The need for independent regulation grows more obvious by the day. We must keep this tech in check before it’s too late

• OpenAI scraps release of new model over safety concerns in internal testing

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me more than 16,000 times – as OpenAI agents did to a UN public data hub while repeatedly trying to find its way around the UN’s cyber-blocks – and perhaps it’s time to admit the system we have for keeping AI agents under control isn’t working particularly well.

The news about AI systems cropping up in places they shouldn’t sounds alarming. Though the description of these as “hacks” is perhaps overstating things, AI has exploited issues in IT systems that humans simply haven’t got around to finding. It’s also important to note that we shouldn’t be worried that the machines have suddenly become sentient and decided to rebel against humanity. There is not enough evidence to suggest that’s what is happening. The systems are simply following instructions and trying to complete the tasks they have been given, even if they’re sometimes finding unintended ways around obstacles to do so.

Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of TikTok Boom: The Inside Story of the World’s Favourite App

Actors detained at Jewish Voice for Peace demonstration against Israeli prime minister’s address to the UN general assembly

Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and Hacks star Hannah Einbinder were among people detained by police in New York on Thursday as they moved in to break up a protest against Benjamin Netanyahu.

Agence France-Presse footage shows NYPD officers cuffing Thelma & Louise star Sarandon at the demo in the city as the Israeli prime minister was readying to address the United Nations general assembly.

Rhys becomes first actor to win lead acting awards for different shows in the same night, while Hacks’ Smart is the first woman to win for every season of a show

• Emmys 2026: red carpet looks and outfits at TV’s biggest night – in pictures

• In the Hacks v Widow’s Bay Emmys battle, it’s we – the audience – who are the real winners

• Emmys live blog: as it happened

• Emmy winners: the full list

Matthew Rhys has become the first actor in 78 years of Emmys history to win multiple lead actor awards for performances in different shows in the same year, for Widow’s Bay and The Beast in Me.

The 51-year-old Welsh actor won outstanding lead actor in a comedy for Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay and outstanding lead actor in a limited series for his role in Netflix’s The Beast in Me at the ceremony on Monday night. With his 2018 win of outstanding lead actor in a drama for The Americans, he is the first male performer to win all three lead acting categories.

What’s exciting to me isn’t who took home the statue but what the creators behind these women-driven comedies will do next

• Emmys 2026: Widow’s Bay dominates as Matthew Rhys and Jean Smart land historic wins

• Emmys 2026: red carpet looks and outfits at TV’s biggest night – in pictures

• Emmy winners: the full list

There are three essential things to know about me: I love comedy, I love women and I love television. So as you can imagine, the centre of my world is women in TV comedies. Going into the 2026 Emmy awards, there was a big beautiful battle shaping up between two women-driven comedies: Hacks, a truly masterful hilarious show that just finished up with its fifth season, and Widow’s Bay, a truly original hilarious show that took us by storm with its first season. Conveniently for me, these were also my favourite two comedies of the year.

The two opening awards set the stage perfectly. Supporting actress in a comedy was a stacked category, won by Kate O’Flynn, and extremely deservedly, according to me. Patricia on Widow’s Bay was my favourite new character of the year. O’Flynn played her with incredible physicality, finely honed comedic skill, and a vulnerability that made me want to cry as often as I laughed.

Widow’s Bay dominated this year’s ceremony, with The Pitt, Hacks and Pluribus landing other major categories

• Emmys 2026: Widow’s Bay dominates as Matthew Rhys and Jean Smart land historic wins

• Emmys live blog: as it happened

• Emmys red carpet looks and outfits at TV’s biggest night – in pictures

The Diplomat
The Gilded Age
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Paradise
The Pitt – WINNER
Pluribus
Slow Horses
Your Friends & Neighbors

The Emmys are here – and tonight’s ceremony is likely to be dominated by The Pitt, Pluribus, Hacks and Widow’s Bay. Follow live updates

• Emmys 2026: red carpet looks and outfits at TV’s biggest night – in pictures

• Emmy winners 2026: the full list

With a little under an hour till showtime, the stars are starting to trickle in, including a very glam Detective Olivia Benson AKA first-time host Mariska Hargitay:

Well, it wouldn’t be a red carpet without Hacks’s Meg Stalter and Paul W Downs stunting with a coordinated costume … and for the show’s final Emmys go-around, Stalter is going as Miss Emmy Trophy herself, gold overhead globe and angel wings and all. Which is making for some amazing cutaways from the more serious folk posing for photos nearby.

