Stock markets in London, Paris and Berlin fell as trading began on Thursday after US President Donald Trump's sweeping announcements on tariffs.

The UK's FTSE 100 share index was down 1% while France's Cac 40 fell 1.7%.

Earlier Asian markets had slid, while the price of gold, which is seen as a safer assest in times of turbulance, climbed to a record high.

Traders are concerned about the global economic impact of Trump's tariffs, which they fear could stoke inflation and stall growth.

Markets across Asia had fallen sharply after Trump's announcement, with the Nikkei in Japan closing down nearly 3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index 1.5% lower.

The price of gold hit a record high of $3,167.57 an ounce at one point on Thursday, before falling back.

A combination of a 10% baseline levy and higher duties on a number of other trading partners reverses decades of liberalisation that shaped the global trade order.

"This is the worst-case scenario," said Jay Hatfield, chief executive at Infrastructure Capital Advisors.

"Enough to potentially send the US into a recession," he added, echoing nervous market sentiment.

• Live: Follow the latest reaction to the tariff announcement
• The countries hit hardest by the new US tariffs - the plan at a glance
• Faisal Islam: The biggest change to global trade in 100 years

George Saravelos, head of FX at Deutsche Bank Research, said the new US trade tariffs were a "highly mechanical" reaction to trade deficits, rather than the "sophisticated assessment" the White House had promised.

He warned the move "risks lowering the policy credibility of the [Trump] administration".

"The market may question the extent to which a sufficiently structured planning process for major economic decisions is taking place. After all, this is the biggest trade policy shift from the US in a century," he said.

Cosmetics company Lush and car repair chain Kwik Fit are among firms which have warned they will raise prices due an increase in employers' National Insurance (NI).

Other firms have told the BBC they will reduce how much profit they make, freeze hiring or in some cases cut jobs to cover the higher costs.

From Sunday, employers will have to pay NI at 15% on salaries above £5,000, instead of 13.8% on salaries above £9,100 currently.

The Treasury said the billions raised will be spent on public services, including the NHS.

Lush told the BBC that with 3,600 employees in the UK and Ireland, it would have to find an extra £2.7m per year.

Kasey Swithenbank, Lush's retail head for the UK and Ireland, said: "We are going to be taking small incremental price changes. We are taking an approach where we look at certain categories at key points of the year so hopefully our customers don't feel the full burden straight away."

Kwik Fit, which employs around 7,000 people, estimates the NICs rises will cost it £6.4m.

This will have a knock-on effect on prices, and recruitment, said Mark Slade, its managing director.

"We are really careful to make sure KwikFit is always competitive and benchmarked against the people around us - but the reality is that includes increasing prices."

He added: "There will be some people who aren't replaced over the coming year and that will be in the senior levels."

What are the changes?

• The rate that employers pay in contributions will rise from 13.8% to 15% on a worker's earnings above £175 per week. The government expects about 940,000 firms to pay more, 250,000 companies to pay less, and 820,000 to see no change.
• The threshold when employers start paying the tax on each employee's salary will be reduced from £9,100 per year to £5,000.
• But Employers Allowance - the amount employers can claim back from their National Insurance bill - has been raised from £5,000 to £10,500.

BBC Breakfast contacted around 200 UK businesses and charities in March, across different industries, from sole traders to large companies to get a sense of the impact of the increase in employer National Insurance Contributions.

Some 121 completed the questionnaire and around 100 of these businesses told us they had at least an approximate idea of how much increases in employer NICSs would cost them.

The costs ranged from £1,000 to £39m depending the size of the business and the number of employees.

Around 60 of the businesses which were planning to increase the staff count before announcement said the Budget had affected these plans.

How will firms manage the rises?

BBC Breakfast's questionnaire asked employers to choose from a list of actions they would take to manage increases in NICs.

• 77 said they would pass on costs to customers in price rises

• 68 said they would freeze or reduce hiring

• 81 said they would reduce their profit margins

• 39 said they would manage increases through job losses

Businesses most frequently told us they would choose a combination of these things.

Allison Kirkby, chief executive of BT, said the tax changes, which will cost the firm £100m, will mean it speeds up job cuts it was already planning.

She added that BT is "delighted" with tax relief on infrastructure investment in the Spring Statement and UK planning reforms.

"At the moment, like the country, we are focused on getting BT back to growth," she said.

"Predictability on taxation, on regulation and on planning is super helpful for the investment that goes into infrastructure like ours, which is the digital backbone of the country."

Angela Burns is the chief executive of the Webb Hotel Group, a group of four hotels based in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands.

It employs just under 300 people, and she says the NICs rises alone will cost £200,000 a year, with additional minimum wage and pension costs taking that to £600,000.

"It's really tough because our labour force is the main expense in our business," she said.

"As soon as it was announced in the budget in October, we started to look at restructuring, and as people have left, we haven't re employed. So we've actually cut our workforce down from about 320 to about 280 now to prepare ourselves."

She said prices would have to be moved "slightly upwards".

"But it's a balancing act as to what customers are prepared to pay," she added.

Greg Strickland, general manager of trampoline activity firm Jump Xtreme in Bolton, said the changes added £30,000 of costs "overnight".

He said it had cut 16 hours per week off some 40-hour contracts to cover the cost.

Meanwhile Andrew Lane, managing director of Union Industries in Leeds said the firm, which makes industrial doors, shares about half its post-tax profit with employees.

"This is going to hit them," he said. "There will be less money to distribute to our employee-owners."

The government has predicted the changes will raise between £14.6bn and £18.3bn a year over five years when compensation for public sector employers is taken into account.

A Treasury spokesperson told the BBC the government was "pro-business" and that it knew the "vital importance of small businesses to our economy".

They said October's budget "took difficult decisions on tax to stabilise the public finances, including the NHS which has now seen waiting lists fall five months in a row".

They added: "We are now focused on creating opportunities for businesses to compete and access the finance they need to scale, export and break into new markets."

Additional reporting by Oliver Smith & Jennifer Meierhans

Last year, on 17 September, at around 15:30, a pager which a nurse called Adam was given at the start of his shift at a hospital in Lebanon received a message. The devices had been distributed by Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim group, to thousands of its members, including Adam, and he said it was how he and his colleagues expected to be alerted of emergencies or a disaster.

