I see in the confg.log:
config.status:1311: creating pyconfig.h
config.status:1492: pyconfig.h is unchanged
Not sure if --force flag works here but not doing any harm.
Also test results:
Test suite interrupted by signal SIGINT.
1 test omitted:
test_poplib (obvious bug but unrelated)
400 tests OK.
Noted Debian has switched to autoreconf because of autoconf bugs. Also, this looks more efficient and one level up cant be bad.

However, the NEWS entry could be better - more in line with PR title and/or bug report.