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It is the quintessential imagery of a desperate man, drained of all earthly strength and power, who's come to the end of his own knowledge and wisdom. He takes a knee in humbleness to God.

This is the portrait of then-General George Washington at Valley Forge, praying for guidance when the fight for America's independence seemed lost.  

The iconic painting, "Prayer at Valley Forge," was created 50 years ago by artist Arnold Friberg in honor of America's bicentennial. Now, it's the centerpiece of the Museum of the Bible's exhibit celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary.

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Carlos Campo, Ph.D., CEO of the Museum of the Bible, says, "Washington is most powerful on his knees. That's what he knows, because he is bowing to a greater power who can infuse him with true leadership."

The image is a snapshot of "a man carrying a burden that feels too heavy to bear — and the quiet place he goes when everything is on the line." It takes place during the brutal winter of 1777-1778. 

America's founders had already declared a break from Great Britain's rule on July 4, 1776. 

Now, the "fragile army" of colonists needs to fight to secure it. Washington is their leader. But America at this juncture is more a dream than solid reality.  

Washington's soldiers are freezing in the harsh snow and cold. Many of them are without shoes or warm clothing.

JUST 5 MINUTES OF PRAYER COULD HAVE SURPRISING HEALTH BENEFITS, STUDY FINDS

The painting and the D.C.-based museum show how fidelity to God and belief in the omniscient power of an Almighty God are real powers that helped create the United States of America. They are not lofty philosophies written in founding documents, but living realities tested on a literal battlefield.  

As America celebrates its 250th year, much of Washington, D.C., is turning red, white and blue to exalt this nation's strength through its noble founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights — all now taking center stage. Yet the greater influence, Campo believes, on America’s self-governing sense of law, justice and mercy is found at the Museum of the Bible, where the famous portrait of General Washington in prayer headlines the museum’s exhibit.

Campo told Fox News, "While other influences aided in the founding principles of our nation, nothing — and there's not even a close second — had the influence as the power of scripture."

Even so, Dr. Ben Carson wants us to know there was something in the man himself that was divinely ordained. He quips that it's a story about a young Washington that public schools tend to leave out of their history lessons. 

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Carson, the former U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development and, before that, a highly accomplished pediatric surgeon, is making sure younger generations hear the story through his Little Patriots Learning. In July 1755, a 23-year-old Washington escaped a harrowing death at the Battle of the Monongahela. 

He was shot at by an expert marksman and survived. In a letter to his younger brother John, the future first president wrote, "By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability and expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side."

Carson says, "He realized that God had saved him for a reason. And years later, he was in the same area... before he became president… and one of the Indian chiefs who had been involved in the war heard about it and asked [to be brought] to where Washington was. When he reached Washington, he said, 'Sir, I just needed to meet you because I'm an expert marksman and I shot you 17 times and my men shot you, and pretty soon I told them to stop wasting their bullets, because this is a man who's protected by the great spirit above. And I just wanted to see you before I died, knowing that you would become the father of a great nation.'"

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Added Carson, "That used to be in all of our history books."

There were no videos or phone cameras back then, of course — just historical accounts. Putting the future in the hands of a man who believes wholeheartedly in the power of prayer seems a bit risky. But Washington and America's subsequent thriving should be proof enough.

The museum, though, has made the portrait of "Prayer at Valley Forge" come alive with a one-man show in its theater. 

Actor James Denton portrays the general, not as an alabaster statue whose portrait graces the $1 bill, nor the proud picture of confidence as the president of the United States, but as the man "at his most vulnerable" facing what all men and women face at some point in life: a crisis. Except that this crisis would affect not just him, but chart the course of history.

So Washington did what he knew was demanded by Scripture: to "pray without ceasing." And to know these words of Scripture: "If my people, who are called by my name would humble themselves … I will come and heal their land."

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The die was cast. Decades later, Abraham Lincoln would take up the mantel of prayer. He faced another crisis, a civil war. While Washington’s prayer came to help birth our nation, Lincoln’s prayer was to sustain it, to keep it together. 

