USA - Americans tend to take it for granted that when we open a tap, water will come out. Western states have been dealing with water problems for a while, but they won’t be alone for long. As drought, flooding, and climate change restrict America’s water supply, demands from population growth and energy production look set to increase, according to a report from the US Government Accountability Office. These two changes squeeze our natural water reserves from both directions. The stress is becoming clear and will soon manifest as water scarcity problems all over our country. Ready access to water is not something everyone in the world can take for granted, and Americans may not be able to much longer.

USA - A Kentucky court ruled on Monday that a Lexington printing business does not have to print messages that are in conflict with its religious beliefs. The decision runs contrary to recent high profile rulings, including ones against Oregon bakers and a Washington florist who were punished for refusing to serve same-sex weddings. The Kentucky ruling signals that states and local governments are still divided on the question about whether public places have the right to refuse service based on religious objections. “What this court found in this case is that no one should be forced to promote ideas — or in this case, print ideas — that conflict with their beliefs,” said Jim Campbell, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom representing the printing business. “That protection is for everyone. It’s a protection that’s for the atheist just as much as it’s for the person of faith.”

USA - A new report from the US Geological Survey has warned the risk of 'the big one' hitting California has increased dramatically. Researchers analysed the latest data from the state's complex system of active geological faults, as well as new methods for translating these data into earthquake likelihoods. The estimate for the likelihood that California will experience a magnitude 8 or larger earthquake in the next 30 years has increased from about 4.7% to about 7.0%, they say. 'We are fortunate that seismic activity in California has been relatively low over the past century,' said Tom Jordan, Director of the Southern California Earthquake Center and a co-author of the study. 'But we know that tectonic forces are continually tightening the springs of the San Andreas fault system, making big quakes inevitable. The UCERF3 model provides our leaders and the public with improved information about what to expect, so that we can better prepare.'

UK - More children will be born to unmarried rather than married parents within ten years, according to experts. The number of children born to married couples has dropped in nearly all of the last 30 years, says a study by the Marriage Foundation. The figure reached an all-time low of 53 per cent in 2012, compared to 88 per cent in 1980. And according to the campaign group's latest report, the number of family breakdowns since 1980 has surged by 44 per cent. He added: "Family breakdown should have gone down. But instead family breakdown has doubled. The only social trend that can plausibly explain this collapse in stability is the move away from marriage." Our previous research has shown that couples who were not married at the time of the child's birth are more than twice as likely to split up in the following 15 years, even if they married at a later stage.

VATICAN - For a 2,000-year-old institution hardly known for its mutability, there was a sense of urgency at the Vatican on Tuesday when scientists, diplomats and religious and political leaders discussed climate change and its impact on the world’s poor. “We are the first generation that can end poverty, and the last generation that can avoid the worst impacts of climate change,” Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations said at an international symposium on climate change organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The event presaged a keenly anticipated papal letter on the environment that Pope Francis is expected to issue in June.

USA - “We will not obey.” That’s the blunt warning a group of prominent religious leaders is sending to the Supreme Court of the United States as they consider same-sex marriage. “We respectfully warn the Supreme Court not to cross that line,” read a document titled, Pledge in Solidarity to Defend Marriage. “We stand united together in defense of marriage. Make no mistake about our resolve.” “While there are many things we can endure, redefining marriage is so fundamental to the natural order and the common good that this is the line we must draw and one we cannot and will not cross,” the pledge states. And that means the possibility of Christians – people of faith – engaging in acts of civil disobedience.

USA - Seven Southwestern states will soon be infiltrated by 1,200 military special ops personnel as part of a controversial domestic military training exercise in which some of the elite soldiers will operate undetected among civilians. Operation Jade Helm begins in July and will last for eight weeks. Soldiers will operate in and around towns in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado where some of them will drop from planes while carrying weapons loaded with blanks in what military officials have dubbed Realistic Military Training.

