80-95 jin

80-95 jin ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan's defense of the national championship has fallen woefully short. The Wolverines started the season ranked No. 9 in the AP Top 25 , making them the third college football team since 1991 to be ranked worse than seventh in the preseason poll after winning a national title. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Neuroscience Study Aboard Cunard's Queen Mary 2 Reveals Cognitive Benefits of Slow Travel at Sea

Universities are enrolling overseas students who lack English language skills and other "basic requirements". Some of these students are unable to understand simple questions and need to use translation apps in lectures and seminars, said professors writing for the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) thinktank. There "widespread silence" about the problem, said the anonymous professors, with cash-strapped higher education institutions seemingly willing to turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of overseas students, on whom they are increasingly reliant to stay afloat. Pulling tricks Tuition fees for English domestic students have not kept pace with inflation, representing "a real-terms cut in university funding", said the BBC . This makes foreign students an attractive financial prospect for universities. Fees for domestic undergraduate students in England are capped at £9,250, but there is no upper limit on tuition fees for overseas students. "You can charge a foreign student as much as they're willing to pay," the HEPI's Rose Stephenson told the broadcaster. Agents working for companies that prepare international students for English university now "target families abroad" who have plenty of money, a whistle-blower told the BBC. And there are question marks over how suitable many of these students are. Jo Grady from the University and College Union, which represents 120,000 lecturers and university staff, said it's an "open secret" that students who lack English skills still manage to join courses in the UK. "Tricks are pulled" to make sure they "pass the relevant language test", she told the BBC. Around seven out of 10 students studying on master's courses in England are now from overseas. One postgraduate student from Iran told the broadcaster she was "shocked" to find many of her fellow students had limited English, and most students paid other people to do their coursework, or even to attend lectures for them. Many students had "bought assignments" from "essay mills" based overseas, she said, and although this practice is illegal in England, when she reported this to her tutor, he took no action. Two anonymous professors at Russell Group institutions told the HEPI that "one-to-one supervision and feedback meetings" are "particularly excruciating" and they've both "regularly encountered students who are unable to understand simple questions" like "What have you read on this topic?". Difficult decisions The Home Office said it is reviewing English language assessments to ensure all international students have the necessary the skills to understand their course materials, and that those who do not "shouldn't expect a place at a UK university". Universities UK – which represents 141 institutions – "rejects" the suggestion that overseas students are being allowed on courses with "poor English language skills" as a way of "boosting income", said the BBC. Vivienne Stern, the body's chief executive, said that universities carry out strict checks on those they enrol – including minimum language levels. The unidentified professors said "improved regulation of English language entry standards" was "clearly required", but they also called for an "honest, open, and evidence-led discussion" of the problem in the context of policy debates about the future of higher education funding . The fundamental issue is that it is becoming "increasingly unprofitable" for British universities to teach British students, wrote Tom Jones for The Critic . "If we are to build a more successful and sustainable future for the UK universities", this "cannot be based on recruiting ever more foreign students" to allow the government to avoid "politically difficult decisions" on higher education.

Syria's new transitional prime minister on Tuesday said it was time for "stability and calm" in the country, two days after longtime president Bashar al-Assad was toppled by rebels in a lightning offensive. The rebels appointed Mohammad al-Bashir as the transitional head of government to run the country until March 1, a statement said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged all nations to support an "inclusive" political process in Syria, saying the United States would eventually recognise a government if it meets such standards. "Now it is time for this people to enjoy stability and calm," Bashir told Qatar's Al Jazeera television in his first interview since being appointed. A senior official told US broadcaster NBC that Assad was in Moscow, after he fled Syria as an Islamist-led rebel alliance swept into Damascus on Sunday, ending five decades of brutal rule by his clan. Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the Islamist leader who headed the rebel offensive, had announced talks on a transfer of power and vowed to pursue former senior officials responsible for torture and war crimes. Jolani on Tuesday sought to allay fears over how Syria would be ruled, telling British broadcaster Sky News that Syria was "exhausted" by war and would not be heading back into one. "Syria will be rebuilt... The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It's going towards stability," he said. "People are exhausted from war. So the country isn't ready for another one and it's not going to get into another one." His group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is rooted in Syria's Al-Qaeda branch and is proscribed by many Western governments as a terrorist organisation, though it has sought to moderate its image. Blinken said the future government of Syria should be "credible, inclusive and non-sectarian". Laying out US priorities, Blinken said the new government must "uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities" and allow the flow of humanitarian assistance. The United States wanted the next government to "prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism", he added. Although they no longer hold any territory in Syria, the jihadists of the Islamic State group remain active. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said IS fighters killed 54 government troops after capturing them as they fled across the vast Syrian desert. The UN envoy for Syria said the groups that forced Assad to flee must transform their "good messages" into actions on the ground. "They have been sending messages of unity, of inclusiveness," Geir Pedersen said. "What we need not to see is... that this is not followed up in practice in the days and the weeks ahead of us," he added. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned of the risks of sectarian violence and a resurgence of extremism. "We must avoid a repeat of the horrific scenarios in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan." Syria's nearly 14-year civil war killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes, millions of them finding refuge abroad. Jolani, who now uses his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, vowed: "We will not hesitate to hold accountable the criminals, murderers, security and army officers involved in torturing the Syrian people." The fall of Assad has sparked a frantic search by families of the tens of thousands of people held in his security services' jails and detention centres. As they advanced towards Damascus, the rebels released thousands of detainees, but many more remain missing. Syria's White Helmet rescuers on Tuesday called on Russia to pressure Assad into providing maps of secret jails and lists of detainees as they race against time to release prisoners. A large crowd gathered Monday outside Saydnaya jail, synonymous with the worst atrocities of Assad's rule, to search for relatives, many of whom had spent years in captivity, AFP correspondents reported. "I'm looking for my brother, who has been missing since 2013. We've looked everywhere for him, we think he's here, in Saydnaya," said 52-year-old Umm Walid. Crowds of freed prisoners wandered the streets of Damascus, many maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger. The United Nations said whoever ended up in power in Syria must hold Assad and his lieutenants to account. UN investigators who for years have been gathering evidence of horrific crimes called Assad's ouster a "game-changer" because they will now be able to access "the crime scene". While Syrians were celebrating Assad's ouster, the country now faces enormous uncertainty, and it is unclear whether the dreams of democracy so many sacrificed their lives for will be realised. Further complicating prospects, the Israeli military said it had conducted hundreds of strikes on Syria over the past two days. Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, called on Israel to stop. "We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop," he said. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Syria's new rulers that he would respond "forcefully" if they allow "Iran to re-establish itself in Syria, or permits the transfer of Iranian weapons or any other weapons to Hezbollah". Lebanon's Hezbollah meanwhile said it hoped that Syria's new rulers would "take a firm stand against Israeli occupation, while preventing foreign interference in its affairs". The Britain-based Observatory said Israeli strikes had "destroyed the most important military sites in Syria". The monitor said the strikes targeted weapons depots, naval vessels and a research centre that Western governments suspected of having links to chemical weapons production. Israel, which borders Syria, also sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone east of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel backer the United States said the incursion must be "temporary", after the United Nations said Israel was violating the 1974 armistice. The Israeli defence minister said the military had orders to "establish a sterile defence zone free of weapons and terrorist threats in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence." bur-ser/jsa/Syrian government services come to ‘complete halt’ as workers stay at home

Longtime P.E.I. mayor resigns after a contentious vote for pickleball courtsProperty mogul Nick Candy DEFECTS from Conservatives to Reform to be Nigel Farage’s new chief fundraiser

The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski promised to give new coach Barry Odom everything he needed to revive the Boilermakers program. Increasing the NIL budget is a solid start. Odom knows what’s coming next — the questions. So naturally, it didn’t take long for the former UNLV coach to be asked one thing he’s likely to hear frequently on the recruiting trail: Could he explain the payment dispute that led to the departure of his starting quarterback, Matthew Sluka, after just three games this season? “I think every story, you look at what you’re able to say, what’s the truth, what’s the reality and what’s fabricated,” Odom said Tuesday at his introductory news conference. “I think you look at that very specific instance there was very open communication from the day the recruiting process started. Everything we did as a staff, as a university, as an athletic department was by the book and by the law.” RELATED COVERAGE Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin calls college football’s crammed calendar ‘a dumb system’ Georgia QB Carson Beck’s status for Sugar Bowl uncertain as he considers treatment options on elbow AP Top 25: Oregon, Georgia, Notre Dame, Texas top poll going into playoff; Tide ranked ahead of SMU How it happened Sluka transferred from Holy Cross to UNLV after twice being selected as a Walter Payton Award finalist. The award goes to the best player in the Football Championship Series. He didn’t last long in Las Vegas. Sluka entered the transfer portal after winning all three starts, claiming he never received a promised $100,000 NIL payment. Odom issued a statement at the time saying the program abided by the “applicable rules.” On Tuesday, he seemed to acknowledge that part of the explanation was a continuing quarterback competition between Sluka and Hajj Malik-Williams, who took over as the starter and led UNLV (10-3) to its best record in 40 years and a second straight Mountain West Conference championship game appearance. Malik-Williams was a second-team all-conference selection. Odom likely will need more detailed answers for prospective recruits if he intends to make the Boilermakers competitive again in a Big Ten with four playoff-bound teams. The pitch Odom does have some advantages at Purdue — a strong alumni base led by former NFL star Drew Brees, a recently renovated stadium, other upgraded facilities and the school’s longtime reputation as the “Cradle of Quarterbacks.” The biggest advantage, though, will be Purdue going all in on NIL money. “We’re going to operate at the full cap,” Bobinski said. “We’re going to be as resourced as anybody in the country, allowing Barry and his staff the ability to go out there and be eyeball to eyeball with everybody we’re competing for, a transfer or from a high school recruiting perspective.” Bobinski said Odom’s results at UNLV were the primary attraction, though. As the Boilermakers continued to struggle in November, Bobinski started studying the revival of a UNLV program that had struggled for decades. What he found was that the man Missouri fired in 2019 after posting a 25-25 record in four seasons had earned a second chance with a Power Four program. “What was accomplished at UNLV these last couple years was nothing short of remarkable,” Bobinski said. “What that shows me is Coach Odom brings a very unique combination of an old-school, traditional football toughness and mindset with ability to operate and adapt to today’s college football environment.” Rebuilding It’s a combination Purdue desperately needs following an embarrassing 2024 season in which it went 1-11 (0-9 Big Ten) and suffered the two most lopsided losses in school history — 66-7 to Notre Dame and 66-0 to Indiana. He takes over a team that lost its final 11 games and did not beat an FBS opponent. Navigating the path back in what’s likely to be the first year of revenue sharing and NIL caps tied to roster limits could be even trickier given what he’s facing. The state’s other two most prominent programs — No. 3 Notre Dame (11-1, No. 5 CFP) and No. 9 Indiana (11-1, No. 8 CFP), will meet in a first-round playoff game on Dec. 20. There are other complications, too. Purdue signed only six recruits on the first day of the early signing period and has 21 players currently in the transfer portal, including All-American safety Dillon Thieneman, starting linebacker Yanni Karlaftis, starting tight end Max Klare and two quarterbacks. “We’ve got to be great evaluators, and then you’ve got to build an offense or a defense and a kicking game around the strengths of our players,” Odom said. “And then we’ve got to be great teachers at making them and teaching them, understanding the reasons we’re calling the play and how important their job is to get that job done.” ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballAs open enrollment for Affordable Care Act plans continues through Jan. 15, you’re likely seeing fewer social media ads promising monthly cash cards worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars that you can use for groceries, medical bills, rent and other expenses. But don’t worry. You haven’t missed out on any windfalls. Clicking on one of those ads would not have provided you with a cash card — at least not worth hundreds or thousands. But you might have found yourself switched to a health insurance plan you did not authorize, unable to afford treatment for an unforeseen medical emergency, and owing thousands of dollars to the IRS, according to an ongoing lawsuit against companies and individuals who plaintiffs say masterminded the ads and alleged scams committed against millions of people who responded to them. The absence of those once-ubiquitous ads are likely a result of the federal government suspending access to the ACA marketplace for two companies that market health insurance out of South Florida offices, amid accusations they used “fraudulent” ads to lure customers and then switched their insurance plans and agents without their knowledge. In its suspension letter, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cited “credible allegations of misconduct” in the agency’s decision to suspend the abilities of two companies — TrueCoverage (doing business as Inshura) and BenefitAlign — to transact information with the marketplace. CMS licenses and monitors agencies that use their own websites and information technology platforms to enroll health insurance customers in ACA plans offered in the federal marketplace. The alleged scheme affected millions of consumers, according to a lawsuit winding its way through U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale that seeks class-action status. An amended version of the suit, filed in August, increased the number of defendants from six to 12: — TrueCoverage LLC, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based health insurance agency with large offices in Miami, Miramar and Deerfield Beach. TrueCoverage is a sub-tenant of the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a building leased by the newspaper in Deerfield Beach. — Enhance Health LLC, a Sunrise-based health insurance agency that the lawsuit says was founded by Matthew Herman, also named as a defendant, with a $150 million investment from hedge fund Bain Capital’s insurance division. Bain Capital Insurance Fund LP is also a defendant. — Speridian Technologies LLC, accused in the lawsuit of establishing two direct enrollment platforms that provided TrueCoverage and other agencies access to the ACA marketplace. — Benefitalign LLC, identified in the suit as one of the direct enrollment platforms created by Speridian. Like Speridian and TrueCoverage, the company is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. — Number One Prospecting LLC, doing business as Minerva Marketing, based in Fort Lauderdale, and its founder, Brandon Bowsky, accused of developing the social media ads that drove customers — or “leads” — to the health insurance agencies. — Digital Media Solutions LLC, doing business as Protect Health, a Miami-based agency that the suit says bought Minerva’s “fraudulent” ads. In September, the company filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in United States Bankruptcy Court in Texas, which automatically suspended claims filed against the company. — Net Health Affiliates Inc., an Aventura-based agency the lawsuit says was associated with Enhance Health and like it, bought leads from Minerva. — Garish Panicker, identified in the lawsuit as half-owner of Speridian Global Holdings and day-to-day controller of companies under its umbrella, including TrueCoverage, Benefitalign and Speridian Technologies. — Matthew Goldfuss, accused by the suit of overseeing and directing TrueCoverage’s ACA enrollment efforts. All of the defendants have filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit. The motions deny the allegations and argue that the plaintiffs failed to properly state their claims and lack the standing to file the complaints. The Sun Sentinel sent requests for comment and lists of questions about the cases to four separate law firms representing separate groups of defendants. Three of the law firms — one representing Brandon Bowsky and Number One Prospecting LLC d/b/a Minerva Marketing, and two others representing Net Health Affiliates Inc. and Bain Capital Insurance Fund — did not respond to the requests. A representative of Enhance Health LLC and Matthew Herman, Olga M. Vieira of the Miami-based firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, responded with a short message saying she was glad the newspaper knew a motion to dismiss the charges had been filed by the defendants. She also said that, “Enhance has denied all the allegations as reported previously in the media.” Catherine Riedel, a communications specialist representing TrueCoverage LLC, Benefitalign LLC, Speridian Technologies LLC, Girish Panicker and Matthew Goldfuss, issued the following statement: “TrueCoverage takes these allegations very seriously and is responding appropriately. While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, we strongly believe that the allegations are baseless and without merit. “Compliance is our business. The TrueCoverage team records and reviews every call with a customer, including during Open Enrollment when roughly 500 agents handle nearly 30,000 calls a day. No customer is enrolled into any policy without a formal verbal consent given by the customer. If any customer calls in as a result of misleading content presented by third-party marketing vendors, agents are trained to correct such misinformation and action is taken against such third-party vendors.” Through Riedel, the defendants declined to answer follow-up questions, including whether the company remains in business, whether it continues to enroll Affordable Care Act clients, and whether it is still operating its New Mexico call center using another affiliated technology platform. The suspension notification from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services letter cites several factors, including the histories of noncompliance and previous suspensions. The letter noted suspicion that TrueCoverage and Benefitalign were storing consumers’ personally identifiable information in databases located in India and possibly other overseas locations in violation of the centers’ rules. The letter also notes allegations against the companies in the pending lawsuit that “they engaged in a variety of illegal practices, including violations of the (Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act), misuse of consumer (personal identifiable information) and insurance fraud.” The amended lawsuit filed in August names as plaintiffs five individuals who say their insurance plans were changed and two agencies who say they lost money when they were replaced as agents. The lawsuit accuses the defendants of 55 counts of wrongdoing, ranging from running ads offering thousands of dollars in cash that they knew would never be provided directly to consumers, switching millions of consumers into different insurance policies without their authorization, misstating their household incomes to make them eligible for $0 premium coverage, and “stealing” commissions by switching the agents listed in their accounts. TrueCoverage, Enhance Health, Protect Health, and some of their associates “engaged in hundreds of thousands of agent-of-record swaps to steal other agents’ commissions,” the suit states. “Using the Benefitalign and Inshura platforms, they created large spreadsheet lists of consumer names, dates of birth and zip codes.” They provided those spreadsheets to agents, it says, and instructed them to access platforms linked to the ACA marketplace and change the customers’ agents of record “without telling the client or providing informed consent.” “In doing so, they immediately captured the monthly commissions of agents ... who had originally worked with the consumers directly to sign them up,” the lawsuit asserts. TrueCoverage employees who complained about dealing with prospects who called looking for cash cards were routinely chided by supervisors who told them to be vague and keep making money, the suit says. When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began contacting the company in January about customer complaints, the suit says TrueCoverage enrollment supervisor Matthew Goldfuss sent an email instructing agents “do not respond.” The lawsuit states the “scheme” was made possible in 2021 when Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in the wake of the COVID pandemic. The act made it possible for Americans with household incomes between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level to pay zero in premiums and it enabled those consumers to enroll in ACA plans all year round, instead of during the three-month open enrollment period from November to January. Experienced