Month: September 2024

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky are expected to meet at Trump Tower in New York on Friday amid Republican anger accusing him of stumping for Kamala Harris on the American taxpayer’s dime.

The meeting also comes two days after former President Trump blasted Zelensky for not reaching a peace deal with Russia. He also trashed Zelensky as the “greatest salesman on earth” just as Biden authorized $8 billion more in defense aid for Ukraine.

“Those cities are gone. They’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal, Zelensky. There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now,” Trump had told a campaign rally in North Carolina.

Following this, the former president charged Zelensky with making “little, nasty aspersions” toward him. “It’s a shame what’s happening in Ukraine, so many deaths, so much destruction. It’s a horrible thing,” Trump said.

Earlier in the week, and after Zelensky publicly criticized J.D. Vance in a New Yorker interview, the Trump campaign had said a Trump-Zelensky meeting was highly unlikely. But by late Thursday that changed, and Trump revealed a personal and somewhat desperate sounding message that Zelensky sent him, urgently requesting a meeting. Trump posted the message in full to his Truth Social account. 

The message emphasized that Zelensky always speaks “with great respect” about Trump and that the two “have to strive to understand each other and remain in close contact.” It was passed to Trump by Denys Sienik, the deputy chief of mission for Ukraine’s US embassy.

Below is the message from Zelensky to Trump as posted on Truth Social:

“All of us in Ukraine want to end this war with a just peace,” Zelensky wrote. And we know that without America this is impossible to achieve. That’s why we have to strive to understand each other and remain in close contact.”

“Days ago, we requested a meeting with you, and I really want to hear your thoughts directly, and firsthand,” he continued. “You know I always speak with great respect about everything connected to you, and that’s how it should .”

Yesterday’s Zelensky visit to the White House resulted in ongoing criticism from conservative circles saying Zelensky is basically acting as a prop for the Harris campaign, in order for her to be seen looking ‘presidential’. But so far the White House has not granted the main request Zelensky is seeking: the lifting of all restrictions regarding using long-range West-supplied missiles to strike Russia.

Zelensky will brief Kamala on his “success” in the invasion of Russia in Kursk and share his ambitions.

WTF? pic.twitter.com/tSVRzReIT0

— Russian Market (@runews) September 26, 2024

Trump has said of the Friday late morning meeting with Zelensky, “I look forward to seeing him.” He described, “We’ll see — I do believe I disagree with him — well, he doesn’t know me. I disagree, but I will say this: I believe I will be able to make a deal between President Putin and President Zelensky quite quickly.”

Zelensky has been pushing his ‘victory plan’ in Washington, and is expected to try and convince Trump to stay the course of strong Ukraine support if he takes the White House again after the November election.

Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend area late Thursday night as a powerful Category 4 storm but weakened to a tropical system early Friday morning over Georgia. 

The latest data from NHC shows Helen was about 100 miles southeast of Atlanta and moving north at 30 mph. Winds are still in excess of 70 mph, just four mph below Category 1 status. 

“Catastrophic, life-threatening, record-breaking flash & urban flooding. As Helene continues moving inland, damaging wind gusts will continue, particularly over high terrain southern Appalachians,” NHC warned. 

The weather agency noted, “In particular the inland wind hazards of Helene are highlighted by the new experimental cone. A widespread area of Tropical Storm Warnings are still in effect for North Florida, most of Georgia, all of South Carolina, and Western North Carolina.”

According to NHC, Helene made landfall just miles from Perry, Florida, in the late overnight hours, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph. The storm churned northwards across Florida into Georgia, killing three people and leaving two million plus without power across several states.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters overnight that 3,500 National Guardsmen are on standby, prepared to respond to emergencies across the Big Bend region. 

Data from the flight tracking website FlightAware shows widespread flight disruptions in the southeastern part of the US. 

NASA’s International Space Station flew over the massive storm on Thursday evening. 

The International Space Station flew over Hurricane Helene at 2:25 p.m. EDT Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, as it approached the Gulf Coast of Florida packing winds in excess of 120 miles an hour. pic.twitter.com/J1iU0Iztpx

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) September 26, 2024

Georgia, North/ South Carolinas, and as far north as Virginia have already declared a state of emergency, as models show the storm’s future trajectory is through the Appalachian region. 

