US President Donald Trump has said fears about the safety of AI are a “hoax”, as he criticised calls to have more guardrails for the fast-moving technology.

It comes after Jack Clark, a co-founder of AI giant Anthropic, told the BBC that a “kill switch” for dangerous AI that can be checked by a third party may need to be mandatory for the industry.

Clark’s comments followed warnings about the risks the technology poses to humanity that have been raised in recent days by several executives and staff at leading AI firms.

Those concerns triggered a selloff in shares of some tech firms on Monday as investors weighed the impact of a potential slowdown in the development of AI.

In a series of social media posts on Monday, the US president compared warnings about AI to the “Global Warming Scam”, that he said was “being perpetrated by the Radical Left Dumocrats”.

Trump also called himself “the Hoax Buster”, likening concerns about the safety of the technology to what he called “the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX”.

In another post he wrote: “There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!”

And earlier on Monday, Trump posted on social media that the only “guardrails” needed for AI was a “strong and smart” president.

Also on Monday, Chinese state media said experts had warned that “Washington’s growing anxiety over China’s rapid AI development appears to be increasingly distorting its policy priorities”.

“They know that China has become a strong competitor in AI, and worry that if the US slows down development or tightens regulation, China could catch up even faster,” Xin Qiang, a professor of American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times.

Clark, who is one of Anthropic’s seven founders, said earlier on Monday that a way of shutting off AI software completely if it gets too dangerous was something society “might want to eventually pass rules around”.

He added that “most labs have different ways of being able to pull the plug”, including Anthropic, but said lawmakers may need to enforce having one.

Bradford Crown Court heard how 30-year-old Mason Jones died after receiving a 16cm-deep stab wound from a 17.4cm ‘Katto’ knife wielded by John Robinson.

The incident took place at around 9.50am on March 1 this year on Main Street in Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Robinson, 31, of Derry Hill, Menston, denies murder, manslaughter, and having a bladed article in public.

Opening the trial, prosecution barrister David Outterside said: “The prosecution say that the defendant rushed down some stairs, went outside, and joined the confrontation.

“Crucially he had armed himself with his own knife.

“When he got outside, he moved towards Mason Jones and intentionally stabbed him.

“Mason Jones was unarmed from start to finish in this incident.

“The knife penetrated 16cm into Mason Jones’s body. It cut into some vital organs including part of the bowel and ultimately it terminated into the largest vein in the body, the vena cava.

“Mason Jones, having been stabbed, staggered away having been gravely injured, and was given first aid not far away at the scene.

“He was taken to Leeds General Infirmary. However, blood loss was catastrophic. This proved to be a fatal injury. He was confirmed dead at 1pm later that day. He was 30 years old.”

The jury heard that Robinson and his partner Annabel Ramsay had been in an on/off relationship for about three years but on February 28 this year she sent Snapchat messages telling him she didn’t want to be with him and that she wanted to move on with her life.

She spent the evening drinking and taking cocaine at her flat with a female friend and two men, the court heard.

At 2am on March 1, Miss Ramsay sent birthday greetings to a man called Will Clarke, who was out in the Bury area with his friend and work colleague Mason Jones.

Following an exchange of intimate photographs and video calls between Miss Ramsay and Mr Clarke, in which she told him “Ya mate’s sexy”, the two men travelled from Bury to Burley-in-Wharfedale and arrived at her flat at about 6am.

The court heard that Mason Jones had never met Annabel Ramsay, and had certainly not met John Robinson, before that night.

Miss Ramsay and Mr Jones went into her bedroom but emerged when Mr Clarke and the other woman began arguing.

Mr Outterside said: “The whole thing descended into confrontation.

“Annabel Ramsay then got physical with the men and chucked them out of the flat [with] both [her friend] and her pushing them out of the door.”

The two men were left wandering around the village but returned more than once to the flat.

Miss Ramsay later threw her friend out of the flat and made a 14-minute call to Robinson asking him to come to her home.

He immediately took an Uber from his home in Menston, around three miles away, and took with him the chef’s knife, which had his name engraved on the oak handle, the court heard.

Mr Outterside said: “It’s entirely agreed by the defendant that in that uber taxi he had with him his own knife that he had brought to the scene.”

The jury heard that Robinson was at the flat for around 90 minutes before the stabbing, and that he was told there had been trouble between Miss Ramsay and her friend, and Mr Clarke and Mr Jones.

