Concerns have been raised that an energy firm is “courting” Welsh politicians with gifts and donations in order to gain favour and influence for future wind farm projects.

Details uncovered by Nation Cymru reveal how several Labour Senedd members and a Labour MP have received tickets to sporting events and cash from Scottish company Bute Energy over the last three years.

The firm is currently developing a portfolio of onshore wind and solar power energy parks across rural parts of Wales.

A leading anti-corruption organisation has called for an independent probe into the sacking of junior minister Hannah Blythyn.

Transparency International UK is a global movement working to expose serious governance issues in both the UK and devolved governments through impartial, evidence-based research.

The organisation says an investigation should be launched immediately to establish the facts surrounding the ongoing confusion relating to the dismissal of the former social partnership minister.

Two local councillors have submitted a motion to their constituency Labour party calling for a vote of no confidence to be passed in First Minister Vaughan Gething.

It is thought to be the first such motion to be proposed within Welsh Labour since Nation.Cymru revealed in February that Mr Gething had accepted donations to his party leadership campaign totalling £200,000 from a company owned by businessman David Neal, who received two suspended prison sentences for dumping toxic sludge in the protected wetlands landscape of the Gwent Levels.

Sir Keir Starmer, the UK’s new prime minister, brings an impressive CV: barrister, former director of public prosecutions, and ex-shadow Brexit secretary. An establishment insider who knows his way around the corridors of power, he is no stranger to leadership. But that does not necessarily make him a good leader, nor even indicate his potential to become one. Being a member of a privileged elite might land you a plum job, but it does not make you good at it.

Our ancient Welsh forebears knew this well, telling stories to expose bad and promote good uses of power, as my research has shown. Starmer could do a lot worse than to read the Four Branches of the Mabinogion from Welsh mythology during his first few weeks in office. From those skilfully fashioned tales of lordship, he might learn a lot about how to conduct himself as head of government. And, crucially, how not to.

Wales First Minister Vaughan Gething has insisted he is getting on with the job, despite a continuing row over his sacking of a minister and criticism of controversial donations to his leadership campaign.

He said there was evidence a photograph of Hannah Blythyn's phone had been sent to a website which published the story that triggered her dismissal.

Nation.Cymru used the picture to reveal that Mr Gething had said he was deleting messages from a chat group full of ministers in August 2020, during the pandemic.

Campaigners have called on the Welsh Government to ensure plans to create a new national park in the north-east of Wales will protect and enhance the special landscape there.

A joint statement led by Campaign for National Parks has been released ahead of an expected public consultation on proposals this autumn.

It’s been signed by 18 campaigners including Alliance for Welsh Designated Landscapes, RSPB Cymru, WWF and National Trust.

The organisations have called for high ambitions for the proposed area with a supporting framework that will enable a new national park, the first to be designated in Wales in over 60 years, to be an exemplar in the UK.

A number of Labour Senedd Members called on Vaughan Gething to resign during an acrimonious “away day” meeting in Cardiff, we have been told.

Mr Gething’s future hangs in the balance, with bitter divisions between his loyal band of supporters in the Senedd Labour group and those who believe the scandals he is embroiled in will not go away and would prove disastrous for Welsh Labour if he is still First Minister at the time of the next Senedd election in May 2026.

A recent poll undertaken by Beaufort Research for NationCymru showed that nearly 70% of voters in Wales believe he should not have accepted donations totalling £200,000 for his party leadership campaign from a waste company owned by David Neal, a Cardiff businessman who received two suspended prison sentences for dumping toxic sludge in the protected wetland landscape of the Gwent Levels. Mr Gething had lobbied Natural Resources Wales on Mr Neal’s behalf, asking the environmental regulator to go easy on his company.

A number of Labour Senedd Members called on Vaughan Gething to resign during an acrimonious “away day” meeting in Cardiff, we have been told.

Mr Gething’s future hangs in the balance, with bitter divisions between his loyal band of supporters in the Senedd Labour group and those who believe the scandals he is embroiled in will not go away and would prove disastrous for Welsh Labour if he is still First Minister at the time of the next Senedd election in May 2026.

A recent poll undertaken by Beaufort Research for NationCymru showed that nearly 70% of voters in Wales believe he should not have accepted donations totalling £200,000 for his party leadership campaign from a waste company owned by David Neal, a Cardiff businessman who received two suspended prison sentences for dumping toxic sludge in the protected wetland landscape of the Gwent Levels. Mr Gething had lobbied Natural Resources Wales on Mr Neal’s behalf, asking the environmental regulator to go easy on his company.

Many, including media pundits, make false claims about Welsh independence and Wales as an EU member. Here are the facts of the matter

"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much." Those words by Helen Keller are as true about politics as they are about life itself.

Rishi Sunak cut a lone figure on that wet Wednesday in May. He called that shot alone, and was then rejected by the country and was unable to stem the revolt of his party.

Only 18 months previously, behind the same lectern in Downing Street, he had promised to ‘unite our country - not with words, but with action’.

How hollow that promise proved to be. Divided parties don’t win elections, as the old adage goes.

The Welsh Government has made history by committing to outlaw political deception. In a move heralded by campaigners as a significant development in the fight to restore faith in democracy, the government confirmed that it will introduce legislation before the next Senedd election in 2026 to ban candidates and members of the Welsh Parliament from deliberately lying to the public.

The move follows the tabling of an amendment by Welsh MS Adam Price to create a criminal offence of political deception. The proposal had previously won the backing of the Welsh Conservatives, Plaid Cymru, and the Welsh Liberal Democrats but was originally opposed by the Welsh Labour government.

A former Labour minister has broken her silence over her sudden sacking by Vaughan Gething in May.

In a dramatic statement, Hannah Blythyn told the Senedd she has never leaked to the media.

The first minister had alleged that she was the source of a story which revealed Mr Gething told ministers he was deleting messages from a pandemic-era group chat.

But the Labour Member of the Senedd (MS) for Delyn said she was not shown any evidence before she was sacked, was not told she was being investigated, and that the situation left her with acute anxiety and stress.