content=”https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com%2Fwapo%2FYDSKZUFHQS6OBW4QNTJW3G5XM4.JPG&w=1200″
More than 40 farmers and agricultural industry groups are warning Washington leaders that the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is affecting the nation’s food supply, hurting farmers and risking higher grocery prices.
“Targeting immigrant workers who have not committed crimes and blocking workforce solutions for agriculture devastates agricultural producers, drives up food costs for all Americans and makes our nation more dependent on other countries,” the groups say in a letter addressed to President Donald Trump and congressional leaders, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.
Signatories include the Milk Producers Council, the Texas International Produce Association, the Kansas Livestock Association and the Indiana Dairy Producers, among other members of the American Immigration Business Coalition, a bipartisan group of employers that lobbies for immigration changes on Capitol Hill.
The letter marks a shift in strategy for an industry that has been reluctant to publicly criticize Trump’s campaign of immigration raids, detention and deportation targeting its workforce, preferring generally to lobby the administration behind the scenes. About 66 percent of the country’s farmworkers are foreign born.
But the group decided to publicize its warning after recent sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents near major meatpacking plants delayed cattle livestock operations, shipments and harvesting in southwest Kansas; led to arrests of farm workers in California’s Central Valley; and threatened poultry production in Pennsylvania farm country, industry leaders say.
“We’ve been at odds lately with [the Trump administration], especially when folks … suddenly become the targets of ICE raids,” said Christian Herr, a signatory of the letter and president of the PennAg Industries Association. The group represents farmers, as well pork and poultry producers, in Pennsylvania. “You couple that with pressures from tariffs, high fertilizer costs and supply chain disruptions [and] some of the president’s most loyal supporters are fading fast.”
The letter also comes a little more than a week before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, which the group hopes will revive discussion of immigration legislation on Capitol Hill. Specifically, it calls on Congress to provide work permits for long-term agriculture workers, citing a bill introduced this year by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-Pennsylvania).
A first-time mother of the bride writes to our advice columnists: If she’s contributing money to her daughter’s upcoming nuptials … does she get any influence over whom they invite?
Not much has been said about the wedding plans, the letter-writer reports, except that her daughter does not want to invite one of her uncles. Their relationship seemed to strain more than a decade ago, when her daughter fought with the uncle and he “said some things he shouldn’t have.”
So can this MOB ask for an invite for the estranged uncle?
“I don’t mean to laugh or minimize it when you have a relative who’s being excluded. That’s really hard,” columnist Carolyn Hax says on the new “Life Hax” podcast. “But the couple controls the guest list, and they’re throwing the party, and you’re giving the money as a gift.”
Co-host Shane O’Neill adds: “There’s a statute of limitations. If you wanted to somehow help foment forgiveness between your brother and your daughter, you had 10 years to do that.”
To hear more, follow the “Life Hax” show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have your own question to ask, email [email protected].
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday cited genetics to declare that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people” and reiterated his claim to Ukrainian territory, saying: “I think that it is not their territory but the historical territory of Russia.”
The Russian leader’s remarks came two days after U.S. envoy, Steve Witkoff called him a “humanitarian” for releasing an imprisoned U.S. citizen. Witkoff also hailed Russia’s willingness to restart talks over ending the war.
Putin’s statements, in an interview with Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin broadcast late Thursday, doubled down on his claims to territory in Ukraine that Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2022.
“First of all, I think that it is not their territory but the historical territory of Russia,” Putin said, while also asserting that illegal referendums Russia orchestrated at gunpoint in September 2022 proved residents want to be Russian.
Putin has long insisted that Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Russia has tried — and failed — to fully capture over more than four years of war have always been Russian.
History contradicts his view. The territories at various times have been part of the Russian and Ottoman empires, medieval Kievan Rus’ and earlier civilizations.
“Speaking about territorial losses would be inappropriate here,” he said.
“Even now we are ready to negotiate and to look for a way out of this hard, difficult situation, in the sense that these are a people very close to us,” he continued, adding: “What is there to say? The latest genetic studies show that Russians and Ukrainians are in fact one people.”
Good morning. It’s Friday, Oct. 23, and I struggled to retain my composure this morning after reading about an old dog who got a second chance after being given up for euthanasia.
