(AP) --- Just how similar is Instagram’s chatty new app, Threads, to Twitter?

In a cease-and-desist letter earlier this week, Twitter threatened legal action against Instagram parent company Meta over the new text-based app Threads, which it called a “copycat.”

Threads has drawn tens of millions of users since launching as the latest rival to Elon Musk’s social media platform.

AMSTERDAM, July 7 (Reuters) - The Dutch government collapsed on Friday after failing to reach a deal on restricting immigration, which will trigger new elections in the fall.

The crisis was triggered by a push by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's conservative VVD party to limit the flow of asylum seekers to the Netherlands, which two of his four-party government coalition refused to support.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The harassment started to intensify as TV meteorologist Chris Gloninger did more reporting on climate change during local newscasts — outraged emails and even a threat to show up at his house.

Gloninger said he had been recruited, in part, to “shake things up” at the Iowa station where he worked, but backlash was building. The man who sent him a series of threatening emails was charged with third-degree harassment. The Des Moines station asked him to dial back his coverage, facing what he called an understandable pressure to maintain ratings.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — A pair of colorful children’s scooters rest against the yellow tracks of a battle tank, parked in the shade of skyscrapers in the Vilnius business district. The area, usually busy with cars, cyclists and pedestrians, is closed to traffic and packed with heavy armored vehicles.

MEXICO CITY, July 7 (Reuters) - Two workers died and another remained missing after a raging fire broke out early on Friday morning at an offshore platform run by Mexican state oil company Pemex just off the southern edge of the Gulf of Mexico.

In posts on Twitter, Pemex said it had accounted for all other workers and said oil production had taken a major hit from the blaze.

Video circulating on social media showed the massive platform and its tangle of pipelines engulfed in flames as nearby boats sought to douse the fire with hoses.

July 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping following his meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin to "be careful" because Beijing relies on Western investment, according to excerpts from an interview with CNN.

"I said: This is not a threat. This is an observation," Biden said.

"Since Russia went into Ukraine, 600 American corporations have pulled out of Russia. And you have told me that your economy depends on investment from Europe and the United States. And be careful. Be careful."

BEIJING (AP) — China’s People’s Liberation Army sent 13 aircraft and 6 vessels into airspace and waters around Taiwan over the past 24 hours as of early Saturday, overlapping with United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to Beijing aimed at mending strained relations.

HOUSTON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The gunman who killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in the U.S. state of Texas in 2019 was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms by a federal judge on Friday.

Prosecutors had recommended Patrick Crusius, a 24-year-old white supremacist targeting Latinos, receive consecutive life sentences for each of the 90 federal charges, including hate crimes and firearms offenses, to which he pleaded guilty.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s federal crime agency said Friday it has arrested three railway officials in connection with one of the country’s deadliest train accidents, which killed more than 290 people last month.

The arrested men have been charged with culpable homicide without murder and destruction of evidence, the Central Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. It identified them as two signal engineers and one technician, and said the investigation is ongoing.

PARIS, July 8 (Reuters) - Paris police banned a protest on Saturday against violence by the force, a week after France was rocked by riots sparked by the killing of a teenager in a suburb of the French capital.

The Paris police department said in a decision published on its website that it had banned the planned demonstration on the Place de la Republique over risks to public order, citing a "context of tensions".

French authorities and politicians including President Emmanuel Macron have denied institutional racism within the country's law enforcement agencies.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese political and business leaders on Saturday marked one year since the assassination of Japan’s former leader, Shinzo Abe, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledging to tackle pressing political goals as a way of honoring Abe’s wishes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — At 31 years old, Nasrat Ahmad Yar had spent most of his adult life working with the U.S. military in Afghanistan before escaping to America in search of a better life for his wife and four children.

He found work as a ride-share driver and even managed to send money back to Afghanistan to help family and friends. He liked to play volleyball with friends in the Washington suburb where many Afghans who fled their country now live. At 6 feet 5 inches, he had a powerful serve.