IN RECENT weeks the Obama administration has radiated optimism about the possibility of a deal with Iran on its nuclear program. The latest round of talks in Baghdad this week should lower those expectations. Tehran’s negotiators rejected a package offered by the United States and its five partners covering proposed confidence-building measures, and it demanded recognition of an Iranian "right" to enrich uranium, a concession U.S. officials say they are unprepared to make. The only substantive agreement was on holding another meeting next month in Moscow.

LOMA LA LATA, Argentina — In a desertlike stretch of scrub grass and red buttes, oil companies are punching holes in the ground in search of what might be one of the biggest recent discoveries in the Americas: enough gas and oil to make a country known for beef and the tango an important energy player.

In GOP activist circles it is known simply as "the pledge," and over the past generation it has become the essential conservative credential for Republicans seeking elective office. Of the 242 Republicans in the House today, all but six have signed the pledge.

Every summer, Washington heads to the beach, decamping by the tens of thousands to shore towns that stretch from Delaware to South Carolina. For many, the surf and sand are accompanied by beloved rituals: boardwalk bike rides or sunset barbecues or Fourth of July fireworks. This occasional series will explore those touchstones of summer, what they mean to us and why the beach beckons year after year.

Vice President Biden, speaking Friday to families and friends of military personnel killed in action, gave a powerful retelling of the death of his wife and daughter 40 years ago — saying he’d realized then how grief might push a person to suicide.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Something exceedingly strange is happening at the John Edwards trial: all four alternate jurors dressed in red shirts Friday. They each wore bright yellow the day before.

   Coincidence? Few here think so.

CAIRO — The initial round of Egypt’s first free presidential election in modern history has delivered a stark choice for next month’s runoff: a conservative Islamist vs. a former air force commander with deep ties to the man whose ouster precipitated this week’s vote.

Jon Goldwater was riding his New York commuter train, just two weeks into his new job as co-chief executive of Archie Comics, when a fellow passenger tossed off a remark that blindsided him. The fresh executive had an Archie folder on his lap, Goldwater recounts, "when a woman sitting near me turned and said: ‘They still make those?!’ "

In one of his characteristic conniptions about people who frustrated him, Theodore Roosevelt, progressivism’s first president, said of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, "I could carve out of a banana a judge with more backbone than that." TR was as mistaken about Holmes’s spine as are various progressives today about Chief Justice John Roberts’s.

Attorneys for former University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely V of Chevy Chase have asked for a new trial, arguing that the trial judge’s decision to move forward with testimony after one defense lawyer was too ill to attend court for two days violated Huguely’s sixth amendment right to counsel of his own choosing.

China has turned to the World Trade Organization to help block U.S. tariffs on 22 types of Chinese products, including solar panels, pipes for oil wells, coated paper and steel wheel hubs.

The Chinese appeal to the WTO takes aim at the U.S. Commerce Department, which has recently imposed stiff duties on Chinese products. The department has cited Chinese subsidies, especially those funneled through state-owned enterprises, that it says give Chinese firms an edge over American competitors.

Iran is expanding the capacity of its controversial underground nuclear facility, a U.N. report said Friday, as its leaders move to increase production of a more purified form of enriched uranium in defiance of Western demands for a freeze.

With a near-flawless docking on Friday, start-up rocket company SpaceX achieved what only big governments have to date: It launched a mission to the international space station.

The moment marked a pivot point in U.S. space ambitions, away from total NASA control and toward creative private enterprise. While NASA furnished seed money and technical advice, SpaceX engineers designed, built, launched and drove the white gumdrop-shaped Dragon capsule until the final moments.

During the past decade, Washington has become a magnet for ambitious 20-somethings. Not only does the city offer good jobs and better-than-average public transit, it also boasts food trucks and, of course, cupcake shops.

Political blogs went to pot on Friday.

The Internet is buzzing after the Washingtonian published a review of Washington Post associate editor David Maraniss’s forthcoming book "Barack Obama: The Story," including an excerpt about President Obama’s high school clique and their favorite pastime.

When Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan appeared before a Senate committee investigating the Colombia prostitution scandal, he cited an employee survey and said that nearly 60 percent of the agency’s workers indicated they would report unethical behavior.

