By JON GAMBRELL and AMIR VAHDAT, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran ‘s foreign minister said Tuesday he’ll meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman for the first negotiations under the Trump administration seeking to halt Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program as tensions remain high in the Middle East.

Speaking to Iranian state television from Algeria, Abbas Araghchi maintained the talks would be indirect, likely with Omani mediators shuttling between the parties. U.S. President Donald Trump, in announcing the negotiations on Monday, described them as direct talks.

Years of indirect talks under the Biden administration failed to reach any success, as Tehran now enriches uranium up to 60% purity — a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Both the U.S. and Israel have threatened Iran with military attack over the program, while officials in Tehran increasingly warn they could potentially pursue a nuclear bomb.

“Our main goal in the talks is naturally restoring rights of people as well as lifting sanctions, and if the other side has a real will, this is achievable, and it has no relation to the method, either direct or indirect,” Araghchi said. “For the time being, indirect is our preference. And we have no plan to alter it to direct.”

Araghchi’s comments left space for Iran to potentially hold direct talks eventually with the Americans. Such talks aren’t known to have been held since the Obama administration.

There was no immediate acknowledgment from the U.S. that Witkoff would lead the American delegation.

News of talks boosts Iran’s ailing economy

After Trump’s comments on the talks went public, Iran’s ailing economy showed new signs of life. Its rial currency, which hit a record low of over 1 million rials to the dollar, rebounded Tuesday to 990,000 rials. The Tehran Stock Exchange separately rose some 2% on the news.

Iran’s economy has been severely affected by international sanctions, particularly after Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. At the time of the 2015 deal, which saw Iran drastically limit its enrichment and stockpiling of uranium in exchange for lifting of international sanctions, the rial traded at 32,000 to the dollar.

Economic upheavals have evaporated the public’s savings, pushing average Iranians into holding onto hard currencies, gold, cars and other tangible wealth. Others pursue cryptocurrencies or fall into get-rich-quick schemes.

Trump’s letter sparked talks

The negotiations Saturday come after Trump wrote to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, trying to jump-start direct talks between Tehran and Washington. Khamenei came down hard on Trump in February and warned talks “are not intelligent, wise or honorable” with his administration.

Meanwhile, Trump is continuing an intense airstrike campaign targeting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the last force in Tehran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” able to attack Israel after other militant groups were severely weakened by Israel during its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

FILE – President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the White House on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

There had been intense anger toward Trump from Iran’s theocracy, particularly over his decision to launch a drone strike that killed prominent Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020. U.S. officials have said Trump faced assassination threats from Iran in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.

But Iran may be taking a different path now. The hard-line Iranian newspaper Kayhan on Saturday published a piece warning: “Trump will be dead from several bullets into his empty head in revenge for Martyr Soleimani’s blood.” A day later, the Press Supervisory Board in Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance issued a warning to the daily over the article, which the newspaper later described as satire.

Asked about Trump’s mention of planned direct talks between the U.S. and Iran, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow welcomes them, adding that “we support settling the issue of the Iranian nuclear dossier by political and diplomatic means.”

Peskov added in a conference call with reporters: “We are aware that certain contacts, both direct and indirect, are planned in Oman and we can only welcome them as they could lead to the de-escalation of tensions around Iran.” His remarks come as Trump is trying to negotiate a separate peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, talks that also have happened in the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia.

An expert-level meeting among representatives from Russia, China and Iran was to take place in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, according to Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in comments carried by Russian news agencies.

Vahdat reported from Tehran, Iran.

By VALERIE GONZALEZ, Associated Press

MCALLEN, Texas (AP) — Migrants who were temporarily allowed to live in the United States by using a Biden-era online appointment app have been told to leave the country “immediately,” officials said Monday. It was unclear how many beneficiaries would be affected.

More than 900,000 people were allowed in the country using the CBP One app since January 2023. They were generally allowed to remain in the United States for two years with authorization to work under a presidential authority called parole.

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“Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security,” the Department of Homeland Security media affairs unit said in response to questions.

Authorities confirmed termination notices were sent to CBP One beneficiaries but did not say how many. They were urged to voluntary self-deport using the same app they entered on, which has been renamed CBP Home.

“It’s time for you to abandon the United States,” the Department of Homeland Security wrote to a Honduran family that entered the U.S. at the end of last year. The Associated Press reviewed the email received Sunday.

Others shared the same email on social media platforms.

Al Otro Lado, a nonprofit organization that provides legal aid to migrants, said some who received the revocation letters are from Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico.