health insurance brokers recognized the opportunity presented by the changes, the lawsuit says. More than 40 million Americans live within 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level, while only 15 million had ACA insurance at the time. The defendants developed or benefited from online ads, the lawsuit says, which falsely promised “hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars per month in cash benefits such as subsidy cards to pay for common expenses like rent, groceries, and gas.” Consumers who clicked on the ads were brought to a landing page that asked a few qualifying questions, and if their answers suggested that they might qualify for a low-cost or no-cost plan, they were provided a phone number to a health insurance agency. There was a major problem with the plan, according to the lawsuit. “Customers believe they are being routed to someone who will send them a free cash card, not enroll them in health insurance.” By law, the federal government sends subsidies for ACA plans to insurance companies, and not to individual consumers. Scripts were developed requiring agents not to mention a cash card, and if a customer mentions a cash card, “be vague” and tell the caller that only the insurance carrier can provide that information, the lawsuit alleges. In September, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the claims. In addition to denying the charges, they argued that the class plaintiffs lacked the standing to make the accusations and failed to demonstrate that they suffered harm. The motion also argued that the lawsuit’s accusations failed to meet requirements necessary to claim civil violations of the RICO Act. Miami-based attorney Jason Kellogg, representing the plaintiffs, said he doesn’t expect a ruling on the motion to dismiss the case for several months. The complaint also lists nearly 50 companies, not named as defendants, that it says fed business to TrueCoverage and Enhance Health. Known in the industry as “downlines,” most operate in office parks throughout South Florida, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit quotes former TrueCoverage employees complaining about having to work with customers lured by false cash promises in the online ads. A former employee who worked in the company’s Deerfield Beach office was quoted in the lawsuit as saying that senior TrueCoverage and Speridian executives “knew that consumers were calling in response to the false advertisements promising cash cards and they pressured agents to use them to enroll consumers into ACA plans.” A former human resources manager for TrueCoverage said sales agents frequently complained “that they did not feel comfortable having to mislead consumers,” the lawsuit said. Over two dozen agents “came to me with these complaints and showed me the false advertisements that consumers who called in were showing them,” the lawsuit quoted the former manager as saying. For much of the time the companies operated, the ACA marketplace enabled agents to easily access customer accounts using their names and Social Security numbers, change their insurance plans and switch their agents of record without their knowledge or authorization, the lawsuit says. This resulted in customers’ original agents losing their commissions and many of the policyholders finding out they suddenly owed far more for health care services than their original plans had required, the suit states. It says that one of the co-plaintiffs’ health plans was changed at least 22 times without her consent. She first discovered that she had lost her original plan when she sought to renew a prescription for her heart condition and her doctor told her she did not have health insurance, the suit states. Another co-plaintiff’s policy was switched after her husband responded to one of the cash card advertisements, the lawsuit says. That couple’s insurance plan was switched multiple times after a TrueCoverage agent excluded the wife’s income from an application so the couple would qualify. Later, they received bills from the IRS for $4,300 to cover tax credits issued to pay for the plans. CMS barred TrueCoverage and BenefitAlign from accessing the ACA marketplace. It said it received more than 90,000 complaints about unauthorized plan switches and more than 183,500 complaints about unauthorized enrollments, but the agency did not attribute all of the complaints to activities by the two companies. In addition, CMS restricted all agents’ abilities to alter policyholders’ enrollment information, the lawsuit says. Now access is allowed only for agents that already represent policyholders or if the policyholder participates in a three-way call with an agent and a marketplace employee. Between June and October, the agency barred 850 agents and brokers from accessing the marketplace “for reasonable suspicion of fraudulent or abusive conduct related to unauthorized enrollments or unauthorized plan switches,” according to an October CMS news release . The changes resulted in a “dramatic and sustained drop” in unauthorized activity, including a nearly 70% decrease in plan changes associated with an agent or broker and a nearly 90% decrease in changes to agent or broker commission information, the release said. It added that while consumers were often unaware of such changes, the opportunity to make them provided “significant financial incentive for non-compliant agents and brokers.” But CMS’ restrictions might be having unintended consequences for law-abiding agents and brokers. A story published by Insurance News Net on Nov. 11 quoted the president of the Health Agents for America (HAFA) trade group as saying agents are being suspended by CMS after being flagged by a mysterious algorithm that no one can figure out. The story quotes HAFA president Ronnell Nolan as surmising, “maybe they wrote too many policies on the same day for people who have the same income or they’re writing too many policies on people of a certain occupation.” Nolan continued, “We have members who have thousands of ACA clients. They can’t update or renew their clients. So those consumers have lost access to their professional agent, which is simply unfair.” Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.As open enrollment for Affordable Care Act plans continues through Jan. 15, you’re likely seeing fewer social media ads promising monthly cash cards worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars that you can use for groceries, medical bills, rent and other expenses. But don’t worry. You haven’t missed out on any windfalls. Clicking on one of those ads would not have provided you with a cash card — at least not worth hundreds or thousands. But you might have found yourself switched to a health insurance plan you did not authorize, unable to afford treatment for an unforeseen medical emergency, and owing thousands of dollars to the IRS, according to an ongoing lawsuit against companies and individuals who plaintiffs say masterminded the ads and alleged scams committed against millions of people who responded to them. The absence of those once-ubiquitous ads are likely a result of the federal government suspending access to the ACA marketplace for two companies that market health insurance out of South Florida offices, amid accusations they used “fraudulent” ads to lure customers and then switched their insurance plans and agents without their knowledge. In its suspension letter, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cited “credible allegations of misconduct” in the agency’s decision to suspend the abilities of two companies — TrueCoverage (doing business as Inshura) and BenefitAlign — to transact information with the marketplace. CMS licenses and monitors agencies that use their own websites and information technology platforms to enroll health insurance customers in ACA plans offered in the federal marketplace. Suit names long list of defendants The alleged scheme affected millions of consumers, according to a lawsuit winding its way through U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale that seeks class-action status. An amended version of the suit, filed in August, increased the number of defendants from six