News In Brief

Palestinian leader calls for end to agreements with Israel
AP, Ramallah
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is calling Israel’s demolition of several dozen Palestinian homes on the outskirts of east Jerusalem “ethnic cleansing” and says he will take steps to terminate all agreements with Israel. Abbas issued a statement following a meeting of PLO leaders in Ramallah on Thursday. The president said he would form a committee to advance ending all signed agreements with Israel, but it wasn’t clear such a move had a timeline.

Macron invites British PM Johnson to visit
AFP, Paris
President Emmanuel Macron has invited new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to see him in France “in the next few weeks,” an official at the Elysee palace said.
Macron extended the invitation in a call late Thursday to Johnson from his official summer vacation residence in the south of France. In the call, Macron congratulated Johnson on becoming prime minister and emphasised

4 shot dead in Los Angeles shooting spree
Reuters, Los Angeles
Four people were shot dead and two wounded on Thursday in a shooting spree that spread across four three Los Angeles neighborhoods and touched off a 12-hour manhunt before police tackled and arrested an armed suspect.
A Los Angeles police spokesman identified the suspect as Gerry Zaragoza, 26, and said he was held on pending murder charges in the shooting deaths of his father and brother, and the wounding of his mother with a gun shot. The spokesman did not identify the victims.

Pompeo says would ‘happily’ go to Tehran
AFP, Washington
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday he would “happily” go to Tehran to address tensions between the two countries over US sanctions on the Gulf nation.
Pompeo explained in an interview with Bloomberg he would willingly appear on Iranian television to explain US reasoning behind the sanctions.