CBP One was a cornerstone of the Biden administration’s strategy to create and expand legal pathways to enter the United States in an attempt to discourage illegal border crossings. By the end of December, 936,500 people had been allowed to enter with CBP One appointments at border crossings with Mexico. President Donald Trump ended CBP One for new entrants on his first day in office, stranding thousands in Mexico who had appointments into early February.

FILE – Maria Mercado, who is from Colombia but arrived from Ecuador, gets emotional as she sees that her 1 p.m. appointment was canceled on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One app, as she and her family wait at the border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, Jan. 20. 2025. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

Trump has ended and revoked temporary status for many who benefited under Biden’s policies. Homeland Security said Monday that Biden’s use of parole authority — more than any president since it was created in 1952 — “further fueled the worst border crisis in U.S. history.”

Homeland Security said last month that it was revoking another form of parole for 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who flew to the country at their own expense with a financial sponsor. It ends April 24.

The Trump administration has also announced an end to Temporary Protected Status for 600,000 Venezuelans and about 500,00 Haitians, though a federal judge temporarily put that on hold, including for about 350,000 Venezuelans who had been scheduled to lose TPS on Monday. TPS is granted in 18-month increments to people already in the U.S. whose countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.

LONDON (AP) — Instagram users under 16 won’t be able to livestream or unblur nudity in direct messages they’ve received without parental approval, owner Meta Platforms said Tuesday as it widened its safety measures for teenagers.

The social media company also said it was extending safeguards for users under 18 to Facebook and Messenger.

Meta launched its teen account program for Instagram in September to give parents more options to supervise their children’s online activity amid a growing backlash against how social media affects the lives of young people.

The latest changes will roll out first to users in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia, before going out to global users in the following months.

Under the changes, teens under 16 are blocked from using Instagram Live unless parents give permission. They also need permission to “turn off our feature that blurs images containing suspected nudity” in direct messages, Meta said in a blog post.

In another major update, Meta said it’s extending the teen account safeguards to its Facebook and Messenger platforms,

These will include protections already in place for teen Instagram users, including setting teen accounts to private by default, blocking private messages from strangers, strict limits on sensitive content like fight videos, reminders to get off the app after 60 minutes and notifications that are halted during bedtime hours.

“Teen Accounts on Facebook and Messenger will offer similar, automatic protections to limit inappropriate content and unwanted contact, as well as ways to ensure teens’ time is well spent,” Meta said.

The company said at least 54 million teen accounts have been set up since the program launched in September.

Today is Tuesday, April 8, the 98th day of 2025. There are 267 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 8,1992, tennis great Arthur Ashe announced at a New York news conference that he had AIDS, having contracted HIV from a blood transfusion in 1983.

Also on this date:

In 1820, the Venus de Milo statue, likely dating to the 2nd century B.C.E., was discovered by a farmer on the Greek island of Milos.

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In 1864, the U.S. Senate passed, 38-6, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery. (The House of Representatives passed it in January 1865; the amendment was ratified and adopted in December 1865.)

In 1911, an explosion at the Banner Coal Mine in Littleton, Alabama, claimed the lives of 128 men, most of them convicts leased out from prisons.

In 1913, the 17th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, providing for election of U.S. senators by state residents as opposed to state legislatures.

In 1962, Cuba announced that 1,200 Cuban exiles tried for their roles in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion were convicted of treason and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

In 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record that had stood since 1935.

In 1990, Ryan White, the teenager whose battle with AIDS drew national attention and led to greater understanding and de-stigmatization of those suffering from the disease, died in Indianapolis at age 18.

In 2010, President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty in Prague.

In 2020, a 76-day lockdown was lifted in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the global COVID-19 pandemic began.

Today’s Birthdays:

Journalist Seymour Hersh is 88.
Songwriter-producer Leon Huff is 83.
Rock musician Steve Howe (Yes) is 78.
Sports broadcaster Jim Lampley is 76.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, is 70.
Author Barbara Kingsolver is 70.
Actor John Schneider is 65.
Guitarist Izzy Stradlin (Guns N’ Roses) is 63.
Singer Julian Lennon is 62.
Actor Dean Norris is 62.
Actor Robin Wright is 59.
Actor Patricia Arquette is 57.
Actor Taylor Kitsch is 44.
Boxer Gennady Golovkin is 43.
NFL wide receiver CeeDee Lamb is 26.
Actor Skai Jackson is 23.