He famously said, "I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."

If America were to survive and become something of a global beacon on a hill, for the good of the world, it had to survive its own internal conflicts. It must live in truth "e pluribus unum" — out of many, one.

Today, we sometimes take prayer for granted, even mock its worth. Thoughts and prayers get downgraded to mere words with no action. But prayer has power. 

That is why the churches call men and women who take to their knees as prayer warriors.

Says Campo, "Washington may not have been the most orthodox believer, [but] he certainly understood the sovereign power of God and that, in that moment, it was the thing he had to call upon for the true power that he needed."

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This Fourth of July, as we celebrate America's 250th, we should also realize that power is still available to us.

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Millions of Medicare beneficiaries struggling with obesity could soon see the cost of weight-loss drugs plummet, as a new federal pilot program launching July 1 expands access to GLP-1 medications like Wegovy and Zepbound for eligible seniors.

Through a new trial called Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, the federal government is now offering a selection of the brand-name medications to certain Medicare and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries for $50 a month, The Associated Press reported.

The covered medications include drugmaker Eli Lilly’s Foundayo tablets and Zepbound KwikPens and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy injections and tablets, all of which have been FDA-approved for weight loss, according to the report.

OZEMPIC USERS MAY BE MAKING A MAJOR WEIGHT-LOSS MISTAKE, NEW STUDY SUGGESTS

The temporary program is set to run until the end of 2027.

This is the first time GLP-1s (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists) will be covered by insurance when used solely for weight loss.

Prior to this new Medicare pilot, seniors who wanted to access GLP-1s for obesity alone paid about $1,350-$1,650 per month for Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy (semaglutide) and about $1,086 monthly for Lilly’s Zepbound (tirzepatide). However, both manufacturers offered some cash-pay options that significantly reduced those prices for eligible patients.

GLP-1 WEIGHT LOSS DRUGS ARE RESHAPING THE BRIDAL INDUSTRY AS SHOPS RUSH ORDERS AND REQUIRE NEW WAIVERS

There are some parameters surrounding the coverage — older adults must have had a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or higher when they started GLP-1 therapy, or a BMI of 27 or higher alongside another health condition, such as a past heart attack or stroke or prediabetes.

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Those who already have insurance coverage for other diseases, such as diabetes and sleep apnea, are not eligible for the program.

There are more than 70 million Americans currently enrolled in Medicare, 10 million of whom are overweight or obese, according to Juliette Cubanski, vice president and director of the program on Medicare policy at the healthcare research nonprofit KFF.

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"For many older Americans living with obesity, this is a moment they and their families have been waiting for," Jamey Millar, Novo Nordisk’s executive vice president of U.S. operations, said in a press release.

"The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program offers a new, affordable path to an FDA-approved treatment that was previously not covered."

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Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said he hopes the program can help his agency collect data to potentially work toward longer-term coverage, while providing immediate relief to cash-strapped older Americans, AP reported.

"The sheer cost of these medications is a huge barrier to access," he said in a call with reporters. "That ends today."

Oz told reporters that CMS plans to "carefully track participation and outcomes" to see whether an extension of the Bridge program or another solution is the best way to move forward. He told AP a federal law permanently allowing the coverage is "not essential right now" but something "for Congress to debate amongst themselves."

"We can’t decide what’s going to happen long term with Bridge until we see some of the data," he said, adding that there are ongoing talks with drug companies to lower costs.

One potential concern is that older patients tend to have more adverse effects to medication in general , according to Dr. Micah Eimer, a clinical assistant professor of cardiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

"Specifically, in our research, older patients on blood pressure medications were more likely to experience hypotensive side effects, such as fainting and dizziness, after starting a GLP-1," he said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Three separate attacks involving petrol bombs and other improvised devices took place in Thessaloniki in the early hours of Wednesday.

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A man was seen clambering through a window to escape black smoke in the block where some 200 people live.

