Tens of thousands of protesters spent the whole night resisting an unregulated and brutal assault of tear gas, water cannons, and plastic bullets, which left scores of people injured, traumatised, and hospitalized. While people were being beaten by police, mainstream media have caused outrage among Turks by neglecting to comment and refusing to broadcast from the streets.

By and large, people have united in opposition to the way Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party have been treating protesters. Unexpected alliances have formed between people... Doctors have volunteered their time and effort to help the injured on the streets and lawyers have come to the aid of those who have been detained.

Now that the police have left Taksim Square (tear gassing people as they went), thousands of people remain in Gezi Park waving Turkish flags and chanting "Tayyip Istifa" — meaning "Tayyip Resign" — while #tayyipistifa is trending on Twitter. There are reports that tensions are rising between protesters and pro-government Islamist groups in the nearby neighbourhood of Tophane, where Islamists are said to be attacking people with knives.

In a letter published in The Sunday Telegraph, the Conservative Grassroots group said the Prime Minister had “no solid evidence” behind his support for same-sex marriage and that he was “alienating” Tory supporters. It will come as a major blow to Mr Cameron, who has tried to placate activists by insisting that he will stop concentrating on policies such as same-sex marriage and instead focus on the “big picture” issues of the economy and education.

Same-sex marriage was approved by MPs last week after Mr Cameron was forced into a deal with Labour to beat a Tory back-bench attempt to derail it. However, it will have to overcome significant resistance when it comes before the House of Lords this week. Peers from all main parties will unite in an attempt to block the legislation.

But the Bishop claimed that signing into law a Bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry would force her to break that promise she made upon her Coronation. Peers will today begin two days of debates on the Government's plans to allow same-sex weddings, with a vote tomorrow. Bishop Nazir-Ali told the Daily Mail: "The idea of a constitutional monarchy comes from the Bible. Christians are told in the Bible to obey their rulers, unless the ruler tells us to do something God forbids."

"Happily in this country we have a monarchy that has taken an oath of upholding God's laws, and the present Queen has for years been faithful to that. We are praying that she continues to be faithful. But while she is faithful to the vows she has taken, in this country she has to act on the advice of her ministers."

The warning comes after both Labour peer Lord Alli and Viscount Astor, the stepfather of David Cameron's wife Samantha, said that the gay marriage Bill could result in a constitutional stand-off between the Commons and the Lords.

The plan to send Borei-class submarines, designed to carry 16 long-range nuclear missiles, to the southern hemisphere follows President Vladimir Putin’s decision in March to deploy a naval unit in the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis starting this year. “The revival of nuclear submarine patrols will allow us to fulfill the tasks of strategic deterrence not only across the North Pole but also the South Pole,” state-run Itar-Tass cited an unnamed official in the military General Staff as saying.

The official said the patrols would be phased in over several years. The Yuri Dolgoruky, the first of eight Borei-class submarines that Russia hopes to launch by 2020, entered service this year.

Fears of a nuclear confrontation between Russia and the United States has eased in recent years, and the Cold War-era foes signed a landmark treaty in 2010 setting lower limits on the size of their long-range nuclear arsenals. But the limited numbers of warheads and delivery vehicles such as submarines that they committed to under the New START treaty are still enough to devastate the world.

Putin has made clear Russia will continue to upgrade its arsenal.

Foreign bank loans fell by $472 billion (£311 billion) in rich countries in the fourth quarter of last year, contracting at an 8 percent annual rate. The retrenchment was led by a collapse of interbank loans in the eurozone, where lenders in the creditor states continue to pull back from periphery countries. Volumes fell by $284 billion across the eurozone, a 20 percent rate of contraction. Belt-tightening by banks is a key reason why the region remains stuck in recession for the seventh quarter in a row.

The BIS said in its quarterly report that the markets are “under the spell of monetary easing”, convinced that central banks will keep the asset boom going despite signs of “broad deceleration” in the US economy and fatigue in China.

Jaime Caruana, the BIS’s managing director, said last month that the authorities should refrain from further stimulus to keep growth alive, warning that excessive liquidity is distorting the financial system without achieving much. “If a medicine does not work as expected, it’s not necessarily because the dosage was too low,” he said.

The BIS was the only major watchdog to warn of a bubble before the Lehman crisis, and it has once again begun to fret over junk bonds and frothy asset prices.

After a miserably long winter followed by a cold, rain-drenched spring, the start of summer has brought severe flooding in Germany and neighboring Austria and the Czech Republic, killing at least nine people so far and awakening unhappy memories of the disastrous deluge of August 2002. There's no respite in sight, with Germany's weather center warning of further heavy rainfall on Monday in the worst-affected regions of southern and eastern Germany.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from low-lying areas, historic town centers are under water, schools are closed and high-school exams have been postponed, all to the grim soundtrack of emergency sirens and the merciless rushing of water. Five people are reported to have been killed in the Czech Republic, including two men on a river rafting tour. Two people have died in Austria and two in Germany. Several more are missing.

Perhaps the most extended research, however, comes from the Gallup poll. Since 1957, Gallup has asked Americans this simple question: Is religion increasing its influence? The poll is not a measure of religious or spiritual beliefs but rather a perception of religion’s role in society. The latest poll, released Wednesday, shows the most negative public opinion toward the impact of religion since 1970.

The last time a majority of Americans saw religion as increasing in influence was just after the 9/11 attacks. Today, in sharp contrast, 77 percent believe it is losing influence. That’s about the same percentage as during the late 1960s.

Another poll, done for the Christian group LifeWay Research, also finds Americans more open to religion during time of tragedy. Nearly 6 in 10 agree with the poll’s statement, “When a natural disaster occurs, my interest in God increases.” It is difficult to reconcile these polls with a rising disinterest in institutional religion. A Pew poll last year found 15 percent of American adults say they have no religious affiliation (the “nones,” as they are dubbed). That is about double from four decades ago.

These numbers, however, probably reflect a growing distrust in almost all institutions, not just established denominations, as well as a rising interest in individual spirituality more than group worship or faith-impelled social action.

In this futuristic hell, as soon as a woman gave birth, a support worker would come and live in her house, both to help the parents with the difficult child and to protect the child from the potentially abusive parents. There was no longer an expectation, or even an understanding of privacy, intimacy, trust, or even a relationship with and between parent and child. Rather, relationships were mediated through your own personal support worker.

Unfortunately, this dystopian future has arrived a little faster than I imagined, as last week the Scottish Government’s plan to give every child a state guardian from birth was launched. This state-appointed overseer will be a specific, named individual, and every child will have one, from birth. The responsibility for creating this named guardian will fall on the heads of the health boards for the first five years of a child’s life, before being transferred to councils. Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this development is that it clearly comes in large part as a mechanism to target and prevent child abuse.

In my dystopian future, the hero Michael, who was an outsider to this (not so brave) New World, started off as a self-confident, well-adjusted, strong character. By the end of the story he had become a nervous, obsessively self-conscious, fragile, distrusting and yet conformist individual. Accepting the need to abandon privacy, engaged with the idea of risk – especially in relationships – Michael’s life soon became empty of true bonds or friendships. This loveless and bloodless existence led to… but that would spoil the end. But then, who needs a sci-fi novel when we have our very own “state guardians”.

Welcome to my world!