to 12: — TrueCoverage LLC, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based health insurance agency with large offices in Miami, Miramar and Deerfield Beach. TrueCoverage is a sub-tenant of the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a building leased by the newspaper in Deerfield Beach. — Enhance Health LLC, a Sunrise-based health insurance agency that the lawsuit says was founded by Matthew Herman, also named as a defendant, with a $150 million investment from hedge fund Bain Capital’s insurance division. Bain Capital Insurance Fund LP is also a defendant. — Speridian Technologies LLC, accused in the lawsuit of establishing two direct enrollment platforms that provided TrueCoverage and other agencies access to the ACA marketplace. — Benefitalign LLC, identified in the suit as one of the direct enrollment platforms created by Speridian. Like Speridian and TrueCoverage, the company is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. — Number One Prospecting LLC, doing business as Minerva Marketing, based in Fort Lauderdale, and its founder, Brandon Bowsky, accused of developing the social media ads that drove customers — or “leads” — to the health insurance agencies. — Digital Media Solutions LLC, doing business as Protect Health, a Miami-based agency that the suit says bought Minerva’s “fraudulent” ads. In September, the company filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in United States Bankruptcy Court in Texas, which automatically suspended claims filed against the company. — Net Health Affiliates Inc., an Aventura-based agency the lawsuit says was associated with Enhance Health and like it, bought leads from Minerva. — Garish Panicker, identified in the lawsuit as half-owner of Speridian Global Holdings and day-to-day controller of companies under its umbrella, including TrueCoverage, Benefitalign and Speridian Technologies. — Matthew Goldfuss, accused by the suit of overseeing and directing TrueCoverage’s ACA enrollment efforts. All of the defendants have filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit. The motions deny the allegations and argue that the plaintiffs failed to properly state their claims and lack the standing to file the complaints. Defendants respond to requests for comment The Sun Sentinel sent requests for comment and lists of questions about the cases to four separate law firms representing separate groups of defendants. Three of the law firms — one representing Brandon Bowsky and Number One Prospecting LLC d/b/a Minerva Marketing, and two others representing Net Health Affiliates Inc. and Bain Capital Insurance Fund — did not respond to the requests. A representative of Enhance Health LLC and Matthew Herman, Olga M. Vieira of the Miami-based firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, responded with a short message saying she was glad the newspaper knew a motion to dismiss the charges had been filed by the defendants. She also said that, “Enhance has denied all the allegations as reported previously in the media.” Catherine Riedel, a communications specialist representing TrueCoverage LLC, Benefitalign LLC, Speridian Technologies LLC, Girish Panicker and Matthew Goldfuss, issued the following statement: “TrueCoverage takes these allegations very seriously and is responding appropriately. While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, we strongly believe that the allegations are baseless and without merit. “Compliance is our business. The TrueCoverage team records and reviews every call with a customer, including during Open Enrollment when roughly 500 agents handle nearly 30,000 calls a day. No customer is enrolled into any policy without a formal verbal consent given by the customer. If any customer calls in as a result of misleading content presented by third-party marketing vendors, agents are trained to correct such misinformation and action is taken against such third-party vendors.” Through Riedel, the defendants declined to answer follow-up questions, including whether the company remains in business, whether it continues to enroll Affordable Care Act clients, and whether it is still operating its New Mexico call center using another affiliated technology platform. Lawsuit: COVID relief package made ‘scheme’ possible The suspension notification from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services letter cites several factors, including the histories of noncompliance and previous suspensions. The letter noted suspicion that TrueCoverage and Benefitalign were storing consumers’ personally identifiable information in databases located in India and possibly other overseas locations in violation of the centers’ rules. The letter also notes allegations against the companies in the pending lawsuit that “they engaged in a variety of illegal practices, including violations of the (Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act), misuse of consumer (personal identifiable information) and insurance fraud.” The amended lawsuit filed in August names as plaintiffs five individuals who say their insurance plans were changed and two agencies who say they lost money when they were replaced as agents. The lawsuit accuses the defendants of 55 counts of wrongdoing, ranging from running ads offering thousands of dollars in cash that they knew would never be provided directly to consumers, switching millions of consumers into different insurance policies without their authorization, misstating their household incomes to make them eligible for $0 premium coverage, and “stealing” commissions by switching the agents listed in their accounts. TrueCoverage, Enhance Health, Protect Health, and some of their associates “engaged in hundreds of thousands of agent-of-record swaps to steal other agents’ commissions,” the suit states. “Using the Benefitalign and Inshura platforms, they created large spreadsheet lists of consumer names, dates of birth and zip codes.” They provided those spreadsheets to agents, it says, and instructed them to access platforms linked to the ACA marketplace and change the customers’ agents of record “without telling the client or providing informed consent.” “In doing so, they immediately captured the monthly commissions of agents ... who had originally worked with the consumers directly to sign them up,” the lawsuit asserts. TrueCoverage employees who complained about dealing with prospects who called looking for cash cards were routinely chided by supervisors who told them to be vague and keep making money, the suit says. When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began contacting the company in January about customer complaints, the suit says TrueCoverage enrollment supervisor Matthew Goldfuss sent an email instructing agents “do not respond.” How it started The lawsuit states the “scheme” was made possible in 2021 when Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in the wake of the COVID pandemic. The act made it possible for Americans with household incomes between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level to pay zero in premiums and it enabled those consumers to enroll in ACA plans all year round, instead of during the three-month open enrollment period from November to January. Experienced health insurance brokers recognized the opportunity presented by the changes, the lawsuit says. More than 40 million Americans live within 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level, while only 15 million had ACA insurance at the time. The defendants developed or benefited from online ads, the lawsuit says, which falsely promised “hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars per month in cash benefits such as subsidy cards to pay for common expenses like rent, groceries, and gas.” Consumers who clicked on the ads were brought to a landing page that asked a few qualifying questions, and if their answers suggested that they might qualify for a low-cost or no-cost plan, they were provided a phone number to a health insurance agency. There was a major problem with the plan, according to the lawsuit. “Customers believe they are being routed to someone who will send them a free cash card, not enroll them in health insurance.” By law, the federal government sends subsidies for ACA plans to insurance companies, and not to individual consumers. Scripts were developed requiring agents not to mention a cash card, and if a customer mentions a cash card, “be vague” and tell the caller that only the insurance carrier can provide that information, the lawsuit alleges. In September, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the claims. In addition to denying the charges, they argued that the class plaintiffs lacked the standing to make the accusations and failed to demonstrate that they suffered harm. The motion also argued that the lawsuit’s accusations failed to meet requirements necessary to claim civil violations of the RICO Act. Miami-based attorney Jason Kellogg, representing the plaintiffs, said he doesn’t expect a ruling on the motion to dismiss the case for several months. The complaint also lists nearly 50 companies, not named as defendants, that it says fed business to TrueCoverage and Enhance Health. Known in the industry as “downlines,” most operate in office parks throughout South Florida, the lawsuit says. Complaints from former employees and clients The lawsuit quotes former TrueCoverage employees complaining about having to work with customers lured by false cash promises in the online ads. A former employee who worked in the company’s Deerfield Beach office was quoted in the lawsuit as saying that senior TrueCoverage and Speridian executives “knew that consumers were calling in response to the false advertisements promising cash cards and they pressured agents to use them to enroll consumers into ACA plans.” A former human resources manager for TrueCoverage said sales agents frequently complained “that they did not feel comfortable having to mislead consumers,” the lawsuit said. Over two dozen agents “came to me with these complaints and showed me the false advertisements that consumers who called in were showing them,” the lawsuit quoted the former manager as saying. For much of the time the companies operated, the ACA marketplace enabled agents to easily access customer accounts using their names and Social Security numbers, change their insurance plans and switch their agents of record without their knowledge or authorization, the lawsuit says. This resulted in customers’ original agents losing their commissions and many of the policyholders finding out they suddenly owed far more for health care services than their original plans had required, the suit states. It says that one of the co-plaintiffs’ health plans was changed at least 22 times without her consent. She first discovered that she had lost her original plan when she sought to renew a prescription for her heart condition and her doctor told her she did not have health insurance, the suit states. Another co-plaintiff’s policy was switched after her husband responded to one of the cash card advertisements, the lawsuit says. That couple’s insurance plan was switched multiple times after a TrueCoverage agent excluded the wife’s income from an application so the couple would qualify. Later, they received bills from the IRS for $4,300 to cover tax credits issued to pay for the plans. CMS barred TrueCoverage and BenefitAlign from accessing the ACA marketplace. It said it received more than 90,000 complaints about unauthorized plan switches and more than 183,500 complaints about unauthorized enrollments, but the agency did not attribute all of the complaints to activities by the two companies. In addition, CMS restricted all agents’ abilities to alter policyholders’ enrollment information, the lawsuit says. Now access is allowed only for agents that already represent policyholders or if the policyholder participates in a three-way call with an agent and a marketplace employee. Between June and October, the agency barred 850 agents and brokers from accessing the marketplace “for reasonable suspicion of fraudulent or abusive conduct related to unauthorized enrollments or unauthorized plan switches,” according to an October CMS news release . The changes resulted in a “dramatic and sustained drop” in unauthorized activity, including a nearly 70% decrease in plan changes associated with an agent or broker and a nearly 90% decrease in changes to agent or broker commission information, the release said. It added that while consumers were often unaware of such changes, the opportunity to make them provided “significant financial incentive for non-compliant agents and brokers.” But CMS’ restrictions might be having unintended consequences for law-abiding agents and brokers. A story published by Insurance News Net on Nov. 11 quoted the president of the Health Agents for America (HAFA) trade group as saying agents are being suspended by CMS after being flagged by a mysterious algorithm that no one can figure out. The story quotes HAFA president Ronnell Nolan as surmising, “maybe they wrote too many policies on the same day for people who have the same income or they’re writing too many policies on people of a certain occupation.” Nolan continued, “We have members who have thousands of ACA clients. They can’t update or renew their clients. So those consumers have lost access to their professional agent, which is simply unfair.” Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Chaz Lanier scored 18 and No. 7 Tennessee extended its season-opening winning streak to seven games with a 78-35 victory over UT Martin on Wednesday. Felix Okpara had 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Volunteers (7-0). Zakai Zeigler added 11 points and nine assists, and Igor Milicic had 13 rebounds and nine points. The Skyhawks (2-5) were led by Josu Grullon's 15 points. Lanier scored 11 points in the first half as Tennessee built a 35-20 lead at the half. Grullon had 10 for UT Martin. UT Martin: Dropped its fifth straight after two opening wins under first-year coach Jeremy Shulman. After 21 wins last year, the Skyhawks brought in 16 newcomers this season. They are picked to finish 10th in the Ohio Valley Conference. Tennessee: After receiving the news that 6-foot-9 sophomore J.P. Estrella will miss the entire season with a foot injury, the Vols have had to go back to the drawing board to determine their rotation on the front court. Estrella had been coming off the bench with Cade Phillips to spell Igor Milicic and Felix Okpara. What that big man rotation looks like will be interesting. From late in the first half to early in the second half, Tennessee scored 14 straight points and turned a 10-point lead into a 44-20 advantage. Zakai Zeigler had five of those points. UT Martin committed 18 turnovers. Five of those were shot-clock violations. Tennessee scored 24 points off the turnovers. UT Martin will be at Charleston Southern next Tuesday. Tennessee will host Syracuse next Tuesday in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketballSyria rebel leader discusses 'transfer of power' after Assad's fallCHANTILLY, Va., Nov. 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Parsons Corporation (NYSE: PSN) announced today that Carey Smith, chair, president, and chief executive officer, and Matt Ofilos, chief financial officer, will participate in fireside chat question and answer sessions at the following investor conferences: Goldman Sachs Industrials and Materials Conference on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, at approximately 1:20 p.m. Eastern Time UBS Global Industrials and Transportation Conference on Thursday, December 5, 2024, at approximately 9:40 a.m. Eastern Time These presentations will be available live via webcast on the investor relations section of Parsons’ website ( https://investors.parsons.com/ ). A replay of the webcasts also will be available on the website for 30 days. About Parsons Corporation Parsons (NYSE: PSN) is a leading disruptive technology provider in the national security and global infrastructure markets, with capabilities across cyber and intelligence, space and missile defense, transportation, environmental remediation, urban development, and critical infrastructure protection. Please visit Parsons.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook to learn how we're making an impact.

