The Army announced in a news release earlier this week that it is rolling out a new combat fitness test for frontline troops as leaders push to strengthen battlefield readiness amid ongoing recruiting challenges. The Combat Field Test (CFT), which is age and gender-neutral, applies to soldiers in combat specialties, is designed to mirror the physical demands of modern warfare and signals a shift toward stricter, role-specific standards as the Army looks to boost readiness across its ranks. The move comes after the Army missed recruiting targets in recent years, including falling roughly 15,000 soldiers short in 2022, according to U.S. Army Recruiting Command data, as leaders work to rebuild enlistment numbers and overall force strength. While the service has since rebounded to meet its 2025 targets, leaders continue to work on long-term readiness. The update follows broader changes to Army fitness standards in recent years. In 2025, the service announced a new Army Fitness Test to replace the previous Army Combat Fitness Test, after months of data analysis and feedback, with officials saying the changes were designed to improve readiness and emphasize combat effectiveness. TRUMP IS SENDING A POWERFUL MESSAGE TO OUR ENEMIES — AND ALLIES — WITH THE PENTAGON'S REBRAND The update comes amid War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s broader push to shift the military back to what he calls the "warrior ethos." "The Combat Field Test is a critical step forward in ensuring our soldiers serving in the most physically demanding specialties have the specific fitness required to dominate on the modern battlefield," Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in a statement Wednesday. "This is about readiness, lethality and the well-being of our soldiers." A spokesperson for the Army did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Soldiers will have 30 minutes to complete seven events with the clock running continuously while wearing the Army Combat Uniform and boots. ARMY UNVEILS NEW FITNESS TEST WITH TOUGHER STANDARDS — COULD YOU PASS IT? They must first run one mile, followed by 30 dead-stop push-ups, a 100-meter sprint, 16 lifts of a 40-pound sandbag onto a 65-inch platform and a 50-meter carry of two Army water cans weighing 40 pounds each. The test then requires soldiers to complete a 50-meter movement drill with a high crawl and a 25-meter three- to five-second rush before a final one-mile run. The Army will begin implementing the new test this month, and soldiers will be required to complete it annually. During the first year of the rollout, soldiers will not face penalties as the Army phases in the new standard, part of a broader effort to prepare troops for the physical demands of modern combat. View the full article

Today is one of those Sundays in which you can probably park yourself in front of the television, on the couch, with a couple of beers, and be content. We have the NBA Playoffs, the NHL Playoffs and a ton of baseball games to choose from. Navigating those games can be a tough thing to do for sports bettors, but when you find a good one, you lock it in. I think I have one as the Angels are taking on the Royals in a Sunday game. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! The Angels are playing fairly well to begin the year. Before you start looking to lock up postseason tickets, just understand they are still hovering around .500. However, that’s still a bit more positive and successful than we’ve seen them in recent seasons. This is probably the best start since the 2023 season. Again, that doesn’t mean much, because it is so early. However, for this franchise, we need to search for some silver lining. Tonight, they send out Reid Detmers to the hill in hopes of capitalizing on the little momentum they do have. Detmers is 1-2 for the season with a 4.08 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP. The WHIP indicates to me that he might be the owner of some bad luck. Looking at his game log, it seems like he has alternated great starts with bad ones. In his season opener, he went 4.2 innings and allowed three earned runs. Then he went 6.2 scoreless innings and allowed just three hits. Against Atlanta, he went 4.1 innings and allowed six runs. The Yankees scored only one run over seven innings. In his most recent outing, he allowed four earned runs over six innings. Royals hitters have done well against Detmers, hitting .294 over 34 at-bats. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM The Royals are a bit of a disaster. They look like the worst team in the division, and they are in the same division as the White Sox and the Twins. Obviously, the season is still very young, but for a team with postseason aspirations, this is not the start they wanted to get off to. They have been particularly terrible on the road, but luckily for them, they are at home. Before this series, the team was winning 75% of its games at home. The good news for them is that Seth Lugo is on the hill, and he has been fantastic for the Royals. He is 1-1 for the season with a 1.15 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP. Lugo hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of his five starts this season. Additionally, he has turned in four quality starts in five outings. Angels hitters have turned in a .182 batting average against him over 44 at-bats. This is a game that the Royals should win. It is hard to back them right now, but this is the ideal situation. You get Kansas City at home, and you have their best pitcher on the mound. I think it is a great idea to play Lugo to hold the Angels to under 2.5 earned runs, and I also really like the Royals to win this game. This is one where I wouldn’t be surprised to see them win on the run line. Kansas City hasn’t proven to be a team you want to back to this point, but I do think they have some significant edges in this game. Officially, I’ll take the Royals -0.5 through five innings, on the moneyline for the game, and under earned runs allowed for Lugo. For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024 View the full article