"The pager started beeping non-stop and, on the screen, it said 'alert'," Adam, who did not want to use his real name for safety reasons, said. The text appeared to have been sent by the group's leadership. To read it, he had to press two buttons, simultaneously, with both hands. Adam did it many times, but the beeps continued. "Then suddenly, as I was sitting at my desk," he said, "the pager exploded".

On his phone, Adam showed me a video of the room, filmed by a colleague minutes after he was rescued. There was a trail of blood on the floor. "I tried to crawl to the door because I had locked it while I changed my clothes," he said. The blast had opened a hole in the wood desk. I noticed a beige-like object. "That's my finger," he said.

Hezbollah is known for being a powerful militia and is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by countries including the UK and the US. But in Lebanon, it is also a significant political movement with representation in parliament and a social organisation. Here, being a Hezbollah member does not necessarily mean you are a fighter. In fact, many are not. Adam told me he had never been one. People can work in the group's large array of institutions that include hospitals and emergency services, for example.

Hezbollah had decided to equip members with low-tech pagers for communicating rather than smartphones which it feared could be used by Israel, its arch-enemy, to gather sensitive information about the group. It turned out, though, that the devices which Hezbollah had distributed were part of a years-long elaborate Israeli plan: an explosive compound had been concealed within the pagers, waiting to be activated – and that is what happened on that day.

In the attack, Adam, who is 38, lost his thumb and two fingers on his left hand, and part of a finger on the other. He was blinded in his right eye, which has been replaced with a glass eye, and has only partial sight in the other. He showed me a picture of him in a hospital bed, taken an hour after the explosion, with his face burned, entirely blooded, covered with bandages. Despite his wounds, Adam remained committed to Hezbollah. I asked him how he felt when he looked at himself like that. "Very good," he said in English. Then, in Arabic, he told me: "Because we believe that the wounds are a kind of medal from God. Honouring what we go through fighting a righteous cause."

But the group is no longer the force it was since being dealt a devastating blow in Israel's bombing campaign and invasion of Lebanon, which followed the pager attacks, and faces serious challenges. At home, there is discontent among some supporters over the lack of funds for reconstruction, while the new government has vowed to disarm the group. In neighbouring Syria, the ouster of Bashar al-Assad's regime has disrupted the route used by Iran, its main supporter, for the supply of weapons and money.

I visited communities in southern Lebanon that were destroyed by Israel's attacks, and saw that support for Hezbollah appeared undimmed. But, in views rarely expressed to media, others who backed it said the war had been a mistake, and even questioned the group's future as a military force.

You can listen to more from Hugo in his radio documentary - Crossing Continents: Hezbollah in trouble - here

Hezbollah, or Party of God, was created in the 1980s in response to Israel's occupation of Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. To this day, the destruction of Israel remains one of its official goals. Their last war had been in 2006, which was followed by years of relative calm. Violence flared up again in 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. When Israel started bombarding Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets in around northern Israel, saying it was acting in support of Palestinians. Israel responded with air strikes on southern Lebanon, and tens of thousands of people were forced to flee on both sides of the border.

The pager attacks were a turning point in what had been, until then, an intensifying but relatively contained conflict. The devices exploded as people were working, shopping or at home. About a dozen people, including two children, were killed, and thousands wounded, many of them maimed. The attack caused anger in Lebanon, because of what was seen as its indiscriminate nature. A day later, walkie-talkies used by the group suddenly exploded too. I was at a funeral of some of the victims of the pagers when there was a loud blast. Hezbollah members, desperate, asked us to turn off our cameras or phones, as no-one knew what else could explode.

In the following weeks, Israel carried out a relentless bombing campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Across the country, around 4,000 people were killed and almost 18,000 others wounded. For Hezbollah, the conflict proved to be catastrophic. The group's top leaders were assassinated, many of its fighters killed and much of its arsenal destroyed. Among the dead was Hassan Nasrallah, who had been the head of Hezbollah for more than 30 years, assassinated in a massive air strike on the group's secret headquarters under apartment blocks in the Dahieh, where Hezbollah is based in Beirut.

At the end of November, battered, the group agreed on a ceasefire that was essentially a surrender.

Southern Lebanon is the heartland of Lebanon's Shia Muslim community, which is the bulk of Hezbollah's support base, and one of the regions of the country where the group has traditionally had a significant presence. I travelled to the border town of Kfar Kila, which had a pre-war population of 15,000 and was one of the first to fall when Israel invaded. Israel's stated war goal was to allow the return of residents to its northern communities, which had been emptied because of Hezbollah's attacks. In Kfar Kila, there was almost nothing left standing, and yellow Hezbollah flags dotted the huge piles of broken concrete and twisted metal.

A 37-year-old woman called Alia had come with her husband and three daughters, aged 18, 14 and 10. The youngest was wearing a badge with a smiley picture of Nasrallah. "I only knew that this was my house because of the remains of this plant over there, the roses, and this tree," Alia told me. From the street, she pointed at what she could identify in the rubble. "This is the couch. There, the curtains. That was the living room. And that was the bedroom. That's my daughter's bicycle," she said. "There's nothing to recover".

According to the World Bank, costs related to reconstruction and recovery are estimated at $11bn (£8.5bn) across the country. One of Hezbollah's immediate challenges is to give financial help to people affected by the war, which is crucial to keep supporters on board. Those who lost their houses have received $12,000 to cover for a year's rent. But the group has not promised money to rebuild what was destroyed or to give compensation for destroyed businesses. The limited support is already fuelling discontent. Aila's shop had stock worth $20,000, and she was concerned no-one would cover her losses.

Iran, Hezbollah's backer, is one of the group's main sources of funds, weapons and training. But Lebanon's international allies want to cut off any financial support from Iran, to put even more pressure on Hezbollah, and say there will be no help if the Lebanese government does not act against Hezbollah. With the group weakened militarily, critics see this as a unique opportunity to disarm it.

Alia told me: "We don't want any aid that comes with conditions about our arms... We won't allow them to take our dignity, our honour, take away our arms just for us to build a house. We'll build it ourselves."