Mr Outterside said: “The prosecution says that having armed himself with this knife, he deliberately stabbed Mason Jones with it to a vital area of the body. We say that when the defendant did this, he plainly intended to cause very serious injury to Mason Jones.

“If you are sure about the things I have just said, [then] that is murder.”

He added: “The defendant will say that although he did leave the address holding the knife, he picked it up in defence of himself and his partner Annabel Ramsay outside the confrontation with Mason Jones.

“He will also say that when he got outside, he was wearing socks and slipped on some mud, causing him to lose his footing and stab Mason Jones to the body.

“His intentions, say the defence, had been motivated by defending someone, and he says the stabbing was a complete accident.

“One of the first and central questions you are going to have to ask yourselves in this trial is: ‘Was the stabbing a deliberate act?’”

The trial continues.

EastEnders’ Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) was never going to take being cheated on lying down, and sure enough, Max Branning (Jake Wood)’s vengeful ex declares all-out war against him and secret lover Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan-Levy) next week. 

It all came out about Max and Priya’s illicit antics following his drama-filled wedding to Cindy earlier this month, with Cindy flabbergasted to learn of her new husband’s betrayal. 

While she insisted she could forgive him and pleaded with him to make a go of their marriage, Max said no, deciding his heart actually lay with former flame Linda Carter (Kellie Bright). 

However, Cindy currently has no idea that Max is now making a go of things with the ex-Queen Vic landlady, nor that Priya is pregnant with Max’s child – but the latter is set to change next week, which sparks Cindy’s ire. 

Forthcoming scenes see Priya attend a baby scan with her fiancé Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara), who she has led to believe is the father of her unborn child. 

On the tube home, the pair discuss telling their children Nugget and Avani of their impending arrival, unaware that Cindy is on the same carriage and has overheard everything. 

She is immediately suspicious and makes it her mission to prove the real paternity of Priya’s baby. 

Eventually, Cindy finds the evidence that confirms Max is the daddy, and orders Priya to leave Walford or face having the truth exposed.

While Priya stands firm and insists she will not be forced out of her home, a later encounter with Linda and Oscar Branning (Pierre Counihan-Moullier) leaves her questioning her decision. 

Meanwhile, Cindy is not best pleased when she returns home to find Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa) and Peter Beale (Thomas Law) have invited Max over to make amends, and a huge row inevitably erupts. 

There’s then a very public Round Two at The Vic as Cindy declares war on Max and says she is coming after everything he owns in the divorce. 

But something tells us this may not be all cunning Cindy has planned when it comes to revenge. 

With events over the next few months building to Max being arrested for solicitation to murder and a gunman holding Lauren and Oscar hostage on New Year’s Day, could Cindy be plotting something much, much darker than just going after Max’s money?

Michelle Collins herself recently told Metro: ‘[Cindy] knows how to use a gun – she’s used a gun before. I wouldn’t put anything past Cindy. 

‘You do not mess with Cindy. She loves hard, but she also will get revenge. Her revenge will be really hard as well.’

EastEnders airs these scenes from Monday 21st September at 7.30pm on BBC One or stream first from 6am on iPlayer. 

MORE: You’ve missed a lot of EastEnders clues for massive twist

MORE: Zoe dead in EastEnders after crying for Kat following unexpected Max showdown

MORE: EastEnders confirms Max and Zoe’s fates as new spoilers reveal what happens next

Bill Gates is warning technology companies and world leaders that they must act now to ensure artificial intelligence combats social inequities rather than deepening disparities — and his foundation is pledging $1 billion to improve access.

The Microsoft co-founder made the appeal in the Gates Foundation‘s annual Goalkeepers report, which tracks progress on the development goals set by the United Nations to improve quality of life by 2030. The donation announced Tuesday will be spread over the next two years for AI-focused efforts to train models on local languages, improve health outcomes, upgrade educational tools and inform small farmers’ practices around the world.

And despite the United States’ international aid cuts, Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said he would continue pressing Congress and President Donald Trump‘s administration to lead the way on foreign assistance.

“We haven’t given up on the U.S.,” Suzman told The Associated Press in an interview. “We will acknowledge it’s been a challenging period with the U.S. government on this. But we believe there is still a case to be made.”