This area badly needs rain.

Here’s our reporting on the storm:

• Gov. DeSantis Declares State Of Emergency Ahead Of Dangerous Hurricane Threat

• Tropic Trouble Brewing In Gulf Of Mexico Could “Slingshot” Towards Offshore Oil Rigs

• “Something Brewing In Gulf Of Mexico” As Confidence Grows In Cyclone Formation Next Week

• Ports Preparing For Hurricane Helene As Storm Bears Down On Florida

• “High-End Cat. 3” Hurricane Helene Forecast To Hit Florida’s Big Bend

• Hurricane Helene Becomes ‘Nightmare’ Storm With ‘Unsurvivable’ Storm Surge Ahead Of Florida Landfall

* * * 

Via SchiffGold.com,

On Friday night, Peter took again to X Spaces to comment on the Fed’s recent decision, the stakes of the upcoming election, and Bitcoin, among other topics. He spends most of the Space interacting with his followers and responding to their questions. Follow Peter on X to catch the next Space he hosts.

Peter starts by addressing the big news from last week: the Fed announced rate cuts of 50 basis points, signaling a return to monetary policy from the Great Recession era:

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re going to have quantitative easing probably at the latest by the first quarter of 2025. The Fed may even start after the election, depending on how bad things are. But the rate cuts were just the beginning. Powell and the guys at the Fed are saying, ‘Well, the economy is great. Everything is awesome, but we’re cutting rates by 50 basis points anyway–’ something that they rarely do.”

The Fed insists that inflation is under control, but it’s still above the typical 2% target they’re expected to target:

“The Fed is cutting rates, claiming a victory over inflation when it should be obvious to anybody who understands inflation that it’s about to go through the roof. We saw a big breakout in inflation up to 9%, we’ve now seen a pullback to around 3%, and we’re now finding support above what used to be the resistance.”

Every time the Fed tries to delay a recession, it facilitates an even larger national debt and ensures that the next crash will be bigger and badder:

“We’re going to have a real economic crisis in the United States that we should have had 10 years ago– 20 years ago. But we were able to succeed in kicking the can down the road, and that’s going to come back to bite us, because the collapse is going to be much worse because our economy is so much worse. We’re screwed up now. The deficits are much bigger than they were back then, so it was an easier problem to solve 20 years ago.”

In response to a listener question about his preferred economic reforms, Peter explains that the size of the government needs to be drastically reduced. Even many Republicans struggle to grasp this:

“We have a huge bureaucratic monstrosity that needs to be dismantled. There’s so much that the government does that it shouldn’t even do at all, at least the federal government. These functions would be better performed at the state and local level, and so the federal government should just get out of those things. Even the things that the federal government should do—and there’s not that many things that it should do—it does very inefficiently. … Trump brags about the fact that he created the Space Force. We didn’t need the Space Force. That’s another agency. It’s the wrong direction. We needed to get rid of some of the agencies we had, not add new ones.”

One listener asks Peter about Jack Mallers, the CEO of crypto company Strike, and the mindset behind investing in Bitcoin. Peter thinks crypto investors like Mallers and Michael Saylor don’t seriously consider the possibility that Bitcoin will crash:

“I remember the housing bubble in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. I found that people who owned homes—and I was renting at the time—but people who owned homes could not accept the fact that their house was going to go down in value. I think one of the reasons for that is they had such a vested interest in their house going up because it was their biggest asset. … They didn’t even want to consider the possibility that this gravy train was going to come to an end. I think that happens in Bitcoin to an even bigger degree, especially when you’ve invested so heavily in Bitcoin—not just because you own it, but because you’ve started a business that’s based on it.”

Towards the end of the Space, several listeners ask Peter about gold stocks, prompting him to comment on his experience as a stock broker. He argues that there’s ample room for deregulation in the financial sector too:

“Trump should get rid of the SEC—not just get rid of [SEC Chair] Gary Gensler, get rid of the entire SEC! We don’t need it. We should just abolish it, and we should abolish FINRA. Not only would that save a bunch of money because we could fire all those bureaucrats and let them get real jobs, but it would help the country; it would help the capital markets. Things would be better, right? Investors would be better protected and better served without the government looking over their shoulders.”

