From Vietnam to the Balkans, Donald Trump’s family has launched a global dealmaking blitz since his re-election

A crusading prosecutor in the Balkans comes under pressure to drop a big case. Vietnamese villagers learn they are to be evicted. A convicted crypto kingpin in the Gulf receives a pardon.

All have one thing in common: they appear to be connected to the Trump family’s campaign to amass riches around the world. Since Donald Trump’s re-election a year ago, warnings that his use of presidential power to advance personal interests is corroding American democracy have grown ever louder. What is less understood – and perhaps even more dangerous – is the damage this is doing everywhere else.

Big deal-breakers are all very well, but the seemingly small things often tell in the end. How do they feel about sell-by dates? Will they walk out of a bad film? Not asking will come back to haunt you

A friend of mine once declined a date with a kind, funny, clever man because she hated his shoes. When she relayed this to our group of twentysomethings, it didn’t warrant comment or discussion, because it was such a rational decision, which we all would have made. I mean, come on – you can’t go out with someone with bad trainers, can you?

Fortunately for the continuation of the human race, today’s daters appear to be a little less fastidious. A recent report on relationships by the dating app Plenty of Fish not only failed to mention footwear, but showed that people are keen to skip the small-talk phase, so weighty conversation topics such as life goals and dealbreakers are now brought up straight away.

Labour knows it needs to win over the ‘sea wall’ cohort of coastal voters in the next election. But as anger over inequality grows, time is running out

It is a lovely sunny autumn day in Ramsgate on Britain’s Kent coast, and quintessential seaside chippy Peter’s Fish Factory is doing a roaring lunchtime trade. Across the road, at the entrance to the town’s pier, local MP and chair of the newly reformed coastal parliamentary Labour party (PLP), Polly Billington, is having her photo taken.

In between shots she shows us the community art project that adorns the fence along the entrance to the pier. It is made up of pictures, drawn primarily by local children and young people, of the 65 little ships that set sail earlier this year from Ramsgate to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation.

The self-described ‘bounced Czech’ created cerebral works centred by a core of genuine emotion – and always understood the ways of our world

• Tom Stoppard: a life in pictures

• Where to start with Tom Stoppard: from Brazil to Leopoldstadt

All the best dramatists extend the frontiers of drama. Beckett and Pinter did it in their way. The achievement of Tom Stoppard was to take seemingly esoteric subjects – from chaos theory to moral philosophy and the mystery of consciousness – and turn them into witty, inventive and often moving dramas. Theatre, Laurence Olivier once said, is a great glamoriser of thought. Stoppard confirmed that with his capacity to make ideas dance.

I was lucky enough to discover Stoppard early on. That was entirely thanks to Philip French who, aside from being a film critic, was also a BBC producer. In 1966 he asked me to give a short talk on two radio plays by a then little-known writer (“a punk journalist from Bristol” was how someone described him to me) called Tom Stoppard. In The Dissolution of Dominic Boot, an impoverished writer ran up an ever escalating escalating taxi fare. And in If You’re Glad, I’ll Be Frank, a bus driver tried to contact his wife who was the speaking clock. I was struck by the ingenuity of both plays and got to meet their young author.

The high-value council tax surcharge may only raise £400m but it’s the best opportunity for a bigger, fairer tax on wealth

Rachel Reeves won little credit last week for lifting the lid on one of the most heated tax debates of the past three decades.

Who in their right mind would consider engaging in the fight that would inevitably lead to some of the richest people in the land calling for your head?

Venues promoting destruction as stress relief are appearing around the UK but experts – and our correspondent – are unsure

If you find it hard to count to 10 when anger bubbles up, a new trend offers a more hands-on approach. Rage rooms are cropping up across the UK, allowing punters to smash seven bells out of old TVs, plates and furniture.

Such pay-to-destroy ventures are thought to have originated in Japan in 2008, but have since gone global. In the UK alone venues can be found in locations from Birmingham to Brighton, with many promoting destruction as a stress-relieving experience.

A theatrical sensation since the 1960s, whose dramas included Arcadia, The Real Thing and Leopoldstadt, Stoppard also had huge success as a screenwriter

• Tom Stoppard: a life in pictures

• Michael Billington: ‘A brilliant dramatist who always raised the temperature of the room’

The playwright Tom Stoppard, whose playful erudition dazzled the theatregoing world for decades, has died aged 88.

On Saturday, United Agents said Stoppard died at home in Dorset, surrounded by his family. They paid tribute to the “brilliance and humanity” of his work and “his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language”.

Sultana skips Saturday’s proceeding in solidarity with delegates expelled over links to other parties

Zarah Sultana has boycotted the first day of Your Party’s inaugural conference, throwing the party’s first official gathering into chaos amid disagreements with co-founder Jeremy Corbyn over how the party should be run.

Corbyn confirmed to journalists on Saturday that he preferred a single leader and is likely to stand for the role but Sultana said she would vote for collective leadership and that she did not believe parties should be run by “sole personalities”.

Rightwing activist claimed Commons deputy speaker Nusrat Ghani should be barred because she was born in Pakistan

GB News is facing calls to cut ties with a regular contributor who has been accused of racism after claiming that the House of Commons deputy speaker, Nusrat Ghani, should not be allowed in the house because she was born in Pakistan.

The comments by Lucy White, a rightwing activist, have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum amid warnings that explicitly racist language is becoming increasingly normalised in British life.

Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding accountability

Anger over a deadly blaze at a Hong Kong high-rise apartment complex simmered on Sunday as Beijing warned against attempts to use the disaster to disrupt the city, while people across the financial hub continued to mourn for the more than 128 victims.

Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding government accountability, an independent probe into possible corruption, proper resettlement for residents, and a review of construction oversight, two sources familiar with the matter said.