The sports world was rocked by the death of legendary Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay on Wednesday. 

The news struck especially hard for many of Irsay's former Colts players, including Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning.

Manning, who played his first 13 seasons for the Colts and helped them win the Super Bowl in the 2006 season, shared his respect for Irsay in an Instagram post Wednesday night. 

"I am heartbroken to hear about Jim Irsay’s passing. He was an incredibly generous and passionate owner and I will always be indebted to him for giving me my start in the NFL. His love for the Colts and the city of Indy was unmatched. His impact on the players who played for him will not be forgotten. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and everyone in the Colts community. He will be missed. Jim, rest in peace my friend," Manning wrote.

Many of Manning's old Indianapolis teammates expressed their condolences too. 

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Former Colts punter and current ESPN host Pat McAfee shared a long story in an X post on Wednesday, detailing his experience with Irsay throughout the punter's career. 

"The 1st time he and I really had an extended convo was at training camp after the lockout in 2011.. players and front office weren’t allowed to communicate with each other during the lockout but, Jim followed me on Twitter throughout the CBA negotiations, his first day at training camp, immediately after the lockout ended, he drove his golf cart over to where I was and started firing off questions about Twitter.. He enjoyed the thought of being able to connect with Colts fans all over the world," McAfee wrote. 

McAfee even credited Irsay for helping the punter succeed in his post-NFL career. 

"When I decided to retire.. he and I had a 2.5 hour conversation in his office. He was sitting at his desk.. hitting the s--- out of his vape .. and we talked about everything I was hoping to go do. He tried to stop me for a few minutes.. even offered to renegotiate my contract.. and then once he realized my decision was made.. the convo turned into him trying to give me as much game as possible about running a business and maintaining authenticity," McAfee added. 

"Jim has done everything he can to help me succeed.. He’d join our show anytime I asked, no matter where he was in the world.. He’d send me motivational messages when he heard I was going thru something.. he’d forward articles that he’d come across that he thought I should read." 

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Legendary NFL kicker Adam Viniatieri expressed his condolences to Irsay in an X post. Viniatieri cemented his legacy by helping the New England Patriots win three Super Bowls from 2001-2005, often beating the Colts on the way there. However, when Irsay's team signed the kicker in 2006, it immidietly helped change the fortunes of both teams, as Viniatieri kicked the game-winning field goal against the Patriots in that year's AFC championship game to send the Colts to the Super Bowl. 

"I’m heartbroken to hear about the passing of Jim Irsay. He was more than just an owner, he as a man of the people and his generosity was unmatched. I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity to have played under his leadership, and his impact on my life. Rest in peace, Jim," Viniatieri wrote. 

Former Colts star wide receiver T.Y. Hilton, who played for Irsay's team from 2012-2021, making four Pro Bowls, shared his love for Irsay in a post on X on Wednesday night. 

"Please don’t ask me if I’m ok. Cuz I’m not. Thank You Sooo Much Mr.Irsay. I will forever hold our talks close to my heart. Love You! RIP Mr.Irsay," Hilton wrote. 

Several other current and former pro athletes paid respect to the owner on social media as well, including Robert Griffin III and the son of former legendary Colts wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Marvin Harrison Jr.

Irsay's father purchased the team in 1972, when they still played in Baltimore, for $12 million and moved the team in 1984. Irsay was the general manager of the team from 1982 to 1996 and became the NFL's youngest owner at age 37, shortly after his dad's death in 1997.

Irsay had several health issues over the years and battled drug and alcohol addiction, once admitting he had been to rehab "at least 15 times."

The Colts announced in January 2024 that Irsay was being treated for a "severe respiratory illness." That February, he posted on X that he was "on the mend."

"It's a long road, and you have to be patient. The great news is everything is going well," a hospitalized Irsay said that March after he underwent a procedure on his right leg.

Irsay said by that point he had undergone "26 surgeries over the last seven years."

Over his tenure running the day-to-day operations of the organization, Irsay won 258 games, the fourth-most in the NFL in that span. He also won 10 division titles, went 1-1 in Super Bowls and made the playoffs 18 times.

He is survived by three daughters and 10 grandchildren. He and his ex-wife divorced in 2013.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE), the iconic and long-running hacking conference, says far fewer people have bought tickets for the event this year as compared to last, with organizers believing it is due to the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts and more aggressive detainment of travellers into the U.S.

“We are roughly 50 percent behind last year’s sales, based on being 3 months away from the event,” Greg Newby, one of HOPE’s organizers, told 404 Media in an email. According to hacking collective and magazine 2600, which organizes HOPE, the conference usually has around 1,000 attendees and the event is almost entirely funded by ticket sales. “Having fewer international attendees hurts the conference program, as well as the bottom line,” a planned press release says.

Newby said there isn’t a serious danger of the event not going ahead, but that the conference may need to "significantly decrease” its space in the venue to manage HOPE’s budget.

Emmanuel Goldstein, HOPE conference chair, told 404 Media “We're always looking at potential reasons why ticket sales may be adversely affected, such as location, dates, lineup, etc. The only common reason we're hearing from people this year is that they don't feel comfortable coming to the States due to fear of harassment or detention.”

