ICE Detained a Special Forces Member. He Died the Next Day.

ICE allegedly gave Iran the asylum files of people who fled Iran, Republicans want proof Mitch McConnell is alive, and a tornado devastated Kansas after DOGE fired the forecasters

Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

ICE allegedly handed Tehran the asylum applications of Iranian immigrants who fled religious and political persecution. Republicans are demanding video proof that Mitch McConnell is still alive. An Afghan soldier who fought alongside U.S. Special Forces for a decade died of an allergic reaction one day into ICE custody. And a Kansas tornado hit under a forecast of zero percent thunderstorms after DOGE gutted the weather balloon launches.

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Now, let’s dive in.

ICE Gave Tehran Asylum Files of People Who Fled Iran

The Trump administration finally found a way to achieve transparency in government — unfortunately, it was with the Iranian government.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund and Public Citizen alleges the Trump administration shared confidential information with Tehran, violating federal immigration regulations and endangering hundreds of people.

Starting in March 2025, the State Department allegedly held meetings with Iranian officials about detained Iranian immigrants. In those meetings, U.S. officials allegedly shared details from asylum applications, like the parts where immigrants described being persecuted for their religion, their sexual orientation, or their women’s rights activism.

Then ICE allegedly forced Iranian immigrants to meet with Iranian officials who seemed to already know everything in their files.

A federal regulation from the 1990s bars the government from revealing confidential asylum information. Roughly 600 Iranian immigrants were detained last year, and Iran agreed to take as many as 400 deportees back.

Those meetings have continued during the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran. The last deportation flight left a week before the war started. Nice of us to give them a one-week head start.

Where in the World Is Senator McConnell?

Mitch McConnell was supposed to go quietly in January. Right now, January is looking optimistic.

The 84-year-old Kentucky Republican was admitted to the hospital last month, and vague, repetitive statements from his aides have only fed the frenzy.

On Monday, far-right influencer Laura Loomer claimed on X that McConnell is “officially brain dead”, citing an unnamed source close to the White House, and added he is “in organ failure” and “isn’t ever coming back.”

By Tuesday, Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle wanted the office to “produce proof of the senator’s condition.” The influencer Catturd asked his 4 million followers why McConnell’s team won’t just film a video from the hospital. Steve Bannon floated that the office is hiding his condition to avoid triggering a special election.

If a special election is triggered, there’s already speculation that Thomas Massie — the anti-war Republican whom Trump just spent millions ousting from the House — could run for the seat, which would hand one of Trump’s loudest GOP critics a bigger platform and a vote in a Senate where margins are already razor-thin.

McConnell has represented Kentucky since 1985 and is set to retire in January. His last few years have been rough: two mid-sentence freezes in 2023, a fractured rib, a concussion, and four public falls that put him in a wheelchair by October. In February, staffers said he spent about eight days hospitalized for “flu-like symptoms.”

McConnell’s team won’t say what happened. Laura Loomer is making things up. And Democrats are silent in the face of yet another easy slam dunk against the GOP. We’re covering what it all actually means. If that’s important to you, upgrade your subscription today.

Special Forces Member Dies One Day Into ICE Custody

Mohammad Paktiawal, 41, fought alongside U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan for a decade. He was evacuated when U.S. troops pulled out in 2021, entered the country legally, and requested asylum. That claim was still pending when ICE arrested him at his home in Richardson, Texas, on March 13, as he got some of his six children ready for school.

His wife tried to hand agents his asthma inhaler. They refused it.

He died the next day at a Dallas hospital. His death certificate lists “anaphylaxis complicating acute asthma exacerbation.” Out of more than 50 ICE detention deaths this term, this is the first to be ruled an accident, according to the Associated Press.

ICE’s report says he denied any medical conditions or allergies at screening, then developed shortness of breath hours later. Hospital staff saw his tongue swelling at breakfast the next morning, gave him epinephrine, and pronounced him dead 40 minutes later.

The certificate lists methamphetamine as a contributing factor. Relatives say they never knew him to use meth, and a second autopsy couldn’t check because no blood remained for testing.

AfghanEvac and Senator Richard Blumenthal have called for the autopsy report. Dallas County is trying to withhold it, citing a federal investigation.

