This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wishes "Godspeed" to the NASA crew set to be brought home from the International Space Station by SpaceX.
Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot lobbed a shot at the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, as he explained Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s new review of physical fitness and grooming standards.
“Unfortunately, the U.S. military’s high standards on body composition and other metrics eroded in recent years, particularly during the tenure of former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, who set a bad example from the top through his own personal corpulence. Secretary Hegseth is committed to restoring high standards, and this review is the first step in doing so,” Ullyot said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 
The Pentagon revoked Milley’s security detail and clearance in late January. 
The review comes after the secretary has voiced concerns that fitness standards have eroded, and questioned whether mismatched standards for men and women are affecting readiness. 
SECRETARY HEGSETH SAYS THE DOD DOES NOT DO ‘CLIMATE CHANGE CRAP’
Ret. Gen. Mark Milley served as the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from Oct. 1, 2019 to Sept. 29, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The memo specifically calls out protocols for beards.
It directs the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness to look at “existing standards set by the Military Departments pertaining to physical fitness, body composition, and grooming, which includes but is not limited to beards.”
The memo directs the review to examine how standards have changed since 2015. 
“Our troops will be fit – not fat. Our troops will look sharp – not sloppy. We seek only quality – not quotas,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X late on Wednesday. 
HEGSETH ORDERS REVIEW OF MILITARY FITNESS AND GROOMING: ‘OUR ADVERSARIES ARE NOT GROWING WEAKER’
“U.S. military’s high standards on body composition and other metrics eroded in recent years, particularly during the tenure of former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, who set a bad example from the top through his own personal corpulence,” said DOD spokesperson John Ullyot. ( Alex Brandon – Pool/Getty Images)
“That will be part of one of the first things we do at the Pentagon – is reviewing that in a gender-neutral way – the standards ensuring readiness and meritocracy is front and center,” Hegseth promised in January. 
In December 2015, the military opened up all combat roles to women. In a podcast interview shortly before he was tapped as secretary, Hegseth said the U.S. “should not have women in combat roles.” But during his confirmation hearing, he clarified that in ground combat roles, women should have to meet the same standards as men. 
DOGE INITIAL FINDINGS ON DEFENSE DEPARTMENT DEI SPENDING COULD SAVE $80M, AGENCY SAYS
“Whether it is a man or woman, they have to meet the same high standards,” he said. “In any place where those things have been eroded, or courses or criteria have been changed to meet quotas . . . that’s the kind of review I’m talking about. Not whether women should have access to ground combat.” 
The review could possibly lead to changes to the Army Combat Fitness Test, which is currently scored under age- and gender-specific requirements. That became the Army’s standard fitness test in 2023, after decades of a physical fitness test that imposed the same standards on men and women. 
The current test requires men ages 17-21 to run two miles in 22 minutes, and women of the same age to do it in 23 minutes and 22 seconds.
The Pentagon is evaluating physical fitness tests and whether their standards meet readiness goals.  (Reuters/Lucas Jackson )
The service branches began making accommodations for recruits who don’t meet physical fitness standards in recent years as a way to address the recruiting crisis. The Army and Navy offered pre-boot camp training for those who did not meet physical fitness or testing scores. But those recruits had to meet the same standards in order to graduate from training courses and serve. 
“When I was in the Army, we kicked out good soldiers for having naked women tattooed on their arms, and today we are relaxing the standards on shaving, dreadlocks, man buns, and straight-up obesity,” Hegseth wrote in his book ‘The War on Warriors.’ 
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Piece by piece, the standards had to go … because of equity,” he added.
The service branches have begun allowing troops to sport different hairstyles, in large part due to female service members who argued that the constant tight, low bun was leading to hair loss. In recent years, the Army has begun allowing cornrows and twists after female service members argued that the hairstyles were cheaper and easier to maintain. 
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time.
Subscribed
You’ve successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

source

Let Healthcare Dive’s free newsletter keep you informed, straight from your inbox.

