Iran's national soccer team has made its 2026 World Cup debut amid a tumultuous backdrop: an abrupt and tentative ceasefire after months of war, an extraordinary set-up in Mexico after the US prevented the team from residing in-country between matches, and political uncertainty that has now expanded to the international stage. But for many Iranians, professional sports have always sat at an intersection between athleticism, identity, and politics. From sporting defections and political activism to moments of immense national sporting pride, the trajectory of Iranian sports underscores what's at stake this World Cup. The Iranian team, on Tuesday morning, drew 2-2 in their debut against New Zealand and will next face Belgium and Egypt, traveling to and from Mexico in between. 'I think it's not fair,' says Iranian athlete Hadi Tiranvalipour about Iran's team flying from Mexico to the US ahead of each match, although he's not paying much attention to the World Cup this year. Tiranvalipour, like several prominent Iranian athletes, knows the dichotomy of pursuing his sporting dreams amid the backdrop of the nation he once represented. In fact, he left everything behind in 2022: his family, friends, an entire life in Iran, crossing into Turkey, before seeking asylum in Italy. The taekwondo athlete and TV presenter had spent eight years on the Iranian national team and even became its captain, winning countless national and international accolades while representing his country....

For the first time since 1999, the New York Knicks will appear in the NBA Finals. It's a momentous occasion for a city and fan base starved for basketball success. President Trump, never missing an opportunity to insert himself into the discourse, has suggested that he'll attend a game in Madison Square Garden. When asked about the president's ambitions to attend a game, New York Governor Kathy Hochul challenged him to name the starting lineup of the '1993 championship team.' But the Knicks didn't win the championship in 1993. They did make the finals in 1994, but lost to the Houston Rockets. The most recent Knicks championship was, in fact, in 1973. Hochul's press office has since said on X that Hochul slipped up on purpose: She 'was baiting Trump into pretending that team won the finals. A classic 4D chess move.' The likelier explanation is that the Democratic governor, presented with the opportunity to score a couple of easy political points, had missed the layup. That would certainly fit the pattern. Democratic politicians are decades into an authenticity problem. Fairly or not, voters'especially men'tend to perceive Democrats as unrelatable, scripted, and disconnected from the population they seek to govern. The solution seemingly favored by Democratic consultants is for anyone with presidential aspirations to appear on as many manosphere podcasts as possible or play footsie with edgy streamers. But appearing on this or that platform is not really what matters. Rather, the game is to get as much attention as possible, as frequently as possible, while seeming as relatable as possible. A cheat code exists to hit all three objectives: sports talk....

An anonymous person notified TechCrunch about the security lapse, saying that the website was exposing at least 100,000 documents from people who uploaded their passports and selfies to the website as part of the application process. The exposed data was secured overnight into Wednesday, hours after we published our initial story about the incident. Given the highly sensitive nature of the exposed data, TechCrunch revealed that there was an ongoing security issue, while withholding specific details to minimize any additional risk to individuals' private information. The security lapse is the latest example of companies publicly exposing their customers' sensitive government-issued identity documents in recent weeks, often caused by a misconfiguration rather than an outside cyberattack. The exposure of passports is especially problematic at a time when online identity checks are on the rise around the world, thanks to governments rolling out age-verification laws. The company's lack of response also leaves open questions about whether it will alert affected customers that their passports were publicly exposed, or notify regulators as required under U.S. state and European data breach notification laws....

An anonymous person notified TechCrunch about the security lapse, saying that the website is exposing at least 100,000 documents from people who uploaded their passports and selfies to the website as part of the application process. UK Visa Portal does not have a way to report security issues through its website, nor does its website provide names or contact information for the company's management. TechCrunch sent an email to the address listed on UK Visa Portal's website to alert the company that it has an ongoing security lapse and to ask who in management can accept specific details to resolve the issue. Given the sensitivity of the exposed data, TechCrunch explained that it could not share specifics with the company's general customer support inbox because it could not guarantee that the exposed data would not be misused. Instead, TechCrunch heard back from the company's purported attorneys and public relations firm. TechCrunch explained again that given the nature of the exposed files, it could only share details directly with the company's management, and asked that they put TechCrunch in touch with them....