Tense is not as simple as past, present, and future. It interacts with aspect and mood in complex ways. For example, there are uses of the present as a future:

a. I leave for France in three weeks.
b. The new Spiderman movie opens on Thursday.

Or using a kind of past future politeness:

c. I wanted to ask you a question.

Or this strange one:

d. Originally entries closed tomorrow, but they've decided to allow another week.

There's also a timeless use of the present:

e. I write books.

I'd say the use of a present as immediate past is used in newspaper headlines to give immediacy to the event. "X wins the game." is shorthand for "X just won the game afew minutes ago and we're reporting it to you already."

Ceci n'est pas un seing.