The United States beat Iran, 1-0, on Tuesday in Doha, Qatar, to secure a spot in the World Cup’s round of 16. The Americans needed to win their Group B finale to move on, and they got the result to avoid elimination after surviving some incredibly tense moments in second-half stoppage time and injuries to Christian Pulisic and Josh Sargent. The U.S. squad finished second in the group behind England and will face Group A winner Netherlands on Saturday at 10 a.m. Eastern. Continue reading for highlights from the game.

Maricopa County, facing a storm of GOP criticism over its handling of the Nov. 8 election, said in a report issued Sunday that problems with printers that surfaced on Election Day did not violate the Arizona Constitution or other guidelines intended to ensure free and fair elections. The county instead blamed prominent Republicans for making their own supporters suspicious of a secure alternative allowing voters who encountered mechanical issues to cast ballots.

The report comes in response to a request from the Arizona attorney general’s office election integrity unit for an account of the Election Day problems before the county is set to certify its results on Monday. State certification is set for Dec. 5.

Tom Liddy, head of Maricopa County’s civil division and a lifelong Republican, wrote in a five-page letter accompanying the report that “all voters were still provided reasonable, lawful options for voting.” But some Republican voters might have spurned one option — a secure box known as “Door 3” — because GOP leaders, including the state party chair, told voters not to use it, according to the report......

The report notes that the problems affected a tiny fraction of voters, none of whom were disenfranchised because they were still able to deposit their ballots in the secure boxes, which have been used for decades. Ballots deposited in “Door 3” boxes accounted for 1 percent of total ballots issued to voters in the midterm elections, according to the county report.

Liddy writes that numerous counties in the state rely entirely on such a system, in which ballots are tabulated not at individual polling places but at a centralized site.

“It cannot be the case that the limited use of the Door 3 ballot box for some voters in Maricopa County violates the Constitution, while the required use of a ballot box by every voter in over half of the state’s counties does not,” he argues.

Beto O’Rourke returned a $1 million donation from embattled cryptocurrency leader Sam Bankman-Fried four days before Election Day, his campaign told The Texas Tribune this week.

Bankman-Fried founded FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that was valued at $32 billion before collapsing abruptly in a matter of days earlier this month, setting off an industrywide panic. Many customers of the popular crypto platform may lose all or part of the money they invested. O’Rourke’s team said they returned the million-dollar donation a week before FTX filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried stepped down as its chief executive, but that the decision was made prior to Nov. 4 and took time to execute.

Chris Evans, a spokesperson for O’Rourke’s campaign, said the reimbursement of one of the largest checks to O’Rourke’s gubernatorial campaign was unrelated to the scandals linked to Bankman-Fried’s now flailing cryptocurrency exchange.

He said the money, which was received on Oct. 11, was returned because the donation was unsolicited. Unlike other large donations, O’Rourke had not talked with Bankman-Fried prior to the donation, and the large sum took the campaign by surprise, Evans said.

“This contribution was unsolicited and the campaign’s upcoming [Texas Ethics Commission] report will show that it was returned back on November 4, prior to the news stories that would later come out about the donor,” he said.

Beto O’Rourke returned a $1 million donation from embattled cryptocurrency leader Sam Bankman-Fried four days before Election Day, his campaign told The Texas Tribune this week.

Bankman-Fried founded FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that was valued at $32 billion before collapsing abruptly in a matter of days earlier this month, setting off an industrywide panic. Many customers of the popular crypto platform may lose all or part of the money they invested. O’Rourke’s team said they returned the million-dollar donation a week before FTX filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried stepped down as its chief executive, but that the decision was made prior to Nov. 4 and took time to execute.

Chris Evans, a spokesperson for O’Rourke’s campaign, said the reimbursement of one of the largest checks to O’Rourke’s gubernatorial campaign was unrelated to the scandals linked to Bankman-Fried’s now flailing cryptocurrency exchange.

He said the money, which was received on Oct. 11, was returned because the donation was unsolicited. Unlike other large donations, O’Rourke had not talked with Bankman-Fried prior to the donation, and the large sum took the campaign by surprise, Evans said.

“This contribution was unsolicited and the campaign’s upcoming [Texas Ethics Commission] report will show that it was returned back on November 4, prior to the news stories that would later come out about the donor,” he said.