The long-prepared report arrives as executives at leading AI companies urge others in the industry to slow its fast-moving development. An ex-Anthropic researcher’s resignation over concerns that developers are not acting responsibly has revived the debate over whether increasingly powerful AI models could escape human control.

Gates shared similar concerns in a post last month on his website. AI will either be “the greatest equalizer” or the “worst source of injustice,” he wrote. He acknowledged that the technology will empower people to carry out fraud, disinformation, surveillance, cyberattacks and bioterrorism.

Annual roadmap published at time of heightened anxiety over AI

The Gates Foundation, one of the world’s largest global health funders, is focused less on funding safeguards and more so on democratizing what Gates considers to be the technology’s benefits. AI is one of several focus areas benefiting from this year’s record budget. Gates pledged in last month’s blog post that “all of our work” will “take full advantage of AI.”

“How will we use this technology to make the world a fairer place and keep it from widening the divide between rich and poor?” he posed. “How will we protect the people who are most vulnerable to the harms caused by artificial intelligence, including those who lose their livelihoods and the sense that they are in control of their future?”

The Gates Foundation views AI as “a potentially transformative tool” for a “world that is in a little bit of crisis,” according to Suzman. The foundation projected 2025 to be the first year this century with an increase in child deaths in last year’s report. The Trump administration’s disruptions to a global AIDS relief program have impeded efforts to prevent and treat the disease in dozens of countries. Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor nations is growing even wider, according to a recent U.N. report.

But for AI to “help accelerate progress,” Suzman said, it must perform well in all local languages — not just English and, to some extent, Mandarin. The foundation announced Tuesday about $100 million to help build data sets in the languages spoken by underserved communities and reflect their local contexts.

Working with OpenAI, Anthropic and other tech giants on health, agriculture

The foundation is turning to some of the top AI companies to get there. Google.org and Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab helped launch an open funding call for projects strengthening the frameworks needed for thousands of underrepresented languages across Africa.

OpenAI committed $50 million alongside the foundation to train health workers in Rwandan clinics as part of a pilot that Suzman said will soon include other African countries. Anthropic is working with the foundation to accelerate vaccine developments and improve its chatbot’s data set of local crops, among other efforts.

Tuesday’s announcement promised to bring about $400 million more for education, such as a tool that helps teachers rework lesson plans around the concepts least understood by their classes; some $400 million for healthcare, such as a tool that double-checks clinicians’ reports for overlooked symptoms; and roughly $100 million for agriculture, such as an app that offers real-time advice to farmers on weather patterns, pest control and fertilizer usage.

Suzman acknowledged that these totals are a “tiny proportion” of the billions spent by tech giants on their commercial products. He confirmed that the foundation is having additional conversations with the major AI companies about how their technical resources can contribute to these goals and where their leaders should invest the vast individual fortunes they’re expected to make.

Gates also noted a “potential bias” in his August blog post: he still has financial ties to the technology industry, where he built a fortune estimated at more than $100 billion. He committed last year to donating 99% of his remaining wealth to the Gates Foundation. He works alongside Microsoft and other AI companies as the foundation’s chair. Still, he emphasizes that his views are not profit-motivated.

Discussions at next week’s United Nations gathering

The Goalkeepers report comes ahead of the United Nations General Assembly’s high-level meetings next week in New York. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has attempted to include developing nations in conversations about AI governance. Guterres, whose term leading the international body will end this year, has said the technology “cannot be governed by a handful of countries or companies.”

But U.N. processes “move considerably less rapidly than AI does,” according to the International Crisis Group’s Richard Gowan, a program director and U.N. watcher. The U.N. also faces questions about its relevancy as it closes in on the selection of Guterres’ successor.

“It isn’t clear that the next secretary-general will keep up this focus,” Gowan told reporters on Monday.

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

A temporary cut of 15% is being increased and made permanent

Pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars, licensed clubs, hotels, gyms and cinemas in Wales will have their business rates cut by 30%.

Currently, there is a temporary reduction of 15% in place for food and drink venues.

The Welsh Government announcement will apply to:

• food and drink hospitality venues: pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars, food courts, licensed clubs and live music venues
• visitor accommodation: hotels, guest houses and hostels
• leisure venues: cinemas, theatres, libraries, museums and gyms

It will apply to eligible small to medium sized properties which have a rateable value below £51,000.

