George Washington, America's first president, devoted part of his 1796 farewell address to warning against "[t]he alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension." He feared perpetual war for power between political parties both as "a frightful despotism" in and of itself, and as prelude to some future tyrant seeking "his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty."Was Washington right? Sort of.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says he has an economic plan for America to "Build Back Better." US president Donald Trump complains that Biden "plagiarized" significant elements of that plan from, you guessed it, Donald Trump.

In July 1864, Confederate forces led by General Jubal Early attacked Fort Stevens and Fort DeRussy on the outskirts of Washington DC. Union forces drove them away after two days of skirmishes, but the battle threw a scare into the capital city and constituted a high point in the Confederacy's Shenandoah Valley campaigns.

More than a century and a half later, the Confederates are back in Washington, meeting stiff resistance on Capitol Hill but garnering support from the White House.

On June 22 and 23, Russian and American diplomats met in Vienna to discuss New START, the nuclear arms-reduction treaty, which expires next year. The treaty provides for an optional five-year extension. Alternatively, the parties could negotiate a new agreement, as has happened several times in the past.