The Middle East on fire, a spat with the pope – and he posts himself as Potus Almighty. Will his disciples now see that their messiah has feet of clay?

You hear such a lot from Maga Republicans about how liberals think Trump voters are stupid. But not nearly enough about the far more salient point: that Donald Trump thinks Trump voters are stupid. Naturally, nobody deplores his own people as passionately as a populist, but even by those exacting historical standards Trump really does regard his supporters as a honking great throng of halfwits. How else to explain his seemingly retrofitted claim yesterday that the AI picture he posted of himself as Jesus was “me as a doctor”. Er, no. After it incensed leading figures in the Christian right, which makes up a large part of his voter base, the US president later deleted it, lamenting of these idiots that he “didn’t want anybody to be confused. People were confused.” Yeah, people are stoopid.

Alas, as you’ve no doubt seen, controversy still attends this image Trump shared on his Truth Social/True Sociopath platform. It depicts Trump in Jesus robes and holding a glowing orb of something – presumably heavenly light or radioactive material he omitted to tell Congress about – which he is transmitting restoratively into the forehead of some midwestern Lazarus. I’m sure we’d all love to know how the AI prompt for it could be “show me Donald Trump as a doctor”, or indeed how the LLM of choice would react when called out on its subsequent error. “You’re right – I overstated that. I shouldn’t have implied the US president is a benign deity who can raise the dead. To clarify – he’s a malignant narcissist and a tumour on the world. Thanks for catching that.”

Whether it’s everyday grime or dust mite poo, your mattress might be dirtier than you think. We asked the experts about the best way to remove stains, smells and allergens

• The best mattresses – tested

Your mattress is not just furniture, it’s family. You drool and sweat into it for hours, have sex on it, and shed millions of dead skin cells into it every night. It shares your DNA. Romantic or disgusting? Either way, that thing needs a wash.

Sticking a mattress in the washing machine is clearly about as feasible as putting the car in the dishwasher, but at least you can hose a car down and leave it to dry in the sun. With a mattress, especially one that contains foam (like most of the mattresses I’ve reviewed for the Filter), care, patience and a little bit of ingenuity are required when cleaning, or you could end up damaging it.

The MoD shows little sign of learning from its mistakes – no wonder the Treasury is reluctant to agree to its demands

George Robertson, Tony Blair’s first defence secretary, a former Nato secretary general and an author last year of the latest in a series of evasive strategic defence reviews, accused Keir Starmer on Tuesday of a “corrosive complacency towards defence”. He said the prime minister was not willing to make the “necessary investment”.

Lord Robertson could have directed his fire elsewhere. He must know that no government department has been so complacent in the face of years of devastating evidence of waste, profligate contracts, and policy decisions that have avoided confronting new but increasingly clear security threats to Britain and other western countries.

When your boss asks to meet, do you assume you’re about to get fired? Experts explain this common pattern

Your boss asks you for a meeting later in the week; you have never received negative feedback, but you automatically assume you’re about to get fired. Thoughts begin to swirl as you imagine the consequences: soon, you’ll be unemployed and unable to pay your rent.

Or, perhaps, when your partner is a little late coming home, you visualize a terrible accident on the motorway, their car crushed in the pile-up.

The taboo-busting, Tony-award-winning show has returned. But how will its 00s attitudes land today? Will they still sing Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist and If You Were Gay?

There are certain problems you might expect when rehearsing a West End musical. Then there are the problems arising today, regarding the flaccidity of a prominent performer. “This one’s too floppy,” protests actor Noah Harrison, who is struggling with the choreography because his dance partner lacks backbone. No offence is taken, mind you: the culprit is made of felt. It’s time to swap out this cloth character for a sturdier one, and there are plenty to choose from. Row upon row of Sesame Street-alike puppets flank the room, each awaiting its moment in the spotlight.

This is Avenue Q, the Broadway-to-London hit, with songs by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, and book by Jeff Whitty, now revived to celebrate 20 years since its West End premiere. When it first launched, its mixture of multicoloured kids TV puppets, real-world problems (sex, racism, the housing crisis, existential drift) and outrageous songs felt truly out of the blue, and secured it Tony awards for best musical, best book and best score. But the young people to whom its story was addressed are now all grown up, and a new generation could benefit from the tale it has to tell.

