Welsh Labour publishes the review of its May Senedd election defeat at its conference in Llandudno on Saturday, where Prime Minister Andy Burnham will urge the party to listen and take stock and promise more power for Welsh communities. The review, carried out by Public First and presented by Professor Anand Menon, examines a result that cut Labour from 30 seats to nine, ended its tenure running the Welsh government since devolution began, and made Plaid Cymru the largest party, with Rhun ap Iorwerth as first minister and Reform UK second. Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates, who took over in July after First Minister Eluned Morgan lost her own seat in May, said the findings were difficult, that voters felt their support had been taken for granted, and that the party had lost its connection with previously loyal voters.
Senate appropriators have moved to fund the Commerce Department’s civil space traffic system at 50 million dollars for the Office of Space Commerce, matching the House bill, against an administration request of 11 million dollars for the office with only 1 million dollars to essentially shelve past work on the Traffic Coordination System for Space, known as TraCSS. The Commerce, Justice and Science bill released on Thursday by Appropriations Chair Susan Collins backs continued work on the system, which is being built to warn civil and commercial satellite operators of possible collisions and take that task over from the military. The bill now goes to conference with the House version, inside the wider funding fight that must be settled before federal funding runs out on December 11.
In Alaska’s governor race, Friday’s results lifted Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins to 50.81 percent of first choice votes, about 2,200 votes more than half, up from a 125 vote cushion above the threshold on Thursday, after he won about 60 percent of the new ballots counted. CNN projected on Thursday evening that he will win the race. With about 10,500 ballots still to be counted he would fall below 50 percent only if he won less than about 29 percent of the remaining governor votes, and the final count and any ranked choice tabulation are scheduled for November 18.