Axios

A suspected pneumonic plague case in Russia rattled health officials, the White House and social media over the weekend, stoking fears about what might happen if the disease spreads around the world.

Why it matters: Pneumonic plague can spread between people and can be deadly without rapid treatment, but it moves differently than COVID-19 and is highly treatable with modern medicine.

The White House is monitoring a suspected outbreak of pneumonic plague in Russia, raising immediate concerns for scientists, researchers and health officials worldwide.

Why it matters: Pneumonic plague is the most dangerous form of plague and can spread between people through respiratory droplets. Without treatment, it is nearly always fatal, but antibiotics can be highly effective when started quickly.

France is dealing with a major debt crisis and social unrest ahead of its presidential election next year.

Why it matters: Worries are rising about contagion in Europe and beyond, and the situation is drawing comparisons with the sovereign debt crisis that rocked the European Union in the 2010s.

• "Government bond yields in France are spiraling out of control. Contagion to the rest of high-debt Europe is unfolding rapidly," Brookings' Robin Brooks wrote recently.

Latino voters, whose dramatic shift toward President Trump helped power his 2024 victory, are moving sharply back toward Democrats ahead of the midterms, two new national polls show.

Why it matters: Republicans built pieces of their 2026 strategy, including newly drawn House districts in Texas and Florida, around the assumption that Trump's historic Latino gains would endure. A reversal is complicating that bet in key races.

The White House is monitoring reports of a suspected plague case and related quarantines in Russia, a Trump administration official told Axios on Sunday.

Driving the news: Russian health authorities have taken precautionary measures in response to the death of a woman who worked at an anti-plague research facility, but have not confirmed that she contracted plague.

Two members of Iran's delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York were "kicked out" of the country on Saturday, several days after they were asked to leave, a U.S. official said.

• "Secretary Rubio means business. Two more members of the Iranian delegation were found still in New York long after the UN General Assembly had passed. They have now been kicked out of the country," the official said.

Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi Arabia launched a counteroffensive against the Houthis on Sunday in an effort to win back territory from the rebel group, the head of Yemen's presidential council said in a speech.

• "We have exhausted all opportunities for deescalation with the Houthi militias," Rashad al-Alimi said.

Why it matters: One of the key objectives of the operation is to regain control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a vital artery for global trade and Saudi oil exports.

• When the Houthis took over territory on the Red Sea coast close to the strait, it gave them — and Iran, which backs them — powerful leverage over the U.S., its Gulf allies and the world economy.
• Despite pleas from Saudi Arabia, the U.S. is not getting involved in direct combat against the Houthis for now. It is providing intelligence and targeting support, U.S. officials say.

Driving the news: The counteroffensive has been planned for many weeks by Yemen's internationally recognized government and Saudi Arabia.

• Tens of thousands of ground troops loyal to the Yemeni government are participating.
• The Saudi military is mainly providing air cover for Yemeni forces and conducting airstrikes against Houthi targets.
• The goal is to retake the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, which has been under Houthi control for several years.
• The Houthis continued launching missiles at Saudi targets over the weekend, including at facilities of state-owned oil giant Aramco.

The intrigue: President Trump is caught between wanting to help Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his friend and ally, and avoiding getting entangled in a new front in the Middle East.

• U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) also had serious reservations about launching strikes in Yemen, viewing it as a distraction from its focus on Iran, a U.S. official said.

• On Thursday, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman called Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to brief him on the planned operation and ask again for U.S. airstrikes against Houthi targets, the official said.
• A second U.S. official said that the U.S. "is not going to take kinetic action for now," but stressed that could change if the operation runs into problems.

What to watch: On Friday, Trump's top cabinet members huddled for hours at Camp David to discuss next steps in the Iran war and the conflict in Yemen, Axios first reported.

• It's unclear whether the meeting ended with new policy recommendations for the president regarding Yemen.

LOS ANGELES — Engagement and personal experience are the keys to connecting with Latino communities and ensuring their voices are heard in policy, leaders said at Axios and Noticias Telemundo's fifth annual Visionarios event on Sept. 30.

Why it matters: The event, five weeks before the Los Angeles mayoral and other consequential midterm elections, was held during Hispanic Heritage Month.

• Noticiero Telemundo 52 anchor Enrique Chiabra; Axios senior race and justice reporter Russell Contreras; The Race CEO Fabricio Drummond; and Astrid Galván, Texas editor, Axios Local, spoke with Los Angeles City Councilmember and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman; Julie Chavez Rodriguez, chief strategist for Democratic Mayor Karen Bass' reelection campaign; Latin Grammy- and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Lupita Infante; comedy creator, producer, writer and actor Leo González; and Ally Brooke, multiplatinum singer/songwriter, author, actress and philanthropist.
• Bank of America sponsored the event.

Catch up quick: Here are five key takeaways from the event:

1. Raman said having Latino leadership in her administration if she is elected mayor would be key.

• "There's no monolithic way in which you can serve the Latino community, but what I can commit to doing and what I will do with a lot of humility, because I don't know everything, is to make sure that I have the people around me who can help us serve Latinos in the city the way that they deserve to be served," she said.
• Raman, a democratic socialist, is an immigrant from the South Asian community and came to the U.S. as a child.

2. Chavez Rodriguez said a lot of the swing voters in the LA mayors' race this cycle are Latino, and undecided voters are "starting to tune in."

• Following ICE's 2025 raids in LA, safety has been a topic voters bring up, and Chavez Rodriguez said Bass was "forceful about" it at the time. "That was, you know, a very, I think, terrorizing impact on so many communities here, especially the Latino community," she said.

3. Infante said she's a bridge between her legacy — her grandfather Pedro Infante was a Mexican singer and actor — and the U.S., where her family immigrated.

• Her father, who died when she was 22, was also a singer and actor. "[O]nce he passed away is when I really realized, like, I think there's something for me here. I want to reach out and just connect again with my roots through music."

4. González is also looking for connection, and uses his comedic portrayals to connect with people like cashiers and restaurant workers.

• "I love customer service. I love pleasing," he said of his time working at Charleys Cheesesteaks in a mall food court.

• He's been tapping into the tougher moments of his life while writing a book. "I also know that the story in the book or of my life is also other people's stories," he said about having been a caregiver for his chronically ill mother.

5. Brooke rose to global fame with the girl group Fifth Harmony. A Mexican American from San Antonio, she didn't grow up speaking Spanish but now makes Spanish-language music.

• "It was hard … knowing how to sing Spanish, being very, very, very, very proud of who I am, where I came from, but also not knowing how to truly speak fluently was kind of a very interesting place to be in."

Content from the sponsor's segment:

In a View from the Top conversation, Raul Anaya, head of local markets strategy and president of Bank of America in Los Angeles, said Latinos are driving growth in sports and culture.

• "I think it's time that companies stop thinking of Latinos as a cohort or as a segment but instead look at it as a growth engine," he said.

Go deeper: Watch the full event.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told "The Axios Show" he plans to propose a notification process between the U.S. and China if something goes wrong with AI, and said he thinks Beijing would agree.

Why it matters: Bessent's idea reflects what he calls China's realization that its own open-source AI poses a bigger threat than Beijing had realized.

Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces are planning a major counteroffensive against Iran-backed Houthis in the coming days — an effort to push them away from areas on the Red Sea coast that control the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb, two U.S. officials say.

Why it matters: For the second time in recent weeks, the U.S. rebuffed Saudi pleas to join the operation and conduct airstrikes. But U.S. officials say that could change if the operation runs into problems.