Welsh Headlines — 26 Aug 2026

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Welsh News Roundup — 26 August 2026

🔴 Top Story: Plaid Cymru marks first 100 days — progress dashboard out as opposition cries "waste"

The Plaid Cymru Welsh Government formally marked its first 100 days in office on Wednesday (26 August), publishing a new digital "priorities dashboard" allowing the public to track progress, while opposition leaders accused ministers of "wasting time and money".

Cabinet first met on 18 May, a fortnight after Plaid's historic 7 May election victory. In a 00:01 press release the government said it had begun work on "the issues that matter most" — cutting NHS waiting times, improving schools, creating jobs and "giving every child the best possible start in life". Progress claimed includes: increased incentives for teacher training; expanded funded childcare (benefiting "hundreds more families"); free school meals extended to more secondary pupils from September; a multi-year funding deal for farmers; a new north-south coach service; and an expert group planning new surgical hubs. It has also raised the case for Wales with the UK Government on funding, HS2 consequentials, environmental justice for coalfield communities and a new Wales Bill. First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth will give further detail on delivery next week.

Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution Dafydd Trystan Davies said: "The direction of this Welsh Government is clear, and these first 100 days have shown that we won't accept drift or delay when action is needed… Today is an important early milestone, but it's just the start."

The opposition was unimpressed. Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar accused ministers of "wasting time and money on a pointless constitutional commission, a harmful 2040 Net Zero target and an endless torrent of plans and reviews instead of decisive action", branding the 100-day commitments "vague, woolly or are merely the announcement of a review". Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates said: "100 days in and it's difficult to see what has changed… What practical things will they do to tackle the cost of living? When will two-year NHS waits be eliminated? And what is the full timetable and cost of the childcare offer?"

The BBC's assessment (David Deans) notes the minority government's first significant Senedd hurdle was clearing — its supplementary budget was rejected by the entire opposition in July (the first time a Welsh government has lost such a vote) — while two-year waits have dropped 3% to just under 4,100 pathways, though the total waiting list has risen for a third consecutive month. Voters spoken to at Collier's Adventure Farm in Nelson, Caerphilly, were more forgiving: "let them get settled in before we start complaining."

📰 Nation.Cymru (Emily Price), BBC Wales (David Deans), Welsh Government — 26 Aug

🏛️ Politics & Senedd

Farage brands Welsh Tory leader a "clown" over 2017 refugee event photo Reform UK leader Nigel Farage attacked Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar on Monday (24 Aug), sharing a photo of the Clwyd MS wearing giant arms emblazoned "Welcome refugees with open arms" and calling him "the clown that leads the Welsh Tories… They threw our borders open and now expect us to trust them again. Never. Only Reform will secure our borders and deport every illegal migrant." The post was amplified by Reform's Senedd leader Dan Thomas ("Hear hear!"). The picture was taken in 2017 at a 'Refugees: Reflections in Words and Music' concert at St Asaph Cathedral organised by Amnesty's Colwyn Bay group and supported by the Bishop of St Asaph — featuring refugees granted official status, before small boat crossings began climbing sharply in 2018. Millar said the attack was "clearly an attempt to distract from the questions dogging Reform and Nigel Farage about his donations": Farage is under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over a £5m donation from cryptocurrency tycoon Christopher Harborne in 2024 — a probe suspended during his Clacton by-election (which he won, with Count Binface second) and now resumed.

📰 Nation.Cymru (Emily Price) — 26 Aug

Reform branch's "misleading" AI image of refugees sparks safety fears in Caerphilly Reform UK's official Blaenau Gwent Caerphilly Rhymney Facebook account published a synthetic AI image of a queue of Black men with the caption "They tried to hide this… asylum seekers given Caerphilly council houses", claiming FOI data showed 18 refugees housed ahead of local people. Commenters who challenged the post were deleted and blocked — including Yuliia Bond, a Ukrainian refugee living in Caerphilly, whose warning that three refugee families in the borough have already been targeted in their social housing (with incidents reported to police) was removed. Bond said the party was "giving people someone to blame" for a housing crisis: "If that anger reaches another refugee family's front door, who takes responsibility then?" Nation.Cymru notes refugees granted status join waiting lists on the same terms as other applicants — they do not jump the queue — while asylum seekers cannot access social housing at all. Branch chair Jan Walsh did not respond to questions. (Follows Saturday's separate row over Reform's Pontypridd branch adding a laughing emoji to a post about Nation.Cymru news editor Emily Price's daughter's cancer.)

