Chefs have gone head over heels for the brown stuff. Some drown their burgers in it; others serve it with brioche and black pudding; one even turns it into ice-cream. What’s going on?

Pub roasts, grannies, Sunday lunch, Ah! Bisto!: gravy triggers nostalgic food memories for Britons like little else. But unlike complex French sauces, for example, gravy is brown and plain, not gastronomic alchemy. Its homely bedfellows – potatoes and pies – have had fancy makeovers, but gravy’s potential hasn’t been much exploited on the modern menu. Until now.

The nostalgic wave sweeping Britain’s food scene is reviving this ancient staple, but with a twist: gravy is going gourmet. It is appearing as a dip for burgers in London at the upmarket chain Burger & Beyond and at Nanny Bill’s. It is served with brioche and black pudding at Tom Cenci’s modern British restaurant Nessa in Soho, and even does a turn at Shaun Rankin’s Michelin-starred Grantley Hall in Yorkshire, where it is styled as beef tea and served with bread, bone marrow butter and dripping.

The rules of the institutions that define our lives bend like reeds when it comes to Israel – so much that the whole global order is on the verge of collapse

Sereen Haddad is a bright young woman. At 20 years old, she just finished a four-year degree in psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in only three years, earning the highest honors along the way. Yet, despite her accomplishments, she still can’t graduate. Her diploma is being withheld by the university, “not because I didn’t complete the requirements”, she told me, “but because I stood up for Palestinian life.”

American actor best known for playing heavies, including the ‘psycho’ Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs

The actor Michael Madsen, who has died aged 67 of a cardiac arrest, saw himself as a “throwback” to the era of noir heavies such as Robert Mitchum and Lee Marvin. But plying his jocular menace in the modern Hollywood era gave the actor expanded possibilities for movie violence that elevated him, at certain moments, to a timeless screen presence.

When he severed a policeman’s ear in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 debut Reservoir Dogs, after sadistically bopping to the sounds of Stealers Wheel’s pop hit Stuck in the Middle With You, it became Madsen’s calling-card scene. He had originally auditioned for the part of Mr Pink, the role eventually played by Steve Buscemi, before the director realised his imposing qualities were perfect for the loose-cannon psychopath, Mr Blonde. “Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you gonna bite?” Madsen taunts Harvey Keitel’s Mr White, sipping a soda.

Decades ago, a generation of UK schoolchildren unwittingly took part in an initiative aimed at boosting reading skills – with lasting consequences

Throughout my life, my mum has always been a big reader. She was in three or four book clubs at the same time. She’d devour whatever texts my siblings and I were studying in school, handwrite notes for our lunchboxes and write in her diary every night. Our fridge door was a revolving display of word-of-the-day flashcards. Despite this, she also was and remains, by some margin, the worst speller I have met.

By the time I was in primary school, she was already asking me to proofread her work emails, often littered with mistakes that were glaringly obvious to me even at such a young age. It used to baffle me – how could this person, who races through multiple books a week and can quote Shakespeare faultlessly, possibly think “me” is spelt with two Es?

Mood is tense and subdued after nearly 21 months of Israeli offensives that have displaced almost the entire population

In Gaza City on Sunday morning, there was only one topic of conversation: the possibility of peace. In the half-ruined town, as across the entire territory, few took their eyes off their phones, a television or better-informed relatives or friends for more than a few minutes.

Um Fadi Ma’rouf, from the now destroyed town of Beit Lahiya in the far north of Gaza, said she was encouraged by the positive response from Hamas to the most recent US-sponsored proposal of terms for a deal.

MPs and parents worry shake-up may abolish vital education, health and care plans that SEN children rely on

Downing Street is facing another bruising battle following last week’s humiliating retreat on welfare reforms, as MPs, campaigners and parents voice concern at its overhaul of special needs education for children in England.

A letter to the Guardian, signed by dozens of special needs and disability charities and campaigners – including the broadcaster Chris Packham, actor Sally Phillips and Jane Asher, actor and president of the National Autistic Society – says parents fear the reforms may restrict or abolish the vital education, health and care plans (EHCPs) that more than 600,000 children and young people rely on for individual support.

Triple murder accused to learn fate in trial over beef wellington lunch that contained death cap mushrooms – follow updates

• Who are Erin Patterson and the other key figures in Australia’s mushroom lunch trial?

Welcome to our live blog of Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial.

The jury has indicated it has reached verdicts in the case of the mushroom lunch cook.

Briton Sonay Kartal loses to Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in clash marred by technological failure

Wimbledon organisers have apologised after the electronic line-calling system was turned off in error at a crucial moment in Sonay Kartal’s match on Centre Court.

The British No 3’s opponent, the 34-year-old Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, accused the All England Club of home bias and said a game had been stolen from her when the AI-enhanced technology missed a call.

President says team will start sending trade partners letters with new tariff rates ahead of this week’s original 90-day deadline to make deal

Donald Trump has said that his administration plans to start sending letters on Monday to US trade partners dictating new tariffs, amid confusion over when the new rates will come into effect.

“It could be 12, maybe 15 [letters],” the president told reporters, “and we’ve made deals also, so we’re going to have a combination of letters and some deals have been made.”

Rescuers still searching for missing people, including 10 girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian youth camp

• Texas continues grim flood recovery

Officials have said waters in some parts of Texas are starting to recede to where they were before the storm.

The Guadalupe River near Kerrville – which surged by more than 20 feet within 90 minutes during the downpour — is, according to CNN, back down to just a foot or two higher than its level before the flood.