It is not surprising that Hezbollah's supporters remain defiant. For many, the group is a fundamental part of their lives, essential in their identities. But Hezbollah's power is seen - and felt - beyond its base. Before the war, its military wing was considered to be stronger than the Lebanese national army. A solid parliamentary bloc means that virtually no major decision has been possible without Hezbollah's consent. Because of Lebanon's fractured political system, the group has representation in the government. In short, Hezbollah has had the ability to paralyse the state, and many times has done so.

But the war has diminished the group's domestic position too. In January, the Lebanese parliament elected a new president, former army chief Joseph Aoun, after a two-year impasse that critics had blamed on Hezbollah. In the past, its MPs and allies would walk out of the chamber when a vote was scheduled. But Hezbollah, severely wounded and with its communities in need of help, felt it could no longer block the process, which was seen as vital to unlock some international support. In his inauguration speech, Aoun promised to make the Lebanese army the sole carrier of weapons in the country. He did not mention Hezbollah, but everyone understood the message.

Ultimately, Hezbollah's future may lie with Iran. One of the reasons for Iran to have a strong Hezbollah in Lebanon was to deter any Israeli attack, especially on its nuclear facilities. This is now gone. Other groups backed by Iran in the region, part of what it calls the Axis of Resistance, have also been significantly weakened, including Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. And the fall of the Assad regime in Syria has interrupted Iran's land corridor to Lebanon - and Hezbollah. Even if Iran decides to rearm Hezbollah, it will not be easy.

Nasrallah has been succeeded by Naim Qassem, his former deputy, who is not seen as charismatic or influential. From time to time, rumours emerge of internal disagreements. And whispers of dissent among the rank and file are spreading. In southern Lebanon, I met a businessman who did not want to have his name published, fearing that he could become a target on social media. On the wall of his office, he had pictures of Hezbollah's leaders. Now, he was critical of the group.

"The mistakes have been huge," he said. "Hezbollah decided to engage in a war to support Gaza without proper calculations, without consulting the people or the Lebanese state". (To date, Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.) He told me a lot of supporters shared his view. "If Hezbollah don't do a proper reassessment of the situation... they will destroy themselves and harm us along the way. We brought this destruction on ourselves, and we're now suffering".

As part of the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah agreed to remove its weapons and fighters from southern Lebanon, and a Western diplomatic official told me the group had largely done it. Israel was required to withdraw its troops, but has remained in five positions, saying this is needed for the safety of its border communities. The Israeli military has also carried out air strikes on targets and people it says are linked to Hezbollah. Lebanon says the Israeli permanence in Lebanese territory and its attacks are violations of the deal.

Discussions about Hezbollah's disarmament are likely to be difficult and long. A source familiar with the group told me one of the options was for Hezbollah's arsenal, believed to still include long-range missiles, to be put under the control of the state, while its fighters, estimated to be several thousand, could be integrated into the Lebanese army.

The businessman told me: "A lot of the families, especially those of wounded and martyred fighters, are totally dependent on Hezbollah. These people won't disengage from Hezbollah immediately… Without a plan, it would be a recipe for internal conflict. It would drive Lebanese to fight against each other".

For weeks, I tried to interview a representative from Hezbollah, but no-one was made available.

Adam, the pager casualty, has now returned to his work as a nurse. He no longer does nightshifts, however, as he cannot see well. The explosion also left shrapnel in head and chest. As he gets tired easily, he needs to take constant breaks to rest. Physiotherapy sessions are helping him adapt to using what is left of his left thumb and middle finger.

Prominent in his living room, is a picture he framed, of himself, with his injured hands, holding a pager. He shared with me another picture, of his maimed hand, only now it also bore a tattooed message which expressed that his wounds were a cheap sacrifice in honour of Nasrallah, the late Hezbollah leader. He, like many, still believes in the group's purpose, and the role it plays.

Fundamentally wrong, was how Germany's outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholz, described the new Trump tariffs.

A unilateral attack - that was the view of Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

French President Emmanuel Macron called them brutal, unfounded and certain to have a "massive impact" on the European economy.

He convened an emergency meeting with representatives of French businesses most affected by the newly announced 20% tariffs on EU goods sold to the US and issued a call to arms to European business "not to invest in America for some time until we have clarified things".

"What message would we send by having major European players investing billions of euros in the American economy at a time when [the US] is hitting us?" he said.

For France it's wine, champagne and the aeronautical industry, for Germany it's cars, and for Italy it's luxury goods. It's well known these sectors sell well abroad and now risk being clobbered by US import taxes.

Overall, the chemicals, machinery and equipment industries in the EU are seen as the most vulnerable to the tariffs.

But dig a little deeper and there are other EU sectors, reliant on the US market, that could come as a bit of a surprise.

French cognac, generally dismissed as an old person's tipple in Europe, is the booze of choice for many American rappers, playing a prominent role in the music and lifestyle of stars like Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg. More than 40% of French brandy is exported to the US.

Spain exports a lot of gas turbines to the US, alongside tonnes of olive oil.

Which EU countries are most exposed?

When we look at which EU countries are most exposed to the US in terms of GDP, the picture is also not quite what you might imagine.

Ireland is highly dependent on the US in terms of goods and services. Those exports - a lot linked to the pharmaceutical industry (which is currently exempt from the 20% tariffs, until the US boosts its own production) and also tech - make up a fifth of Ireland's GDP.

Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta are more exposed than the EU average in terms of services exports.

Belgium, the Netherlands and Slovakia are in a similar position when it comes to goods.

Germany has a greater exposure to the US than the other major EU economies, at over 5% of GDP, followed by Italy (about 4%), France (3%) and Spain (just over 2%). These figures were collated in 2024 by CaixaBank research based on Eurostat figures for the previous year.

Will the EU retaliate?

The response to the new US tariffs is being coordinated at EU HQ in Brussels. The European Commission deals with all overarching trade matters for the bloc's members.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claims they hold "a lot of cards", including the strength to negotiate and the power to push back.

The US economy is mighty. It makes up 25% of global GDP.

But the EU single market of 450 million people (the biggest single market in the world) stands very close in size at 22% of global GDP.

So, yes, the EU can bite - hard - as well as bark when it comes to retaliating against Donald Trump's tariffs. Especially if, as EU figures have suggested, the bloc targets US services like Big Tech, possibly including Apple, Meta, Amazon and even Elon Musk's platform X.