📰 Nation.Cymru (Emily Price) — 26 Aug

Devolution hopes after "positive" Burnham talks, says minister Dafydd Trystan Davies said conversations with Prime Minister Andy Burnham had been "positive and constructive" — including a call with the PM last Friday — and that he is "hopeful" of progress on rail funding, the Crown Estate and the devolution of policing. (PA via Nation.Cymru — 26 Aug)

🌍 Environment

Buried follow-up: ex-Monsanto worker tells of sealing toxic waste — scientist says 14 sites are "tip of the iceberg" A former worker at Monsanto's Newport factory has come forward after the BBC's Buried documentary with Michael Sheen, saying staff had "cheap" protective equipment and were not told what they were burying. Stephen Constance, 61, spent three years digging a 6m-deep trench around a PCB mound and sealing it with plastic membrane and liquid clay; he described the work as "absolutely dreadful" — "quite evident that nobody was fully appraised of the potential hazard that they were exposed to". Constance is in remission from follicular lymphoma: "I'm not suggesting in any way at all that it's linked, but the thought did cross my mind." The documentary's scientist Dr David Megson (Manchester Metropolitan University) said the 14 sites identified are "just the tip of the iceberg", with about 20,000 high-concern sites across the UK needing investigation. Eastman Chemical Company — responsible for Monsanto's legacy UK production — did not respond to the BBC. Port Talbot industrial-disease lawyer John Browne said he was "sad, but not surprised", pointing to "the lack of accountability and the blatant disregard for the health and wellbeing of very wide communities"; Swansea emeritus professor Sue Jordan called for more monitoring, noting congenital abnormalities and stillbirths appear higher in Wales. Public Health Wales said "based on the evidence available at present, there is no indication that historical environmental pollution is responsible for higher cancer risk" in these areas. The Welsh Government said a 2015 NRW survey of local authorities identified more than 9,000 potential sites requiring further investigation and that tackling contaminated land is a priority. (New development — follows the 24-25 Aug coverage of Welsh MPs pressing for clean-up funding; the documentary's findings were first reported 11 Aug.)

📰 BBC Wales (Rowenna Hoskin) — 25 Aug, updated 26 Aug; BBC Cymru Fyw

🚨 Crime & Justice

Child rapist with 600+ images of same girl jailed for 21 years Jordan Richards, 35, from Kidderminster, pleaded guilty to 31 counts of rape and producing more than 600 indecent images of the same teenage girl. The offences occurred near Ammanford, Carmarthenshire between 2012 and 2016. He was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court to 21 years plus a four-year extension, with Judge Huw Rees describing him as "cruel and isolating" with a "lustful and filthy attitude" towards the girl. In a statement the survivor said: "We are not victims, we are survivors."

📰 BBC Wales (Oscar Edwards) — 25 Aug

Former police officer charged with raping woman while on duty The IOPC said ex-South Wales Police constable Rikki Hall, 33, has been charged with two counts of rape and one count of non-fatal strangulation over an alleged attack on a woman while on duty in Swansea city centre in February 2024. He has also been charged with possession of a firearm and two counts of misconduct in public office, and resigned during the investigation. He appears at Bristol Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

📰 BBC Wales (Catriona Aitken) — 25 Aug

• Upskirter caught on CCTV: Alex Allegretto, 39, of Maesteg, pleaded guilty to filming beneath a young girl's skirt in St David's 2, Cardiff on 7 July before running off — he was tracked down via CCTV. Sentenced at Cardiff Magistrates' Court on 5 August: 140 hours of unpaid work, rehabilitation requirements, a £199 penalty and five years on the sex offenders register. (BBC Wales — 25 Aug)
• Stolen taxi driven wrong way down A55: a man was arrested after a taxi reported stolen from Holyhead at about 19:30 Monday knocked a cyclist off their bike on London Road (non-life-threatening injuries) and damaged parked cars before entering the A55 westbound on Anglesey, where officers stopped it between Rhosneigr and Rhostrehewfa. Arrested on suspicion of vehicle theft, dangerous driving and failing to provide a specimen; he remained in custody on Tuesday. (BBC Wales — 25 Aug)

🏥 Health & Community

Hundreds at Powys meeting over community hospital beds plan Hundreds of people attended a public meeting — organised by the Welsh Liberal Democrats and chaired by party leader Jane Dodds — over proposed changes to Powys community hospital beds, amid a £45m budget deficit at Powys Teaching Health Board. GPs across the county wrote to the board last month opposing the plan, warning it would put more pressure on general hospitals and make discharging patients harder. No PTHB representatives attended; deputy director Adrian Osborne said a formal public consultation is expected later this year, with a business case to be considered at a public meeting on 16 September. Dodds said losing the beds — including for palliative care and "step-down" patients — would be "a significant loss… It's likely to cost more [to cut them]."

📰 BBC Cymru Fyw — 26 Aug (Welsh-language)

Welsh-medium special needs provision still "not as good" — five-year review A five-year review of Welsh-medium additional learning needs (ALN) provision, by research firm Ymchwil Arad, found progress but "persistent inequality" against English-medium provision, with gaps and shortages of Welsh-speaking staff across most councils. Plaid MS Sera Evans (Afan Ogwr Rhondda) said she pulled her autistic son out of Welsh-medium education before the pandemic because provision was insufficient: "It was heartbreaking… the Welsh-medium provision wasn't as good as what was available in the English sector." She fears children leaving the Welsh-medium sector over ALN needs will lose their Welsh skills. Elin Maher of Rhieni Dros Addysg Gymraeg said the workforce needs more systematic planning. Labour's education spokesperson Lynne Neagle welcomed the report. (Context: Labour wanted £100m extra ALN spending before backing the government's July spending plans.)

