The rapid growth of ‘AI slop’ – content created by artificial tools – is starting to warp our perception of what is, or could be, real

My eye was caught by a striking photograph in the most recent edition of Charles Arthur’s Substack newsletter Social Warming . It shows a narrow street in the aftermath of the “rain bomb” that devastated the region of Valencia in Spain. A year’s worth of rain fell in a single day, and in some towns more than 490 litres a square metre fell in eight hours. Water is very heavy, so if there’s a gradient it will flow downhill with the kind of force that can pick up a heavy SUV and toss it around like a toy. And if it channels down a narrow urban street, it will throw parked cars around like King Kong in a bad mood.

The photograph in Arthur’s article showed what had happened in a particular street. Taken with a telephoto lens from an upper storey of a building, it showed a chaotic and almost surreal scene: about 70 vehicles of all sizes jumbled up and scattered at crazy angles along the length of the street.

A 250-year-old animal stable nestled in an Italian mountain village is now a family home – with a see-if-you-can-spot-it mirrored loo

Sheer Alpine mountains and forested valleys are both neighbour and inspiration for Italian designer and architect Riccardo Monte . His home, a 250-year-old former animal shed, is tucked into a tiny Italian village in the Ossola valley, not far from the Swiss border and Lake Maggiore.

Riccardo lives with his English partner, photographer and filmmaker Katie May, their six-year-old son, Julian, and collie, Lupa. The couple met in London more than a decade ago when their paths crossed in Hackney’s Dolphin pub. But they left a few years later, burned out by the frenetic pace of the metropolis, for a slower pace of life in Riccardo’s home county.

This election has blown a hole in the worldviews of both leftists and centrists. The pandemic may be a more important factor

Donald Trump has won, and most shockingly, he won the popular vote. Unlike in 2016, which could be explained as a rejection of Hillary Clinton concentrated in the crucial midwestern states, this year he won convincingly. He has increased his share of the vote, as a percentage of the overall national popular vote, in each of the three elections he has run.

Who voted for Trump and why? Many analysts of all political stripes have ready-made explanations for what happened, explanations that usually conveniently reflect the exact beliefs of the analyst. Unfortunately for them, the most common narratives do not stand up to scrutiny. The election results have blown a hole in the worldview of both the center and the left.

Ben Davis works in political data in Washington DC

• Blackburn end drought in win at Cardiff
• Stoke and Millwall share the points

Middlesbrough piled further pressure on under-fire Luton manager Rob Edwards as they cruised to a 5-1 win at the Riverside.

Edwards’ underperforming Hatters side crashed to their heaviest defeat of the season as they were comprehensively outplayed on Teesside, with the loss coming almost a year to the day since they were holding Liverpool to a draw in the Premier League.

Experts say president-elect’s bombastic attitude and economic messaging helped flip traditionally blue counties

The raucous early morning celebration in Miami ’s Little Havana neighborhood was of a magnitude not seen since the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro died eight years previously. In the immigrant-saturated suburb of Westchester, too, Latinos partied beyond daybreak as Donald Trump ’s return to the White House was confirmed.

Wednesday morning’s revelry in south Florida reflected a stunning victory for Trump in the previously solid blue, Hispanic-majority county of Miami-Dade that had not been won by a Republican presidential candidate in more than 30 years.

A book by Caroline Darian adds further shocking details of the years of abuse by Dominique Pelicot and many others

When detectives told Caroline Darian her father had been lacing her mother’s food and drink with a powerful concoction of drugs and inviting strangers to rape her , she thought nothing more could shock her.

Just a few hours later, however, an urgent call to return to the gendarmerie brought more devastating news. Among the 20,000 photographs and videos her father Dominique Pelicot had recorded of her mother Gisèle being abused were two images of a much younger woman asleep in a bed.

The Gunners got in early to land William Saliba for £25m – Chelsea later signed his teammate Wesley Fofana for £70m

It was a cold, rainy afternoon in Montpellier when Arsenal first became serious about William Saliba. This was 2019, before the scouts, agents and rival clubs would descend en masse. He was playing for Saint-Étienne’s under-19s and Ty Gooden, then Arsenal’s France scout, had alerted them to the raw yet impressive 6ft 4in 18-year-old working his way through the ranks. His insistence had brought Francis Cagigao, then the club’s head of scouting, to the south of France.

Cagigao and Gooden initially had their eye on another centre-half at Saint-Étienne, a year older and already in the first team. He will also be playing on Sunday at Stamford Bridge, against Saliba. Indeed, the older centre-half would eventually command a £70m transfer fee. However, it was Saliba’s extraordinary speed and presence that attracted the Arsenal duo over Wesley Fofana.

Donald Trump’s US election campaign threat to impose 10% levies on US trading partners could hurt the UK economy

Outside the US embassy in London, a steady line of visitors arrive for visa appointments. On the windswept south bank of the Thames, the fortress-like building is not the most welcoming proposition: it stands isolated, a cold glass cube hemmed in by a medieval-style moat.

Inside, after Donald Trump’s election victory last week , the atmosphere was not much warmer. Having flown in to promote US trade links with Britain, the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, knew his job had just got a lot harder.

The Gardeners’ World presenter on being a sucker for spy stories, pub nights in the early 70s, and having his prejudices challenged by a gigantic floral dog

Born in 1955 in West Germany and raised in Hampshire, Monty Don studied English literature at the University of Cambridge. After running a costume jewellery business in the 80s, he was the Observer ’s gardening editor from 1994 to 2006. He has presented Gardeners’ World since 2003, as well as his own series including Around the World in 80 Gardens and Monty Don’s Japanese Gardens . He lives in Ivington, Herefordshire with his wife, Sarah; they have three children. He has published 27 books, the latest of which is Spanish Gardens (BBC Books, £39.99), with photography by Derry Moore, is out now.