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Just over an hour into Xi Jinping’s opening speech at the 19th Communist Party congress, and 12 young women in purple jackets and black trousers appear carrying flasks. They take up position at the end of each row of delegates on the dais in the Great Hall of the People, before moving along the cadres, in step, topping up the teacups. Everything at the twice-a-decade gathering is stage-managed - this is synchronised politics. How the 2,300-plus delegates applaud in unison, the rustle as officials turn their pages as one. The 10 red drapes flanking a golden hammer and sickle against a yellow curtain. The only asymmetric element onstage is Xi himself. He stands at a large podium to the left of

The mother of a US soldier killed in an ambush in Niger said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump disrespected her family during a call with the man’s widow by saying the soldier “knew what he signed up for”. Mr Trump had denied he said those words to Sgt La David Johnson’s wife during a phone call and escalated his dispute with Democratic congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who first described the exchange on Tuesday. Speaking before a meeting with members of the Senate finance committee, Mr Trump said, “I had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife, who sounded like a wonderful woman.” He also asserted, “I didn’t say what that congresswoman said. “Yes, he did state that comment,” Ms Jones-Johnson said of Mr Trump, corresponding via Facebook.

A pair of French scientists have identified a tiny discrepancy in the eyes of people with dyslexia, potentially making it treatable. As a learning difficulty, dyslexia affects approximately 700m people globally, hindering their ability to read, write and spell. According to AFP (via Medical Xpress), a pair of French scientists believe they might have found a physiological reason for dyslexia, located within minute light-receptor cells in the human eye. In a paper published to the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the University of Rennes researchers identified that in people with dyslexia, these cells are arranged in matching patterns, resulting in the creation of a mirror image.

From the man that brought you "God above is in charge of the weather." Danny Healy-Rae, the Independent TD from Kerry was elected to the Dáil for the first time in the last General Election in 2016 and immediately began hitting the headlines. He is one-half of the Healy-Rae brothers who currently represent their Munster constituency in the Dáil and it's not the first time that he has issued an outrageous statement since getting elected. Over a year ago, he stated during a Dáil debate on climate change that, "God above is in charge of the weather and we here can’t do anything about it." Healy-Rae is also notorious for his views on drink-driving previously stating that he'd board a flight if the

Tipperary defender Michael Cahill has described as “nonsense” some of the rumours which circulated around the county senior hurling team last summer, chiefly in the aftermath of fellow defender Cathal Barrett being dropped for disciplinary reasons after their Munster hurling quarter-final defeat to Cork.  “That stuff doesn’t help when you are trying to prepare for your season and you have this kind of nonsense going on in the background, and people driving on these rumours,” says Cahill.  “From that point of view it was a tough year, from a county point of view, and from a panel point of view. That is never going to stand to any team. As much as you put it to the back of your head, some of it

Simon Zebo pictured at yesterday's Munster Rugby press conference. Simon Zebo pictured at yesterday's Munster Rugby press conference. SIMON ZEBO’S FUTURE at Munster is up in the air after he refused to rule out a potential move away from the province. The 27-year-old winger has played 123 times for Munster and scored 55 tries between the league and Europe. He has featured on a British & Irish Lions tour to Australia and notched up 35 caps for Ireland but his provincial contract runs out next summer. I’m still deciding what I’m going to do in terms of my family and my future and it will probably take a little bit of time. But I’ll come to a decision soon,” said Zebo. “Definitely (before the November

If there really was a sense that Ireland needed a little luck to nudge them towards next summer’s World Cup finals in Russia then they seemed to get it on Tuesday in Zurich where Martin O’Neill’s side were drawn to face Denmark, lowest ranked of the seeded sides, with the first of the two legs to be played in Copenhagen on the 11th of next month. A game of different sorts is generally played in these situations by managers aiming to avoid tempting fate and both men duly responded with carefully stated caution to the news that they would face the other, although O’Neil did confirm that his preference had been to avoid Italy while his former Manchester City and Norwich team-mate, Age Hareide, confided to local reporters that for him it had been a case of anyone bar the Swedes. O’Neill sounded enthusiastic about the prospect of coming face to face with his old friend and Hareide reflected warmly on a friendship that had been struck up after the pair arrived at Maine Road on the very same day.