership on the issue of Gaza has been a light in very dark times."
Yousaf won a bruising campaign to take over the party after Sturgeon, who was first minister for eight years, resigned unexpectedly in February 2023.
About a month later, Sturgeon's husband, Peter Murrell, who was the party's chief executive, was arrested as police investigated how 600,000 pounds ($750,000) earmarked for a Scottish independence campaign was spent.
Sturgeon and Colin Beattie, the party’s former treasurer, were later arrested and questioned in the inquiry, but they were released without being charged with a crime. Murrell was charged last month with embezzlement.
Swinney had served as Sturgeon's deputy first minister during her tenure as Scotland's leader, but stepped down when she left office.
Conservative leader Douglas Ross said that Swinney’s past makes him unlikely to bring the change that Scotland needs.
“John Swinney was joined at the hip with the disgraced Nicola Sturgeon and his fingerprints are all over her numerous policy failures and cover-ups,” Ross said.
Swinney pledged to lead a center-left government focused on the economy, jobs, the cost of living, the National Health Service, schools, public services and the “climate crisis.”
Swinney said that he would make his case to persuade people of the need for Scottish independence, which voters rejected in 2014. He cited Brexit and the cost-of-living crisis, which he blamed on U.K. politicians in London, as being bad for Scotland.
“They demonstrate why Scotland needs to have independence to make our own decisions and create our best future,” he said. “If someone is an independence supporter in Scotland and they want Scotland to be independent, there’s only one political party that will ever deliver and that’s the Scottish National Party.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar echoed Ross' remarks, saying that the “SNP is offering more of the same.”
“John Swinney has been at the heart of this incompetent government for 17 years and at the heart of the SNP for 40 years," Sarwar said. "John Swinney’s record is one of failure.”
FILE - Deputy First Minister John Swinney delivers his address to delegates during the 2019 SNP autumn conference at the Event Complex in Aberdeen, Oct. 14. 2019. John Swinney was elected Monday, May 6, 2024 as leader of the SNP after no other candidates came forward. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP, File)
Newly elected leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) John Swinney delivers his acceptance speech at the Advanced Research Centre (ARC) of the Glasgow University, in Glasgow, Monday, May 6, 2024, after he was confirmed as the SNP's new leader. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)
JACUMÉ, México (AP) — Near the towering border wall flanked by a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle, botanist Sula Vanderplank heard a quail in the scrub yelp “chi-ca-go,” a sound the birds use to signal they are separated from a mate or group.
Then silence.
A quail on the Mexican side called back, triggering a back-and-forth soundtrack that was both fitting and heartbreaking in an ecosystem split by an artificial barrier.
Vanderplank was among several botanists and citizen scientists participating in the Border Bioblitz near the Mexican community of Jacumé, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Tijuana.
Roughly 1,000 volunteers armed with the iNaturalist app on their smartphones are documenting as many species as possible along the U.S.-Mexico border in May. Uploading photos to the app helps identify plants and animals, and records the coordinates of the location.
The hope is the information could lead to more protections for the region's natural richness, which is overshadowed by news of drug trafficking and migrant smuggling.
On a recent day, Bioblitz volunteers scrutinized a bright yellow blooming carpet of common Goldfields, a sharp contrast to the imposing steel bollards of the border wall topped with rolls of razor wire. Some navigated their way around piles of empty water jugs, a gray hoodie and empty cans of tuna fish left under the branches of native flora like the Tecate Cypress.
“There’s a fabulous amount of biodiversity here that’s traditionally been overlooked,” Vanderplank, of the binational program Baja Rare, said.
The efforts started in response to former President Donald Trump adding hundreds of miles of border walls that toppled untold numbers of saguaro cactuses in Arizona and passed through the biodiversity hotspot of Baja California.
“When the border wall construction began, we realized how little hard data we had, especially when it came to plants and small organisms,” Vanderplank said. “We don’t know what all we could lose.”
Since then, there has been a groundswell of initiatives to document the borderland’s flora and fauna as climate change coupled with habitat loss, pollution and development have hammered the world’s biodiversity. One estimate in 2019 warns that a million plant and animal species face extinction within decades, a rate of loss 1,000 times greater than expected.
