Washington, DC

1. Gallego’s big ideas
2. Rubio’s Acropolis speech
3. Plague monitoring begins
4. Fed minutes released
5. Labor looks beyond rolls

Mortgage rates jumped last week to 7.49% — the highest in three years.

Gallego launches plan for AI-proof workforce

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., is launching an ambitious policy agenda today focused on AI and the workforce, a move that will increase speculation about his plans for 2028, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Gallego’s entry into what has fast become a Democratic Party battle of ideas would tax data centers and job automation, raise the minimum wage, bolster labor laws, and create a New Deal-esque public works program. His goal: insulate American workers from the consequences of the AI boom. “People that are working right now don’t feel like their hard work is actually bringing them anything in return … and going into election season, people want to know where Democrats stand,” Gallego told Semafor in an interview. He said he’s not ready to make a decision on running for president — but that he’s “going to be involved” in Democrats’ big policy debate either way.

Rubio’s Greece speech renews 2028 questions

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech before the Acropolis in Greece didn’t make any mention of 2028, but it fired up Republican insiders curious about Rubio’s ambitions. One response to a text from Semafor about how it went: fire emojis. Rubio’s remarks on the Pnyx — one of the earliest sites for democracy — looked to connect President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda to values found in ancient Greece. “The next decade will write the story of the next century,” Rubio said at one point, arguing that the country’s next steps “will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world, or resigns itself to a future of atrophy, servitude and decline.” Rubio’s expansive speech contrasts with Republicans back at home, who are stumping on bread-and-butter issues in the homestretch of the midterm campaign season. And it comes as Republicans are beginning to consider who will step in as the party’s next leader — a conversation Rubio has long sidestepped.

— Shelby Talcott

CDC plans plague monitoring at JFK

The Trump administration’s top infectious disease official announced the US is monitoring travel from the region in Russia affected by a possible outbreak of pneumonic plague. “There are about 200 flights per year,” Erica Schwartz, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, said at a Wall Street Journal event. “They typically come into JFK. We have a port health station set up in JFK so that we can do appropriate surveillance and screening.” Schwartz said of the CDC’s work with the Department of Homeland Security and other departments. “We are very confident that the threat to the United States is extremely low,” she said. The appearance was one of Schwartz’s first since being confirmed by the Senate in August, a sign that she’s stepping into the communications part of the role that public health experts say is important.

— David Lim

Fed minutes leave rate hike on the table

The Federal Reserve released a readout of its last policy meeting today, which showed broad support for raising interest rates further this year — but it’s unclear exactly when. “Most participants assessed that another increase … would likely be appropriate by year end,” the minutes said. The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-point in the September meeting, with future decisions dependent on incoming data. Since then, softer-than-expected inflation and weak job growth had lowered expectations for another hike during this month’s meeting. After the minutes were released, Fed watchers kept the odds in favor of no hike in October. Ultimately, the Fed will likely need to take action to tame inflation, but even a short delay is good news for Republicans, as the next meeting is within days of the midterm elections.

Unions look beyond their rolls to build a new movement

Every Thursday afternoon, a cadre of state AFL-CIO leaders meets on Zoom to advance a shared project: the “Contract with Working Americans,” a populist economic platform they devised independently of the national AFL-CIO. These calls are a new organizing tactic for labor, which historically leads top-down from Washington, reports Semafor’s Brendan Ruberry. And their goal is new, too: to mobilize not only workers who belong to unions, but the many more American workers who do not. “We’re trying to connect two segments of a group that, quite frankly, should be naturally aligned, but just haven’t,” said Derrick Osobase, vice president of Communications Workers of America District 6. In a moment of declining trust in Congress, political parties, and the media, labor activists believe a union-led movement could have real juice in setting a new national agenda.

Technology is at an inflection point. From AI to the forces reshaping business, science and daily life, the pace of change is accelerating. Future Proof from Semafor Technology offers a direct look at the breakthroughs, risks, and questions defining what comes next. Hosted by Semafor San Francisco Bureau Chief Reed Albergotti, each episode features conversations with the builders, policymakers, and industry leaders shaping how technology is developed, adopted and governed.

In Future Proof’s debut episode, Cognition CISO and former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos takes aim at Silicon Valley’s “nihilism” and separates AI’s real risks from those he sees as imagined, fueled by “almost religious beliefs.” Plus, he talks about how he plans to tackle cybersecurity’s coming “dark age” and why Aaron Sorkin’s version of Mark Zuckerberg wouldn’t attract employees.

White House

• President Trump is considering a plan to strike Iran before the midterm elections, with the White House asking the Pentagon to develop strike options. — The Atlantic
• Trump wants to turn his West Palm Beach golf club into a new Camp David. — WaPo
• Defense firms backed by Trump’s sons have raked in $6 billion in contracts since the 2024 election. — ABC

Congress

• The top Democrat on the Commerce Committee, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., released a list of AI safety priorities.

Campaigns

• Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton’s estranged wife is urging voters in a new television ad to back him.
• Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, declined to commit to serving a full second term if reelected.
• The FCC is considering a request by a conservative group to loosen rules on political robocalls before the midterms.

Courts

• The Supreme Court heard oral arguments to decide whether the US Air Force can use a beach in Guam to dispose of expired rockets, bombs, and hazardous waste munitions.

Immigration

• The Department of Homeland Security proposed a $70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in the US.

World

• The US military in Okinawa said it would impose a monthlong curfew and new alcohol restrictions on service members after a Marine was arrested for allegedly killing and robbing a Japanese woman.
• Hezbollah received $200 million from Iran to help Lebanese displaced by this year’s war with Israel. — Reuters

Polls

• Most US voters think President Trump’s administration and Congress are not taking the risks of AI seriously enough and want the government to write new regulations. — Reuters/Ipsos

Outside the Beltway

• Bernadette Greene-Placentia, a Democratic House candidate in Arizona, said she was raped while repairing a campaign sign.
• The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Henri Kagan and Kensō Soai for solving a mystery about mirror images in molecules.

— President Trump on a new Camp David in West Palm Beach.

Laura McGann, editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor, and Morgan Chalfant, Washington briefing editor

Graph Massara and Lauren Morganbesser, copy editors

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Ashley Gold, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, Nicholas Wu,