HOPE started in 1994 and recently switched to an annual conference model. This year’s HOPE will take place at St. John’s University in New York from August 15 to 17. The event usually has a slate of information security and activism focused talks, booths where people can try out lockpicking, and displays of digital art.

One planned speaker has dropped out of the conference: hacker and consultant Thomas Kranz. In an email Kranz sent to the HOPE organizers later shared with 404 Media, he wrote that friends of his recently tried to attend RSA, the cybersecurity conference held in San Francisco, and were detained at the border and refused entry into the U.S. “Several other friends who have travelled from the EU to the USA since January have had the same issue. All have had all of their electronics confiscated (laptops, phones, gadgets, even MP3 players) and have yet to have had them returned,” Kranz wrote.

Kranz believes they will likely not be allowed into the U.S. because of their “ongoing criticism of the current U.S. government,” and what Kranz described as his previous “engagements” with the FBI. In another email, Kranz told 404 Media: “I have had a previous run-in with the FBI back in the 90s: after Phil Zimmerman went on the run to Canada, I hosted a repository of the PGP source code, as well as IRIX binaries, in the EU. I had some entertaining correspondence with the FBI, who demanded I take it down as a violation of export controls. In turn, I sent them a copy of a map of the world, with ‘NOT THE USA’ clearly marked, as well as an exhortation to ‘piss off’. I don’t really fancy being detained by the FBI as well as the CBP as a result of detailed records checks while being held at the border.”

In the email to HOPE, Kranz concluded “I’m gutted—HOPE is the only conference that remains true to the hacker spirit, and now [that] it’s every year I was looking forward to more chances to meet old friends and make new ones.”

In the planned press release, 2600 wrote “The chilling effect of the Trump administration's anti-immigrant posture is real, and having impacts on legitimate travel.”

HOPE says it has coordinated with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on tips for those attending the conference from overseas and published them online. “In our discussion with the ACLU, they stressed that at points of entry to the United States (e.g., an airport or land crossing), the government can engage in searches and seizures of your property without any suspicion of wrongdoing, and you will not be able to contact an attorney until you are either admitted or, if you're a non-citizen, denied entry,” HOPE organizers wrote on the conference website. 

Attendees are still able to buy a virtual ticket to access livestreams of the talks and workshops.

• Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi just unveiled its second EV, the YU7.
• Morgan Stanley analysts predicted that the electric SUV would be another threat to Tesla in China.
• Tesla's sales have struggled in China amid fierce local competition.

One of Tesla's biggest Chinese rivals just unveiled a new EV — and it could be a major headache for Elon Musk.

Smartphone maker Xiaomi showed off the YU7 at an event in Beijing on Thursday, with the electric SUV set to compete directly with Tesla's best-selling Model Y.

Xiaomi said the YU7 was a "luxury high-performance SUV," with high-tech features including intelligent door handles and a panoramic "hypervision" display below the windshield.

The company said the YU7 has a maximum speed of 253 kilometers (157 miles) an hour and can hit 100 km/h in 3.23 seconds.

It will have a maximum range of 835km (518 miles) and can add 620km (400 miles) of range in 15 minutes of charging, Xiaomi said.

Xiaomi did not say how much the YU7, its second EV, will cost. In a social media post before the unveiling, CEO Lei Jun said the SUV would go on sale in July.

The YU7 threatens to pile the pain on Tesla, which is already battling underwhelming sales in China amid brutal competition from local rivals.

Morgan Stanley analysts led by Adam Jonas and Andy Meng wrote in a note previewing the YU7's launch that the new SUV would be another challenge to Tesla.

"We find market expectations around Tesla's near-term automotive business remain too high and do not fully reflect the quantum of incremental capacity and competition coming out of China, ultimately having an impact in international markets. Understanding this will help make more sense out of Tesla's 'all-in' push into autonomy," they wrote.

The bank's analysts predicted the YU7 would replicate the sales success of Xiaomi's SU7, which notched up 120,000 pre-orders in 36 hours when it went on sale last year, saying the Model Y rival had "stunning design" combining the looks of a Ferrari or Aston Martin with the price tag of a Volkswagen.

"The YU7 is just the latest sign that Chinese tech firms are taking EV performance and cost to the next level. China may have already won the EV battle," the Morgan Stanley analysts wrote. Both the SU7 and YU7 were years ahead of comparable models offered by Ford, they added.

While both Xiaomi cars are only available in China, that may not be the case for long. Xiaomi confirmed in March that it aimed to sell EVs in overseas markets by 2027.

Morgan Stanley's analysts estimated that competition from Chinese rivals would affect Tesla's international sales.

They wrote that market expectations around Tesla's near-term automotive business remain "too high," adding that the quality of China's EV offerings justified Musk's push to pivot the company toward autonomous vehicles.

Xiaomi's EV push hasn't all been plain sailing. Its sales have reportedly dipped over the past month amid claims of misleading marketing on the high-end SU7 Ultra and concerns over a fatal crash involving an SU7 in March.

The crash, in which three people died after their SU7 hit a cement barrier shortly after disengaging from driver assist mode, sparked a regulatory crackdown on autonomous driving features in China.

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