But that risks a new backlash by the Trump administration. And the EU wants to avoid upping the ante.

If you take politics into account, not just economics, the EU has less room for manoeuvre than you might think.

Take energy supplies, the EU has been buying US liquified natural gas (LNG) after it weaned itself off Russian gas following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Tricky to reduce or heavily tax those imports. That would badly impact EU consumers, not only US industry, and it would worsen already dismal relations with the US.

Think of all the recent rows over defence spending and Ukraine. Aside from the economic hell the EU sees and hopes to avoid in the new Trump tariffs, the bloc also really wants to sidestep a trade war with the country that used to be Europe's best friend.

So, the Brussels plan is: threaten heavy retaliation, hope Donald Trump is persuaded to negotiate, then pray he'll stage a U-turn on tariffs.

The EU's trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, says he's speaking to his US counterparts on Friday. It's an opening gambit. The EU is in no rush to retaliate.

What could the EU offer the US in a negotiation?

The Trump administration has ruled out any country negotiating its way out of the new tariffs before they become live this weekend. But after that, what could the EU offer the US president to persuade him to back down?

Trump is incandescent about the EU's massive trade surplus. It sells far more goods than it buys from the US. The surplus for 2024 was around $200bn (€180bn; $153bn).

It's the other way round when it comes to services - the US sells far more to the EU than the other way round. That is why the EU thinks its main retaliatory leverage against the US would lie in services, like banks and big tech.

To redress the goods imbalance, the EU could offer to buy more LNG from the US, or more military equipment, following its pledge to Washington to do more for its own security.

But that would break a different EU promise - to boost withering European arms industries by trying to buy EU when re-arming EU countries. It is something the US has already objected to, so that's tricky.

Brussels could also cut direct and indirect tariffs on US goods. It could lose quotas on US agricultural produce.

It would be hugely reluctant to comply with another US ask: to water down its much-trumpeted digital regulations, aimed at limiting monopolies and placing restrictions on speech and content in the EU.

How bad can this all get?

How do you price in the possible collapse of the international trading system, EU officials ask.

European firms fret about their markets being flooded by cheap goods from non-EU countries that are also hit by Trump tariffs and seeking to sell elsewhere.

The risk is very real when it comes to China. Trump is slapping more that 50% tariffs on Beijing when you add it all up.

Would the EU have to ratchet up its import duties on Chinese goods to protect itself and could that lead to an unintended trade war with China?

These are anxious and hugely uncertain economic times.

Which is why the European Commission says it also wants to focus on matters it can control - if EU capitals agree - and that is reducing internal barriers within the EU single market.

Those barriers, such as tax regimes, vary from country to country and impact the EU's overall economic growth and competitiveness.

The IMF calculates they're equivalent to a 45% tariff on EU manufacturing; 110% when it comes to services.

That is far higher than the tariffs now imposed on the EU by Donald Trump.

EU countries say they're united in combating those. So far they've been divided over completing their own internal market.

Stock markets in London, Paris and Berlin fell as trading began on Thursday after US President Donald Trump's sweeping announcements on tariffs.

The UK's FTSE 100 share index was down 1% while France's Cac 40 fell 1.7%.

Earlier Asian markets had slid, while the price of gold, which is seen as a safer assest in times of turbulance, climbed to a record high.

Traders are concerned about the global economic impact of Trump's tariffs, which they fear could stoke inflation and stall growth.

Markets across Asia had fallen sharply after Trump's announcement, with the Nikkei in Japan closing down nearly 3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index 1.5% lower.

The price of gold hit a record high of $3,167.57 an ounce at one point on Thursday, before falling back.

A combination of a 10% baseline levy and higher duties on a number of other trading partners reverses decades of liberalisation that shaped the global trade order.

"This is the worst-case scenario," said Jay Hatfield, chief executive at Infrastructure Capital Advisors.

"Enough to potentially send the US into a recession," he added, echoing nervous market sentiment.

• Live: Follow the latest reaction to the tariff announcement
• The countries hit hardest by the new US tariffs - the plan at a glance
• Faisal Islam: The biggest change to global trade in 100 years

George Saravelos, head of FX at Deutsche Bank Research, said the new US trade tariffs were a "highly mechanical" reaction to trade deficits, rather than the "sophisticated assessment" the White House had promised.

He warned the move "risks lowering the policy credibility of the [Trump] administration".

"The market may question the extent to which a sufficiently structured planning process for major economic decisions is taking place. After all, this is the biggest trade policy shift from the US in a century," he said.

Last year, on 17 September, at around 15:30, a pager which a nurse called Adam was given at the start of his shift at a hospital in Lebanon received a message. The devices had been distributed by Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim group, to thousands of its members, including Adam, and he said it was how he and his colleagues expected to be alerted of emergencies or a disaster.

"The pager started beeping non-stop and, on the screen, it said 'alert'," Adam, who did not want to use his real name for safety reasons, said. The text appeared to have been sent by the group's leadership. To read it, he had to press two buttons, simultaneously, with both hands. Adam did it many times, but the beeps continued. "Then suddenly, as I was sitting at my desk," he said, "the pager exploded".

On his phone, Adam showed me a video of the room, filmed by a colleague minutes after he was rescued. There was a trail of blood on the floor. "I tried to crawl to the door because I had locked it while I changed my clothes," he said. The blast had opened a hole in the wood desk. I noticed a beige-like object. "That's my finger," he said.

Hezbollah is known for being a powerful militia and is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by countries including the UK and the US. But in Lebanon, it is also a significant political movement with representation in parliament and a social organisation. Here, being a Hezbollah member does not necessarily mean you are a fighter. In fact, many are not. Adam told me he had never been one. People can work in the group's large array of institutions that include hospitals and emergency services, for example.

Hezbollah had decided to equip members with low-tech pagers for communicating rather than smartphones which it feared could be used by Israel, its arch-enemy, to gather sensitive information about the group. It turned out, though, that the devices which Hezbollah had distributed were part of a years-long elaborate Israeli plan: an explosive compound had been concealed within the pagers, waiting to be activated – and that is what happened on that day.

