By ZEKE MILLER and JON GAMBRELL

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Iran has an American proposal over its rapidly advancing nuclear program as negotiations between the two countries go on.

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Trump’s remarks represent the first time he’s acknowledged an American proposal is with Tehran after multiple rounds of negotiations between U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Negotiations have gotten into the “expert” level — meaning the two sides are trying to see if they can reach any agreement on the details of any possible deal. But one major sticking point remains Iran’s enrichment of uranium, which Tehran insists it must be allowed to do and the Trump administration increasingly insists the Islamic Republic must give up.

Trump discusses proposal on Air Force One

Trump made the comment aboard Air Force One as he ended his trip to the United Arab Emirates, the last stop on his three-nation tour of the Middle East that also included Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

At nearly every event he attended in the region, he insisted that Iran could not be allowed to obtain a nuclear bomb — something American intelligence agencies assess Tehran is not actively pursuing though its program is on the cusp of being able to weaponize.

A reporter asked Trump: “On Iran, has the U.S. given them a formal proposal? Has Steve Witkoff handed that over?”

“They have a proposal,” Trump responded. “But most importantly, they know they have to move quickly, or something bad is going to happen.”

Trump did not elaborate on the substance of the proposal and Iran did not immediately acknowledge having it.

On Thursday, Araghchi spoke to journalists at the Tehran International Book Fair and said that Iran did not have any proposal from the Americans yet.

Araghchi also criticized what he called conflicting and inconsistent statements from the Trump administration, describing them as either a sign of disarray in Washington or a calculated negotiation strategy. Witkoff at one point suggested that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later began saying that all Iranian enrichment must stop.

Friday night, Araghchi wrote on the social platform X: “Iran has not received any written proposal from the United States, whether directly or indirectly.”

“In the meantime, the messaging we—and the world—continue to receive is confusing and contradictory,” he added. “Mark my words: there is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to enrichment for peaceful purposes.”

Talks have been held in Oman and Rome

Iranian and American officials have been in Oman and Rome for the negotiations, always mediated by Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, a trusted interlocutor between the two nations. The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic, closing in on half a century of enmity.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels. Meanwhile, Israel has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on their own if it feels threatened, further complicating tensions in the Mideast already spiked by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer sentiment fell slightly in May for the fifth straight month, surprising economists, as Americans increasingly worry that President Donald Trump’s trade war will worsen inflation.

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The preliminary reading of the University of Michigan’s closely watched consumer sentiment index, released Friday, declined 2.7% on a monthly basis to 50.8, the second-lowest level in the nearly 75-year history of the survey. The only lower reading was in June 2022. Since January, sentiment has tumbled nearly 30%.

Americans have largely taken a sour view about where the economy is headed in the wake of the Trump administration’s imposition of huge import duties, which threaten to slow growth and push up prices. In recent weeks the White House has pulled back on its most draconian policies, though average duties are still high by historical standards.

Consumers’ outlooks are also sharply divided by their political views, which has caused some economists to question the survey’s results. The University of Michigan also last year switched from using both online and phone responses to just online, which some analysts worry may have introduced a more negative bias.

The sentiment index for Democrats fell to 33.9 this month, the lowest since partisan data began in 1980 and far below the levels reached in the depths of the COVID pandemic or during the 2008-2009 Great Recession.

For Republicans, it’s 84.2, though that slipped from 90.2 in April and is the lowest since Trump’s election.

Inflation eased slightly in April. (AP Digital Embed)

Trump had slapped 145% tariffs on all imports from China, a move that effectively suspended trade with the United States’ third-largest trading partner in goods. But on Monday, the two countries said they had reached a deal that would lower U.S. tariffs to 30%, while China would cut its duties on U.S. exports to 10% from 125%.

The survey was taken between April 22 and May 13, which includes just two days after the China tariffs were reduced.

Yet on Thursday Walmart said it had started to lift prices in response to the tariffs and will do so even more in June and July just as families gear up the back-to-school season. The company counts 90% of the U.S. population as customers and price hikes at the nation’s largest retailer may start to sink in with Americans who have already been buffeted by post-pandemic inflation.

The survey found consumers are increasingly worried about rising inflation. Over the next 12 months, consumers expect inflation to jump to 7.3%, the highest since 1981 and up from an expectation of 6.5% last month. Over the next five years, they foresee inflation reaching 4.6%, the highest since 1991, up from 4.4% last month.

Those expectations typically run higher than actual inflation, which last month ticked down to 2.3%, the lowest level in more than four years. Still, economists and the Federal Reserve closely watch inflation expectations, because they can become self-fulfilling. If people are worried inflation will accelerate, they may take steps, such as demanding higher pay, that can push up prices.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has said the Michigan inflation expectation numbers are an “outlier.” Market-based measures of future inflation, which some Fed officials put greater weight on, have remained mostly stable. Still, the steady rise in the Michigan survey’s inflation expectations could make it less likely the Fed will cut its key interest rate anytime soon.

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Fortnite says it’s now unavailable on Apple’s iOS globally because the tech giant blocked a bid to release the popular video game for iPhone users in the U.S. and Europe.

“Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the U.S. App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union,” Epic Games-owned Fortnite wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, early Friday — claiming that Apple’s move would now prevent the game’s iOS availability around the world.

“Sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it,” Fortnite said.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, Apple said it had specifically asked Epic Sweden to resubmit the app update “without including the U.S. storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies.” But, the company added, it “did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces.”

Fortnite’s exile from the iPhone app store is the latest twist in a yearslong feud between Apple and Epic. Back in 2020, the video game maker filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in the U.S., alleging the technology trendsetter was illegally using its power to gouge game makers.

After a monthlong trial in 2021, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled against most of Epic’s claims, but ordered Apple to loosen its previously-exclusive control over the payments made for in-app commerce and allow links to alternative options in the U.S. for the first time — threatening to undercut sizeable commissions that Apple had been collecting from in-app transactions for over a decade.

After exhausting an appeal that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Apple last year introduced a new system that opened the door for links to alternative payment options while still imposing a 27% commission on in-app transactions executed outside its own system.

Epic fired back by alleging Apple was thumbing its nose at the legal system, reviving another round of court hearings that lasted nearly a year before Gonzalez Rogers delivered a stinging rebuke last month — which held Apple in civil contempt and banned the company from collecting any commission on alternative payment systems.

That ruling cleared the way for Epic to finally return to the iPhone app store in the U.S., a reinstatement the video game maker was anticipating before Apple’s latest move.

Fortnite’s availability in the EU, meanwhile, was set to go in an alternative store for iPhone users — now called the Epic Games Store. Apple last year cleared the way for this last year under new regulatory pressures.

Liedtke reported from San Francisco.

By DEVNA BOSE, Associated Press Health Writer

President Donald Trump’s administration must put the brakes on slashing billions in federal money for public health departments, a federal judge said Friday.

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U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction request in the lawsuit brought last by a coalition of Democrat-led states. She had granted a temporary restraining order last month in the case.

The lawsuit filed April 1 by 23 states and the District of Columbia sought to immediately halt $11 billion in cuts, alleging that it would decimate public health infrastructure across the country. The money, allocated by Congress during the pandemic, supported COVID-19 initiatives and mental health and substance abuse efforts.

The injunction only applies to the states involved in the lawsuit. The federal government must file documentation that they’re complying with the order by Tuesday evening.

Health departments across the country have said they’ve laid off employees after the Trump administration began to clawback the money in late March.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.