If it gets Senedd support, from 2027-28, the scope of the lower multiplier, currently applied to retail shops, will be expanded to include pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars, food courts, licensed clubs and live music venues, hotels, guest houses and hostels, cinemas, theatres, libraries, museums and gyms.

The higher multiplier, which applies to the highest-value properties in Wales, will be increased to pay for the scheme. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here

While the exact multipliers for 2027-28 will be confirmed as part of budget preparations, following the UK Government’s Autumn Budget which takes place in October.

The difference between the higher multiplier and the standard multiplier for 2027-28 will increase by less than a penny in the pound, to around 2p in the pound.

Regulations will be brought forward in the autumn and, subject to Senedd approval, will take effect from April 1, 2027.

First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “Our high streets are the heartbeat of communities right across Wales, and the businesses that fill them deserve our backing.

“This 30% cut to rates for pubs, cafés, gyms, hotels and so many other local favourites is about giving those businesses the confidence to invest, grow and keep serving the communities that rely on them.

“We’re making the system work better for the sectors that bring our town centres to life.”

The change sits alongside the work of the Town Centres Taskforce, which will consider what more tailored support individual town centres need, recognising that different parts of Wales face different challenges.

Finance minister Elin Jones said it was a “significant change”.

“We’ve taken a balanced approach, ensuring this support is affordable while protecting the vital contribution business rates make to our public services – targeting help where it will have the greatest impact on our high streets.”

Cutting business rates has long been a call from the sector. In July, David Chapman from UKHospitality Cymru said: “Across every part of Wales and every part of hospitality, the message from businesses is the same: costs are too high.

“Business rates, employment taxes and VAT are all weighing down our businesses, forcing them to take difficult business decisions, like slamming the brakes on youth employment and investment.

“Hospitality’s cost and tax burden needs to come down and the immediate solution is simple – lower hospitality business rates.”

Who is actually going to live there?

The centuries-old property close to the family’s famous Ravenseat Farm has become the centrepiece of More4 series Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids.

Viewers have watched walls rebuilt, floors laid, electricity installed and rooms slowly take shape as the Owen family attempts to transform what was effectively a ruin into a modern home.

Anty John’s Aerial View (Image: CHANNEL 4)

But the project comes at an intriguing time for the family.

Amanda and Clive separated in 2022, and their eldest children have increasingly begun building lives of their own.

The nine Owen siblings now range from adults with careers to youngsters still growing up on the farm.

Despite all the work that has gone into Anty John’s, neither Amanda nor Clive has publicly confirmed exactly who will eventually make the farmhouse their permanent home.

Why did Amanda and Clive Owen buy Anty John’s?

Amanda and Clive bought Anty John’s in 2020, before announcing the end of their marriage two years later.

The farmhouse stands near Ravenseat in Upper Swaledale and had been abandoned for decades before the Owens began their ambitious restoration.

When Our Farm Next Door was originally commissioned, Channel 4 said the property had been bought to “plan for the family’s future”.

The series follows Amanda, Clive and their nine children as they work with local tradespeople to bring the building back to life while dealing with the difficulties of restoring a listed property in such a remote location.

It means the house has always been presented as more than simply a property development.

It is a project tied to the long-term future of the Owen family in Swaledale.

Exactly what that future looks like, however, has never been definitively revealed.

Will Amanda Owen live at Anty John’s?

It would be easy to assume Anty John’s is destined to become Amanda’s new home.

But that has not been officially confirmed.

Amanda continues to be closely involved with the renovation – and has made many of the decisions seen on Our Farm Next Door, from researching the property’s history to working out how its interior should look.

She described the restoration in 2025 as a huge undertaking and admitted she was often learning as she went along.

Asked when the project might finally be finished, Amanda compared it to painting the Forth Bridge and described putting the house back together as a seemingly never-ending process.

What she did not reveal was that she personally planned to move into it once the work was complete.

Will Clive Owen live there?

Similarly, no one has announced that Anty John’s will become Clive’s permanent home.

That question is particularly interesting because Amanda and Clive have continued to work remarkably closely since their separation.

When they announced the end of their marriage in 2022, the couple said they would continue working on the farm and co-parenting their children.

That arrangement subsequently extended to the renovation project and their return to television together.