In the attack, Adam, who is 38, lost his thumb and two fingers on his left hand, and part of a finger on the other. He was blinded in his right eye, which has been replaced with a glass eye, and has only partial sight in the other. He showed me a picture of him in a hospital bed, taken an hour after the explosion, with his face burned, entirely blooded, covered with bandages. Despite his wounds, Adam remained committed to Hezbollah. I asked him how he felt when he looked at himself like that. "Very good," he said in English. Then, in Arabic, he told me: "Because we believe that the wounds are a kind of medal from God. Honouring what we go through fighting a righteous cause."

But the group is no longer the force it was since being dealt a devastating blow in Israel's bombing campaign and invasion of Lebanon, which followed the pager attacks, and faces serious challenges. At home, there is discontent among some supporters over the lack of funds for reconstruction, while the new government has vowed to disarm the group. In neighbouring Syria, the ouster of Bashar al-Assad's regime has disrupted the route used by Iran, its main supporter, for the supply of weapons and money.

I visited communities in southern Lebanon that were destroyed by Israel's attacks, and saw that support for Hezbollah appeared undimmed. But, in views rarely expressed to media, others who backed it said the war had been a mistake, and even questioned the group's future as a military force.

You can listen to more from Hugo in his radio documentary - Crossing Continents: Hezbollah in trouble - here

Hezbollah, or Party of God, was created in the 1980s in response to Israel's occupation of Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. To this day, the destruction of Israel remains one of its official goals. Their last war had been in 2006, which was followed by years of relative calm. Violence flared up again in 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. When Israel started bombarding Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets in around northern Israel, saying it was acting in support of Palestinians. Israel responded with air strikes on southern Lebanon, and tens of thousands of people were forced to flee on both sides of the border.

The pager attacks were a turning point in what had been, until then, an intensifying but relatively contained conflict. The devices exploded as people were working, shopping or at home. About a dozen people, including two children, were killed, and thousands wounded, many of them maimed. The attack caused anger in Lebanon, because of what was seen as its indiscriminate nature. A day later, walkie-talkies used by the group suddenly exploded too. I was at a funeral of some of the victims of the pagers when there was a loud blast. Hezbollah members, desperate, asked us to turn off our cameras or phones, as no-one knew what else could explode.

In the following weeks, Israel carried out a relentless bombing campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Across the country, around 4,000 people were killed and almost 18,000 others wounded. For Hezbollah, the conflict proved to be catastrophic. The group's top leaders were assassinated, many of its fighters killed and much of its arsenal destroyed. Among the dead was Hassan Nasrallah, who had been the head of Hezbollah for more than 30 years, assassinated in a massive air strike on the group's secret headquarters under apartment blocks in the Dahieh, where Hezbollah is based in Beirut.

At the end of November, battered, the group agreed on a ceasefire that was essentially a surrender.

Southern Lebanon is the heartland of Lebanon's Shia Muslim community, which is the bulk of Hezbollah's support base, and one of the regions of the country where the group has traditionally had a significant presence. I travelled to the border town of Kfar Kila, which had a pre-war population of 15,000 and was one of the first to fall when Israel invaded. Israel's stated war goal was to allow the return of residents to its northern communities, which had been emptied because of Hezbollah's attacks. In Kfar Kila, there was almost nothing left standing, and yellow Hezbollah flags dotted the huge piles of broken concrete and twisted metal.

A 37-year-old woman called Alia had come with her husband and three daughters, aged 18, 14 and 10. The youngest was wearing a badge with a smiley picture of Nasrallah. "I only knew that this was my house because of the remains of this plant over there, the roses, and this tree," Alia told me. From the street, she pointed at what she could identify in the rubble. "This is the couch. There, the curtains. That was the living room. And that was the bedroom. That's my daughter's bicycle," she said. "There's nothing to recover".

According to the World Bank, costs related to reconstruction and recovery are estimated at $11bn (£8.5bn) across the country. One of Hezbollah's immediate challenges is to give financial help to people affected by the war, which is crucial to keep supporters on board. Those who lost their houses have received $12,000 to cover for a year's rent. But the group has not promised money to rebuild what was destroyed or to give compensation for destroyed businesses. The limited support is already fuelling discontent. Aila's shop had stock worth $20,000, and she was concerned no-one would cover her losses.

Iran, Hezbollah's backer, is one of the group's main sources of funds, weapons and training. But Lebanon's international allies want to cut off any financial support from Iran, to put even more pressure on Hezbollah, and say there will be no help if the Lebanese government does not act against Hezbollah. With the group weakened militarily, critics see this as a unique opportunity to disarm it.

Alia told me: "We don't want any aid that comes with conditions about our arms... We won't allow them to take our dignity, our honour, take away our arms just for us to build a house. We'll build it ourselves."

It is not surprising that Hezbollah's supporters remain defiant. For many, the group is a fundamental part of their lives, essential in their identities. But Hezbollah's power is seen - and felt - beyond its base. Before the war, its military wing was considered to be stronger than the Lebanese national army. A solid parliamentary bloc means that virtually no major decision has been possible without Hezbollah's consent. Because of Lebanon's fractured political system, the group has representation in the government. In short, Hezbollah has had the ability to paralyse the state, and many times has done so.

But the war has diminished the group's domestic position too. In January, the Lebanese parliament elected a new president, former army chief Joseph Aoun, after a two-year impasse that critics had blamed on Hezbollah. In the past, its MPs and allies would walk out of the chamber when a vote was scheduled. But Hezbollah, severely wounded and with its communities in need of help, felt it could no longer block the process, which was seen as vital to unlock some international support. In his inauguration speech, Aoun promised to make the Lebanese army the sole carrier of weapons in the country. He did not mention Hezbollah, but everyone understood the message.

Ultimately, Hezbollah's future may lie with Iran. One of the reasons for Iran to have a strong Hezbollah in Lebanon was to deter any Israeli attack, especially on its nuclear facilities. This is now gone. Other groups backed by Iran in the region, part of what it calls the Axis of Resistance, have also been significantly weakened, including Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. And the fall of the Assad regime in Syria has interrupted Iran's land corridor to Lebanon - and Hezbollah. Even if Iran decides to rearm Hezbollah, it will not be easy.

Nasrallah has been succeeded by Naim Qassem, his former deputy, who is not seen as charismatic or influential. From time to time, rumours emerge of internal disagreements. And whispers of dissent among the rank and file are spreading. In southern Lebanon, I met a businessman who did not want to have his name published, fearing that he could become a target on social media. On the wall of his office, he had pictures of Hezbollah's leaders. Now, he was critical of the group.