We have a fun Sunday as there are four NBA games tipping off today. From 1 p.m. ET until we all lay our heads down to sleep, we are going to have hoops available for us to watch. Not the regular-season garbage, we are getting playoff basketball, the best of basketball. It starts with action between the Cavs and Raptors, who are in a seven-game set with Cleveland up 2-1. Cleveland had a decent year, winning 52 games, but the Cavs finally tweaked the team that turned in success from the past two years. They traded away Darius Garland and turned him into James Harden. This team also has Dennis Schroder coming off the bench instead of Lonzo Ball. I don’t see much depth outside of him on the court. As the playoffs get deeper, the benches don’t matter quite as much. The Cavs are strong at four of the five starting positions. They looked great in the first two games of the playoffs. In the first two games, the Cavaliers won both of them over the Raptors by at least 10 points. In Game 3, Cleveland was blitzed by the Raptors and lost by 22. The issues were both a poor shooting night from Cleveland and a really good one from Toronto. It also didn’t help that the Cavs had 22 turnovers. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM Toronto was a surprise team this year. Most expected them to battle for a Play-In spot and probably struggle to even get that. However, things clicked for the team, and they turned in a 46-36 record. They were really good behind a combination of cast-offs and a really good drafted player, Scottie Barnes. Those players from other teams, Immanuel Quickley, Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl (though he was drafted by the Raptors, went to the Spurs, and came back), have made this team competitive. In the first two games, they didn’t really look ready for the postseason. However, the team looked great in Game 3. This was a bit of a coming-out party for them, but it might’ve also just been an anomaly. They shot 57% from the field and 61% from three. I just don’t see that happening again. One area they struggled with was from the free-throw line. They still were behind in rebounds, which is something they are likely to struggle with this entire series. Barrett and Barnes both put in 33 points for the team. Barnes was particularly great, adding 11 assists and five rebounds. ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! You can’t count on the Raptors to shoot that well again. I won’t say the Cavs are going to shoot all that much better, but I do expect some improvement from them. The home court advantage is still on the side of Toronto, but after winning a game, the Cavs should lock in for this one. I think the best action is to take the Cavs -3.5. For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024 View the full article

As about a dozen cases involving missing or deceased American nuclear scientists have come to light, a retired high-level FBI official says some of them fit a pattern that he considers suspicious. "The missing [and] disappearance thing is suspicious inherently," said Chris Swecker, who served as assistant director of the FBI. "What they were working on would certainly, without a doubt, be a target of a hostile foreign intelligence service like Russia or China. It could be Iran, could be Pakistan." Swecker believes the six deaths that have been widely reported don't have much in common, and he doesn't believe they're connected. While Swecker isn't convinced that there's a conspiracy afoot even among the missing scientists, he agrees that authorities should be looking for links in the disappearances, given the high-value, sensitive technology that they all worked with or near. MOST SHOCKING EXAMPLES OF CHINESE ESPIONAGE UNCOVERED BY THE US THIS YEAR: 'JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG' The disappearance of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland earlier this year set off the cascade of theories about the missing and dead scientists. He was the former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, and had connections to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where top-secret nuclear research is conducted. He vanished in New Mexico after leaving his home with only a pair of boots and a handgun. He left his phone, keys and glasses behind. "I'm just saying that ... the FBI would have interest in anything that happened to them because of what they were working on," he said. "And, in fact, [with] McCasland, the FBI showed up uninvited that very afternoon." STATE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE ALLEGEDLY REMOVED CLASSIFIED DOCS, MET WITH CHINESE OFFICIALS Anthony Chavez, 79, worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory until he retired in 2017. He reportedly disappeared on May 8, 2025. He