Clive remains heavily involved with farming life and Anty John’s, while Our Farm Next Door continues to feature both him and Amanda alongside their family.

However, involvement in the restoration does not necessarily establish who will eventually occupy the building.

Could one of Amanda and Clive’s children live at Anty John’s?

This may ultimately be one of the most significant reasons Anty John’s matters to the Owens.

Amanda and Clive have nine children, Raven, Reuben, Miles, Edith, Violet, Sidney, Annas, Clementine and Nancy, and the property has repeatedly been described in connection with the family’s future.

The children are now at very different stages in their lives.

Older siblings Raven and Reuben have already begun establishing independent careers away from the day-to-day childhood viewers saw on Our Yorkshire Farm, while others remain much more closely involved with Ravenseat.

Our Farm Next Door itself has increasingly documented that transition.

The Royal Television Society, which is hosting a special event about the programme in Northallerton on September 30, said three years of filming had shown the Owen children change enormously and develop into “very different individuals”.

Anty John’s Front View (Image: CHANNEL 4)

It is therefore possible that Anty John’s could eventually provide a home for members of the next generation of the family.

But there has been no confirmed announcement identifying any particular Owen child as its future occupant.

How far has work on Anty John’s progressed?

The question has become increasingly relevant because Anty John’s is finally beginning to resemble a home.

The first stages of the restoration focused heavily on rescuing and securing the structure.

As the project progressed, attention turned towards the interior.

Channel 4 said the third and fourth series would follow the family after the exterior was finally completed as they embarked on the “huge interiors project”, including working out room layouts and installing plumbing and running water.

Viewers have since seen major milestones.

Episodes have followed the installation of floors and electrics, the underfloor heating being fired up and an antique fireplace being fitted.

The farmhouse has also had electric light for the first time as its transformation from an abandoned rural building into a functioning home gathers pace.

Yet there is still more to do.

Anty John’s has a history long before the Owens

The fascination surrounding the farmhouse is not purely about its future.

Amanda has also spent considerable time investigating its past.

The property is known locally as Anty John’s after former resident Anthony Clarkson, a Swaledale map-maker whose story has featured prominently in Our Farm Next Door.

Channel 4 has said Amanda’s research into Clarkson and the history of the property will continue alongside the renovation.

That historical element has helped make Anty John’s almost a character in its own right rather than simply the backdrop for another home-improvement programme.

So who will eventually live at Anty John’s?

For now, the most accurate answer is that the Owen family has not publicly confirmed who will permanently live at Anty John’s when it is finished.

Official descriptions have consistently said the property was purchased with the family’s future in mind and that it is being transformed into a modern home.

They have not said that it will specifically belong to Amanda, Clive or one of their nine children.

That unanswered question is likely to become increasingly prominent as the renovation approaches its final stages.

And viewers could soon learn more.

Our Farm Next Door is returning for a fourth series, while a special event at Everyman Northallerton on September 30, 2026, will feature an exclusive preview of what is coming next.

Three years into the transformation of Anty John’s, the building that began as an abandoned farmhouse is edging ever closer to becoming a home.

Who ultimately calls it home could prove to be one of the biggest remaining questions in the Owen family’s story.

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series

Michael J. Fox, Shrinking

Brett Goldstein, Shrinking

Hamish Linklater, Widow’s Bay

Christopher McDonald, Hacks

Rob Reiner, The Bear

Connor Storrie, Saturday Night Live

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Claire Danes, The Beast in Me

Sally Field, Remarkably Bright Creatures – WINNER

Carey Mulligan, Beef

Sarah Pidgeon, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette

Sarah Snook, All Her Fault

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Riz Ahmed, Bait

Jason Bateman, Black Rabbit

Charlie Hunnam, Monster: The Ed Gein Story

Oscar Isaac, Beef

Matthew Rhys, The Beast in Me – WINNER

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Linda Cardellini, DTF St. Louis

Dakota Fanning, All Her Fault

Laurie Metcalf, Monster: The Ed Gein Story

Joy Sunday, DTF St. Louis

Youn Yuh-jung, Beef

Constance Zimmer, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Jason Bateman, DTF St. Louis

Richard Gadd, Half Man

David Harbour, DTF St. Louis

Richard Jenkins, DTF St. Louis

Charles Melton, Beef

Nick Offerman, Death by Lightning

Jason Bateman and David Harbour will face off in the Bestg Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for DTF St. Louis