The festival might feel more corporate than ever but enthusiasm remained sky high with Bieber fever, a Demon Hunters surprise and a pop takeover

Even in the best of times, Coachella can be a heavy lift – long drive, perhaps longer lines and, if you do it right, extremely long days of careening between live music sets under the intense desert sun. Every year, North America’s largest music festival generates a round of buzz and scorn in near equal measure for good reason – the sky-high prices, the deluge of cringey social media boasts, the overwhelming vibes of influencer culture. Yet the faithful keep returning (and the agnostics keep tuning in online), forking over a minimum of $649 for a three-day pass or securing a brand deal to witness what continues to be the most expansive and comprehensive music slate in the country, a genuinely exciting mix of up-and-comers gunning for a breakout set and you-had-to-be there moments such as, say, the return of Justin Bieber …

While Bieberchella dominated much of the conversation on the ground this year – his low-key but sufficient Saturday headliner set drew perhaps the biggest crowd in festival history – Coachella 2026 offered plenty of range for those not interested in the comeback of the millennial icon. Coachella may be the one thing in America currently safe from actual inflation – there was no rise in ticket prices this year, though I have to imagine that, like last year, over half of attenders are on payment plans. But the inflation mindset prevails. Following its so-called flop era two years ago, when underwhelming headliner billing led to the slowest ticket sales in over a decade, the festival has returned to conversation-dominating form with a more is more approach: more international artists catering to more potential attenders; more infrastructure (a new underground movie theater, the Bunker, was tailor-made for Radiohead’s Kid A Mnesia audiovisual experience); more investment in an impressive livestream operation, as the festival continues its shift from in-person experience to global event/brand; more surprise DJ bookings – the xx’s Romy! John Summit! – that overflowed the EDM-heavy Do LaB.

US president says the country is ‘inclined’ to go to Pakistan for more talks; Israel and Lebanon enter direct negotiations in Washington for the first time since 1990s

• US starts naval blockade of Iranian ports after deadline passes

South Korean president Lee Jae Myung has said rising tensions around the strait of Hormuz make it hard to be optimistic about the fallout from the Iran war, warning that high oil prices and supply-chain strains are likely to persist for some time.

Lee told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday the government should treat prolonged disruption in global energy and raw materials markets as a given and reinforce its emergency response system.

For the time being, difficulties in global energy and raw materials supply chains and high oil prices will continue … I ask that we pursue the development of alternative supply chains, medium- to long-term industrial restructuring, and the transition to a post-plastic economy as top-priority national strategic projects.”

Lebanon and Israel have been at war in some form since the early 1980s. You’re not allowed to enter Lebanon if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport. The two don’t have diplomatic relations. So the fact that these talks are happening directly between the two governments is something that’s really astonishing.

Growth forecasts cut for US and global economy, while UK suffers sharpest downgrade in G7

• Business live – latest updates

A further escalation in the Iran war could trigger a global recession, spiralling inflation and a sharp backlash in financial markets, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

Against an increasingly volatile backdrop, the Washington-based fund said the economic damage from the Middle East conflict was steadily rising as it cut its growth forecasts for 2026 based on the impact from the war so far.

Policies include a Swiss-style EU deal, lower electricity prices and reduced dependence on the US

A group of Labour MPs is to propose a series of new policies to defeat rightwing populism, including a Swiss-style deal with the EU, lower electricity prices, a robust defence of climate policies and a reduced dependence on Washington.

Among those contributing to a new collection of essays is the former cabinet minister Anneliese Dodds, who calls for a fundamental reappraisal of the UK-US relationship, saying alliances should be based on “a hardheaded assessment of which nations share our values and goals.”

Exclusive: Fiona Hill, a former White House chief adviser, joins ex-Nato chief in criticising Starmer’s leadership on defence

A co-author of Britain’s strategic defence review has joined criticism of Keir Starmer’s leadership on military policy, warning of a “bizarre” lack of urgency in defence planning.

Fiona Hill, a former chief adviser to the White House on Russia, echoed the concerns of George Robertson, her co-author with Gen Richard Barrons on the strategic defence review (SDR), over what he had called the prime minister’s “corrosive complacency”.