Palestinian leader dies in prison. Rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel

Today's headlines: Manila and Washington revive anti-Chinese alliance; Disgraced Chinese billionaire Jack Ma named visiting professor at Tokyo University; India on U.S. blacklist on religious freedom over persecuted minorities; Damascus promises to stop drug trafficking to re-enter Arab world; South Korean art student eats a Cattellan installation in Seoul.

ISRAEL - PALESTINE
An Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank, 44-year-old Khader Adnan, died overnight in an Israeli prison after a nearly three-month hunger strike. Guards found him unconscious in his cell and ordered him transferred to a nearby hospital where they confirmed his death. After the announcement rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel, with no damage or casualties.

PHILIPPINES - UNITED STATES
U.S. President Joe Biden received Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Marcos at the White House, reviving the relationship between two historic allies that had cooled under predecessor Rodrigo Duterte. The two leaders strengthened military cooperation -- in anti-Chinese terms -- of land, air, water, space and cyberspace. Washington will give Manila three C-130s for patrolling the seas. 

JAPAN - CHINA
Jack Ma will be a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo. The Alibaba founder will share "pioneering experience and knowledge" in enterprise, business management and innovation. The 58-year-old has kept a low profile after coming under fire from communist authorities; he recently accepted an honorary professorship at Hong Kong University's business school. 

INDIA
For the fourth year, Premier Narendra Modi's India is blacklisted by the independent U.S. panel on religious freedom. In their report for 2022, Uscirf experts say conditions for religious minorities "continue to worsen" and the nation is among those of "particular concern." There are laws that infringe on the rights of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits and Adivasis. 

SYRIA
Damascus intends to put an end to drug trafficking across its borders with Jordan and Iraq, a thriving trade formerly exploited - according to critics' allegations - even by the Assad family. The note comes at the end of a meeting yesterday with Arab diplomats on ending the Syrian conflict, attended by the foreign ministers of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. 

SOUTH KOREA
A South Korean art student ate a banana that was actually part of an installation created by Maurizio Cattelan. The young man justified himself by claiming that he was "hungry" from skipping breakfast. The work was titled "Comedian," part of the "WE" exhibition, and consisted of a specimen of the ripe fruit glued to a wall at the Leeum Musuem of Art in Seoul.

RUSSIA
Deacon Andrei Kuraev, one of Russia's leading Orthodox theologians and former adviser to Kirill, was permanently reduced to the lay state. Behind the measure his explicit positions against the war and the patriarch himself, and for the activities of the Vozvraščenie ("The Return") foundation aimed at the restoration of Russian religious culture and against false "traditional moral values."

UZBEKISTAN
A referendum on changes to the Constitution was held in Uzbekistan and approved with more than 90 percent support. Voting participation stood at 84.54 percent, according to data provided by the deputy chairman of the Election Commission, Bakhrom Kučkarov, who also admitted to some violations at various polling stations, but that they "did not affect the course of voting."

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