Rail freight is the backbone of U.S. infrastructure, moving millions of tons of various materials and linking the nation’s numerous ports and cities to facilitate domestic and international trade.

But what material did U.S. rail move the most in 2023?

For this graphic, Visual Capitalist partnered with The Greenbrier Companies to answer this question and dive into what makes rail vital to the U.S. economy.

What Does U.S. Rail Freight Move?

Versatility is one of rail’s greatest strengths. In 2023, rail freight moved nearly 1.8 million metric tons of a wide variety of materials around the nations 140,000 mile rail network—everything from wood and chemicals to vehicle parts and waste products.

However, energy products, particularly coal, oil, and natural gas, were the most common materials moved.

Methodology: Categories provided by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics were condensed and simplified. Note: Figures rounded to the nearest thousand. The ‘other’ category includes but is not limited to electronics, precision instruments, and miscellaneous freight.

Why Choose Rail?

Rail is an incredibly versatile mode of transport, facilitating a wide range of industries and the U.S. economy as a whole by, amongst many other reasons, acting as a point of connection between trucking and shipping.

However, rail’s history of safety and sustainability makes it stand out.

According to the Federal Railroad Administration, rail accident rates are down 27%, and rail accidents where hazardous materials are transported are down 75% since 2000.

Rail also contributes just 1.8% of U.S. transports greenhouse gases despite moving 40% of all long-distance freight. Rail can do this as it is a highly fuel efficient form of transport and is becoming more efficient every year.

In fact, in 2023, U.S. rail consumed 709 million fewer gallons of fuel than it did in 2000.

Moving What Matters

Rail is critical in supporting many U.S. industries by transporting diverse materials within the nation, linking to ports, and facilitating international trade.

With over 120 years of history, Greenbrier Companies has emerged as a global leader in freight railcar wheel services, maintenance, and parts, allowing rail to keep the economy moving.

Are you interested in learning more about how rail could serve your business?

Discover the Benefits of Rail

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

One of the greatest misperceptions in modern times is the notion that Russia is secretly against Israel, which is pushed by the Mainstream Media (MSM) and the Alt-Media Community (AMC) despite them being one another’s rivals, each in advance of their own ideological interests. The MSM believes that this contributes to anti-Russian fearmongering while the AMC believes that this makes people like Russia more. Before explaining why this isn’t true, here are five background briefings for folks to review:

* 10 May 2018: “President Putin On Israel: Quotes From The Kremlin Website (2000-2018)”

* 25 October 2023: “Both Sides Should Appreciate Russia’s Principled Neutrality Towards The Israeli-Hamas War”

* 19 November 2023: “Lavrov Revealed That Putin Has Been A Lifelong Supporter Of ‘Ironclad Security’ For Israel”

* 31 December 2023: “Clarifying Lavrov’s Comparison Of The Latest Israeli-Hamas War To Russia’s Special Operation”

* 1 September 2024: “Lavrov’s Comparison Of Israel & Ukraine As Regional Warmongers Isn’t As Clear-Cut As It Seems”

In brief, Russia has always carefully balanced between Israel and the Iranian-led Resistance Axis, but it’s usually leaned closer to Israel since it never seriously considered sanctioning the self-professed Jewish State even though it earlier agreed with the UNSC to impose sanctions against the Islamic Republic. To this day, despite loudly advocating for the Palestinians’ political and humanitarian cause, Russia still won’t sanction Israel or arm Hamas. Israel isn’t even symbolically designated as an “unfriendly country”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov used his latest interview with Sky News Arabia to remind the world about the true state of his country’s relations with Israel, to which Russia remains committed in ensuring its security contrary to what the MSM and AMC have claimed. He’s not “playing 5D chess” to “psyche out the Zionists” like some from the second media camp might imagine but is simply doing his job by articulating Russia’s foreign policy as it objectively exists. Here’s what he told his interlocutor:

“When some officials justify their actions by saying that they – the Jewish people – were victims of the Holocaust and therefore can be forgiven, this is a troubling trend. It is a sign of the exceptionalism characteristic of Hitler’s Germany and its ideology.

