India’s focus on cross-border terrorism blinds it to transnational Islamist threats from within its own borders. It woke up to Zakir Naik's incendiary sermons only after Bangladesh linked him to Dhaka café bombing. Saudi Arabia now bans India-originating Tablighi Jamaat movement. Here's the irony: Saudi Arabia has long bankrolled dangerous jihadists, including India's TNTJ, whose ideological offspring NTJ was linked to Sri Lanka’s deadly Easter Sunday bombings. King Salman in 2015 awarded a prestigious prize to Zakir Naik, who called 9/11 an “inside job.”

Post-truth politics: India is pulling out of Kailash Range, located on its side of LAC. Pangong north-side Buffer Zone will entirely be on the territory India patrolled. Yet, Parliament is told “we have not conceded anything” and status quo ante is being "substantially restored"! To be sure, PLA was also patrolling the north-side area between Fingers 4 and 8. But the Buffer Zone will extend up to the Indian post located between Fingers 2 and 3. In other words, India has agreed to the inclusion in the Buffer Zone of Indian territory China never disputed.

Any deal involves some give and take. Yet the compromises that went into forging a deal with China narrowly limited to one sector (Pangong) were largely made by India. It finally acceded to the terms China offered before winter — a Pangong-only deal centered on creating a buffer. Having stood up to China and having demonstrated its force capability to stay in full war readiness through the grueling Himalayan winter, why did India agree to a limited deal that involves ceding its main leverage (Kailash Range control) without a resolution of broader issues?

The basis of the current India-China military disengagement is that the rival forces will pull back the same distance from the standoff sites. At first blush, this may seem reasonable. However, applying this principle in the areas that China has recently occupied means… ...India's withdrawal further back into its own territory while PLA retreats in equal measure from the encroached areas. Such disengagement sanctifies the changed facts on the ground, showing China’s alteration of the status quo carries no military costs. hindustantimes.com/columns/china-…

Even by Modi’s penchant for springing surprises, his China statement is a stunner. By claiming China hasn't encroached on Indian territory, he might be offering China a face-saver to live up to its understanding with India to withdraw its forces from the areas they infiltrated... Or Modi is effectively surrendering Indian claims to the vantage locations that the PLA has occupied since late April. Take Galwan Valley: In a war, PLA — from this strategic valley — could cut through northern Ladakh and physically link up with Pakistan to put India under siege.

Virus experts studying the novel coronavirus agree that its characteristics indicate it isn't a human-engineered bioweapon. But could it have accidentally escaped from one of the two Wuhan labs studying bat coronaviruses? Some say that is indeed possible. thebulletin.org/2020/03/expert… These two labs are the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Wuhan Institute of Virology, which state-run China Daily, in a 2018 tweet, called "Asia's largest virus bank," with 15,000 different viruses. (China Daily deleted that tweet after I cited it on March 23.)

Trump's critics who say his characterization of COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus" is racist have no problem in identifying other major diseases by their geographic origin. Karl Rove gives the example of the Obama White House's references to "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome" (MERS) Search any U.S. newspaper and you will see references to “Japanese encephalitis,” “African swine fever,” “Ebola virus” (Ebola is a Congo river), “Norwegian scabies,” “Lyme disease” (Lyme is in Connecticut), “Zika virus” (named after Ugandan forested area), “West Nile Virus,” etc.

The ISIS terror caliphate has crumbled and the surviving leadership is on the run. But like Al Qaeda at one time, ISIS seeks to show it is still relevant by claiming responsibility for terror strikes in places—e.g., Sri Lanka—that are far from the areas where it has had presence. Some South Asian jihadist groups have transnational links but within South Asia. ISIS claimed responsibility for Dhaka café attack but Bangladesh pinned blame on Pakistan's ISI. Colombo Shangri-La Hotel suicide bomber Zahran Hashim was linked to Pakistan's LeT (a front for ISI).