The top of today’s edition of The 7 briefing is again dominated by the midterm elections. President Donald Trump, who hit the campaign trail in Iowa last night, made news earlier in the day by defending the controversial attack ad of Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor in Ohio.
As Republicans brace for major losses next month, Elon Musk is preparing for a fight. Several Democrats have vowed to investigate the billionaire if they win control of either chamber. Musk has warned them that, if they do so, he will retaliate in kind.
Beyond the midterms, the briefing covers a potential breakthrough in the treatment of melanoma. We have some useful phone security advice. And we take a look at Netflix’s dubious new experiment.
Read today’s edition of The 7 here.
Driving across Washington can take ages. Some local officials are trying to reignite conversations about an alternative: flying ferries across rivers.
A potential commercial ferry system with electric hydrofoil ferries — which use water pressure to rise out of the water on stilts and glide through the air — were the focus of a feasibility study conducted by the Navy Yard Business Improvement District.
Driving “from Georgetown to anything east of Capitol Hill is pretty challenging given our commuter traffic,” said Emeka Moneme, president of the district. “Our waters are beautiful. We want to use them more.”
The design of the electric hydrofoil boats doesn’t cause major waves, so they can travel faster through no-wake zones in the Anacostia and Potomac rivers than other boats, according to a summary of the feasibility study.
Potential stops could include Georgetown, the Wharf, Navy Yard, National Landing near Reagan National Airport, Old Town Alexandria and National Harbor, the summary said. Between Old Town and Navy Yard, a hydrofoil could take about 20 minutes, the summary said.
Previous conversations about a commercial ferry system in the D.C. area have faltered and the project is still far from guaranteed this time around.
So far, Moneme said the study has been presented to local government offices in the region. But several questions remain, including determining who would run the system and what the fare would be.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has banned service members and Defense Department personnel from seeking personal financial gain from nonpublic military information, warning that trades on prediction market platforms put U.S. troops and missions at risk.
In a Tuesday memo to the force reviewed by The Washington Post, Hegseth said that any financial transactions with third-party platforms that leveraged military information — regardless of whether it was classified — could be met with punishment under military and federal law. He named predictive market companies Polymarket and Kalshi, which allow people to place bets on various potential outcomes.
“Our enemies watch movements in these markets. When an American service member, intelligence professional, or other department civilian engages in a financial transaction on a military outcome, they create a signal,” the memo says. “That signal can be aggregated, correlated, and exploited by hostile foreign intelligence services to anticipate our movements, targets, and timing.”
An August report from the nonprofit analyst group Anti-Corruption Data Collective found that more than 150 accounts may have traded on insider military information.
Federal authorities have accused an Army Special Forces soldier of using foreknowledge of the January mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to profit more than $404,000 off Polymarket bets. The soldier pleaded not guilty.
Hegseth’s memo does not indicate whether government contract workers will be held to the same standard. Such personnel can also have access to classified information.
The Atlanta Falcons wanted to celebrate 1966. The internet saw something closer to 1936.
Ahead of Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, when Atlanta will wear uniforms inspired by its inaugural season, the Falcons updated their social media profile picture Wednesday with a stylized image featuring their original angular falcon logo against vertical red, white, black and gold stripes.
“New PFP ,” the team posted.
New PFP
pic.twitter.com/gBXWISJav4
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) October 21, 2026
It did not take long for social media users to notice what they considered an unfortunate resemblance to Nazi-era German iconography. By Thursday, the image had spread far beyond Falcons fans, spawning an assortment of World War II jokes and nicknames.
“The Bird Reich,” one commenter offered.
One said, “Falcons were up 28-3 at Dunkirk,” referencing the early score of Atlanta’s infamous Super Bowl collapse.
Another joked, “I was not expecting to wake up this morning to see that the Atlanta Falcons are preparing to invade Poland.”
The imagery, however, isn’t nearly as new, or as nefarious, as the Falcons’ post and the internet’s reaction might suggest.
The bird is the franchise’s original logo, introduced when the Falcons began play in 1966, and the stripes mimic those that appeared on Atlanta’s original red helmets.
Still, once the internet saw it, it became difficult to unsee.
Neither the Falcons nor the NFL immediately responded to a request for comment on the post or the reaction.
The post Trump’s immigration crackdown disrupts U.S. food supply, agriculture leaders say appeared first on Washington Post.