The United Nations is expected hold a high-level meeting in Colombia of signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October aiming to protect 30% of land, freshwater and oceans considered important for biodiversity by 2030, known as 30 by 30. Representatives from nearly 200 countries are expected to present plans on how they will meet conservation targets agreed upon in 2022.
Currently, 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas are protected.
Baja California peninsula, which borders California and is home to Tijuana with one of Mexico's highest homicide rates, has more than 4,000 species of plants. A quarter of them are endemic and at least 400 plants are considered rare with little to no protection.
Flora and fauna that have gone extinct or are in danger of disappearing in the U.S., like the California red-legged frog, are thriving south of the border, producing specimens that are being used to bring back populations.
But the region’s crime deters many U.S. scientists from crossing the border. Mexico also is restricting permits for botanists and not allowing seeds to be collected, further curtailing the work, scientists say.
Bioblitz organizers work with local communities and say they take people only to areas deemed safe.
“You have to be really careful because of the violence,” said Jon Rebman, a curator of botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum, who has named 33 new plants for science from the southern California and Baja California region.
“It’s scary from that standpoint, yet those are the areas where we really need more information because there’s hardly any protected area on the south side,” he said.
Using the museum’s collection, Rebman made a list of 15 plant species endemic to Baja California and not seen since being collected nearly a century ago. He created a binational team to find them. So far, they have located 11.
Rebman also discovered two new plants to science in 2021 in a canyon off a Tijuana highway: the new species, Astragalus tijuanensis, and a new variety of the Astragalus brauntonii named lativexillum.
“I was worried they would go extinct before we even got them named,” Rebman said. “That tells you what type of area we’re working in.”
Tijuana-based botanist Mariana Fernandez of Expediciones Botánicas periodically checks on the plants. Working with Rebman, she is pushing Baja California to adopt more protections for its native plants. Currently only a fraction are on Mexico’s federal protection list.
She hopes the state will step in, while she also tries to build support by taking Tijuana residents and Baja officials on hikes.
“People are amazed that these things exist in Tijuana, and I hope to show more and more people so they can see the beauty, because we need that,” Fernandez said. “It’s important to not be impeded by the barriers that humans create.”
As border security increases with the number of people being displaced by natural disasters, violence and wars at record levels worldwide, more migrants are traipsing out to areas like the stretch near Jacumé. The tiny community of about 100 families includes members of the Kumeyaay tribe and sits across the border from an equally sparsely populated desert near the California town of Jacumba Hot Springs. Population: about 1,000.
The area has seen thousands of asylum seekers who wait for an opportunity to cross, usually in the cloak of darkness, and then camp again on the U.S. side after turning themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Fernandez was among the botanists helping Bioblitz volunteers on the Mexican side near a crumbling crossing station from the 1920s.
“I never would have thought that there would be so much biodiversity on the border,” said Jocelyn Reyes, a student of Fernandez at La Universidad Autónoma de Baja California who stopped every few feet to hover over a plant and photograph its details. “It’s so interesting and makes you realize there’s so much worth saving.”