I have many friends in Israel. The vast majority of them understand that the issue of a Palestinian state must be resolved and that suppressing the natural rights of the Palestinian people is unacceptable.

…

Personally, I have good relations with many of my Israeli colleagues, including former ones. When speaking about the Middle East policy, President Vladimir Putin highlights Russia’s full commitment to security and fundamental interests of the State of Israel.

It is not for nothing that I mentioned the necessity of implementing the resolutions that require resolving the Middle East issues on a two-state basis, so that two independent and sovereign states, Israel and Palestine, exist as good neighbours, safely for each other and for the entire region. This essential approach needs no explanation; it complies with the interests of both Israel and Palestine.

We always stress in all our actions that no solutions are going to be viable if they fail to ensure Israel’s security, among other things, but not at the expense of the security of others.”

Several points stand out from what he said. For starters, while his comparison of Israel’s exceptionalist attitude to the Nazis’ is very unflattering and critical of the self-professed Jewish State, observers should remember that Russia still doesn’t regard Israel as an “unfriendly country”. Putin has also repeatedly praised it for remembering the USSR’s role in ending the Holocaust and continuing to commemorate Victory Day on 9 May. Here are three examples among many from the official Kremlin website:

* 9 May 2018: “Talks with Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu”

* 17 September 2019: “Keren Hayesod Foundation conference”

* 23 January 2020: “Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Antisemitism forum”

Accordingly, any hype from the AMC about Russia supposedly being about to openly turn against Israel as implied by this latest rhetoric doesn’t align with the facts, and Lavrov even made as much clear in the second part of what he said in his interview. Not only does he have “many friends in Israel”, but he also has “good relations” with many of his Israeli colleagues, and he “always stress[es] in all of our actions that no solutions are going to be viable if they fail to ensure Israel’s security”.

The caveat though is that this should “not (be) at the expense of the security of others”, ergo why Russia continues to adhere to UNSC Resolutions calling for a two-state solution since it sincerely believes that this is essential to sustainably resolving the so-called ‘Palestinian Question’. This policy contrasts with Israel’s, which has unilaterally decided to ignore international law, thus lending false credence to the MSM and AMC’s claims that Russia is against Israel even though the aforesaid insight disproves that.

Russian diplomats have worked hard to carefully balance between Israel and the Iranian-led Resistance Axis, which is why it’s very disappointing that only a few of their supporters in the AMC recognize this, instead being convinced that they’re all a bunch of liars with a transparently anti-Israeli agenda.

Those who sincerely support Russia don’t have to agree with its regional balancing act, but they should at least acknowledge that it exists, not continue making false claims about it secretly being against Israel.

Despite recent jumps in valuation for generative artificial intelligence company OpenAI and Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX, ByteDance is still the highest-valued unicorn worldwide according to CB Insights’ The Complete List of Unicorn Companies tracker with a valuation of $225 billion.

In January 2024, OpenAI ranked tenth on the list and has since more than doubled its internal valuation, while the rest of the top 8 saw only minor movement since the beginning of the year.

You will find more infographics at Statista

The remainder of the top list is made up of corporations from the apparel (Shein and Fanatics), fintech (Stripe and Revolut) and software (Databricks) sectors.

While OpenAI and Databricks are the only dedicated AI companies, ByteDance has also been focusing on generative artificial intelligence recently. Following suit with Western counterparts like Meta or Alphabet, it launched a suite of large language models under the brand name Doubao in May of this year, according to media reports. This will most likely further cement its standing as the highest-valued unicorn worldwide.

The term unicorn describes companies that are not traded on any stock exchange and at the same time valued at more than $1 billion. CB Insights data suggests that there are currently around 1,200 of these companies worldwide. CrunchBase lists 1,549 such corporations on their ranking, including Alibaba’s fintech arm Ant Group and Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio, two subsidiaries of India-based multinational business conglomerate Reliance Industries.