📰 BBC Cymru Fyw — 25 Aug (Welsh-language)

🎭 Culture & Community

• Ex-Wales on Sunday editor in court over "terrorist t-shirt": Yvonne Ridley, a former editor of the Wales on Sunday, was among 37 people appearing in a Scottish court over wearing a 'terrorist t-shirt'. (Nation.Cymru, Martin Shipton — 26 Aug)

🏉 Sport

Sir Billy Boston — Cardiff-born rugby league great — dies aged 92 Tributes have poured in for Sir Billy Boston, the Cardiff-born winger who scored an extraordinary 478 tries in 488 games for Wigan and became, last year, the first player in rugby league's 130-year history to receive a knighthood. Born in Cardiff in 1934, he was overlooked by his home club before signing for Wigan in 1953, and was picked for the 1954 Great Britain tour — the first black British player to tour Australia and New Zealand. Prime Minister Andy Burnham led the tributes, calling him "a giant of a man in every way".

📰 BBC Sport / PA — 25 Aug

Anyadike, 15, becomes youngest player in EFL Cup history Noah Anyadike became the youngest player in EFL Cup history — aged 15 years and 98 days — when he started Cardiff City's 2-1 second-round defeat to Norwich City, handed his debut at centre-back amid an injury crisis. The Wales youth international is the Bluebirds' youngest-ever senior player. Manager Brian Barry-Murphy said he was "thrilled" for the "record breaker".

📰 BBC Sport Wales / Nation.Cymru — 25 Aug

• Vincent Tan in pilotless aircraft: Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan has become the first Malaysian to travel in a pilotless (autonomous) aircraft. (Nation.Cymru — 25 Aug)

💛 Feel-Good

"I made it my mission to get back underground": cave rescuer's return George Linnane, 43, from Bristol, was trapped for 54 hours in the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system in Bannau Brycheiniog in November 2021 — the UK's longest cave rescue — after a fall broke his leg, jaw and three ribs. More than 300 volunteers took part in the rescue. He says he decided "very early on, whilst I was still in the hospital" that he would return; after nine months of recovery he went back — even revisiting the cave where he fell. "It's another world down there. It's like being on the moon or another planet."

📰 BBC Wales (Danielle Herbert) — 25 Aug

🌑 Weather & Sky

• Partial lunar eclipse early Friday: skywatchers get a second eclipse this month — a deep partial lunar eclipse in the early hours of Friday 28 August. The Moon enters Earth's penumbral shadow at about 2:23am, the partial phase begins at 3:33am, reaching maximum around 5:12am with roughly 93% of the Moon's visible surface within the darkest shadow. The Moon will sit low in the south-west/western sky, so a clear horizon is needed. Unlike August's solar eclipse, this is completely safe to view with the naked eye.

📰 Nation.Cymru — 25 Aug

📊 Quick Summary

Section	Key story
🔴 Top Story	Plaid marks 100 days with progress dashboard; Millar "wasting time and money", Skates "difficult to see what has changed"
🏛️ Politics	Farage calls Millar a "clown" over 2017 refugee photo; Reform AI image row in Caerphilly; Burnham devolution hopes
🌍 Environment	Buried follow-up: ex-Monsanto worker, 20,000 "high-concern" sites UK-wide
🚨 Crime	21 years for Ammanford-area child rapist; ex-officer charged with on-duty rape; A55 taxi arrest; upskirting conviction
🏥 Health	Hundreds at Powys beds meeting; Welsh-medium ALN review "persistent inequality"
🎭 Culture	Ex-Wales on Sunday editor in Scottish court over t-shirt
🏉 Sport	Sir Billy Boston dies aged 92; Anyadike youngest EFL Cup player
💛 Feel-Good	Cave survivor's return to Ogof Ffynnon Ddu
🌑 Sky	Partial lunar eclipse early Friday 28 Aug (~93% max)

---

Compiled 26 Aug 2026 · Sources: BBC Wales, BBC Sport Wales, BBC Cymru Fyw, Nation.Cymru, Welsh Government, PA. SearXNG returned a mostly-index-page mix — the usable lead (GOV.WALES 100-days release, 00:01) was cherry-picked; all articles fetched via the Playwright-fetch service (192.168.178.100:8090). The day's UK roundup (headlines-26-08) covered the 100-days one-liner plus older Wales items (Ken Skates budget deal 19 Aug, glass deposit operator, NHS heatwave demand, council tax warnings) — all previously covered in Welsh roundups or older than yesterday's compile, so not repeated here. Former FM "Adam Price" attribution error from the 25 Aug UK file again corrected — Adam Price is Enterprise Minister; FM is Rhun ap Iorwerth.