We asked:

Are you doing the job you dreamed of having when you were fresh out of school? Are you working in an environment where you feel supported by managers who can help you reach your goals? If you’re not in your dream job, then what’s the plan to get it?

World leaders are meeting this week to mull over whether to pursue economic growth or austerity, and Republicans and Democrats in Washington are in the midst of the same debate. But when it comes to funding itself, Congress appears to favor a third option: the status quo.

Who in their right mind wouldn’t haunt the library stacks if Kate Baldwin were assigned to the checkout desk? Teamed with Burke Moses in Arena Stage’s endearingly melodic revival of "The Music Man," this quintessential Broadway songbird, with skin like peaches and voice like cream, ensures that we’re solidly in the corner of Marian the Librarian and the slick faker she guides to true love.

The first note read: "SAFETY ALERT — Suspicious man in area parks".

How could a parent not read what followed?

"A suspicious man has been found watching children in local parks, including Rose Park. ... For now please be on the lookout, call the police if needed, and be extra extra safe," said the message posted in a Georgetown parenting e-mail exchange.

Roger Goodell is winning. He hasn’t met a player or an issue he couldn’t beat with a superior gaze. You have to admit that he is a success as NFL commissioner, if the definition of success is exercising control over 1,700 athletes and 32 owners without ever removing your suit coat, or showing a bead of sweat on your condescending forehead.

Earlier this month, in Cincinnati, Bryce Harper joined several teammates strolling from the stadium to the team hotel. The group included Ryan Zimmerman, Xavier Nady and Adam LaRoche, all of them in a different stage of life from Harper.

The old order changes. Often, it’s hard to know who is arriving. But it’s usually clear who’s leaving. This time it’s the Red Sox, Yankees and Phillies.

Baseball always had its long cycles of dominant teams that mature, milk their success for years then gradually succumb to age, injury, horrid contracts, minor league systems eviscerated by win-now trades, internal conflicts and life in general.

Yahoo has launched a new browser for Apple’s mobile devices called Axis. The browser, which is also available on desktops through plug-ins for the four major browsers, is designed to let you move between your devices and look at the same searches.

Over at FT Alphaville, Cardiff Garcia passes along this striking stat from Credit Suisse:

Vehicle purchases by consumers alone accounted for 30% of all the GDP growth in the last two quarters.

Cars are, ahem, driving the recovery. But will it continue? Auto analysts are expecting another record month of car sales in May: TrueCar.com announced today that it was predicting the highest monthly level of vehicle sales since 2007, up 32 percent since this time last year.

Say at the end of 2012, Congress can’t strike a budget deal and we reach the dread "fiscal cliff." Taxes go up, spending gets slashed. Would the U.S. economy fall into recession? The Congressional Budget Office sure thinks so. But Ryan Avent wonders why the Federal Reserve couldn’t just step in.

It’s tough to play favorites when it comes to the members of One Direction. There’s Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson — also known as the cute one, the cute one, the cute one, the cute one and the cute one.

"Chernobyl Diaries" is old wine in a new bottle.

Not that you can’t catch a buzz off old wine. Set in an abandoned Ukrainian town next to the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the catastrophic 1986 explosion, the horror film is moderately spooky, visually stylish and tinged with mystery. What — or who — is haunting Pripyat, the former home to thousands of Chernobyl workers who fled after the disaster?

Memorial Day (originally called Decoration Day) began after the Civil War as a chance for the country to commemorate and visit the graves of citizens who died during military service.

Some contributors to The Washington Post's faith leader network shared their religion’s prayers of remembrance intended to honor those who have passed away.

Every time Anne Ourand drives home along Canal Road NW, she’s reminded of all the reasons she loves living in the District’s Palisades neighborhood.

The drive, along one of the prettiest stretches of the winding, tree-lined road, parallels the C&O Canal and offers a quick, lovely alternative to other commuter thoroughfares, highlighting the neighborhood’s proximity to green space and the Potomac River. And whether Ourand is coming from Maryland, Northern Virginia or downtown Washington, the trip is usually a quick and easy one.