CB Insights’ exclusion of these three companies might be connected to their parent corporations being publicly traded, even though no shares for their mentioned subsidiaries are available on stock exchanges. Using the term startup for these companies is also questionable since this terminology is usually reserved for smaller corporations reliant on external funding and not for companies like SpaceX, ByteDance or, more recently, OpenAI.

The latter is not only rapidly moving up the ranks in terms of valuation, but also in terms of revenue. According to comments by CEO Sam Altman in internal meetings reported on by The Information, the company’s annualized revenue doubled to $3.4 billion between late 2023 and June 2024… and its latest round suggested a valuation nearer $150 billion.

Via OilPrice.com,

• The closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station marks the end of coal-fired electricity generation in the UK.

• This shift is part of the UK’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions and transitioning to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.

• The UK is the first G7 country to phase out coal entirely, demonstrating a significant step towards a cleaner and more sustainable energy future.

The UK’s last remaining coal-fired power station is to shut at the end of September, drawing to a close Britain’s 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel to produce electricity.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station has been generating electricity since 1968 via its four coal-fired boilers, eight vast cooling towers and 199-metre tall chimney, which occupies a prominent spot in the East Midlands skyline.

It is able to power about two million homes and has been the last station of its kind in the UK since September 2023, when Northern Ireland’s Kilroot power station stopped producing electricity from coal.

On September 30, Ratcliffe will close for the final time. Many of the 170 people employed by the plant’s owner, Uniper, will stay on to help with the two-year decommissioning process.

Ratcliffe’s closure puts a full stop on the country’s use of coal for electricity, which began with the Holborn Viaduct power station in London in 1882, the first of its type in the world.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station which is to shut at the end of September, drawing to a close Britain’s 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel to produce electricity. The power station has been generating electricity since 1968 via its four coal-fired boilers, eight vast cooling towers and 199-metre tall chimney, which occupies a prominent spot in the East Midlands skyline. Photo credit should read: Jacob King/PA Wire

Coal went on to play a major role in the national energy supply throughout the 20th century and accounted for about 80 per cent of UK power in 1990, falling to 39 per cent in 2012.

Since then, 15 coal power plants closed or switched fuels and last year the fossil fuel made up just one per cent of the UK’s supply, according to data from National Grid’s Electricity System Operator.

Meanwhile, renewables, mainly wind and solar power, now make up more than half of the mix, according to Government statistics. Gas has also played a part in the switch, rising from 28 per cent of the power mix in 2012 to 34 per cent last year.

Dhara Vyas, deputy chief executive of Energy UK, said:

“Ten years ago, coal was the leading source of this country’s power – generating a third of our electricity.

“So, to get to this point just a decade later, with coal’s contribution replaced by clean and low carbon sources, is an incredible achievement.

“As we aim for further ambitious targets in the energy transition, it’s worth remembering that few back then thought such a change at such a pace was possible.”

While the likes of Sweden and Belgium were among the first in Europe to phase out coal entirely, the UK will be the first country in the G7 bloc of major world economies to reach the milestone.

France, by comparison, has given itself until 2027 to complete the phase-out, Canada will follow suit until 2030. Germany, on current plans, will not do it until 2038.

But next comes the far larger task of significantly reducing the use of gas and further ramping up renewables, as the newly-elected Labour Government seeks to hit net zero emissions from electricity generation by 2030.

Its first steps were to set up a new state-owned energy investment company, GB Energy, and to lift a de facto ban on new onshore wind projects in the planning system in England.

The Government also handed out contracts for a new wave of green power projects in early September, including onshore and offshore wind and solar farms, which officials said will generate enough power for 11 million homes, in its annual auction.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said recently that switching to clean power is not just about fighting climate change, but energy security, after rocketing gas prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused consumer bills to spiral in 2022 and 2023.

Jess Ralston, head of energy at the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, said the swift transition from coal to renewables “shows how possible it is to make the net zero electricity transition”.

Renewables are also cheaper than fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency reported that in 2023 an estimated 96 per cent of newly-installed solar and onshore wind plants had lower generation costs than new natural gas globally.

Ms Ralston said:

“The British public have been burnt by over-reliance on gas for electricity and home heating during the ongoing gas price crisis and keen to see the shift to renewables, not only to reduce emissions but to stabilise energy prices too.”

As for coal, many countries might be phasing it out, but use of the fossil fuel globally for electricity still rose 1.1 per cent last year, according to energy analysis company Ember.

This was mainly driven by China, which accounted for 54.9 per cent of global coal-fired generation.

However, China added seven times more renewable energy capacity than coal last year, indicating that even the world’s largest coal user is – eventually – shifting towards clean energy.

Christine Shearer, research analyst at Global Energy Monitor, said there remains “a lot of work to do” to meet global targets on phasing it out, most of which aim for 2035 in developed countries.

She added: “The good news is the UK shows that once a country clearly commits to a coal phase-out it often happens even faster than planned, because the policy landscape becomes clear and paves the way for cheaper alternatives.”

In the European Union, 22 percent of employed people ages 15 to 64 worked from home in 2023, according to new data by Eurostat.

This consisted of nine percent who said they usually worked from home and 13 percent who said they worked from home only occasionally.

the share of employees working from home has increased by eight percentage points since 2019, i.e. before the Covid-19 pandemic and the widespread adoption of teleworking.

As Statista’s Anna Fleck shows in the chart below, The Netherlands had the highest share of people who worked from home at least occasionally in 2023 at 51.9 percent.

You will find more infographics at Statista

It was followed by the Nordic countries of Sweden (45.3 percent), Iceland (42.6 percent), Norway and Finland (around 42 percent).

Just under a quarter of workers in Germany said the same (23.4 percent) and less than 15 percent of workers in Italy and Spain. Countries in Eastern Europe had the lowest share of workers teleworking.

In Romania and Bulgaria, only around three percent of the working population said they did it in 2023.

Factors that influence the prevalence of working from home within a population include the degree of tertiarization and digitalization of the economy, which in turn affects the share of jobs that can be carried out by teleworking.

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Mopdernity.news,

Hackers in the UK targeted 19 major railway stations to display a message to anyone accessing wi-fi which warned about terror attacks and “the Islamisation of Europe.”

Network Rail confirmed that the cyber attack had impacted stations including London Euston, Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime Street, Birmingham New Street, Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central.

Anyone attempting to login to use the wi-fi network was met by a message which began, “We love you Europe.”

“The Islamisation of Europe is already happening, and it’s getting worse each day,” the message continued.

“Below is just a SMALL taste of what’s coming,” said the message, before describing what happened during the Manchester Arena bombing.

The terror attack, which occurred during an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017, killed 22 people and injured over a thousand, many of them children.

The jihadist responsible for the attack, Salman Abedi, had been rescued from Libya as a refugee by the British Royal Navy.

Abedi was spotted by security guards acting suspiciously on a number of occasions, but they didn’t report the activity over fears they would be called “racist”.

The hackers’ message also included photographs of some of the victims of the attack.

A spokesperson for Telent, the third party which provides the wi-fi for Network Rail, confirmed it was investigating a “security incident”.

“We have been informed there is an ongoing investigation by the British Transport Police into this incident, so it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage,” said the company in a statement.

*  *  *

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When it comes to wine tourism, not all destinations are created equal.

That is, according to Bounce’s Wine Lover’s Index 2023. Based on five indicators – wine consumption in the country, wine production in the country, vineyard area (as a percent of the country), number of tours and tastings, and average cost of a bottle – the index ranks the best destinations for wine and wine tourism.

As Statista’s Anna Fleck shows in the following chart, in 2023, Portugal topped the list as the world’s best location for wine tourism with a score of 8.83/10.

You will find more infographics at Statista

In second place is Moldova, and while this may seem surprising, the small Eastern European country has a long history of winemaking.

In fact, its total vineyard area represents almost 2 percent of the world’s total. In third and fourth place came Italy and Spain, respectively, followed by Georgia and France.

Of the top ten countries, only two are not in Europe, New Zealand (8th) and Chile (10th).