Caroline Hepka

And I'm Caroline Hepke.

The United States and Iran have rejected each other's proposals to end their 10-week conflict.

President Trump described Tehran's latest offer as, quote, totally unacceptable.

Oil prices surged on the news with Brent crude climbing back above $100 a barrel.

Iran hasn't officially confirmed the details of the proposal.

However, the Wall Street Journal reports that Tehran suggested diluting part of its highly enriched uranium stockpile and sending the remainder to...

to a third country.

Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency has dismissed that report as not true.

Jeff Mason is our Washington correspondent.

Jeff Mason was speaking after President Trump proclaimed just last week that Iran had already agreed to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Meanwhile, more than 40 countries are meeting today to outline potential military contributions to a UK and France-led mission to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz once a stable ceasefire is in place.

China's factory prices are growing at the fastest pace since the pandemic four years ago.

Producer prices rose 2.8% in April from a year earlier after an increase of half of 1% in the previous month, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released today.

The news comes as the fallout from the Iran war sharply raises costs and leaves profits under pressure.

And Google's parent company, Alphabet, is poised to overtake Nvidia as the world's most valuable company.

Bloomberg's Ewan Potts has more.

And those are our top stories for you this morning.

In the markets, oil prices for Brent crude futures now up by 4.3%, $105.66.

You've also got European natural gas prices up 2% today.

US and Iran stuck in limbo at the moment over the Strait of Hormuz and the war.