Sky News halted for major Donald Trump breaking news in 'historic' announcement

Sky News came to an abrupt halt for a huge breaking news announcement as The White House held a press briefing. On Tuesday (April 1), The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed to press that Donald Trump is willing to negotiate with countries over his latest tariffs just one day before the US president imposes new tariffs across the globe.

The government official said the US president has decided on tariff rates and is currently "perfecting" his announcement with his trade team. She told the media: "He is always up to take a phone call, always up for a good negotiation, but he is very much focused on fixing the wrongs of the past."

Donald Trump's new reciprocal tariffs will be "effective immediately", Karoline revealed. She explained: "My understanding is that the tariff announcement will come tomorrow. They will be effective immediately.

"The president has been teasing this for quite some time as you know. He has talked a lot about April 2nd as 'Liberation day' in America. It would be taking place today if not for April Fool's Day, but tomorrow will be the day.

"He has been talking about it for a while and as a result you have seen these companies make commitments to investing here in the US." She also claimed that "Wall Street will be just fine", althought the focus was on helping "Main Street".

The comments raise hopes that UK ministers and diplomats could negotiate an exemption from the worst impact of tariffs after they are imposed on tomorrow (April 2). Although ministers accept that a deal is impossible before the deadline, many are hopeful of securing exemptions after the new tariffs are announced.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds added: "I do believe UK businesses support our approach, support the calm-headed approach, the desire to engage, to remain at the table while we can potentially secure an agreement."

It comes as the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warned that Britain's tax and spending watchdog in on course to reduce it economic growth forecasts again this Autumn against a darkening global backdrop.

Richard Hughes, chairman of the OBR said the "very volatile and uncertain" global environment combined with Mr Trump's tariffs would be a drag on the economy. He said: "Putting in place more restrictions on global trade around the world is very good for global output, and it's pretty reasonable to say the direction of that is going to be down."

The OBR chairman said its latest UK forecasts that saw griwth slashed in half this year were underpinned by global growth projections that were already out of date.