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Outstanding Reality Competition Program

Dancing With the Stars

RuPaul’s Drag Race

Survivor

Top Chef

The Traitors – WINNER

Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program

RuPaul Charles, RuPaul’s Drag Race

Alan Cumming, The Traitors

Kristen Kish, Top Chef

Ariana Madix, Love Island

Jeff Probst, Survivor

Outstanding Host for a Game Show

Steve Harvey, Celebrity Family Feud

Ken Jennings, Jeopardy

Colin Jost, Pop Culture Jeopardy

Jimmy Kimmel, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

Martin Short, Match Game

Outstanding Structured Reality Program

Antiques Roadshow

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

Love Is Blind

Queer Eye

Shark Tank

Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program

America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

Love on the Spectrum

RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked

Summer House

Welcome to Wrexham

Summer House received a surprise nomination in the Best Unstructured Reality Program category

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Outstanding Variety Series

The Daily Show

Jimmy Kimmel Live

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert – WINNER

Saturday Night Live

Outstanding Game Show

Celebrity Family Feud

Jeopardy

The Price Is Right

Wheel of Fortune

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

Outstanding Movie

Heads of State

Miss You, Love You

People We Meet on Vacation

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

The Diplomat (Peter Akerman and Debora Cahn for “Amagansett”)

The Pitt (Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman & R. Scott Gemmill for “1:00 PM”)

The Pitt (Valerie Chu for “12:00 PM”)

Mickey Down and Konrad Kay for “Dear Henry,” Industry

Pluribus (Vince Gilligan for “We Is Us”) – WINNER

Slow Horses (Will Smith for “Scars”)

Task (Brad Ingelsby for “A Still Small Voice”)

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

Abbott Elementary (Quinta Brunson for “Team Building”)

The Chair Company (Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin for “Life goes by too f**king fast, it really does”)

The Comeback (Michael Patrick King and Lisa Kudrow for “Valerie Does It All”)

Hacks (Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky for “Hacks”)

Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat (Anthony King for “Mergers and Acquisitions”)

Widow’s Bay (Katie Dippold for “Welcome to Widow’s Bay”) – WINNER

Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

All Her Fault (Megan Gallagher for “Episode 8”)

The Beast in Me (Gabe Rotter and Daniel Pearle for “Sick Puppy”)

Beef (Lee Sung Jin for “All the Things We’re Never Gonna Have”)

DTF St. Louis (Steven Conrad)

Death by Lightning (Mike Makowsky)

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series

The Gilded Age (Salli Richardson-Whitfield for “My Mind Is Made Up”)

Paradise (Hanelle M. Culpepper for “Exodus”)

The Pitt (Noah Wyle for “12:00 PM”)

Pluribus (Vince Gilligan for “We Is Us”)

Slow Horses (Saul Metzstein for “Scars”) – WINNER

Task (Salli Richardson-Whitfield for “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a river”)

Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series

Abbott Elementary (Randall Einhorn for “Ballgame”)

The Bear (Christopher Storer for “Bears”)

The Chair Company (Andrew DeYoung for “Life goes by too f**king fast, it really does”)

Hacks (Lucia Aniello for “Hacks”)

The Ms. Pat Show (Mary Lou Belli for “Give It Arrest”)

Widow’s Bay (Hiro Murai for “Welcome to Widow’s Bay”) – WINNER

Elsewhere, Jean Smart won best comedy actress for her role in the fifth and final series Hacks.

It is the fifth Emmy she has won for the Hollywood satire. “What a ride this has been,” Smart reflected, and joked the audience only gave her a standing ovation “because I’m old”.

It was Smart’s eighth Emmy win in total, and The Diplomat’s Allison Janney also picked up the eighth Emmy of her career, this time triumphing in the category for best supporting actress in a drama series.

Smart and Janney have both now equalled the record for the most acting wins ever, shared with Cloris Leachman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Despite her past success, Janney was a surprise winner on Monday and said she was “genuinely shocked” to see off competition from four stars of hospital drama The Pitt, among others.

Meanwhile, Rhea Seehorn won the first Emmy of her career for best lead actress in a drama series for Pluribus, the Apple TV show about a woman who discovers almost everyone else in the world has been taken over by a mysterious mind virus.