was last seen leaving his house in Los Alamos on foot, with his car locked in his driveway. He did not bring his phone, wallet or keys on his walk. Melissa Casias, 53, also worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. She went missing on June 26, 2025. Steven Garcia, 48, went missing from Albuquerque on Aug. 28, 2025. He worked at the Kansas City National Security Campus, located in Albuquerque, which develops most of the nonnuclear components that go into building nuclear weapons. He reportedly left on foot carrying only a handgun. ‘SEX SPIES’ FROM CHINA, RUSSIA HIT US TO SEDUCE AND STEAL SECRETS WITH HONEYPOT TACTICS, FMR OPERATIVE WARNS He reportedly had a top secret security clearance. "So Garcia, Chavez and Casias, in my opinion, ought to be lumped in and that should be the focus, and any others that went missing, because that would fit more of a pattern than just killing somebody because of what they know," said Swcker. "Exact same pattern," he continued. "They disappeared with all their personal belongings behind. Some of them took their handguns with them, which means they're either in fear or they're going to go use it on themselves." IS THERE A NEW ENGLAND SERIAL KILLER? FORMER FBI AGENT WITH REGIONAL TIES REVEALS HIS THEORY Swecker also had a warning for scientists working in top-secret fields. "What people really need to be aware of — anybody involved in technology and anything that China or Russia or our competitors want to get their hands — ought to understand that there is a daily collection effort by China, Russia, Iran, to some extent, North Korea, but mainly China and Russia to steal technology because they're not good at [research and development]," he said. "And their whole programs depend on stealing the technology and reverse engineering it." "So, scientists, people involved in the defense contracting companies, research and development at universities, you know, all types of technologies in the U.S., even if it's not military use, ought to be aware that this type of stuff goes on day in and day out." Last week, the White House directed the FBI to coordinate an investigation into the cases. The investigation is ongoing. View the full article

EXCLUSIVE: A major change to National Park entry fee structure lambasted by Democrats as discriminatory has led to a moderate windfall for conservation efforts undertaken by the Department of the Interior. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., led a December letter co-signed by Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and others slamming DOI Secretary Doug Burgum’s plan to increase national park annual passes to $250 for foreign visitors while the $80 rate for residents remains in place. An additional $100 is also tacked on to nonresident visitors at the most trafficked parks. Padilla separately called the plan "discriminatory," while Schiff and his co-signers said the move fails to meet public notice guidelines, risks retention of visitors’ personal information and raises questions about how DOI would facilitate the discrepant fee structure when a carload of people show up at the gate. But the Interior Department went ahead with the plan, and in the first quarter of 2026 the disparate fee structure led to more than $2 million being collected from foreign visitors, Burgum’s office told Fox News Digital. KRISTI NOEM'S FIRING FAILS TO SWAY DEMOCRATS AS DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON "The millions of dollars in new revenue generated from this administration’s Non-Resident park passes is proof that President Donald J. Trump was right to put affordability for Americans first as we change how the Department of Interior raises money to support conservation from foreign visitors," said DOI press secretary Aubrie Spady. "As we approach our great nation's 250th birthday, initiatives like America First pricing, along with the addition of the America the Beautiful pass featuring President Trump, are delivering meaningful benefits for both our parks and the American people by celebrating our nation's history while investing in its future." In their letter calling on Burgum to stop implementation of the program, Padilla and Schiff expressed concern about the effect on "understaffed" park workers, what they said was an already cratering visitation rate from Canadian visitors — which Democrats have blamed on Trump’s sparring with Prime Minister Mark Carney and conjecture about annexing the "51st state" — and what would happen to visitors who cannot produce ID. AMERICAN HISTORY WON'T BE DISPLAYED 'IN A WOKE MANNER' AT SMITHSONIAN, TRUMP SAYS Burgum previously legitimized the disparate fee structure by noting that DOI and national parks are already partially subsidized by every American taxpayer – and that by charging a lesser rate to U.S. residents, the agency is acknowledging that and giving back to American parkgoers. "These policies ensure that U.S. taxpayers, who already support the National Park System, continue to enjoy affordable access, while international visitors contribute their fair share to maintaining and improving our parks for future generations," Burgum said. Pass sales in the first three months of 2024 totaled $13.7 million, and $14.3 million in 2025. As of this year, that figure increased to $16.7 million, with total nonresident revenue so far topping $4.9 million alone. Padilla and Schiff did not immediately respond to requests for comment. View the full article