Tucker Carlson Says ‘Let’s All Stop Lying.’ Twitter Mockingly Agrees.

We can’t lie ― the responses to Fox News personality Tucker Carlson urging the nation to stop lying are pretty funny.

“How do we bring the country together?” Carlson asked on his show Monday between his attacks on “elites” and social media over the presidential election result.

“How do we calm things down? How do we make an America you want to live in? And the only answer, the only solution, is honesty,” Carlson continued. “Let’s all stop lying. Lying about everything that matters. Everyday of our lives. That’s what we’re doing now. Have you noticed? How many times did you lie today cause you had to? Let’s repeal our national dishonesty mandate.”

Sure, Americans said. (But not really.)

South Korea arranging phone call between Moon and Biden on Thursday: Blue House

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in’s office said on Thursday it was arranging a phone call between Moon and U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday.

Lebanon Central Bank Plans to Introduce Digital Currency in 2021

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Lebanon plans to introduce a digital currency next year to restore confidence in the banking sector and transition into a cashless system, GovernorRiad Salameh said.

He also urged banks to begin restructuring, including recapitalization by 20%.

“Lebanon doesn’t have any natural resources and we have to keep the gold because its an asset that could be liquidated in foreign markets if we face an inevitable, fateful crisis,” Salameh was cited as saying by the state-run National News Agency.

Korea’s Jobless Rate Unexpectedly Rises as Virus Persists

South Korea’s jobless rate unexpectedly rose in October as the coronavirus kept businesses reluctant to hire.

The unemployment rate climbed to 4.2% from 3.9% in September, data from the statistical office showed Wednesday. Economists had forecast the rate improving to 3.8%. The nation shed 421,000 jobs, an eighth straight month of declining employment.

The elevated jobless rate illustrates the damage to hiring from the coronavirus, even as the overall economy continues to recover. While South Korea has brought a summer virus wave under control and social distancing rules have been eased, consumers and businesses remain wary of a potential flareup that could again hurt economic activity.

The latest data on exports and industrial production show South Korea’s economy is recovering at a faster pace than most major countries, bolstered by better management of the virus and a tech-led exports boost. Still, businesses may not regain the confidence to hire until pandemic-related uncertainty fades.

Jobs in the real estate industry contracted the most in percentage terms, with a 13% decline from a year ago. The government’s job creation efforts saw a 11% increase in employment related to public, defense and social-security administration.

Hotel and restaurant sectors lost 227,000 jobs and wholesale and retail businesses shed 188,000.

Times Of London Trolls Trump With Cartoon Of Oval Office Chaos Biden Will Encounter

President-elect Joe Biden faces quite the clean-up operation in a new cartoon published by the Times of London on Monday.

Morten Morland, the political cartoonist at the Rupert Murdoch-owned British newspaper, depicted the destruction that President Donald Trump has wrought on the Oval Office with this image that has now gone viral on Twitter:

One of the Trump campaign’s Make America Great Again caps lies discarded on the floor near bottles of spray tan, golf clubs, a ripped-up copy of the Constitution and a cell phone with Twitter’s logo on its screen.

There’s also a bottle of bleach, referencing Trump’s bonkers suggestion during a press briefing in April that injecting disinfectant could be a cure for COVID-19.

Morland marked Trump’s 2016 election victory with this cartoon for right-leaning magazine The Spectator:

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Extra Space Announces Preferred Stock Investment In Jernigan Capital – Quick Facts

Extra Space Storage Inc. (EXR) has made a $300 million investment in preferred stock of Jernigan Capital, Inc. in connection with the acquisition of JCAP by affiliates of NexPoint Advisors, L.P. The investment consists of a $200 million tranche, which will yield 10% per annum and a $100 million tranche which will yield 12% per annum, for a blended yield of 10.7% per annum.

Joe Margolis, CEO of Extra Space, said: “We are excited to add 37 newly built, high-quality storage assets to our platform, and more importantly to begin new relationships with NexPoint and the JCAP management team.”

Alstom H1 Profit Down

French speed-train maker Alstom SA (AOMFF.PK,ALS.L) Tuesday reported first-half net income of 170 million euros, down from 227 million euros last year.

Net inceom from continuing operations for the first half decreased to 161 million euros from 213 million euros a year ago.

Adjusted EBIT was 263 million euros compared to 319 million euros last year.

First-half sales slipped to 3.52 billion euros from 4.14 billion euros last year.

During the first half Alstom booked 2.7 billion euros of orders.

“During the first semester, the Group’s commercial activity was impacted as anticipated by the shift in tender activity towards H2 in the context of the sanitary crisis. Yet we managed to secure some large orders notably in Central and East Asia. We are confident that the various stimulus plans together with the increasing demand for sustainable mobility solutions will lead to a solid market recovery, which reflects in our strong tender pipeline for the second semester,” said CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge.