Alma Mana’o, the captain, reflects on their journey from a 21-0 defeat in 1998 to a place in the final round of qualification The American Samoa women’s team has lived through a scarcely believable tale littered with upsets, and their story is still unfolding. At the end of last year, they entered a World Cup qualification tournament containing the lowest-ranked teams in the smallest federation, t...
Alma Mana’o, the captain, reflects on their journey from a 21-0 defeat in 1998 to a place in the final round of qualification The American Samoa women’s team has lived through a scarcely believable tale littered with upsets, and their story is still unfolding. At the end of last year, they entered a World Cup qualification tournament containing the lowest-ranked teams in the smallest federation, the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). At 153rd in the world rankings, American Samoa ranked the lowest of the low. With an estimated population of 45,319, the island’s entire population would not sell out even the smallest stadium hosting Fifa’s showpiece event next year. The national team’s captain, Alma Mana’o, talks of American Samoan culture as being “family is above all”. Multiple sets of sisters represent the team, something Mana’o relishes. “This is a family, we have got to get together, hold our sisters accountable and push each other,” she says. The Mana’o family hold the record for most family members to participate in Fifa events – “If we can’t win, we’re going to have the most kids!” Alma declares with a laugh – and American Samoa are out to prove there can be success in the family business. This is an extract from our free email about women’s football, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions . Moving the Goalposts is delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday . Continue reading...
Listen on the go! A daily podcast of Wall Street Breakfast will be available by 8:00 a.m. on Seeking Alpha , iTunes , Spotify . Getty Images Good morning! Here's the latest in trending: Fragile ceasefire: JD Vance will head to Pakistan for talks with Iran , while Tehran blocks the Strait of Hormuz as Israel ramps up attacks on Lebanon. Tensions rise: The Trump administration is weighing a plan to ...
Listen on the go! A daily podcast of Wall Street Breakfast will be available by 8:00 a.m. on Seeking Alpha , iTunes , Spotify . Getty Images Good morning! Here's the latest in trending: Fragile ceasefire: JD Vance will head to Pakistan for talks with Iran , while Tehran blocks the Strait of Hormuz as Israel ramps up attacks on Lebanon. Tensions rise: The Trump administration is weighing a plan to relocate U.S. troops away from NATO countries that opposed the Iran war effort. Blacklist fight: A federal appeals court refuses to halt the Pentagon's designation of Anthropic ( ANTHRO ) as a supply chain risk for now. Data spotlight Investors will get two major inflation reports this week, with the February PCE Price Index due today and the March Consumer Price Index tomorrow. The core versions of each index will be closely watched to assess underlying inflation trends, as the headline numbers, which include food and energy prices, tend to be more volatile. What to expect: According to the Cleveland Federal Reserve's Inflation Nowcasting model, February's core PCE is seen rising 2.83% Y/Y, receding from 3.1% in January. Headline PCE is expected to increase 0.4% M/M vs. +0.3% in the prior month, according to consensus estimates. To note, the PCE data isn't all that fresh , as it was delayed due to the government shutdown last fall. March core CPI is estimated to rise 2.60% Y/Y, up from 2.46% in February, Inflation Nowcasting showed. Headline CPI for March is expected to rise 0.9% M/M from 0.3% in February, with the Y/Y pace rising to 3.4% from 2.4% in the prior month, according to consensus estimates. Inflation outlook: Citi economist Veronica Clark points to several "conflicting and often unrelated factors" affecting core PCE — the Fed's preferred inflation gauge — over the coming months. These include higher energy costs, slowing housing inflation, residual measurement issues from the government shutdown, falling equity prices, tariff effects on goods prices, and upward ...
The OECD urged UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves to overhaul the tax system to make it less complex and help turn around Britain’s tepid growth rates. The Paris-based organization said on Thursday that the UK government should tackle distortions in income tax that discourage work, “inefficient and regressive” reliefs in its sales tax and outdated valuations used for property tax. The OE...
The OECD urged UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves to overhaul the tax system to make it less complex and help turn around Britain’s tepid growth rates. The Paris-based organization said on Thursday that the UK government should tackle distortions in income tax that discourage work, “inefficient and regressive” reliefs in its sales tax and outdated valuations used for property tax. The OECD called for an “in-depth tax review to make the tax system more efficient and growth-friendly by reducing distortions, closing loopholes, and ending reliefs and exemptions that do not serve economic or social objectives.” It gave the Labour government a slew of recommendations as Prime Minister Keir Starmer struggles to deliver on his manifesto promise to boost GDP growth to the highest in the Group of Seven. Growth cooled to a near standstill in the second half of 2025 and the OECD has previously warned the UK economy will be among the hardest hit by the Iran war. While Reeves has hiked taxes in a bid to shore up the public finances and fund spending increases, the OECD said growth could be lifted by making the UK tax system more efficient. “Parts of the tax system are complex, leading to large compliance costs,” the OECD said in its Foundations for Growth and Competitiveness report. “VAT reliefs are largely inefficient and regressive and property tax is based on outdated valuations. Furthermore, distortions such as kinks in the income tax schedule weaken work incentives.” Economists have long complained that the UK’s tax system is due a major overhaul. Workers face high marginal tax rates when their annual income rises above £100,000 ($134,000) as the personal allowance is withdrawn, discouraging Britons from working and earning more. They have also urged the government to update council tax valuations as the levy is currently based on a property’s value from 1991. FSB’s Bailey Warns Iran War Is Compounding Private Credit Stress UK Private Sector Flatlines as Stagflatio...
alvarez Commodities trader Glencore ( GLCNF ) and Taiwan's state refiner CPC have chartered a tanker each to load Middle Eastern crude for Asia, while vessels in the Gulf are preparing to exit via the Strait of Hormuz, a day after the ceasefire in the U.S.-Iran war, Reuters reported on Thursday. The two-week truce hinges on letting ships pass through the strait, a chokepoint for about 20% of glo...
alvarez Commodities trader Glencore ( GLCNF ) and Taiwan's state refiner CPC have chartered a tanker each to load Middle Eastern crude for Asia, while vessels in the Gulf are preparing to exit via the Strait of Hormuz, a day after the ceasefire in the U.S.-Iran war, Reuters reported on Thursday. The two-week truce hinges on letting ships pass through the strait, a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments brought to a near standstill by the six-week conflict, sharply driving up global energy prices. Asian refiners rely on the Middle East for more than half their supply of crude and naphtha, feedstocks for fuel and petrochemical production. Taiwanese Economy Minister Kung Ming-hsin told reporters on Thursday that state-owned refiner CPC had booked one tanker in the Gulf to bring some 2 million barrels of oil. "If passage is possible within the next two weeks or so, it can come over," he said. "With these 2 million barrels, given that we use an average of about 150,000 barrels per day, this can provide an additional half month or more of usage. So this will help ease ... the situation." Glencore has provisionally chartered a Suezmax tanker to load from Iraq's Basra Oil Terminal at W860 on the Worldscale industry measure used to calculate freight rates, two shipping sources said. The tanker, capable of holding 1 million barrels of oil, is already in the Gulf, the report added. Glencore's earlier attempt to book a very large crude carrier (VLCC) Asian Lion was not successful, the sources said. Middle East oil producers such as Iraq are ready to restore crude exports once the Strait reopens. Spot VLCC shipping rates on the route, more commonly known as TD3C , have more than doubled to W513 from W230 on February 27, before the war started, LSEG data showed. More on energy, etc. Stocks From Liberation Day To Iran War Commodities: Oil Climbs On Trump Escalation Threat Weather Drops U.S. January Oil Production Oil plunges by most si...