US President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK was offered with exceptional speed, from a position of weakness, writes Martin Farr.

Many US presidents didn’t see eye-to-eye with their top spies, but none has came close to the damage being wrought by the current incumbent, writes former public affairs director of the CIA, Kent Harrington.

As I write the US is organising the groundwork for a coup in Venezuela. Things are progressing along a tried and tested plan which was used in Chile in 1973 and recently in Ukraine.

He has made bold decisions, but that’s not the same as being a good leader, as his motives have been to consolidate his own power in the US, says Scott Cowen.

The Oval Office has rarely if ever been occupied by men without blemishes of one kind or another on their character.

The world-famous Harlem Gospel Choir, which has perfomed alongside Bono and sang for popes and the UN General Assembly, is to perform at Cork Opera House.

Diplomacy, the only alternative to war, is about meeting your enemy, and that is not a sign of weakness. Donald Trump is right to meet Kim Jong Un, says Peter Van Buren

His nomination as the next head of the US Federal Reserve means Jerome Powell is set to become one the world’s most powerful and influential individuals, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

Nonproliferation expert Bruce G Blair tells Tobin Harshaw of the danger of a ‘nuclear monarch’

Political Correspondent Juno McEnroe spoke to esteemed US political strategist Bob Schrum about how Trump managed to win the election with a simpler message 

Former US president Jimmy Carter is out of hospital after being treated for dehydration, a spokeswoman has said.

Former US President Jimmy Carter has been taken to a hospital "as a precaution" after becoming dehydrated at a Habitat for Humanity construction project in Canada, a spokeswoman says.

On the 40th anniversary, Ryle Dwyer looks at the momentous events of the 1977 general election.

Legions of fans are expected to line the streets of Macon, Georgia, as music legend Gregg Allman is carried to his final resting place in the same cemetery where he and his band members used to hang out and write songs amid the tombstones.

Only the ‘great and the good’, like Mary Robinson and Jimmy Carter, are considered useful in their later years. Everyone else is made obsolete at an age when they may have another 20 years or more to live, writes Caroline O’Doherty

Any US president’s influence is based on his reputation among Congress, bureaucrats, and other elites, and the White House incumbent has rapidly damaged his, says Jonathan Bernstein.

wage inflation begins to take off, Janet Yellen will have to act by removing the punch bowl from the party. If this happens, sparks could fly in Washington DC, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

There is a long history of the CIA briefing presidents-elect on foreign policy. Donald Trump has rebuffed the agency’s advice. Tim Weiner asks why

Rita de Brún believes the next stage of the space race will be for — lunar real estate.

US presidents vary between authoritarian figures and nappy changers, writes Olivia Kelleher

Hillary Clinton stepped into history by becoming the Democratic party’s nominee in the White House race but does she have what it takes to make history in November?

Clinton has secured the Democratic nomination, but the campaign to be president promises to be a knock-down drag-out affair with Donald Trump, says Bette Browne

Donald Trump isn’t the first wealthy person to run for the Oval Office. But, if elected, unique conflicts of interest could arise due to his way of doing business, writes Timothy L O’Brien

New operators are being sought for the bar at Shannon Airport named after the inventor of Irish coffee and where US president Barack Obama had his first pint of Guinness.

A COUPLE of years ago I wrote about a fuzzy-haired Czech professor with a head full of brains who had discovered a virus that could get into a human mind and make its owner reckless, writes Damien Enright

It’s show time again. The party machines have revved up. The soundbites have been polished off. The candidates are out on the road pressing the flesh, occasionally taking time out to gaze up admiringly at their images on their posters.

Jimmy Carter’s grandson says no cancer was detected the last time the former US president underwent a scan.

Jimmy Carter has been one of the most influential former US Presidents through his work promoting international peace and democracy.

Former president Jimmy Carter has taught two Sunday School classes in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, three days after receiving radiation treatment for cancer.

Barack Obama has wished Jimmy Carter a full and speedy recovery after the former US president announced that he was battling cancer.

With a grandfather who became the world's first billionaire, David Rockefeller has seen it all and has more ahead of him, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

Before Hillary Clinton, 34 women have tried to become US president, including a daughter of Irish parents who ran 40 years ago, and a radical feminist in the 1870s, writes Bette Browne          

SO, Taoiseach. You have the worst opinion-poll ratings in your history. Thousands of people will march tomorrow against the water tax. And there’s a row among your most senior ministers about the repayment of the Anglo debt.

An American man recently sentenced by North Korea to six years of hard labour says he is digging in fields eight hours a day and being kept in isolation, but that so far his health is not deteriorating.

Reports that women held at direct provision centres are being forced into prostitution to support themselves have been described as "shocking" by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald.

The welcome intervention from former US president Jimmy Carter, in which he encouraged legislators to take the advice offered last year by a Dáil committee on laws around prostitution, highlights again our tardiness in introducing legislation designed to protect the exploited and vulnerable. Even if we know it is good advice and it is supported by all political parties. $90.

Campaigners have welcomed the intervention of former US president Jimmy Carter who has written to all TDs and senators urging them to act on proposed laws to criminalise people who pay for sex.