There must — mustn’t there? — have been someone in the room who asked questions when the US president, Donald Trump, and his advisors met to discuss the proposal to kill Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani.

By adopting narrow grounds for impeaching the president, Pelosi and House members wanted simple charges they could easily explain to constituents, writes Elizabeth Drew

A joke from the old USSR reported an exchange during a Politburo discussion about a ten-year plan that almost all those present thought was progressing satisfactorily. “Yes,” grunts a dissenter steeped in Marxist theology, “it’s very, very successful in practice, but the theory is all wrong.”

With televised hearings starting today, Democrats want to build a strong case that Trump abused his presidential powers. Republicans won’t be cowed easily, writes Susan Cornwell

I’ve followed and studied politics all my life.

The scandal over a phone call between US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky also involves a large cast of secondary players, writes Andy Sullivan.

After an explosive statement by a CIA whistleblower, US legislators are examining evidence that Donald Trump used his presidency to pursue a personal vendetta, writes Brad Heath

A secret whistleblower complaint at the centre of an impeachment inquiry alleges that President Donald Trump abused the power of his office to “solicit interference from a foreign country” in next year’s US election.

Tragedies don’t dim the desire of each generation of the Kennedys to leave a mark on politics, writes Bette Browne.

In salvaging the fractured parts of herself to become whole again, Chanel Miller is elevating the #MeToo movement to another level. She has taken full control of the narrative.

A senior US politician has warned that lawmakers could block a future US-UK trade deal if the Good Friday Agreement is undermined.

Republicans and independents in the US are losing faith in the economy at the steepest rates of Donald Trump’s presidency, signaling more trouble for his efforts to make economic growth a centrepiece of his re-election campaign.

Leon Gast’s 1996 When We Were Kings is one of the great sports films, indeed it may be one of the greatest of all films.

Trump has previously criticised Rapinoe on Twitter.

The mother of a man who drowned alongside his young daughter while trying to reach the US has said she is comforted by how they clung to each other in their final moments.

As the US Congress returns from a 10-day break, the question of whether the House of Representatives (controlled by the Democrats) should formally commence the process of impeaching US president Donald Trump for misdeeds committed during his tenure — and perhaps before — has split the party.

Donald Trump’s own landing on the Normandy beaches to commemorate D-Day will be launched from the links in Doonbeg, Co Clare.

If Nancy Pelosi had listened to her mother she might be a nun today — or more likely a Reverend Mother — but instead she set her sights firmly on politics and is now the most powerful woman in American political history.

New Zealand's parliament has passed sweeping gun laws that outlaw military-style weapons less than a month after mass shootings at two mosques in the city of Christchurch left 50 people dead and dozens wounded.

The US Food and Drug Administration says it is investigating a small number of reports over several years of e-cigarette users experiencing seizures.

Now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has submitted the report on his investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 US election, Attorney General William Barr must decide how much of the document - if any - to make public.

What could be the final act in the long tragic-comedy that is Brexit is being played out in three cities this week — Belfast, Brussels, and Washington.

Despite Donald Trump’s by now familiar bluster in the face of opposition to his plans, House speaker Nancy Pelosi stood firm — and won, writes Elizabeth Drew

With the longest shutdown in US history officially over, here's a look at how the federal government will get back to regular business:

US President Donald Trump has sent a letter to Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi stating that he will go ahead with his State of the Union address to Congress.

There is something strange about 2018. I think that Yeats had the solution to its understanding. What

Implicated by his own justice department in a felony, Donald Trump has seen the stock market plunge as the tide begins to turn against him, writes Elizabeth Drew

The results of the US midterm elections are now largely in and they came as a shock to many seasoned forecasters.

America’s friends and allies couldn’t do it. Nor could America’s potential enemies. Neither could his wife, children or White House staff. It took the American people to reign in Donald Trump.

Women, both running and voting in record numbers, will decide the American election. And the face of that pink wave is 29-year-old New Yorker Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez.

Martin Luther King’s son has a dream: that American democracy will be “reclaimed” by the midterm elections.

A win for Irish Texan Beto O’Rourke in the US midterm elections could reorder politics in America and precipitate Trump’s downfall.

The electorate has the chance to break the Republicans’ lock on government in possibly the most consequential midterm elections in US history, writes Elizabeth Drew AHEAD of this week’s US midterm elections, domestic

There will be two events of major significance this week.

"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't."

To greatly increase the number of women in politics, changes that run deeper than the current electoral ‘pink wave’ will be needed, write Anne-Marie Slaughter and Francesca Binda.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has promised to raise human rights and migration issues with US president Donald Trump when he visits Ireland in November.

With Paul Ryan retiring as House speaker, the race is on to assuage Trump and secure his support. One key powerbroker is targeting the Mueller probe, writes Bette Browne.

The US president’s hard line on deportation and immigration is too late to prevent a major demographic shift to non-whites, who tend to vote for the Democrats, says Bette Browne.

One hundred cardboard cutouts of Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg were erected this week on the lawn outside the Capitol building in Washington.

President Donald Trump is to press ahead with the imposition of 25% tariffs on steel imports and 10% on aluminum, although he said he was willing to strike a deal that could exempt Canada and Mexico.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has risked provoking the anger of US president Donald Trump after insisting he does not have the capabilities shown by previous US leaders to help resolve the Northern Ireland political stand-off.

US stocks have taken another small step backwards after a plunge in the price of oil dragged down shares of energy producers.

A modest move for the Standard & Poor's 500 on Monday masked some dramatic changes roiling underneath the surface.