The rule is like “making people crawl through broken glass” for health insurance, one expert said.
The Biden administration made it easier and more affordable to sign up for ACA plans, causing enrollment to swell to an all-time high.
This year, 24 million Americans choose plans in the the exchanges set up by the decade-old law.
However, President Donald Trump’s administration appears to be following a playbook from his first term, when the CMS pursued policies that caused ACA enrollment to decline significantly. Last month, the CMS slashed funding for outreach and education, a move that patient advocates say will make it harder for Americans to access ACA coverage.
Monday’s proposed rule — the new Trump administration’s first regulation to reshape the U.S. health insurance landscape — would shrink the exchanges further under the guise of improving program integrity, according to health policy experts.
The 301-page proposal would require require ACA marketplaces to check consumers’ eligibility for special enrollment periods, and raise the burden of verification.
For example, people who fail to reconcile their tax information with their eligibility for subsidies currently have two years before they lose financial assistance. The rule would shrink that window to one year.
The regulation would also charge people automatically re-enrolled in subsidized coverage from one year to the next a $5 monthly premium until they confirm or update their eligibility information.
In addition, it would end a monthly special enrollment period for people with income below 150% of the federal poverty line to sign up for coverage outside of the normal enrollment window. And, the annual open enrollment period would run from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, instead of through Jan. 15.
The proposals “take critical and necessary steps to protect people from being enrolled in Marketplace coverage without their knowledge or consent, promote stable and affordable health insurance markets, and ensure taxpayer dollars fund financial assistance only for the people the ACA set out to support,” the CMS said in a press release Monday afternoon.
Overall, the rule would reduce improper spending on ACA subsidies by $11 billion, according to the agency.
Targeting fraudulent enrollment has been a priority for both Republicans and Democrats amid growing complaints about unscrupulous brokers and unexpected signups.
In the first half of 2024, the CMS received almost 74,000 complaints from consumers that their plan was changed without their consent, and more than 134,000 complaints from consumers that they were unknowingly enrolled in a plan, the agency said at the time.
The Biden administration made it harder for insurance agents to make unauthorized changes to consumers’ coverage last year and expanded the CMS’ ability to punish bad actors in the exchanges in early 2025.
However, the Trump administration’s approach only nominally touches agents and brokers. Instead, the administration’s scorched-earth approach will negatively affect enrollees, especially the most vulnerable, according to Sabrina Corlette, the co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.
“Under the auspices of, ‘We have to go after fraud and improper enrollment’ — which yes, was well-documented last year, there was a lot of fraud from a handful of unscrupulous brokers — instead of going after the brokers who are guilty of this, this rule does nothing to prevent that behavior,” Corlette said.
The CMS also said the rule would prevent adverse selection, when people wait until they’re sick to enroll in coverage, and lower premiums for enrollees.
Concerns about improper signups are legitimate, according to Corlette. However, the rule is unlikely to lower premiums because it will restrict subsidies for many enrollees, and probably boot healthier people out of the ACA’s risk pools.
“If people can wait until they’re really sick they will,” Corlette said. “On the other hand, if you make them crawl through broken glass to get coverage, the people who are going to crawl through broken glass are the sicker people, because they really need it.”
This rule is “like making people crawl through broken glass,” she said.
The policies would also likely be negative for insurers that have benefited from skyrocketing growth in the exchanges. Offering ACA coverage has hoisted otherwise shaky margins for many national payers over the past two years. Many have invested heavily to grow their ACA footprints as a result, a bet that would be threatened by the Trump administration restricting the exchanges.
AHIP, the main insurance industry lobby, said it is “closely reviewing” the rule.
“We look forward to working with the new administration to strengthen the affordable, accessible health care coverage options that 24 million Americans count on,” said Chris Bond, AHIP’s senior vice president of communications, over email.
Monday’s proposed rule also targets social issues that have been a priority for Trump.
It would allow insurers to stop covering gender-affirming care by removing it from the list of essential health benefits under the ACA, though payers could still elect to cover the services.
The rule would also exclude “Dreamers,” or people who arrived illegally in the U.S. as children, from marketplace coverage, undoing a Biden-era policy that was blocked by a federal judge and is still being litigated.
Once the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, the public will have 30 days to submit comments.
If finalized, income verification reforms would likely be implemented quickly, while most other changes would become effective for the 2026 plan year. Auto re-enrollment reforms wouldn’t go into effect until the open enrollment period for 2027.
Get the free daily newsletter read by industry experts
Donald Trump’s first term as president was characterized by significant turbulence for government healthcare programs. Here’s how some of the most influential industry groups responded to the Republican’s reelection.
The Biden administration is attempting to push through a slew of reforms to the controversial MA program in its final months in power, though it will need the Trump administration’s buy-in to get them across the finish line.
Subscribe to Healthcare Dive for top news, trends & analysis
Get the free daily newsletter read by industry experts
Donald Trump’s first term as president was characterized by significant turbulence for government healthcare programs. Here’s how some of the most influential industry groups responded to the Republican’s reelection.
The Biden administration is attempting to push through a slew of reforms to the controversial MA program in its final months in power, though it will need the Trump administration’s buy-in to get them across the finish line.
The free newsletter covering the top industry headlines

source

Lawyer for accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione seeks to dismiss PA charges  KCBY.com 11
source

UnitedHealthcare Employs Local Police to Beef Up Security at Company HQ  Newsweek
source

AI-powered sales and marketing platform Keepme has launched a new guide to help fitness operators integrate AI sales agents into their business—a must-have in today’s competitive landscape, Keepme points out.
The new resource, “Implementing AI Sales Agents: A Practical Guide for Fitness Operators Ready to Grow,” offers a step-by-step approach to explaining how AI can enhance membership sales, boost lead-to-tour conversions and reduce customer acquisition costs.
“AI is no longer a future concept—it’s already transforming member acquisition,” Keepme CEO Ian Mullane said. “Operators who are already embracing AI Sales Agents are seeing massive improvements in lead conversion, engagement and funnel efficiency. This guide gives others a blueprint to take similar action, ensuring they don’t fall behind in an industry that’s evolving fast. For fitness operators to truly benefit, they need more than hype, they need a deep, practical understanding of how AI can be applied to the business function where it delivers the highest impact: membership sales.”
The guide is available for fitness operators to download here. 
“One of the biggest misconceptions about AI in fitness is that it’s too complex to implement,” Keepme chief of operations Steffie Bryant said. “This guide completely dispels that myth. It’s a practical, no-nonsense roadmap for operators who want to future-proof their sales process and drive real revenue growth. If your business isn’t thinking about AI yet, this guide will show you why it needs to be a priority.”
Keep pulse with the latest in fitness news.
Sign Up for Our Newsletter Trusted by 100k+ Fitness, Wellness & Health Executives.

Athletech News provides comprehensive media coverage of the most impactful news and trends shaping the fitness and wellness sector. Our newsletter and website cover emerging fitness technology, brick and mortar gyms, wellness trends, new fitness formats and the industry’s economic outlook.
COPYRIGHT© ATHLETECH MEDIA GROUP LLC 2022, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Keep pulse with the latest in fitness news.
Keep pulse with the latest in fitness news.

source