"The mistakes have been huge," he said. "Hezbollah decided to engage in a war to support Gaza without proper calculations, without consulting the people or the Lebanese state". (To date, Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.) He told me a lot of supporters shared his view. "If Hezbollah don't do a proper reassessment of the situation... they will destroy themselves and harm us along the way. We brought this destruction on ourselves, and we're now suffering".

As part of the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah agreed to remove its weapons and fighters from southern Lebanon, and a Western diplomatic official told me the group had largely done it. Israel was required to withdraw its troops, but has remained in five positions, saying this is needed for the safety of its border communities. The Israeli military has also carried out air strikes on targets and people it says are linked to Hezbollah. Lebanon says the Israeli permanence in Lebanese territory and its attacks are violations of the deal.

Discussions about Hezbollah's disarmament are likely to be difficult and long. A source familiar with the group told me one of the options was for Hezbollah's arsenal, believed to still include long-range missiles, to be put under the control of the state, while its fighters, estimated to be several thousand, could be integrated into the Lebanese army.

The businessman told me: "A lot of the families, especially those of wounded and martyred fighters, are totally dependent on Hezbollah. These people won't disengage from Hezbollah immediately… Without a plan, it would be a recipe for internal conflict. It would drive Lebanese to fight against each other".

For weeks, I tried to interview a representative from Hezbollah, but no-one was made available.

Adam, the pager casualty, has now returned to his work as a nurse. He no longer does nightshifts, however, as he cannot see well. The explosion also left shrapnel in head and chest. As he gets tired easily, he needs to take constant breaks to rest. Physiotherapy sessions are helping him adapt to using what is left of his left thumb and middle finger.

Prominent in his living room, is a picture he framed, of himself, with his injured hands, holding a pager. He shared with me another picture, of his maimed hand, only now it also bore a tattooed message which expressed that his wounds were a cheap sacrifice in honour of Nasrallah, the late Hezbollah leader. He, like many, still believes in the group's purpose, and the role it plays.

Denmark will not give up Greenland to the US, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said during an official visit to the Arctic Island.

Responding to repeated threats from Donald Trump, Frederiksen offered closer collaboration on security but told the US president: "You can't annex other countries."

Frederiksen stood alongside Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and his predecessor Mute Egede in a show of support and unity in the face of US threats on Thursday.

Her three-day trip to the territory follows last week's controversial visit by a US delegation headed up by Vice President JD Vance, which was widely criticised in both Greenland and Denmark.

During his whirlwind trip, Vance reiterated Trump's ambitions to bring Greenland under United States' control for security reasons, criticised Denmark for not spending more on security in the region, and claimed it had "not done a good job" for Greenlanders.

After arriving in Greenland on Wednesday, Frederiksen said: "It is clear that with the pressure put on Greenland by the Americans, in terms of sovereignty, borders and the future, we need to stay united."

Frederiksen said on Thursday that Denmark was fortifying its military presence in the Arctic and offered closer collaboration with the United States in defending the region.

But she added: "When you demand to take over a part of... Denmark's territory, when we are met by pressure and by threats from our closest ally, what are we to believe in, about the country that we have admired for so many years?"

Frederiksen rode around the capital Nuuk in a Danish navy patrol boat, alongside Egede and Nielsen.

According to Danish public broadcaster DR, many people cheered at seeing the Danish prime minister, with one resident shouting from a window: "Hey Mette! Thanks for being here."

Egede, who served as prime minister for almost four years, said the island had cooperated with the US on security for almost 80 years - including the construction of the Pituffik Space Base following a 1951 agreement between Denmark and the United States.

The former leader insisted Greenland was not for sale, but added the island wanted trade with the US, Greenlandic national newspaper Sermitsiaq reported.

Trump first floated the idea of buying Greenland during his first term - and his desire to own the island has only grown with time.

Mikaela Engell, an expert on the Arctic territory who previously served as Denmark's High Commissioner to Greenland, told AFP news agency "it's very, very important and it's very reassuring for Greenlanders to see a Danish head of government."

Greenland - the world's biggest island, between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans - has been controlled by Denmark, nearly 3,000km (1,860 miles) away, for about 300 years.

Greenland governs its own domestic affairs, but decisions on foreign and defence policy are made in Copenhagen.

Five of the six main parties favour independence from Copenhagen, but disagree over the pace with which to reach it.

A new Greenland coalition government was formed in March, led by the centre-right Democrats party which favours a gradual approach to independence.

Polls show that the vast majority of Greenlanders also want to become independent from Denmark, but do not wish to become part of the US.

Since 2009, Greenland has had the right to call an independence referendum, though in recent years some political parties have begun pushing more for one.

Tom Cruise has paid tribute to his Top Gun co-star Val Kilmer, who died earlier this week aged 65.

Appearing at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Cruise led a crowd in The Colosseum theatre in a moment of silence to "honour a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer".

"I can't tell you how much I admired his work, how much I thought of him as a human being and how grateful and honoured I was when he joined Top Gun," Cruise said of Kilmer, who played his rival Ice Man in Top Gun in 1986.

The 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick marked Kilmer's last movie role. Kilmer, also known for his roles playing Batman and Jim Morrison in The Doors, died Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

In Las Vegas, Cruise bowed his head in the cavernous theatre, which was packed with movie theatre owners and others who work in the industry.

"Thank you, Val - wish you well on your next journey," Cruise said afterwards.

Cruise was speaking during the Paramount Pictures presentation at CinemaCon. He also showed off a sneak peek trailer of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, which is set to be released later this year, and honoured the film's director Christopher McQuarrie, who was named CinemaCon's director of the year.

• Hollywood remembers 'wonderful' actor Val Kilmer
• Val Kilmer: A brilliant, underrated and unpredictable film star
• Look back at Val Kilmer's best-known roles

The trailer showed Cruise, who is famous for doing his own stunts, in a series of action-packed scenes - on fighter jets, in explosions and wing walking on a vintage plane.

As Hollywood paid tribute to Kilmer, Cruise had been one of the few stars who waited to publicly commented on the actor's death.

