EXCLUSIVE A gunshot left me without half a face... but a groundbreaking transplant changed my life
A man whose face was ripped off by a gunshot has revealed what he looks like after his life-changing face transplant surgery.
Andy Sandness, now 40, aimed a gun at the underside of his chin at the age of 21 and pulled the trigger two days before Christmas in 2006 amid a battle with depression.
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The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Mahmoud Khalil reunites with family after more than 100 days in Ice detention
Mahmoud Khalil – the Palestinian rights activist, Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident of the US who had been held by federal immigration authorities for more than three months – has been reunited with his wife and infant son. Khalil, the most high-profile student to be targeted by the Trump administration for speaking out against Israel's war on Gaza, arrived in New Jersey on Saturday at about 1pm – two hours later than expected after his flight was first rerouted to Philadelphia. Khalil greeted reporters and cheering supporters as he emerged from security at Newark airport accompanied by his wife, Dr Noor Abdalla, and son in a stroller, as well as his legal team and the New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 'If they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine,' he said at a brief press conference after landing. 'I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, a speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished.' Khalil was released from a Louisiana immigration detention facility on Friday evening after a federal judge ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional and ordered his immediate release on bail. Khalil was sent to Jena, Louisiana, shortly after being seized by plainclothes US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in the lobby of his university residence in front of his heavily pregnant wife, who is a US citizen, in early March. The 30-year-old, who has not been charged with a crime, was forced to miss the birth of his first child, Deen, by the Trump administration. Khalil had been permitted to see his wife and son briefly – and only once – earlier in June. In ordering Khalil's immediate release on Friday, federal judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, found that the government had failed to provide evidence that the graduate was a flight risk or danger to the public. '[He] is not a danger to the community,' Farbiarz ruled. 'Period, full stop.' The judge also ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter by detaining them was unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters outside the detention facility where an estimated 1,000 men are being held, Khalil said: 'Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this. That doesn't mean there is a right person for this. There is no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide.' 'No one is illegal – no human is illegal,' he said. 'Justice will prevail no matter what this administration may try.' The Trump administration immediately filed a notice of appeal, NBC reported. Khalil was ordered to surrender his passport and green card to Ice officials in Jena, Louisiana, as part of his conditional release. The order also limits Khalil's travel to a handful of US states, including New York and Michigan to visit family, for court hearings in Louisiana and New Jersey, and for lobbying in Washington DC. Khalil's detention was widely condemned as a dangerous escalation in the Trump administration's assault on speech, which is ostensibly protected by the first amendment to the US constitution. His detention was the first in a series of high-profile arrests of international students who had spoken out about Israel's siege of Gaza, its occupation of Palestinian territories and their university's financial ties to companies that profit from Israeli military strikes. Khalil's release marks the latest setback for the Trump administration, which had pledged to deport pro-Palestinian international students en masse, claiming without evidence that speaking out against the Israeli state amounts to antisemitism. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In Khalili's case, multiple Jewish students and faculty had submitted court documents in his support. Khalil was a lead negotiator between the Jewish-led, pro-Palestinian campus protests at Columbia in 2024. And during an appearance on CNN, he said, 'The liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other.' In addition to missing the birth of his son, Khalil was kept from his family's first Mother's Day and Father's Day, and his graduation from Columbia while held in custody from 8 March to 20 June. Trump's crackdown on free speech, pro-Palestinian activists and immigrants has triggered widespread protests and condemnation, as Ice agents ramp up operations to detain tens of thousands of people monthly for deportation while seeking – and in many instances succeeding – to avoid due process. Three other students detained on similar grounds to Khalil – Rümeysa Öztürk, Badar Khan Suri and Mohsen Mahdawi – were previously released while their immigration cases are pending. Others voluntarily left the country after deportation proceedings against them were opened. Another is in hiding as she fights her case. On Sunday, a rally to celebrate Khalil's release – and protest against the ongoing detention by thousands of other immigrants in the US and Palestinians held without trial in Israel – will be held at 5.30pm ET at the steps of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in upper Manhattan. Khalil is expected to address supporters, alongside his legal representatives. 'Mahmoud's release reignites our determination to continue fighting until all our prisoners are released – whether in Palestine or the United States, until we see the end of the genocide and the siege on Gaza, and until we enforce an arms embargo on the Israel,' said Miriam Osman of the Palestinian Youth Movement.