Published 5:18 pm Monday, December 9, 2024 By Data Skrive The Abilene Christian Wildcats versus the Baylor Bears is the only game on the college basketball schedule on Monday that features a ranked team in play. We offer ATS picks for each contest in the piece below. Place your bets on any men’s college basketball matchup at BetMGM. Sign up today using our link. Bet on the Baylor-Abilene Christian spread—or any other NCAA men’s basketball matchup—with BetMGM ! Not all offers available in all states, please visit BetMGM for the latest promotions for your area. Must be 21+ to gamble, please wager responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact 1-800-GAMBLER .KENT COUNTY, MI – A Cedar Springs schools worker was arrested for allegedly creating and using fake social media accounts to obtain illicit images of students. The worker, a 20-year-old Rockford man, was employed by the district as an auditorium technician, Kent County sheriff’s deputies said.

The sale will offer 44M tokens at $0.045 each, targeting enhancements in gameplay and future developments within its platform. The $WF token is designed to serve multiple functions within the Wild Forest game. Players will use the token to upgrade units, mint new NFTs, and purchase various in-game content such as Battle Passes. Moreover, the token is poised to play a crucial role in the game’s forthcoming crafting system, marking a significant enhancement in the interactive capabilities of the platform. The sale is structured in two distinct rounds to accommodate different segments of the community. The first round is reserved for RON stakers, key opinion leaders (KOLs), and members of the Impossible Finance community. The second round will open up to the broader Wild Forest community, including holders of specific NFTs like Lord Stakers and owners of Legendary and Epic Unit NFTs, as well as Epic and Legendary Skin NFTs. Participants looking to join the token sale must complete a KYC process and stake wRON from November 28th until December 4th. This staking will determine their eligibility and potential allocation in the token sale. Those who miss acquiring tokens within the designated time frame will forfeit their chance to participate.Syrian government services come to ‘complete halt’ as workers stay at home

Michigan's defense of national title fell short, aims to cap lost season with win against Ohio StateTevogen Bio CEO Reflects on Public Support, Reaffirms Preserving Shareholder Value Remains His Priority, and Reinforces Options Including a Potential Share Buyback to Support Company Value

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Workers pushing for an end to smoking in Atlantic City casinos say the main employee union has been won over by tobacco companies seeking allies in the fight against smoking restrictions. An official of a union involved in the anti-smoking push on Monday called for the head of the Atlantic City casino workers’ union, Donna DeCaprio, to resign for failing to protect her members from the dangers of secondhand smoke. DeCaprio is president of Local 54 of the Unite Here union, which opposes a smoking ban on the grounds that so much business would be lost by smokers taking their money elsewhere that it could cause one or more casinos to shut down, costing thousands of workers their jobs. “She should be ashamed of herself,” said Ray Jensen, assistant director of United Auto Workers Region 9, which represents dealers at three Atlantic City casinos and is part of a lawsuit seeking to have the courts force an end to smoking in the gambling halls. “She should hand in her union card.” DeCaprio said her union supports the health and safety of its members, adding improvements to the workplace environment need to be made. RELATED COVERAGE Sand coming to Atlantic City’s eroding beaches is better late than never, casinos say Atlantic City casino earnings fall nearly 14% in 3rd quarter Casino workers who want smoking ended demonstrate in New Jersey “A balance needs to be reached that will both protect worker health and preserve good jobs,” she said. “We are protecting our members against multiple casino closures and job losses. The UAW is eager to sacrifice the entire casino industry and put 25,000 good jobs with benefits at risk.” DeCaprio said between 50% and 72% of all in-person casino revenue in Atlantic City comes from smoking sections, which occupy only 25% of the casino floor. She said her union “and the vast majority of the labor movement” support a proposal that would improve ventilation in casinos and prevent any employee from being assigned to work in a smoking section against their will. Whether to ban smoking is one of the most controversial issues not only in Atlantic City casinos but in other states where workers have expressed concern about secondhand smoke. They are waging similar campaigns in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Kansas and Virginia. Workers have been pushing for four years to end an exemption in New Jersey’s clean air law that allows smoking inside the nine casinos. They say they or their co-workers are becoming ill with cancer, heart disease and other conditions related to exposure to second-hand smoke. Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, has said he will sign a bill to end casino smoking if it reaches his desk. The casinos, joined by Local 54, oppose that effort, saying it will cost Atlantic City thousands of jobs and lead to decreased tax revenue for state programs for senior citizens and the disabled. On Monday, the workers group that calls itself CEASE (Casino Employees Against Smoking’s Effects) filed an appeal of a court ruling in August that allowed smoking to continue in the nine casinos. The Casino Association of New Jersey declined to comment Monday. Attorney Nancy Erika Smith said as far back as 1993, tobacco companies targeted labor unions in the hospitality industry as potential allies to work against smoking bans in the restaurant and hospitality industries. That effort included the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, a precursor of the Unite Here union. “HERE and the related AFL-CIO affiliates are critical allies which should be cultivated as supporters of the effort to prevent smoking bans,” a public relations firm wrote in a memo to Philip Morris Companies that was made public during several states’ litigation against tobacco companies. The memo said having HERE “as an ally in this effort would be a very powerful voice.” As far back as 2001, HERE was part of a 12-member coalition including labor unions advocating for improved indoor ventilation instead of government-imposed smoking bans, according to another document cited in Monday’s appeal. The anti-smoking campaigners cite a 2022 report by Las Vegas-based C3 Gaming, a consulting firm, showing that casinos that went smoke-free “appear to be performing better than their counterparts that continue to allow smoking.” ___ Follow Wayne Parry on X at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC

Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski promised to give new coach Barry Odom everything he needed to revive the Boilermakers program. Increasing the NIL budget is a solid start. Odom knows what's coming next — the questions. So naturally, it didn't take long for the former UNLV coach to be asked one thing he's likely to hear frequently on the recruiting trail: Could he explain the payment dispute that led to after just three games this season? “I think every story, you look at what you're able to say, what's the truth, what's the reality and what's fabricated,” Odom said Tuesday at his introductory news conference. “I think you look at that very specific instance there was very open communication from the day the recruiting process started. Everything we did as a staff, as a university, as an athletic department was by the book and by the law.” after twice being selected as a Walter Payton Award finalist. The award goes to the best player in the Football Championship Series. He didn't last long in Las Vegas. Sluka entered the transfer portal after winning all three starts, claiming he never received a promised $100,000 NIL payment. Odom issued a statement at the time saying the program abided by the “applicable rules.” On Tuesday, he seemed to acknowledge that part of the explanation was a continuing quarterback competition between Sluka and Hajj Malik-Williams, who took over as the starter and led UNLV (10-3) to its best record in 40 years and a second straight Mountain West Conference championship game appearance. Malik-Williams was a second-team all-conference selection. Odom likely will need more detailed answers for prospective recruits if he intends to make the Boilermakers competitive again in a Big Ten with four teams. Odom does have some advantages at Purdue — a strong alumni base led by former NFL star Drew Brees, a recently renovated stadium, other upgraded facilities and the school's longtime reputation as the “Cradle of Quarterbacks.” The biggest advantage, though, will be “We’re going to operate at the full cap," Bobinski said. “We’re going to be as resourced as anybody in the country, allowing Barry and his staff the ability to go out there and be eyeball to eyeball with everybody we’re competing for, a transfer or from a high school recruiting perspective.” Bobinski said Odom's results at UNLV were the primary attraction, though. As the Boilermakers continued to struggle in November, Bobinski started studying the revival of a UNLV program that had struggled for decades. What he found was that the man Missouri fired in 2019 after posting a 25-25 record in four seasons had earned a second chance with a Power Four program. “What was accomplished at UNLV these last couple years was nothing short of remarkable,” Bobinski said. “What that shows me is Coach Odom brings a very unique combination of an old-school, traditional football toughness and mindset with ability to operate and adapt to today’s college football environment.” It's a combination Purdue desperately needs following in which it went 1-11 (0-9 Big Ten) and suffered the two most lopsided losses in school history — 66-7 to Notre Dame and 66-0 to Indiana. He takes over a team that lost its final 11 games and did not beat an FBS opponent. Navigating the path back in what's likely to be the first year of revenue sharing and NIL caps tied to roster limits could be even trickier given what he's facing. The state's other two most prominent programs — No. 3 Notre Dame (11-1, No. 5 CFP) and No. 9 Indiana (11-1, No. 8 CFP), will meet in a first-round playoff game on Dec. 20. There are other complications, too. Purdue signed only six recruits on the first day of the early signing period and has 21 players currently in the transfer portal, including All-American safety Dillon Thieneman, starting linebacker Yanni Karlaftis, starting tight end Max Klare and two quarterbacks. “We've got to be great evaluators, and then you've got to build an offense or a defense and a kicking game around the strengths of our players,” Odom said. “And then we've got to be great teachers at making them and teaching them, understanding the reasons we're calling the play and how important their job is to get that job done.” Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up . AP college football: andAP Trending SummaryBrief at 3:59 p.m. EST

Kylian Mbappé created history as Real Madrid went to Bergamo for the Matchday 6 tie in the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League. He scored the first goal within the first half of the match, sending his team into a crucial win while breaking Cristiano Ronaldo’s all-time goalscoring record in the process. The game ended with 2-3, favoring Real Madrid. Mbappé’s switch to Real Madrid this summer season had created much hype, although he had a rather muted start to the season. However, in the recent games, the 25-year-old forward has started to get his rhythm going, especially in the Champions League. Finding the back of the net in successive games, the goal against Atalanta was Mbappé’s 12th for the team since his arrival. His strike in the first ten minutes of the game against Atalanta was not only a match-winner but also a milestone moment when he broke Ronaldo’s record of scoring the most goals in the Champions League for a long time. Mbappé has scored 50 goals in just 79 games, which is the quickest time to reach the mark. It took Ronaldo 91 games to do it. Mbappé Beats Legends Mbappé is thus placed in elite company. Not only did he surpass Ronaldo but managed to surpass several other footballing legends on the all-time list, including Raul González, Thierry Henry, Thomas Müller, and Karim Benzema. Mbappé now stands at four with 50 goals at just 79 games with the record book showing some of the quickest players that have achieved this feat, Robert Lewandowski having hit it at 77, Lionel Messi at 66, and Ruud van Nistelrooy at 62. The French forward started his journey in the Champions League back in the 2016-17 season with Monaco, scoring six goals in his debut season. Then he moved to Paris Saint-Germain, where his tally grew significantly as he scored 42 goals between 2017 and 2024. Now with Real Madrid, Mbappé has already made his mark in the competition with two goals in just a short period at the Spanish club. Mbappé Among Youngest Players To Score 50 Goals At the tender age of 25 years and 356 days, Mbappé is one of the youngest players to ever have reached 50 Champions League goals. The only player younger than him is Lionel Messi , who achieved the same at 24 years and 284 days. Considering the fact that he reached this milestone in fewer games than most of the stars who compete with him makes the achievement even more significant. This is a landmark achievement which cements Mbappé into the ranks of the brightest stars in European football. As he continues to grow and evolve at Real Madrid, the question now is how many more records he will break before his career is over. The 100-Goal Club With such a stellar scoring rate, Mbappé is now on course to achieving another glorious mark: 100 Champions League goals. At the moment, he will certainly equal football’s all-time greats if he continues at the rate he is going; they include Cristiano Ronaldo, 145 goals; Lionel Messi, 132; and Robert Lewandowski, 109. Currently 25 years of age, Mbappé is indeed on course to become one of the most prolific goal-scorers in this competition. Mbappé, as long as he shines in the Champions League both for Real Madrid and the international arena, seems to have an incredibly bright future. Every goal brings him closer to the pantheon of all-time football players. ALSO READ | Vinicius Jr And Rodrygo Return For Real Madrid’s Champions League Clash Against AtalantaDigital Ally, Inc. Receives Notification of Deficiency from Nasdaq Related to Delayed Filing of Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q

Michigan's defense of national title fell short, aims to cap lost season with win against Ohio StateNFL star weighs in on Luigi Mangione arrest with shocking social media post