Xi at virtual BRICS; US cognitive warfare; Yi Himan; LeBron James in People's Daily; Asteroid defense

Summary of today’s top items:

1. Xi’s speech to the Virtual BRICS Summit - Brazil’s President Luiz convened a virtual BRICS summit Monday. Xi gave a speech, echoing many of the themes from his comments last week at the SCO. Xi told the summit:

As we speak, transformation unseen in a century is accelerating across the world. Hegemonism, unilateralism, and protectionism are getting more and more rampant. Trade wars and tariff wars waged by some country severely disrupt the world economy and undermine international trade rules. At this critical juncture, BRICS countries, standing at the forefront of the Global South, should act on the BRICS Spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, jointly defend multilateralism and the multilateral trading system, advance greater BRICS cooperation, and build a community with a shared future for humanity.

He offered three proposals and included a plug for the new GGI:

First, we should uphold multilateralism to defend international fairness a…