UK - Today’s edition of Call Me Old-Fashioned comes from Surrey, where a gay couple are expecting three babies by three different surrogate mothers within seven months of each other. I’m sorry, I’ll just read that again. No, I was right first time. Two homosexuals have hired three women they found on the internet to produce three children for them. They have already dubbed the babies: the ‘twiplets’.

EUROPE - There were growing calls for Jean-Claude Juncker to resign as President of the European Commission amid allegations that he presided over potentially illegal tax breaks given to multinational companies operating in Luxembourg. Bloomberg, the influential financial newswire, devoted its editorial to a call for Mr Juncker’s resignation over revelations multinational companies were allegedly allowed to create complicated structures to avoid billions of pounds of tax when he was Prime Minister of the country.

HUNGARY - At the moment the EU is facing the question whether to become part of the unsuccessful utopias in global history, according to Hungarian President Viktor Orban. This is what an article written by Mr Orban, published on his website, dedicated on the issuance of the book by former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl “With Care for Europe” reads, RIA Novosti reports.

USA - Seems the drought has made California into the wild, wild west. Clayton in Contra Costa County is a city that remains true to its western roots. There’s even an old-time saloon. In this town, water has become as precious as gold, and thieves are resorting to stealing it. The Contra Costa Water District says fire hydrants are their favorite targets, mainly along Marsh Creek Road. They come in the dark of the night. “It’s not right,” said resident Delores Vargas. Another resident, Marvin Taylor, agreed. “People who aren’t authorized to get into a fire hydrant shouldn’t be doing that.” Unfortunately, they are. The reason is anyone’s guess. It’s clean. They can sell it, or use it for dust abatement.

EGYPT - They have slaughtered hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police officers, recruited experienced fighters and staged increasingly sophisticated raids from the Western desert to the Sinai Peninsula. They have beheaded informants and killed an American in a carjacking, say Western officials familiar with intelligence reports.

USA - After hibernating for 60 years, eugenics is making a comeback, both in academic and popular spheres. Nazi enthusiasm for eugenics, as well as sterilisation campaigns throughout the Western world in the 1920s and 1930s, gave eugenics a bad name. However, In the Huffington Post recently, Joe Entine of the Genetic Literacy Project made the case for Eugenics 2.0:

USA - Wall Street has been bracing for a billion-dollar currency manipulation investigation that will be over in a few weeks, says The Wall Street Journal. In the past few weeks, it seems banks have been scrambling to prepare for whatever regulators on both sides of the pond may find after a fairly boring earnings season. Performance was average to slightly below, and the total trading rout banks expected didn't turn out to be that bad. But then the disclosures started coming.

IRAN - November 24, 2014, is a looming deadline for Iran, Israel, the United States and the world over its nuclear weapons program. America’s Wendy Sherman, who is leading the negotiations, has described the talks as “a forest of distrust.” At the same time, she declares, “Our bottom line is unambiguous … Iran will not, shall not obtain a nuclear weapon.”

MIDDLE EAST - Only days after being released from prison, the leader of the Islamic Movement's northern Israel branch returned to the public eye, giving a fiery sermon about conquering Jerusalem and making it the Muslim-only capital of a Sunni Islamic empire. In a video of his November 7 sermon in Nazareth, translated by MEMRI, Sheikh Raed Salah said "Inshallah, Jerusalem will soon become the capital of the global caliphate." On March 4, Salah was sentenced to eight months in prison and three years on probation for inciting to violence in a 2007 speech. In the 2007 speech, Salah urged supporters to start a third intifada in order to “save al-Aksa Mosque, free Jerusalem and end the occupation.”

MIDDLE EAST - Hamas has declared the formation of a "popular army" at the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, according to a report by the AFP. A spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades - Hamas's military branch - said the 2,500 recruits would form "the first section of the popular army for the liberation of al-Aksa and of Palestine," according the AFP report. Mohammed Abu Askar, a Hamas official, said those older than 20 could sign up "to be prepared for any confrontation" with Israel.

USA - Mendocino County, in the pristine northern lands of California, where the magnificent ancient coastal Redwood trees meet the inland California Oaks, has voted itself into the constitution writing (righting) business. Yesterday, by a significant margin, they became the first county in California, and only the second county in the country to pass into law a very powerful local ordinance that declares local self-governing rights in their communities over state and federal jurisdiction. Over 67% of the votes cast were in favor of the measure. The ordinance provides for waters free from toxic trespass; pre-emptively bans all fracking activities countywide with heavy fines and penalties for violation of the ordinance; and establishes a Community Bill of Rights to, for, and by the residents of Mendocino County while checking corporate powers as well. In addition, the newly created law gives the Rights of Nature to exist and flourish without toxic trespass whereas previously Nature had no standing in the court of law.

UK - Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is preparing a multi-billion takeover of Canary Wharf, the east London financial district, in a move that would cement the emirate’s position as one of the capital’s biggest property owners. The Qatari Investment Authority has teamed up with Canadian investment group Brookfield to make an approach for Songbird Estates, the property developer that owns a majority stake in the world famous Docklands site. Shares in the property developer rocketed by 20 percent on Thursday as investors salivated over the prospect of one of the largest deals in British real estate history. Songbird was valued at £2.3 billion after the market closed, but the group’s extensive property assets were recently valued at more than £6.28 billion.

UK - Britain's biggest banks face the prospect of being broken up by the competition regulator, in spite of warnings that this would be hugely expensive and hold back lending to the economy. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has dismissed the concerns of banks, amid warnings that the costs of forced branch sales would vastly outweigh any benefits, and that support for breaking up the banks is based on false pretences.

UK - The internet is becoming a “dark and ungoverned” space and technology firms need to do more to help protect against paedophiles, murderers and terrorists, Britain’s most senior police officer has warned. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said the level of encryption available to those offenders who operate on or through the web is so sophisticated it is frustrating police investigations and is in danger of making the internet “anarchic”. He called on communication providers and internet companies to do more to protect the public from terrorism and serious crime. Speaking at a law enforcement conference in New York, Sir Bernard said: "We cannot allow parts of the internet - or any communications platform - to become dark and ungoverned space where images of child abuse are exchanged, murders are planned, and terrorist plots are progressed."

EUROPE - If the ECB tries to press ahead with QE, Germany's central bank chief will resign. If it does not do so, the eurozone will remain stuck in a lowflation trap and Mario Draghi will resign. Mario Draghi has finally overplayed his hand. He tried to bounce the European Central Bank into €1 trillion of stimulus without the acquiescence of Europe's creditor bloc or the political assent of Germany.