THE BIG STORY

An explosive secret report exposes healthcare for jailed immigrants

This story is filled with tough details, but it’s an important one.

We obtained an explosive Department of Homeland Security memo that says immigrants held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement jails received medical care so bad it resulted in two preventable surgeries, including an 8-year-old boy who had to have part of his forehead removed, and contributed to four deaths.

The internal complaint from an agency whistleblower includes reports of detainees being given incorrect medication, delays in treating withdrawal symptoms, and one person who was allowed to become so mentally unstable he lacerated his own penis and required surgery.

The whistleblower reported that three people had died in ICE lockup after receiving inadequate medical treatment, and noted official reports on a fourth person’s death were “very misleading.”

The allegations, if corroborated, are a cry from someone working for ICE echoing what advocates and media reports have been saying for years: The medical care ICE provides and oversees for immigrants in private and local jails could be very bad.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have won a huge majority in the UK general election

With 649 out of 650 seats declared, the Tories have won 364 of them, compared to Labour’s 203, giving Johnson a majority of 78, the largest majority the Conservatives have secured since the 80s.

The victory returns Boris Johnson to Downing Street as prime minister, and sets the UK on course to leave the European Union at the end of January.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced his intention to stand down, saying he would not lead his party into the next election. His party was dealt significant losses, from rising stars to longtime veterans.

Jo Swinson, who has been leader of the Liberal Democrats for less than six months, also lost her seat on a disappointing night for her party, which only won 11 seats.

We got our hands on Johnson’s private victory speech to Conservative aides. He said, "No one can possibly dispute that it is the will of the British people to get Brexit done."

Oli Scarff / Getty Images

IMPEACHMENT TODAY

Off with their heads (of government). Today, on our daily impeachment podcast: a closer look at how other countries get rid of their leaders (legally, like, with the law). Listen and subscribe.

SNAPSHOTS

The Jersey shooters were “fueled” by hatred of Jews and law enforcement. The FBI said the shooting that left six people dead at a kosher market in Jersey City is now being investigated as a “domestic terrorism incident with a hate crime bias.”

Students are reeling after the stabbing death of a Manhattan student in a park. Tessa Majors, an 18-year-old student from Virginia, was stabbed to death during an armed robbery while walking through Morningside Park in Manhattan. The brutal murder has set Barnard College’s campus on edge.

A Los Angeles police officer has been charged with fondling a dead woman’s breasts while on duty. David Rojas, a four-year veteran, turned off his camera and touched the dead woman's breasts, prosecutors alleged. However, since the cameras keep recording for two minutes after being turned off, the incident was recorded.

The Peloton wife is speaking out, saying her face was the problem in the infamous ad. We’re not going to rehash the dystopian ad here, but actor Monica Ruiz, who became an internet sensation after the spot went viral, said, “Honestly, I think it was just my face...My eyebrows looked worried, I guess.”

JESUS IS ON THE MAINLINE

This North Carolina church is doing something radical: paying off people’s debts

In 2018, a North Carolina church had half a million in savings, and a dwindling congregation. Then the pastor had a wild idea: What if the church started over entirely and used the savings to help repay the debts of its members — and others in the community in need?

That’s when the church reinvented itself as Jubilee Baptist, a quasi-socialist, anti-burnout, anti-racist, LGBTQ-affirming church focused on paying off debts in the community.

In a time where church attendance across the US has fallen off a cliff, Jubilee has focused on broadening the idea of what it means for a community to be there for each other, and talking about the realities of capitalism.

Here’s how an early church member put it: “All the sermons I’d heard before were always so inward-looking, like, talk to Jesus all the time and you’ll get rich and prosper. But Jubilee addressed the precarious position we’re all in — the general feeling that we’re all fucked.”

Read Anne Helen Petersen’s fascinating report on Jubilee and how it’s displaying a new idea of what church is for.

TAKE A LOAD OFF

Everybody’s longreadin’ for the weekend

12 People Talk Honestly About How They Paid Off Their Debt. Debt is a hard thing to talk about, so as a result, people with debt experience their stigma in silence. A dozen people shared their hard debt stories with us: “Before I had kids, I had idealized what the early years would be like. There was always a lot of love and some wonderful, happy, golden moments for sure, but the debt cast a pall of stress and uncertainty over those years that's undeniable.”

You Wanted Same-Sex Marriage? Now You Have Pete Buttigieg. Mayor Pete is polling well, and his run for Democratic candidate has achieved some incredible milestones. But, Shannon Keating writes, Buttigieg is by-product of “a gay civil rights movement that has focused above all else on marriage equality and assimilating LGBTQ people into the mainstream.” From the piece: “In lieu of working toward a radically different vision of a more just society, Gay Inc. agreed to settle for the same bad deal that unwealthy straight people already have.”

These Are The Decade-Defining Words Of The 2010s. This decade, the internet completely changed the way we talk. Would the 2009 you understand anything you say in 2019? Emerson Malone and Sarah Schweppe look back at the decade in words.

I hope you get the privilege of being a comfort to someone you love today,

Elamin