CCTV FOLLIES 7.4 The leader of the pack!

Xi's mighty charisma reduces fellow strongmen to blurry pixels -Preaching to Putin in the choir, Xi gets tough on terrorism -Enemy drone over Moscow! -No to NATO! -Mideast roundup -US in steep decline

Xinwen Lianbo opened with the announcement of an important meeting and a shot of the Great Hall of the People, so it came as something of a surprise to see only three principals in attendance: Xi Jinping, up, front and center, of course, flanked by masked sidekicks Cai Qi, and foreign policy czar Wang Yi.