Stillwater’s defense posted another clean sheet, and the Ponies’ top scorer did her thing Wednesday morning. That combination resulted in a 1-0 win over Eagan in a Class 3A girls soccer semifinal.

Rylee Lawrence scored for the Ponies, who will face defending champion Wayzata at 8 a.m. Friday back at U.S. Bank Stadium. Stillwater last won the title in 2021.

Eagan goalkeeper Abigail McGowan, left, stops a shot in front of midfielder Emerson Stattman (15) and Stillwater forward Jenavieve Kurth (14) during the second half of the Class 3A Semifinal of the Girls State Soccer Tournament at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Stillwater won 1-0. (Craig Lassig / Special to the Pioneer Press)

“If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll be OK for the final,” Ponies coach Mike Huber said.

Winning with defense has been a hallmark for Stillwater (18-1-1) this season. The Ponies have 14 shutouts, allowing just eight goals in 20 matches. Four of those came in back-to-back games against White Bear Lake and Woodbury to end the regular season.

Unable to consistently press, Eagan’s prime scoring chances were few and far between.

“We had to be locked in from the start, but the last 18 minutes we knew we needed to shut everybody down,” said defender Savannah Backberg, one of 17 Stillwater seniors.

Still, the Wildcats’ best scoring opportunity came with 12:57 left when a pass from Ana Oenning connected with Tess Triplett entering the box behind a couple defenders. However, Reese Elzen, the Stillwater goalkeeper and Wisconsin commit, raced out a few yards and made a sliding stop.

“With a big touch you’ve got to go out then. If she has the ball on her feet with little touches, you’ve got to hold your ground,” Elzen said. “When it’s big touch. that might be the only chance you get to come out and grab the ball.”

The game’s lone goal came in the 28th minute.

Off an Eagan turnover, Stillwater’s Alayna Muths, a University of Illinois-Chicago commit, quickly sent a pass to Lawrence, a North Dakota commit who had a step behind a pair of Wildcats defenders. Her left-footed shot from 7 yards out went top corner on the far side for her team-best 17th goal of the season.

It was just the second goal allowed by Eagan in seven matches.

Stillwater had better scoring chances in the first half, but Abigail McGowan came up big each time, the latter a diving stop to thwart Lawrence. McGowan also stopped an Evelyn Huffer shot from about 15 yards out early in the second half to keep the Wildcats within one.

“It was one of those days where we didn’t put the ball in the net, but we’ll pick our heads up fast for tomorrow,” said Oenning, a St. Thomas commit.

Eagan (16-3-2), which tied East Ridge in the third-place game last year, gets Prior Lake in this year’s match Thursday.

Wayzata 2, Prior Lake 1

Gianna Ross scored with 10:11 left and Wayzata (16-0-2) netted the final two goals to beat Prior Lake 2-1.

Ella O’Keefe also scored in the second half for the top-seeded Trojans. Fifth-seeded Prior Lake (14-6-1) got its goal from Teagan Jurek.

Related Articles

Girls soccer: Stella Triplett sends Eagan back to Class 3A semifinals

High school girls soccer: Second-half surge lifts Stillwater over Duluth East

High school girls soccer: Mahtomedi posts 3-0 win over Grand Rapids

Girls Soccer: Fedunok, Mattes lead Woodbury into state tournament contention

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Attorneys for Sami Hamdi, a British political commentator being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California, are challenging his detention in court, his legal team said Wednesday.

Hamdi, who is Muslim, was detained Sunday by ICE officers at San Francisco International Airport, according to federal officials. His lawyers say the arrest was triggered by his criticism of the Israeli government, while U.S. officials have pointed to comments he made after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, which they claim celebrated the violence.

The detention was the latest in broader efforts by the administration to identify and potentially expel thousands of foreigners in the United States who it says have either fomented or participated in unrest or publicly supported protests against Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

Those enforcement actions have been criticized by civil rights groups as violations of constitutional protections for freedom of speech, which apply to anyone in the United States and not just to American citizens.

Lawyers with the the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who are representing Hamdi, on Tuesday filed a writ of habeas corpus demanding that the government justify why he is being held, the council said.