USA - Plans for a 17-city Army Special Operations exercise in Texas stirred some ultra-right-wing fears of a government takeover in the Lone Star State, but local law enforcement say they've long been aware of the drill. Operation Jade Helm will bring a coalition of forces, including the Green Berets, SEALS, and special operations commands from the Air Force and Marines to Texas for two months of "realistic military training" in a simulated "hostile" territory between July and September this summer.

USA - The US Supreme Court hears arguments today on whether Americans have a right to same-sex marriage, so two of our stories below deal with this important topic. The family is at the heart of our society; tinkering with it will almost certainly lead to momentous cultural and political changes.

ISRAEL - Sleeping in the arms of their loving parents, these are among more than two dozen babies recently born to surrogate mothers for gay Israeli couples who are being airlifted out of Nepal to safety. The infants - some of whom were prematurely born - were evacuated from the country on Monday following Saturday's devastating earthquake, which has so far claimed more than 4,300 lives. The plane had previously delivered doctors to Nepal to aid rescue efforts. Later in the day, five more infants landed safely in Tel Aviv with their Israeli families. Some were seen resting peacefully in their carriers, while others were clutched tightly to their parents' chests. Reports have said 33 youngsters will be rescued in total.

USA - Less than a day after a donation fund was set up for the Oregon bakers who the state recommended be fined $135,000 for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, the crowdfunding website, GoFundMe, has shut it down. “The campaign entitled ‘Sweet Cakes by Melissa’ involves formal charges. As such, our team has determined that it was in violation of GoFundMe’s Terms and Conditions,” a spokesman for GoFundMe told The Daily Signal in a statement. The fundraising page was launched Friday after an Oregon administrative law judge announced the fine. Supporters of Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Sandy, Oregon, raised more than $109,000 before the page was removed.

USA - Less than 48 hours after the crowdfunding website GoFundMe shut down a campaign setup for Sweet Cakes by Melissa, GoFundMe yanked a similar fundraiser for a 70-year-old Washington florist facing seven-figure financial penalties for violating her state’s anti-discrimination law. The campaign, created for Barronelle Stutzman, a Christian florist who refused to make flower arrangements for a gay couple’s wedding, had been operating on GoFundMe for over two months. It wasn’t until GoFundMe removed the Sweet Cakes by Melissa campaign — meant for Aaron and Melissa Klein, the Oregon-based bakers who were fined $135,000 for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding — that it closed the account for Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers. Before it was shut down, Stutzman’s GoFundMe page had raised more than $174,000 in donations.

USA - Homosexual activists have painted Christian bakers, florists, and photographers as veritable hatemongers for refusing to participate in a same-sex “wedding” on religious grounds – but it is not only Christianity that teaches that homosexuality is immoral. In a new video, Steven Crowder discovered numerous Muslim bakeries refused to bake a cake for a homosexual “marriage” – and Crowder is calling homosexuals out for not being equally aggressive toward the Religion of Peace. Crowder called out the mainstream media for focusing all its attention on Christians when Muslims were more likely to refuse to participate in same-sex nuptials. “For Christians it only took one lawsuit, yet the media never acknowledges the giant, burqua’d elephant in the room,” Crowder said.

IRAN - The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Monday accused Saudi Arabia of treachery against the Islamic world and compared the kingdom to Israel, the official IRNA news agency reported. "Today, the treacherous Saudis are following in Israel's footsteps," General Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying. "Saudi Arabia is shamelessly and disgracefully bombing and mass killing a nation that is fighting against the arrogant system," or world powers, he said. He was apparently referring to Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been waging a monthlong air campaign against Iran-supported rebels, known as Houthis. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are longtime regional rivals. They back opposite sides in Syria's civil war and are fiercely divided on a host of regional issues.

CHINA - China is drafting plans for bond purchases to boost liquidity and shore up the country's $2.6 trillion edifice of local government debt, becoming last of the world's big economic powers to resort to quantitative easing. The news propelled the Chinese stock market to a seven-year high on Monday, helped by fevered talk of a merger between Sinopec and PetroChina, the country's two oil giants.