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Former President Barack Obama blamed a splintered media landscape for the lack of a second Obama-like political figure emerging on the national stage during an interview on Tuesday.

NBC "Today" co-host Craig Melvin talked to the former president about the new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on his "Glass Half Full" podcast and told him, "You’ve always represented a lot of different communities, but there has always been this singularity to your story. Earlier this week, one of your former aides was talking on one of these cable shows and said Democrats should stop looking for Obama 2.0. Not gonna happen."

"Do you think in the current climate that someone like you with your background and your story, do you think that you could break through now the same way you did back in ’07, ’08?" Melvin asked Obama. 

"I do think it’s harder because of the nature of your business, the media, it’s more splintered," Obama said.

OBAMA CHOOSES SUPPORTER STEPHEN COLBERT FOR DEBUT INTERVIEW AT CONTROVERSIAL PRESIDENTIAL CENTER

"I hadn’t even been elected yet to the U.S. Senate," he continued. "I had won the primary. I’d won the nomination — Democratic nomination to be the senator of Illinois, but nobody really knew who I was except outside of Illinois. And when I gave that speech at the convention, suddenly I’m a national figure because all the networks covered it. And if you’re on the cover of Time magazine or Newsweek back then, suddenly everybody knows who you are because we all shared one culture."

Obama said that people "who are just as gifted or in some cases more gifted" than him were not breaking through because of a splintered media.

He suggested the country was in a transition period.

"So I think we’re in a transition period where there are a lot of Barack and Michelle Obamas out there doing cool stuff, but politics hasn’t quite given them the platform yet. Media hasn’t shined a spotlight on them yet. If we can help focus on the great work they’re doing, then that’s one of our core missions," he said.

OBAMA REMAINS DEM HEADLINER WHILE PRESIDENT WITH MOST VOTES EVER FADES INTO BACKGROUND: 'IT WAS ALL A DREAM'

Obama said during the dedication of his presidential center in Chicago earlier this month that America’s Founders fell "terribly short" of the Declaration of Independence’s promise, while casting the nation’s story as one of generations coming together to make the union "more perfect."

"The success of this experiment was never a given," Obama said in his speech, referring to the nation's founding ahead of America celebrating its 250th anniversary on the 4th of July.

"In forming our union, the founders fell terribly short of the Declaration's promise, leaving slavery intact, allowing states to restrict the franchise to white men who owned property," he said. "But in drafting a Constitution and a Bill of Rights, they did have the foresight, the genius, to provide us with a framework that allows each generation to make our union more perfect."

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The 44th president devoted much of his speech to outlining the work he believes America still has ahead, echoing themes he has emphasized in past appearances on the campaign trail and during his time in the White House.

Fox News' Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.

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Former San Jose State volleyball player Brooke Slusser called Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of states protecting women’s sports the "biggest win" female athletes have had yet.

Slusser appeared on Fox News’ "The Faulkner Focus" after the high court ruled 6-3 in favor of West Virginia and Idaho in two landmark transgender athlete cases. The ruling upheld state laws requiring student-athletes to compete on sports teams that correspond with their biological sex at birth rather than their gender identity.

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For Slusser, who became one of the most prominent voices in the fight to protect women’s sports after speaking out about a transgender player on her volleyball team in 2024, the decision was deeply personal.

"I mean, it’s amazing," Slusser told Harris Faulkner. "It’s the biggest win we’ve had yet, so I couldn’t be happier. We couldn’t ask for more right now."

Slusser filed a lawsuit last year over her experience at SJSU, where she said she was not told that teammate Blaire Fleming was transgender despite sharing team spaces, including hotel rooms, locker rooms and living quarters.

"I found out from other student-athletes at the university, so it wasn’t even the institution itself that informed us, which makes it even worse," Slusser said. "My whole team had to find out on their own through other student-athletes."

Slusser said the issue was not limited to competition. She argued that female athletes were deprived of the ability to make informed decisions about their own privacy and comfort in intimate spaces.