The star has been vocal about how much he enjoyed working with Kilmer. He said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he cried having him on set for Top Gun: Maverick.

"I was crying, I was crying. I got emotional," Cruise said on the show about working with Kilmer. "He's such a brilliant actor. I love his work."

Kilmer's family told US media that he died after coming down with a pneumonia. The actor had two tracheotomies while undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

The procedures forced him to use a voice box to speak, and in the 2022 film, he types on a screen to communicate with Cruise's character. Toward the end of their scene together, Kilmer's Iceman gets up from his chair and coarsely tells Cruise: "The Navy needs Maverick".

The two embrace and then Iceman pokes fun, questioning Cruise about who is the better pilot.

Tom Cruise has paid tribute to his Top Gun co-star Val Kilmer, who died earlier this week aged 65.

Appearing at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Cruise led a crowd in The Colosseum theatre in a moment of silence to "honour a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer".

"I can't tell you how much I admired his work, how much I thought of him as a human being and how grateful and honoured I was when he joined Top Gun," Cruise said of Kilmer, who played his rival Ice Man in Top Gun in 1986.

The 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick marked Kilmer's last movie role. Kilmer, also known for his roles playing Batman and Jim Morrison in The Doors, died Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

In Las Vegas, Cruise bowed his head in the cavernous theatre, which was packed with movie theatre owners and others who work in the industry.

"Thank you, Val - wish you well on your next journey," Cruise said afterwards.

Cruise was speaking during the Paramount Pictures presentation at CinemaCon. He also showed off a sneak peek trailer of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, which is set to be released later this year, and honoured the film's director Christopher McQuarrie, who was named CinemaCon's director of the year.

• Hollywood remembers 'wonderful' actor Val Kilmer
• Val Kilmer: A brilliant, underrated and unpredictable film star
• Look back at Val Kilmer's best-known roles

The trailer showed Cruise, who is famous for doing his own stunts, in a series of action-packed scenes - on fighter jets, in explosions and wing walking on a vintage plane.

As Hollywood paid tribute to Kilmer, Cruise had been one of the few stars who waited to publicly commented on the actor's death.

The star has been vocal about how much he enjoyed working with Kilmer. He said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he cried having him on set for Top Gun: Maverick.

"I was crying, I was crying. I got emotional," Cruise said on the show about working with Kilmer. "He's such a brilliant actor. I love his work."

Kilmer's family told US media that he died after coming down with a pneumonia. The actor had two tracheotomies while undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

The procedures forced him to use a voice box to speak, and in the 2022 film, he types on a screen to communicate with Cruise's character. Toward the end of their scene together, Kilmer's Iceman gets up from his chair and coarsely tells Cruise: "The Navy needs Maverick".

The two embrace and then Iceman pokes fun, questioning Cruise about who is the better pilot.

The owners of a container ship have filed a legal claim against the owners of a tanker that it struck in a crash in the North Sea.

The Stena Immaculate, a US-registered tanker carrying aviation fuel, was anchored 16 miles (26km) off East Yorkshire when it was hit by the Portuguese-flagged Solong on 10 March.

Court records indicate that a legal claim was filed at the Admiralty Court on Thursday by "the owners and demise charterers" of the Solong against "the owners and demise charterers" of the Stena Immaculate.

It follows a separate legal claim filed against the owners of the Solong - Ernst Russ - on Monday by the co-owners of the Stena Immaculate, Stena Bulk and Crowley.

No further details about either claim are currently available, with Stena Bulk having been approached for comment.

In a statement on Thursday, a spokesperson for Ernst Russ said: "As part of the legal proceedings arising from the collision between the Solong and Stena Immaculate, the owners of the Solong have filed a claim in the Admiralty Court in London.

"This is usual process for large maritime casualties and represents another step in working toward the conclusion of this tragic incident.

"Meanwhile, Ernst Russ continues to offer all necessary assistance in support of the ongoing investigations."

Following the incident, Stena Bulk said 17,515 barrels of jet fuel were lost due to the crash and the subsequent fire, with the Solong still burning a week after the incident before arriving in Aberdeen on Friday.

On Monday, Ernst Russ confirmed it had set up a fund ahead of any "verified" legal claims against it.

On Thursday, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) released an interim report into the incident, which resulted in fires and a rescue operation that saved 36 crew from both vessels.

It found the vessels did not have "dedicated lookouts" in what were "patchy conditions".

One crew member on the Solong, Mark Pernia, is missing and presumed dead. He was reported to be in the forward area of the ship at the time of impact.

The ship's captain, Vladimir Motin, 59, of Primorsky, St Petersburg, Russia, has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter, and is due to stand trial next year.

On Wednesday, President Trump unveiled new tariffs on imports to the US which will form a central part of his government's new trade policy.

In his speech, he listed the new tariffs to be imposed on a number of countries, including the country's biggest trading partners, and a more complete list was released later by the White House.

No further tariffs were announced for Canada or Mexico. Both countries had already seen tariffs imposed in Feburary - though these have since been partially rolled back.

China will now see an effective tariff of 54%, as the new 34% tariff will be added to the 20% tariff already in place.

Here are all the new tariffs by trading partner, with the highest tariffs at the top. Use the arrows at the bottom of the table to move to the next page.

Read more:

• At a glance: The countries hit hardest by these plans
• UK: What this means for you and your money
• Explainer: What are tariffs, and why is Trump using them?
• Analysis: Trump's tariffs are his biggest gamble yet

At least 27 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in northern Gaza that was serving as a shelter for displaced families, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

Dozens more were wounded when the Dar al-Arqam school in the north-eastern Tuffah district of Gaza City was hit, it cited a local hospital as saying.

The Israeli military said it struck "prominent terrorists who were in a Hamas command and control centre" in the city, without mentioning a school.

The health ministry earlier reported the killing of another 97 people in Israeli attacks over the previous 24 hours, as Israel said its ground offensive was expanding to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory.

The spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, Mahmoud Bassal, said children and women were among the dead following the strike on Dar al-Arqam school.

He also said a woman who was heavily pregnant with twins was missing along with her husband, her sister, and her three children.

Video from the nearby al-Ahli hospital showed children being rushed there in cars and trucks with serious injuries.

A statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the site in Gaza City that it struck had been used by Hamas fighters to plan attacks against Israeli civilians and troops.

