CHICAGO (AP) — A Democratic congressional candidate in Illinois has been indicted along with five others over blocking vehicles during September protests outside a federal immigration enforcement building in suburban Chicago, according to court documents.

The indictment, filed last week by a special grand jury, accuses Kat Abughazaleh of blocking a federal agent outside the immigration processing center.

“This is a political prosecution and a gross attempt to silence dissent, a right protected under the First Amendment. This case is a major push by the Trump administration to criminalize protest and punish anyone who speaks out against them,” Abughazaleh said Wednesday in a video posted to BlueSky.

Protesters have been gathering outside the immigration center to oppose enforcement operations in the Chicago area that have led to more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.

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Greg Bovino, who is leading Border Patrol efforts in Chicago, was ordered this week by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to brief her every evening about the operations. It is an unprecedented bid to impose real-time oversight on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the city after weeks of tense encounters and increasingly aggressive tactics by agents.

Federal prosecutors accused Abughazaleh and others of surrounding a vehicle driven by a federal agent on Sept. 26 and attempting to stop it from entering the facility.

The group banged on the car, pushed against it, broke a mirror and scratched the text “PIG” on the vehicle, the indictment said.

Abughazaleh at one point put her hands on the vehicle’s hood and braced her body against it while staying in its way, the indictment said. The agent was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators,” it said.

“As I and others have exercised our First Amendment rights, ICE has hit, dragged, thrown, shot with pepper balls, and tear gassed hundreds of protesters, simply because we had the gall to say that masked men coming into our communities, abducting our neighbors, and terrorizing us cannot be our new normal,” she said in the video.

As scary as all of this is, I have spent my career fighting America’s backslide into fascism,” she said. “I’m not gonna stop now, and I hope you won’t either.”

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.