Daily Mail
38 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
I've built an empire buying abandoned homes in a city blighted by crime and turning them into Instagram dreams
A Louisiana woman is breathing new life into the heart of a small Southern community that has been blighted by crime by buying up abandoned properties and renovating them. Sara McDaniel, a 47-year-old former teacher turned real estate investor and content creator, returned to her roots in 2016, eager to start a new chapter following a devastating divorce. Guided by her deep faith and fueling passion for something greater, she left Texas behind and found a new beginning in Minden, a tight-knit community of nearly 12,000 residents that has a rate of crime that is much higher than that of the average US city. The crime rate in Minden is 50.84 per 1,000 residents in the typical year, according to Crime Grade. The chance of being a victim of crime in Minden varies by neighborhood – ranging from 1 in 13 in the south neighborhoods to 1 in 28 in the north. McDaniel now owns what she describes as a total of '27 doors' - including 11 short-term rentals with the rest consisting of either long-term rentals, buys and holds or vacant land investments. But she says her investments have done more than just fulfill a personal vision - they've sparked the transformation of a neighborhood - with many of the properties being on the same street - that was once plagued by crime and drugs. Her most successful project to date earned her $220,000 last year, after she bought the property for just $50,000, but McDaniel says her mission has always been about more than profit or recognition. 'It's just a whole street centered around a theme of redemption - redemption of both properties and lives,' she told 'For me, it's about leaving a legacy long after I'm gone.' 'It's a metaphor, taking these blighted and historic properties on this street. You know, it's a metaphor for the things that can happen in our lives,' she added. Originally from Springhill, Louisiana, McDaniel spent her early career in education, working as a third and fourth grade teacher, an assistant principal and an educational sales representative. However when she found herself in the midst of a gut-wrenching divorce in 2009, she discovered the Financial Independence Early Retirement movement (FIRE) - a strategy focused on aggressively saving, often up to 50 percent of one's income, to build long-term financial freedom. She decided to commit to the FIRE movement, prompting her to leave her teaching job and, as she put it, 'put all my eggs in real estate '. 'I also did it to prove to myself that I could,' she said, detailing the sacrifice of living on slashed income. 'It almost became like a game. Like, can I do this and could I take a pay cut and live comfortably?' When she moved to Minden in 2016 she had already dipped her toes in real estate with four properties under her belt. She felt an immediate connection to the town upon arrival, seeing its potential for transformation and decided to pursue her lifelong dream of restoring an old home. After nearly a year of searching, she stumbled upon a broken-down cottage located just on the edge of the Historic Residential District. 'I knew that this house was supposed to be mine,' she said, despite the vacant-look to the property, covered head to toe in Red Tip Photinia's, oak trees, azaleas, daffodils and other southern vegetation. She launched her website, documenting each wall torn down and every fixture lovingly restored. The finished product, 'Sara's Cottage', was what 'set the course' for the work she would take on in the years that followed. After Sara's Cottage, McDaniel purchased a second cottage just a few blocks away, planning to flip it. It was during this project that she gave herself the freedom to experiment, resulting in an explosion of vibrant colors and designs. The property became known as Cottage on Fort, and is now a sought-after Airbnb rental. When another property then became available - an aging set of Spanish-style apartments well past their prime - McDaniel seized the opportunity, marking the start of her journey to restore them. After that, she bought a three-story, 6,000-square-foot Queen Anne-style property called the Fuller-White House. Built in 1905, it now serves as a community gathering venue. The property's upstairs space - the Fuller House Upper Room - was then transformed into a stylish, loft-style apartment. More recently, just across the street from the stunning Fuller-White House, McDaniel purchased another home, which is set to become her first nonprofit venture in honor of her late father. McDaniel's biggest project to date is the renovation at 'The Villas at Spanish Court', which she purchased in 2021 and officially opened as a stunning, short-term rental business in 2023. The property in question was a block of eight villa-style apartments that had sat abandoned for the last 40 years. Inside, the property's condition was nothing short of disastrous - torn-up floors, caved-in ceilings and even bullet holes through the windows - but McDaniel still saw its potential. Those who learned of McDaniel's interest cautioned her against the purchase, suggesting that the only solution to save it would be to bulldoze the entire structure. Despite the warnings, McDaniel fell in love with the property and, in 2021, purchased The Villas at Spanish Court apartments for $51,306 - funded entirely by the savings she had diligently built throughout her journey. 'I just have this uncanny ability when I look at something that is blighted and nobody else wants to touch, like bullet holes in windows,' she said. 'I can just see what the after looks like in my head.' 