Today's MArkets story

Fed chair Powell in Trump's firing line

What happened
President Donald Trump said yesterday it was "highly unlikely" he would remove Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell (pictured above) from his post. But he suggested Powell might have "to leave for fraud" over the $2.5 billion Fed headquarters renovation project that the president says has been mismanaged.

Trump has ramped up pressure on Powell to cut interest rates as his own import tariffs nudge inflation upward. Stocks dropped on the prospect of a firing, then rebounded.

Who said what
Trump confirmed he had "talked about the concept" of removing Powell with House lawmakers this week. He said he was "surprised" Powell was appointed, seemingly forgetting he nominated Powell himself in 2017.

Firing Powell "would likely roil financial markets and lead to a consequential legal showdown," Bloomberg said. "Playing around with the Fed can often have adverse consequences," JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said. "It is important they be independent." Indeed, markets need to see the Fed chair as "a serious policy-maker and not an Oval Office pushover," said The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

What next?
Powell's term ends in May next year, and Trump could name his successor as early as this month. Meanwhile, Powell has asked the Fed's inspector general Michael Horowitz to review the central bank's costly renovation project.

Today's middle east Story

Rubio says US brokered end to Syria conflict

What happened
The U.S. has agreed "specific steps" to stop the wave of violence in Syria that culminated in yesterday's Israeli air strikes on Damascus, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Syria's defense ministry was targeted in a "wave of attacks" on the capital, said Al Jazeera. At least three people were killed and dozens wounded in the strikes, ostensibly carried out in support of the country's Druze population following deadly clashes between Druze militia and Syrian government forces.

Who said what
Rubio said he was "very worried" about the violence and claimed the steps agreed would bring the "troubling and horrifying situation" to an end.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that his forces were "working to save our Druze brothers," but Syria accused him of "treacherous aggression." The "Israeli entity" wants to "destabilise us and sow division," said interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

What next?
In a post on X, Rubio said Washington "will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made."

The Syrian government has begun withdrawing its forces from the majority-Druze city of Suwayda, according to the country's state-run SANA news agency. A ceasefire with Druze militia has also been announced but it is "unclear" whether it will hold because of "splits among the group," said CNN.

It's not all bad

India is ahead of schedule in its transition to clean energy by 2030, reaching 50% of non-fossil-fuel capacity five years early, its government announced Monday. In the past three years, the country has increased its solar and wind power projects and, while coal is still used heavily to generate electricity, production has dropped by almost 3%. This is a "historic green leap" for India, the country's renewable energy minister, Pralhad Joshi, posted on social media.

Under the radar

Not so gracefully: Our bodies age in 'bursts'

Have you ever woken up in the morning and suddenly felt old? There might be a good reason. Rather than aging gradually on a linear timescale, we seem to have significant "bursts" of getting old during our adult years, said National Geographic.

These bursts usually happen in our mid-40s and early 60s, according to a researchers at Stanford University who tracked thousands of different molecules in people aged 25 to 75. Up to 81% of the molecules don't change continuously but instead transform significantly around certain ages, the researchers found.

It's already known that sudden chemical modifications to DNA occur in mice in early to mid-life, and again in mid to late life, thanks to a study last year by German researchers. And there are "significant jumps" in concentrations of blood plasma proteins associated with aging in the fourth, seventh and eighth decades of human life, a 2019 analysis found.

All this "sudden aging" can come with an "acceleration in muscle wastage and skin decline," said New Scientist, along with an inability to metabolize alcohol, a swift dwindling of immune cells, and substantial increases in the risk of cardiovascular disease and dying.

These "provocative" findings seem to "fly in the face" of current models of aging, said David Sinclair, a molecular geneticist, longevity researcher and professor at Harvard Medical School.

But, with other studies suggesting people often experience a "midlife crisis" in their late 30s and early 40s or a "late-life crisis" in their late 50s and early 60s, said Sinclair, it's possible that "associated psychological and lifestyle changes may be responsible for these changes in aging" and not our "inherent biology."

On this day

July 17, 1955

Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California. The 160-acre theme park was built for $17 million, or $203 million in 2025 dollars. Disneyland is the only theme park built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, as Florida's Disney World was not completed until after his death.

TODAY'S newspaperS

'It's a tinderbox'

Men held at the "hastily built" immigrant detention center in Florida have described "chaos," says The New York Times. "It's a tinderbox," one detainee tells the paper, while The Washington Post paints a "grim picture" of the facility. Detainees in another centre in Louisiana are turning to crowdfunding sites, and even OnlyFans, to fight deportation orders, says USA Today. Gov. Gavin Newsom is considering a "special election to redistrict California" and "counteract" efforts in Texas to "favor" the Republicans in next year's mid-terms, says The Sacramento Bee.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Off to a flying start

Passengers at London's Heathrow Airport will be treated to a summer soundtrack of sampled vacation noises, including luggage dropping onto a conveyor belt, passports being stamped and roaring jet engines. "Music for Heathrow" is four-minute ambient loop that's "all about building that suspense and setting the mood" for your journey, said composer Jordan Rakei.

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Jessica Hullinger, Scott Hocker, Justin Klawans, Summer Meza, Chas Newkey-Burden, Rafi Schwartz and Helen Brown, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.