"It’s taking away the student-athlete’s choice to choose which safe spaces they’re in," she said. "You’re going into locker rooms, or for my situation, my living space, and being told these are all women, thinking I’m comfortable doing whatever I need to be doing, changing and getting dressed where I want to. And then I found out the whole time that I’ve been sharing hotel rooms, locker rooms, my living space with a man."

Slusser continued, "They’re stripping me of my choice to basically choose where I want to get ready and who I am getting ready around. That’s the biggest issue. It’s not even just about safety in the sport as well, it’s about everything else that goes into it."

SUPREME COURT MAKES RULING ON TRANS ATHLETES IN WOMEN'S SPORTS

The SJSU volleyball controversy became one of the most high-profile examples in the debate over trans-identifying athletes in women’s sports. Multiple Mountain West teams forfeited matches against San Jose State during that season amid concerns about Fleming’s participation.

Slusser told Faulkner that even as Fleming’s teammate, she still had concerns about the physical differences in practice.

"I just had to practice with him. I wasn’t even playing against him in a real game," Slusser said. "So the bare minimum, at least I got to know his tendencies so I could keep myself a little bit safer. But even then, I’m still getting slammed in my body. I had bruises on my legs from getting hit with a ball."

She added that opponents were put in an even worse position because they didn’t have the same familiarity before stepping on the court.

"These other teams don’t know what they’re walking into," Slusser said. "That’s even worse than what I had to go through going into practice every single day, trying to keep myself safe."

The Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox gives states the authority to maintain separate women’s and girls’ sports categories based on biological sex. The decision is a major victory for advocates who have argued that Title IX was designed to protect female athletes, not force them to compete against biological males.

Slusser said San Jose State failed its female athletes by prioritizing Fleming over the rest of the roster.

"The fact that they allowed these student-athletes that were men pretending to be women be protected under those Title IX rules that were meant for women to be protected in is the biggest fault that happened," Slusser said. "My institution itself, SJSU, they decided to protect a man and not worry about the 18 other women that should have been protected as well."

Slusser also referenced former high school volleyball player Payton McNabb, who suffered serious injuries after being hit in the face by a spike from a transgender opponent in 2022.

"This could ruin people’s lives, not even just in athletics, but overall," Slusser said. "Payton McNabb will never be the same from what happened to her, and that’s what we’re trying to stop."

For Slusser and other women who have fought this battle publicly, Tuesday’s ruling marks a legal victory that’s been a long time coming.

And for the states that passed laws protecting women’s sports, the Supreme Court has now made clear they have the constitutional authority to enforce them.

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EXCLUSIVE: Federal immigration authorities arrested more than a dozen illegal immigrants with criminal histories over the weekend, many of whom had convictions for charges including homicide, rape, child sex crimes, and drug trafficking.

The 15 arrests came as the Trump administration continues to ramp up its deportation agenda through sweeping interior enforcement, while simultaneously removing protections for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and drastically expanding detention capacity.

"Over the weekend, while Americans attended the Great American State Fair and enjoyed their summer weekends, the men and women of ICE were hard at work arresting criminal illegal aliens convicted of homicide, child sexual abuse, assault, rape, and drug trafficking," said Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. "Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE will continue to protect Americans by arresting and removing criminal illegal aliens from our country."

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Those arrested over the weekend include:

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: CONVICTED MURDERERS, CHILD SEX ABUSERS AMONG ILLEGAL ALIENS NABBED BY ICE ACROSS US

Nine others arrested had criminal convictions for a range of offenses, including child sex crimes, assault with a deadly weapon and witness tampering.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently stated that the agency is on track to surpass deportation figures from 2025, a year that saw 442,000 formal deportations and removals, with DHS reporting over 605,000 total removals overall.

"In fact, within the next six weeks, we'll probably pass what we deported in all of 2025," Mullin said in a video posted Monday by the Trump administration's Rapid Response account on X.

In addition to targeting violent criminals for deportation, immigration authorities have also focused on those committing fraud and those who obtained U.S. citizenship fraudulently.

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