In addition, they asked a judge to issue a temporary restraining order seeking a bond hearing and blocking Hamdi’s removal from the U.S. while the case is adjudicated.

“If the government can cancel a valid visa because it does not like what a person says, then anyone legally visiting, studying, or working in our country is in danger of politically motivated abduction,” the group said in a statement. “This must end with Sami Hamdi.”

The advocacy group said Hamdi, 35, was detained in response to his vocal criticism of the Israeli government during a U.S. speaking tour. On Saturday, he had addressed the annual gala for the group’s Sacramento, California, chapter. Hamdi was scheduled to speak at the group’s event in Florida on Sunday.

Related Articles

Microsoft Azure service hit with outage

Border Patrol’s Bovino due in court for first check-in on Chicago immigration crackdown

Months after a man was killed at a ‘No Kings’ march, no one has been charged. His wife wants answers

Federal trial over Trump’s National Guard deployment in Portland begins

2 men sentenced in plot to kill Iranian American journalist

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called Hamdi’s court filings “a desperate Hail Mary attempt to keep an illegal alien and terrorist sympathizer” in the U.S.

“Following the Oct. 7 terror attack, Sami Hamdi cheered on Hamas: ‘How many of you felt it in your hearts when you got the news that it happened? How many of you felt the euphoria? Allah Akbar!’” McLaughlin said in a statement Wednesday, apparently citing comments Hamdi made in a video posted online shortly after Hamas’ attack.

“Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country,” McLaughlin said. “That’s just common sense.”

Critics accuse Hamdi of celebrating Hamas’ attacks in the online video. He has denied that he was praising the attacks, saying he meant the violence was “a natural consequence of the oppression that is being put on the Palestinians.”

ICE said Sunday that Hamdi entered the U.S. on Oct. 19 on a visitor visa, which was revoked on Oct. 24, and he was placed in immigration proceedings for removal.

By NG HAN GUAN, ANDY WONG, AARON FAVILA and DAKE KANG

BEIJING, China (AP) — The Chinese government has blanketed the country with the world’s largest network of surveillance cameras.

Related Articles

Hegseth welcomes Japan’s arms spending increase, says US-Japan alliance key to deter China

Death toll in police raid on drug gang in Rio rises 119, Brazilian police say

Nigeria’s Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka says US visa was revoked after Trump criticism

UN nuclear chief tells AP Iran isn’t actively enriching uranium but movement detected near stockpile

Amnesty says US strike on a Yemen prison that killed dozens of African migrants may be a war crime

Some cameras swivel, ensuring sweeping views of public squares. Others scan license plates of passing cars, allowing police to track vehicles in real-time. At night, cameras light up across China’s cities, shining lights down alleys and corners.

Over the past few decades, the Chinese government has rolled out a series of high-tech surveillance projects aimed at bringing the entire country under watch, including “Sky Net” and the “Golden Shield”.

The latest such project is called the “Xueliang Project,” or Sharp Eyes, a reference to a quote from Communist China’s founder, Mao Zedong, who once said “the people have sharp eyes” when urging them to root out neighbors opposed to socialist values.

AP investigations have found that American companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known. The U.S. government repeatedly allowed and even actively helped American firms to sell technology to the Chinese police, government and surveillance companies, AP found.

The cameras studding China are knitted together in policing systems that allow authorities to track and control virtually anyone in the country, often targeting perceived threats to the state like dissidents, religious believers or ethnic minorities. Following directives from Beijing to ensure “100 percent coverage” in key public areas, authorities have installed facial-recognition cameras across the country, including in unlikely locations:

Ski slopes.

Beaches.

Remote country roads.

The Great Wall of China.

A slew of cameras greets visitors to Beijing, with a screen underneath announcing: “Amazing China travel starts here!”

At times, entire neighborhoods have been demolished and rebuilt in part to make it easier for cameras to keep watch. The historic quarter of Xinjiang’s ancient silk road city of Kashgar, once a maze-like warren of twisting alleys, was demolished and rebuilt with wider avenues and thousands of camera that light up at night.

China’s cities, roads and villages are now studded with more cameras than the rest of the world combined, analysts say — roughly one for every two people.