Well, at least Matthew Rhys had a good night. The 51-year-old Welsh star became the first person in Emmys history to win two acting awards in different leading categories on the same night. His bravura performance as a psychopathic real estate magnate in The Beast in Me and his hilarious turn as the put-upon mayor in Widow’s Bay had very little in common, other than showcasing his remarkable range and the subtlety of his performances. Anyone who’s seen The Americans will know that Rhys could already make a credible case for being the finest actor working today. Now he has the silverware to back it up.

Rhys’ twin triumphs, accompanied by snatches of celebratory Welsh, were high points in an awards ceremony that too often felt flat and uninspiring. Host Mariska Hargitay just about got away with kicking off proceedings with an extravagant cover of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘n Roll,” reworked as “I love TV screens,” but each subsequent musical interlude was harder to stomach.

Hargitay even recruited her fellow New York Knicks fanatic Taylor Swift for a pre-taped sketch that riffed, as did too many of her jokes, on her 27-year stint on Law & Order: SVU. Strangely, her laugh-free skit opposite Swift was pretty much the only time all night she didn’t burst into song.

Hargitay always seemed like a strange fit for a job more suited to a stand-up comedian, so perhaps it’s unfair to lay too much blame for the ceremony’s blandness at her door. When Stephen Colbert, accepting the final Emmy his (late) late night show will ever win for Best Variety Series, pointed out that his former writers had provided the jokes for this year’s awards show it felt more like an indictment than an endorsement. Whose idea was it to put a ‘we all come from humble beginnings’ speech in the mouth of Jayne Mansfield’s daughter?

The funniest moment of the show was provided by John Mulaney, recruited to hand Noah Wyle his Best Actor in a Drama trophy for The Pitt, who turned his few minutes on stage into an entertaining digression on what constitutes a “real man” and had many viewers begging him to take over as host in the future.

If Rhys was the night’s biggest winner (other than Mulaney), his victory should also be understood in the context of Widow’s Bay pulling off pretty much a clean sweep of the comedy awards. There were well-earned wins in the supporting categories for Stephen Root and Bury-born Kate O’Flynn, as well as a writing award for the show’s creator Katie Dippold. The Apple TV+ hit is set to begin filming a second season early next year, and could well be set to dominate the Emmys for years to come.

Jean Smart, for one, will be happy the show didn’t have a female lead. A lack of competition from Widow’s Bay allowed the Hacks star to win her fifth consecutive Emmys for her outstanding work as stand-up comedian Deborah Vance. Not to blow my own trumpet, but back in 2021, before nominations were even announced, I predicted the character would win Smart an Emmy. With the show coming to an end this year, she become only the second actor to win an Emmy for every season of the same show after Bill Cosby did the same for all three seasons of I Spy from 1966 to 1968. A rare occasion when Cosby is desirable company to be in.

In the drama categories, The Pitt continued its dominance, and there was a long overdue win for Rhea Seehorn for her work in Pluribus, after years of being overlooked for her staggering performances in Better Call Saul. There was also a crowd-pleasing fourth win for Sally Field, for the one-of-a-kind octopus-based drama Remarkably Bright Creatures.

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The final award of the night went, predictably by now, to Widow’s Bay for Best Comedy. The Emmys proved it knows good what good TV looks like, it’s just a shame it couldn’t recreate it here. Deserving winners, but the jokes may as well have been written in another language. As Rhys put it: “Diolch yn fawr iawn.” Thank you very much, indeed.

The Emmy Awards take place in Los Angeles on Monday, with The Pitt, Hacks and Beef among the shows competing for trophies.

Many of this year’s prizes have already been handed out at the earlier Creative Arts Emmys, leaving only the most high-profile categories for the big night.

Here are the nominations for the main ceremony in full. This list will be updatied live throughout the night.

Drama series

Comedy series

Limited or anthology series

Lead actor in a drama series

Lead actress in a drama series

Lead actor in a comedy series

Lead actress in a comedy series

Lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie

Lead actress in a limited or anthology series or movie

Supporting actor in a drama series

Supporting actress in a drama series

Supporting actor in a comedy series

Supporting actress in a comedy series

Reality competition programme

Variety series

Outstanding writing for a drama series

Outstanding writing for a comedy series

Outstanding directing for a drama series

Outstanding directing for a comedy series