'Honestly, I just wanted to bring it back, because everybody said it couldn't be done right. Everybody said I needed to bulldoze and start over,' McDaniel explained. Her ultimate goal for the property was to preserve as many of the original details as possible during the renovation. However, McDaniel realized she made a rookie mistake after closing the deal - she forgot to secure an environmental hazard assessment on the structure. The assessment tests for the presence of both asbestos and lead paint - hazards McDaniel soon discovered were prevalent throughout the property. 'I just got caught up in the moment and the excitement,' McDaniel explained. 'Definitely the biggest oh no moment of the project.' 'I mean real talk, I was on medication for awhile because I had so much anxiety about it, especially being $80,000 over budget thinking, is anybody going to stay after I do all of this? Is it going to be worth it?' she added. 'It was really bad, but it was real life.' Amid a time of overwhelming doubt, McDaniel received an unexpected email from a distant cousin who had lived in the property back in the 70s. In it, she referred to McDaniel as a 'kinsman redeemer', bringing the once-forgotten property back to life and, in doing so, redeeming her own story. 'When I got that email, it just washed me with a peace,' McDaniel said. 'So I just plugged forward.' She was able to secure a $46,731 loan with a 0 percent interest rate with the Brownfield Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, solving the asbestos and lead paint problem. In another attempt at getting the villas up and running, McDaniel sold her Texas home for $175,354 and contributed an additional $8,000 from her various income streams to help cover renovation costs. She also secured an interim construction loan of $202,725 from a local bank, followed by a permanent mortgage of $290,710, which she used to pay off the interim loan and complete the renovation. Finally, in February 2023, The Villas at Spanish Court officially 'reopened' for business. Each villa showcases its own unique charm, featuring vibrant colors, vintage archways and other subtle yet stunning architectural details that harken back to their 1930s origins. As an extra loving touch - and a nod to the original design - McDaniel added patio chairs, string lights and solo stoves outside each villa, inviting guests to enjoy the outdoors and connect with the community during their stay. 'No two villas are the same,' McDaniel explained. 'They're all designed differently and, for the most part, seven of them are feminine and one is masculine. But that has not deterred any business for many men.' In 2024 the villas brought in $224,133 revenue from Airbnb bookings. With McDaniel's impressive collection of properties, one might assume she's reached the end of her journey - but she isn't slowing down anytime soon. 'I actually bought a building downtown, and this will be my first commercial property outside housing, if you will,' McDaniel told To follow McDaniel's real estate journey, visit her personal blog at or find her on social media under @simplysoutherncottage across all platforms.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Shocking Ring camera footage leaves Alabama neighborhood on edge as naked man prowls properties
Families in a quiet Alabama suburb say they're living in fear after a naked man was caught creeping across their lawns in the dead of night - and it's all been caught on chilling Ring camera footage. Residents of the Tillman's Corner neighborhood in Mobile say the nude prowler has been spotted multiple nights in a row, wandering out of the woods and brazenly approaching homes - sometimes holding what appears to be a weapon. One startled woman told local FOX affiliate WALA that she was searching through security footage to find her missing cat when she made the disturbing discovery. She had been checking her security cameras in search of her cat when she was stunned to spot the completely naked man - wearing nothing but socks - strolling past her home. Moments later, the footage showed him wandering into her backyard and circling around the parked cars. But it wasn't just the man's lack of clothing that disturbed her. 'This guy had something in his hand,' she said. 'I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was a lawn mower blade or something like that.' She said the footage showed the man strolling directly into her backyard, just moments before her husband stepped out for work. 'My husband went out to get ready for work just 15 minutes after the video was taken,' she added. 'So I was a little concerned once I saw him in the backyard.' And she's not alone. Several neighbors say they've also seen the naked intruder. One local mother said the situation has left her deeply unsettled, fearing the emotional impact it could have on her children. 'It's scary,' the woman said. 'I have kids here so I'll be worried about them seeing that and having to explain it. So it's just a nightmare having them being traumatized like that, knowing 'well if I go outside, what if that man's out there?'' The repeated sightings have shaken the neighborhood, prompting several families to boost their home security. Some have installed surveillance cameras and motion-activated lights to deter the intruder, making sure every angle of their property is covered. While the man's identity and the object he's carrying remain unknown, residents say they won't feel safe until he's found. 'We received one call on June, 9, 2025, matching this description. Officers were unable to make contact with a subject and cleared the call to service another one,' the a representative from the Mobile Police Department said in a statement to