The goal is clear, according to authorities: Total surveillance in every corner of the country, with “no blind spots” to be found.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

By THOMAS ADAMSON and SYLVIE CORBET, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Two suspects in the Louvre jewel heist have “partially” admitted their participation and are believed to be the men who forced their way into the world’s most visited museum, a Paris prosecutor said Wednesday.

Related Articles

Hegseth welcomes Japan’s arms spending increase, says US-Japan alliance key to deter China

Death toll in police raid on drug gang in Rio rises 119, Brazilian police say

Nigeria’s Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka says US visa was revoked after Trump criticism

UN nuclear chief tells AP Iran isn’t actively enriching uranium but movement detected near stockpile

Amnesty says US strike on a Yemen prison that killed dozens of African migrants may be a war crime

Laure Beccuau told a news conference that the two face preliminary charges of theft committed by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy, and are expected to be held in provisional detention. She did not give details about their comments.

It took thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels valued at 88 million euros ($102 million) on Oct. 19, shocking the world. The thieves forced open a window, cut into cases with power tools and fled with eight pieces of the French crown jewels.

One suspect is a 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France since 2010, Beccuau said. He was arrested Saturday night at Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to fly to Algeria with no return ticket. He was living in Paris’ northern suburb of Aubervilliers and was known to police mostly for road traffic offenses, Beccuau said.

The other suspect, 39, was arrested Saturday night at his home in Aubervilliers. “There is no evidence to suggest that he was about to leave the country,” Beccuau said. The man was known to police for several thefts, and his DNA was found on one of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed and on items the thieves left behind, she added.

Prosecutors had faced a late Wednesday deadline to charge the suspects, release them or seek a judge’s extension.

The jewels are still missing

The jewels have not been recovered, Beccuau said.

“These jewels are now, of course, unsellable … Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods,” she warned. “It’s still time to give them back.”

Earlier Wednesday, French police acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s defenses — turning the dazzling daylight theft into a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures.

Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers that aging systems and slow-moving fixes left weak seams in the museum.

“A technological step has not been taken,” he said, noting that parts of the video network are still analog, producing lower-quality images that are slow to share in real time.

A long-promised revamp — a $93 million project requiring roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) of new cabling — “will not be finished before 2029–2030,” he said.

Faure also disclosed that the Louvre’s authorization to operate its security cameras quietly expired in July and wasn’t renewed — a paperwork lapse that some see as a symbol of broader negligence.

The police chief said officers “arrived extremely fast” after the theft, but added the lag in response occurred earlier in the chain — from first detection, to museum security, to the emergency line, to police command.

Faure and his team said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre’s alarms but from a cyclist outside who dialed the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with a basket lift.

A lack of private insurance

The theft also exposed an insurance blind spot: Officials say the jewels were not privately insured.

The French state self-insures its national museums, because premiums for covering priceless heritage are astronomically high — meaning the Louvre will receive no payout for the loss. The financial blow, like the cultural wound, is total.

Faure pushed back on quick fixes. He rejected calls for a permanent police post inside the palace-museum, warning it would set an unworkable precedent and do little against fast, mobile crews. “The issue is not a guard at a door; it is speeding the chain of alert,” he said.

He urged lawmakers to authorize tools currently off-limits: AI-based anomaly detection and object tracking (not facial recognition) to flag suspicious movements and follow scooters or gear across city cameras in real time.

Former bank robber David Desclos has told the AP the theft was textbook and vulnerabilities were glaringly obvious in the layout of the gallery.

Museum and culture officials under pressure

Culture Minister Rachida Dati, under pressure, has refused the Louvre director’s resignation and insisted that alarms worked, while acknowledging “security gaps did exist.” She has kept details to a minimum, citing ongoing investigations.

The museum was already under strain. In June, the Louvre shut in a spontaneous staff strike — including security agents — over unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing and “untenable” conditions. Unions say mass tourism and construction pinch points create blind spots, a vulnerability underscored by the thieves who rolled a basket lift to the Seine-facing façade.

Faure said police will now track surveillance-permit deadlines across institutions to prevent repeats of the July lapse. But he stressed the larger fix is disruptive and slow: ripping out and rebuilding core systems while the palace stays open, and updating the law so police can act on suspicious movement in real time.

Experts fear the stolen pieces may already be broken down and stones recut to erase their past.