It added that numerous steps had been taken to mitigate harm to civilians.

Overnight, at least 12 people were killed when several homes in Gaza City's eastern Shejaiya district were struck, the Civil Defence said.

It posted a video that appeared to show the bodies of two young children being pulled by rescuers from the remains of a collapsed building.

A witness, who asked not to be named, told BBC Arabic's Gaza Lifeline programme that he had been sleeping when he was "suddenly shaken by a violent explosion and discovered that it occurred at the house of our neighbours, the Ayyad family".

There was no immediate comment from the IDF, but on Thursday morning it ordered residents of Shejaiya and four neighbouring areas to immediately evacuate to western Gaza City, warning that it was "operating with great force... to destroy the terrorist infrastructure".

This week, the IDF issued similar evacuation orders for several areas of northern Gaza, as well as the entire southern city of Rafah and parts of neighbouring Khan Younis, prompting around 100,000 Palestinians to flee, according to the UN.

Israel renewed its aerial bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza on 18 March after the first phase of a ceasefire and hostage release deal agreed with Hamas in January came to an end and negotiations on a second phase of the deal stalled.

The IDF's chief spokesperson, Brig-Gen Effie Defrin, told a briefing on Thursday that its operation had "progressed to another stage" in recent days.

"We have expanded operations in the southern Gaza Strip with the goal of encircling and dividing the Rafah area," he said. "In northern Gaza, our troops are operating against terrorist targets, clearing the area, and dismantling terrorist infrastructure."

He added that over the past two weeks Israeli forces had struck more than 600 "terrorist targets" across Gaza and "eliminated more than 250 terrorists".

Before the strike in Tuffah, Gaza's health ministry had said that at least 1,163 people had been killed over the same period. A UN agency has said they include more than 300 children.

On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces were establishing another military corridor that would cut off Rafah from Khan Younis.

He argued that military pressure would force Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages it is holding, up to 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

However, Hamas said it would not engage with Israel's latest proposal for a new ceasefire, which is said to have been co-ordinated with the US, one of the mediators in the negotiations.

The Palestinian group said it accepted only the plan put forward by the two other mediators, Qatar and Egypt, for a 50-day truce.

The full details of that plan have not been disclosed, but it is understood the regional proposal would see five hostages being released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of Gaza where they have recently redeployed, and the influx of humanitarian aid. There would also be negotiations on ending the war.

Israel wants a larger number of hostages be released at the start of a new truce.

In another development on Thursday, the IDF said the general staff's fact-finding mechanism was investigating the killing by Israeli forces of 15 Palestinian emergency workers near Rafah on 23 March, as well as their burial in what a UN official described as a "mass grave".

"We want to have all the facts in a way that's accurate and we can also hold accountable people if we need to," an IDF spokesman said.

A Palestinian paramedic who survived the attack, speaking to the BBC, challenged the Israeli account of how five ambulances, a fire engine and a UN vehicle were fired on while responding to emergency calls.

The military said the vehicles were "advancing suspiciously" towards its troops without headlights or emergency signals. It also said a Hamas operative and "eight other terrorists" were among those killed, but named only one.

The survivor, Munther Abed, insisted that "all lights were on" until the vehicles came under direct fire. He also rejected the military's claim that Hamas might have used the ambulances as cover, saying all the emergency workers were civilians.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

More than 50,520 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.

Social media influencers pose a "new and increasing threat" for uncontacted indigenous people, a charity has warned after the arrest of a US tourist who travelled to a restricted Indian Ocean island.

Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, allegedly landed on North Sentinel Island in an apparent attempt to make contact with the isolated Sentinelese tribe, filming his visit and leaving a can of coke and a coconut on the shore.

Survival International, a group that advocates for the rights of tribal people, said the alleged act endangered the man's own life and the lives of the tribe, calling it "deeply disturbing".

The US said it was aware and "monitoring the situation".

Andaman and Nicobar Islands' police chief HGS Dhaliwal told news agency AFP that "an American citizen" had been presented before the local court and was remanded for three days for "further interrogation".

AFP, citing Mr Dhaliwal, said Mr Polyakov blew a whistle off the shore of the island in a bid to attract the attention of the tribe for about an hour.

He then landed for about five minutes, leaving his offerings, collecting samples and recording a video.

The police chief told AFP: "A review of his GoPro camera footage showed his entry and landing into the restricted North Sentinel Island."

It is illegal for foreigners or Indians to travel within 5km (three miles) of the islands in order to protect the people living there.

According to police, Mr Polyakov has visited the region twice before - including using an inflatable kayak in October last year before he was stopped by hotel staff.

On his arrest earlier this week, the man told police he was a "thrill seeker", Indian media reported.

Survival International said the Sentinelese have made their wish to avoid outsiders clear over many years and underlined that such visits pose a threat to a community which has no immunity to outside diseases.

Jonathan Mazower, spokesperson for Survival International, told the BBC they feared social media was adding to the list of threats for uncontacted tribal people. Several media reports have linked Mr Polyakov to a YouTube account, which features videos of a recent trip to Afghanistan.

"As well as all the somewhat more established threats to such peoples - from things like logging and mining in the Amazon where most uncontacted peoples live - there are now an increasing number of... influencers who are trying to do this kind of thing for followers," Mr Mazower said.

"There's a growing social media fascination with this whole idea."

Survival International describes the Sentinelese as "the most isolated Indigenous people in the world" living on an island around the size of Manhattan.

Mr Mazower told the BBC an estimated 200 people belong to the tribe, before adding it was "impossible" to know its true number.

Few details are known about the group, other than they are a hunter-gatherer community who live in small settlements and are "extremely healthy", he said.

He added that the incident highlighted why government protections for communities such as the Sentinelese are so important.

The UN's Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention sets out obligations for governments to protect the rights. India's government has an initiative focusing on tribal welfare, but the country has come under criticism in recent years for failing to protect against evictions.

It is not the first time an outsider has attempted to make contact with the Sentinelese.

In November 2018, John Allen Chau, also a US national, was killed by the tribe after visiting the same island.

Local officials said the 27-year-old was a Christian missionary.

Mr Chau was shot with bows and arrows upon landing. Reports at the time suggested he had bribed fisherman to take him to the island.