ICE defended targeting him by noting he’d been arrested on food stamp fraud and theft charges. He had not been convicted of either. He had, however, spent a decade fighting for the country that detained him.

DOGE Cut the People Who Warn You a Tornado Is Coming

Elon Musk’s cost-cutting operation has reached the part of the government that tells you a tornado is coming.

On April 13 in central Kansas, a tornado tore through Franklin County after the forecast called for clear skies. Emergency managers blame Trump-era staffing cuts for gutting the data behind the blown forecast, with meteorologists pointing to reductions by Elon Musk’s DOGE that thinned National Weather Service offices that launch weather balloons twice daily.

“The issue is the forecast,” said Franklin County emergency manager Thomas Winter. “There was a zero percent chance of thunderstorms.”

Those balloons feed the models used for severe-storm forecasts. Understaffed western offices have delayed or dropped their morning launches. NOAA data showed no balloon launches upstream of eastern Kansas before the twister hit.

NOAA rejected the idea that its balloon operations compromised the forecast, noting the Storm Prediction Center flagged severe-weather potential as early as April 10.

This follows the deadly July 2025 Texas floods that killed more than 100 people, including children at a summer camp, after reporting that DOGE had pushed out a “vital” weather employee beforehand. Who knew efficiency would have a body count?

Nobody Owns This Newsletter but You

There is no FCC license attached to this newsletter, which means there is no regulator anyone can lean on and no permit anyone can threaten to pull. That is not an accident. It is the entire design.

The stories in today’s edition — an asylum program feeding files to Tehran, a decorated ally dead a day into custody, a forecast that failed because the data was cut — are exactly the kind of thing that gets softened when a billionaire owner or a nervous board is watching. We don’t have one. We have you.

If you believe this work should keep existing without an off switch someone else controls, become a paid subscriber today. That is the whole business model, and we like it that way.

Thanks for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.

POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Supreme Court Limits Police Use of Geofence Warrants. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that police can’t just ask Google to hand over the phone location data of every person who happened to be near a crime scene. The practice, known as geofence warrants, is essentially “arrest everyone at the mall and see who looks guilty” but for your smartphone. Now cops need an actual warrant tied to a specific suspect before they can go fishing through your location history. It’s a genuine win for the Fourth Amendment, and one of those rare moments where the Court looked at a new technology and said “yeah, the Constitution still applies to that.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration had argued no warrant should be required at all.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Refuses to Release Voter Records. The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an effort by conservative activist Ron Heuer and the Wisconsin Voter Alliance to obtain guardianship records in a hunt for supposedly ineligible voters. The case grew out of years of failed attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 win in the state, a result that has survived audits, recounts, and Trump’s own lawsuits. In a 5-2 decision, the court’s liberal majority plus conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn ruled the records are simply not public under state law, and that “the Alliance has no right to the records.” Heuer had previously worked as an investigator on the discredited Gableman probe, which found no fraud that would have changed the outcome.

Troy Jackson Files Exploratory Bid to Replace Graham Platner in Maine. Former state senator Troy Jackson filed paperwork with the FEC to fundraise for a possible run at Maine’s Senate seat, moving to replace embattled Democratic nominee Graham Platner. Platner has faced calls to drop out after a Politico report detailed a woman’s allegation that he sexually assaulted her while severely intoxicated five years ago, costing him endorsements from Ro Khanna, Ruben Gallego, and Elizabeth Warren. Jackson, backed by Bernie Sanders in his gubernatorial bid, said “there is no place in our politics for sexual violence.” Under Maine law, if Platner drops out by July 13, the state party picks the replacement. A “draft Troy” movement is already underway while Platner “reflects.”

EV Batteries Are Lasting Much Longer Than the Industry Expected. Real-world data reported by The Wall Street Journal shows electric-vehicle batteries degrading far more slowly than critics warned, undercutting one of the loudest arguments against buying one. Battery analytics firm Recurrent estimates the average EV still retains up to 95 percent of its original range after five years, with one UK dealer’s Tesla Model 3 clearing 247,000 miles and still handling long trips. Replacement rates have collapsed too: about one in 12 EVs built between 2011 and 2016 eventually needed new batteries, versus just 0.3 percent for models made from 2022 onward. Fears of expensive battery swaps remain the top reason buyers avoid EVs, per a 2025 AutoPacific survey.