The year’s biggest night in television includes plenty of nominations for Pluribus, The Pitt and Hacks – but who will win?

And just like that, the summer of catching up on TV is over. The Emmys are back, this year on a (non-football competing) Monday night with a healthy mix of lauded veterans and buzzy newcomers. Will The Pitt, leading the night with 25 nominations, once again sweep the drama awards? Will breakout horror-comedy Widow’s Bay spoil the party for the fifth and final season of Hacks? Here are our picks for the night:

The Hacks lead was cast in meta-slasher sensation Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma for her ‘deranged physicality’ – but it’s a fitting role for an actor who has made a point of confronting shame and speaking her mind

‘God is good all the time,” laughs Hannah Einbinder. She’s fresh off a plane from Los Angeles and curled up barefoot in an armchair. This, she says, is “a crazy time in life. Starring in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma in the midst of Hacks ending … it’s definitely an embarrassment of riches.”

Hacks is the HBO comedy that ended earlier this year; in May, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun’s queer meta-horror, became the breakout hit of this year’s Cannes film festival.

Gold dances, the Good Friday agreement and standup superstardom … get ready to blub because here are the most heartwarming denouements in TV history

Warning: this article contains spoilers

Hacks star spoke at Cannes about fallout from pro-Palestine comments and joining a tradition of Jewish allies

The actor Hannah Einbinder has said the cost of not speaking up about Palestine is greater than losing her Hollywood career.

The Emmy-winning star of Hacks, who leads the new queer slasher drama Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, told an audience at Cannes film festival she would not be deterred from standing up for causes she cared about.

She has suddenly become one of the world’s most successful comedians, with a hit Netflix special, an Emmy-nominated role in Hacks and another opposite Steve Carell. But many of her jokes raise hackles. Is she a genius – or an edgelord?

‘Once in a while, you get to see a legend at the absolute top of their game,” booms a voice at the beginning of Robby Hoffman’s Netflix special, Wake Up, welcoming her to the stage. High praise indeed – especially since the voice is that of the leading US comedian John Mulaney, who directed the special, and who clearly thinks this 36-year-old New Yorker is one of the hottest talents around.

He’s not the only one. Over the last year, Hoffman’s star has risen at a stunning pace. She is currently on TV in Rooster, a college campus comedy starring Steve Carell, as well as the fifth season of the critically acclaimed sitcom Hacks. This is only her second season as talent agency assistant Randi, but last year the role earned her an Emmy nomination.

No indignity is too great for the leads of these darkly funny shows as they pursue a comeback at any cost

In the fifth and final season of sitcom Hacks, the legendary comedian Deborah Vance has once again been plunged into crisis. After leaving America’s number one late-night talkshow in a flurry of controversy, a vengeful non-compete clause is barring her from performing new material. Season four of the Emmy-winning comedy ended on a cliffhanger, with TMZ mistakenly reporting that Deborah (Jean Smart) had died. Freshly resurrected for season five, the prodigal mother of comedy worries that her lifetime of work will be defined by her premature late-night exit. To secure her legacy, she sets her sights on staging a major comeback show at Madison Square Garden – and she’ll stop at nothing to make it happen.

Not uncoincidentally, the final season of The Comeback begins on a similar note of desperation. Valerie Cherish – the high-cringe sitcom star played by a red-haired Lisa Kudrow – is handed a career lifeline when she scores the lead role in a new sitcom. There’s just one catch: the script has been written by AI, and this is a secret that Valerie is forbidden from sharing. It’s the type of toe-curling scenario that could only come from Kudrow and her collaborator, Michael Patrick King, who is back on form after terrorising the world with And Just Like That.

The last season of this once hugely funny comedy absolutely tears out of the blocks in its best outing in years. But it’s still not the show it once was – despite the brilliant performances

For a while there, Hacks represented the height of comedy. Actual funny comedy, as opposed to trauma-ridden half-hour dramas like The Bear. When it won an Emmy for best comedy in 2024, it felt like Hacks and Hacks alone was at the vanguard of proper comedy.

That seems like a while ago now. Since then, The Studio came along: another entertainment business satire, only one with bigger stars, better production values and sharper barbs. At last year’s Emmys, The Studio won everything in sight, while all Hacks could muster were a pair of trophies for Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, playing a rich but disconnected comedian and her put-upon writer respectively. So the question is this: can Hacks rally in its final season?