A California Horned Lizard is temporary held for classification during a botanical expedition with Universidad Autonoma de Baja California college students documenting native plants and species along the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja California, Mexico. Botanists and citizen scientists armed with the iNaturalist app on their smartphones are recording the biodiversity along the U.S.-Mexico border in May. Called the Border Bioblitz, more than 1,000 volunteers are recording as many species as possible. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Horses walk close to the US Mexico border Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja California, Mexico. Botanists and citizen scientists armed with the iNaturalist app on their smartphones are recording the biodiversity along the U.S.-Mexico border in May. Called the Border Bioblitz, more than 1,000 volunteers are recording as many species as possible. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Dr. Georges Seingier, Prof. Marine and Environmental Sciences at Baja California Autonomous University joins a botanical expedition with Universidad Autonoma de Baja California college students to document native plants along the U.S.- Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja California, Mexico. The group near the Mexican community of Jacume, about (60 miles) 100 kilometers east of Tijuana, is one of several participating in the Border Bioblitz in which more than 1,000 volunteers throughout May record as many species as possible along the U.S.-Mexico border, a region plagued by drug trafficking and migrant smuggling that have overshadowed its natural richness. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
College students, members of Baja California's conservation organization Baja Rare, lead a botanical expedition to document native plants along the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate municipality of Baja Calif., Mexico. The Baja California peninsula, which borders California and is home to Tijuana, one of the deadliest cities in the world, has more than 4,000 species of plants. According to scientists, a quarter of them are not found anywhere else, and some 200 plants are considered rare with little to no protection. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
A college student joins members of the California's Baja Rare conservation project leading a botanical expedition to document native plants along the U.S.- Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja Calif., Mexico. Since then there has been a groundswell of initiatives to document the borderland's flora and fauna as climate change coupled with habitat loss, pollution and development have hammered the world's biodiversity, with one estimate in 2019 warning that a million plant and animal species face extinction within decades, a rate of loss 1,000 times greater than expected. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Dr. Georges Seingier, Prof. Marine and Environmental Sciences at Baja California Autonomous University leads a botanical expedition with Universidad Autonoma de Baja California botanists and citizen scientists to document native plants along the U.S.- Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja California, Mexico. Since then there has been a groundswell of initiatives to document the borderland's flora and fauna as climate change coupled with habitat loss, pollution and development have hammered the world's biodiversity, with one estimate in 2019 warning that a million plant and animal species face extinction within decades, a rate of loss 1,000 times greater than expected. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Members of the Baja California's conservation Baja Rare project lead a botanical expedition with college students to document native plants along the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja Calif., Mexico. The group near the Mexican community of Jacume, about (60 miles) 100 kilometers east of Tijuana, is one of several participating in the Border Bioblitz in which more than 1,000 volunteers throughout May record as many species as possible along the U.S.-Mexico border, a region plagued by drug trafficking and migrant smuggling that has overshadowed its natural richness. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Lichen grows on native tree branches along the US-Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja California, Mexico. Botanists and citizen scientists armed with the mobile cellphone iNaturalist app are recording the biodiversity along the U.S.-Mexico border in May. The Border Bioblitz has more than 1,000 volunteers recording as many species as possible. Flora and fauna that have gone extinct or are in danger of disappearing in the U.S. have been found to be thriving in remote spots south of the border, producing specimens that can then be used to bring back populations, scientists say. But the region's crime has deterred many U.S. scientists from crossing the border. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Botanists and citizen scientists armed with the iNaturalist app on their smartphones record the biodiversity along the U.S.-Mexico border as bright yellow blooms carpet the ground, a sharp contrast to the imposing steel bollards of the border wall topped with rolls of razor wire as members of the California's Baja Rare project lead a botanical expedition with college students to document native plants along the US Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja Calif., Mexico. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Tijuana-based field botanist Mariana Fernandez of Expediciones Botanicas leads a botanical expedition with college students to document native plants along the U.S.- Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja California, Mexico. Flora and fauna that have gone extinct or are in danger of disappearing in the U.S. have been found to be thriving in remote spots south of the border, producing specimens that can then be used to bring back populations, scientists say. But the region's crime has deterred many U.S. scientists from crossing the border. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Botanists and citizen scientists armed with the iNaturalist app on their smartphones record the biodiversity along the U.S.-Mexico border as bright yellow blooms carpet the ground, a sharp contrast to the imposing steel bollards of the border wall topped with rolls of razor wire along the US Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, near Botanists and citizen scientists armed with the iNaturalist app on their smartphones record the biodiversity along the U.S.-Mexico border as bright yellow blooms carpet the ground, a sharp contrast to the imposing steel bollards of the border wall topped with rolls of razor wire as members of the California's Baja Rare project lead a botanical expedition with college students to document native plants along the US Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, near the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja Calif., Mexico. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Bright yellow blooms carpet the ground, a sharp contrast to the imposing steel bollards of the border wall topped with rolls of razor wire as members of the California's Baja Rare conservation project lead a botanical expedition with botanists and citizen scientists to document native plants along the U.S.- Mexico border on Friday, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja Calif., Mexico. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
