World News: Wall Street ends higher after brief slump on Powell firing claims

This is the World Now, bringing you the latest stories from around the globe.

Wall Street closed higher on Wednesday after an early drop triggered by reports that President Trump planned to dismiss Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which Trump quickly called "highly unlikely."

Markets tumbled mid-morning on Wednesday with the S&P and Nasdaq falling more than 1%, while the dollar plunged and Treasury yields spiked after Bloomberg cited an anonymous White House source suggesting Powell would lose his job.

The confusion grew amid concerns about Trump's repeated criticism of Powell for not cutting interest rates faster.

However, stocks recovered swiftly once Trump denied any plan to fire Powell.

The Dow rose 0.53%, the S&P 500 gained 0.32%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.26%.

Tech shares lifted the Nasdaq to another record close.

In the Middle East, at least 20 people have been killed in a fatal crush at an aid distribution site in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-and Israeli-endorsed NGO, reported on July 16 that the deaths occurred during food distribution in Khan Younis.

GHF officials said that armed people believed to be linked to Hamas deliberately caused unrest by infiltrating the crowd to cause panic.

The Hamas-run Gaza Government Media Office blamed the incident on the GHF, while witnesses said security personnel had used pepper spray on the crowd.

Palestinian health authorities confirmed 21 deaths by suffocation, asserting many victims were crushed in an overcrowded enclosure.

In Iceland, a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula, in the southwest of the country, erupted in the early hours of Wednesday.

This marks the 12th eruption in the region since 2021.

Lava fountains burst along a fissure up to a kilometer long, sending thick gray smoke and orange lava into the sky.

Authorities evacuated the nearby town of Grindavik, home to approximately 4,000 people, and cleared the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa.

Roads around the eruption zone have been closed, but flights have not been affected.

While Reykjanes has been particularly active since 2021, the officials described the recent eruption as "relatively small."

Researchers in the UK published a study in The New England Journal of Medicine on July 16, reporting that eight healthy babies have been born using mitochondrial replacement therapy, which involves the use of genes from three people, and achieved a 36% success rate.

Developed by Newcastle University and the Newcastle Fertility Center, the procedure transfers the nucleus from a mother's fertilized egg into a donor egg containing healthy mitochondria.

The babies now carry nuclear DNA from both parents and mitochondrial DNA from a third donor.

All children, aged from a few weeks to over two years, are developing normally with no signs of the inherited mitochondrial disease that they were at risk for.

Choi Chi-hee, Arirang News.