US President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs on more than 90 countries around the world have come into effect.

Just before the deadline for deals to be agreed to cut or avoid the import taxes Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that billions of dollars were now flowing into the US due to tariffs.

Earlier, the president hit India with a 50% tariff, which will take effect on 27 August unless it stops buying Russian oil.

Trump also threatened a 100% tariff on foreign-made computer chips as he pushes tech firms to invest in the US. It came as Apple announced a new $100bn (£75bn) US investment after coming under pressure from the White House to move more production to America.

Last week, the Trump administration announced a revised list of import taxes on dozens of trading partners and extended a deadline for countries to reach agreements with the US to 7 August.

Countries have been racing to strike deals with Washington to lower – or scrap – what Trump calls “reciprocal tariffs”.

His trade policies are aimed at reshaping the global trading system, which he sees as treating the US unfairly.

Export-dependent economies in South East Asia were among the hardest-hit by the new tariffs.

Manufacturing-focused Laos and Myanmar faced some of the highest levies at 40%. Some experts said Trump appears to have targeted countries with close trade ties with China.

Stock markets in Asia seemed to take the news in their stride on Thursday.

Major share indexes in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and mainland China were a little higher, while markets in India and Australia were lower.

The latest set of tariffs will offer countries some stability after months of chaos, said economist Bert Hofman from the National University of Singapore.

“This is supposed to be it. Now you can start to analyse the impact of the tariffs.”

Some major economies – including the UK, Japan and South Korea – have already reached agreements to get lower tariffs than Trump threatened in April.

The European Union has also struck a framework deal with Washington, in which Brussels has accepted a 15% tariff on goods from the trading bloc.

Switzerland has said it will hold an extraordinary meeting on Thursday after its officials were unable to reach a deal with the US.

At 39%, Switzerland’s tariff rate is one of the highest imposed by the US and threatens to hit the country’s economy hard.

Taiwan, a key Washington ally in Asia, was handed a 20% tariff. Its president Lai Ching-te said the rate is “temporary” and that talks with the US are still underway.

Last week, Trump boosted the tariff rate on Canada from 25% to 35%, saying the country had “failed to cooperate” in curbing the flow of fentanyl and other drugs across the US border. The Canadian government says it is cracking down on drug gangs.

But most Canadian exports to the US will dodge the import tax due to an existing trade treaty, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Higher tariffs on Mexico were paused for another 90 days as negotiations continue to strike a trade deal.

On Wednesday, Trump said he would impose a 100% tariff on foreign-made semiconductors.

Major chipmakers that have made significant investments in the US appear to have dodged the new tariff. Government officials in Taiwan and South Korea have said in separate statements that TSMC, SK Hynix, and Samsung would be exempt from the new levy.

The White House did not immediately respond to a BBC request for clarification.

The BBC has also contacted SK Hynix and Samsung. TSMC declined to comment.

Also on Wednesday, Trump raised the total tariff on India to 50% as he pushes the world’s third largest importer of energy to stop buying oil from Russia.

New Delhi has called the move “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable” and vowed to protect its national interests.

The move marks a “sharp change” in Trump’s approach to Moscow that could spark concerns among other countries in talks with the US, said market analyst Farhan Badami from financial services firm eToro.

“There is the possibility here that India is only the first target that Trump intends to punish for maintaining trade relations with Russia.”

Brazil’s exports to the US also face a 50% tariff. Trump imposed the levy after accusing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of unfairly attacking US technology firms and calling the prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly attempting a coup a “witch hunt”.

The US and China have held a series of talks as they tried to agree an extension to a 90-day tariffs pause that is due to expire on 12 August.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

After nearly two years of war, Hamas’s military capability is severely weakened and its political leadership under intense pressure.

Yet, throughout the war Hamas has managed to continue to use a secret cash-based payment system to pay 30,000 civil servants’ salaries totalling $7m (£5.3m).

The BBC has spoken to three civil servants who have confirmed they have received nearly $300 each within the last week.

It’s believed they are among tens of thousands of employees who have continued to receive a maximum of just over 20% of their pre-war salary every 10 weeks.

Amid soaring inflation, the token salary – a fraction of the full amount – is causing rising resentment among the party faithful.

Severe food shortages – which aid agencies blame on Israeli restrictions – and rising cases of acute malnutrition continue in Gaza, where a kilogramme of flour in recent weeks has cost as much as $80 – an all-time high.

With no functioning banking system in Gaza, even receiving the salary is complex and at times, dangerous. Israel regularly identifies and targets Hamas salary distributors, seeking to disrupt the group’s ability to govern.

Employees, from police officers to tax officials, often receive an encrypted message on their own phones or their spouses’ instructing them to go to a specific location at a specific time to “meet a friend for tea”.

At the meeting point, the employee is approached by a man – or occasionally a woman – who discreetly hands over a sealed envelope containing the money before vanishing without further interaction.

An employee at the Hamas Ministry of Religious Affairs, who doesn’t want to give his name for safety reasons, described the dangers involved in collecting his wages.

“Every time I go to pick up my salary, I say goodbye to my wife and children. I know that I may not return,” he said. “On several occasions, Israeli strikes have hit the salary distribution points. I survived one that targeted a busy market in Gaza City.”

Alaa, whose name we have changed to protect his identity, is a schoolteacher employed by the Hamas-run government and the sole provider for a family of six.

“I received 1,000 shekels (about $300) in worn-out banknotes – no trader would accept them. Only 200 shekels were usable – the rest, I honestly don’t know what to do with,” he told the BBC.

“After two-and-a-half months of hunger, they pay us in tattered cash.

“I’m often forced to go to aid distribution points in the hope of getting some flour to feed my children. Sometimes I succeed in bringing home a little, but most of the time I fail.”

In March the Israeli military said they had killed the head of Hamas’s finances, Ismail Barhoum, in a strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. They accused him of channelling funds to Hamas’s military wing.

It remains unclear how Hamas has managed to continue funding salary payments given the destruction of much of its administrative and financial infrastructure.

One senior Hamas employee, who served in high positions and is familiar with Hamas’s financial operations, told the BBC that the group had stockpiled approximately $700m in cash and hundreds of millions of shekels in underground tunnels prior to the group’s deadly 7 October 2023 attack in southern Israel, which sparked the devastating Israeli military campaign.

These were allegedly overseen directly by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his brother Mohammed – both of whom have since been killed by Israeli forces.

Hamas has historically relied on funding from heavy import duties and taxes imposed on Gaza’s population, as well as receiving millions of dollars of support from Qatar.

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing which operates through a separate financial system, is financed mainly by Iran.

A senior official from the banned Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most influential Islamist organisations in the world, has said that around 10% of their budget was also directed to Hamas.

In order to generate revenue during the war, Hamas has also continued to levy taxes on traders and has sold large quantities of cigarettes at inflated prices up to 100 times their original cost. Before the war, a box of 20 cigarettes cost $5 – that has now risen to more than $170.

In addition to cash payments, Hamas has distributed food parcels to its members and their families via local emergency committees whose leadership is frequently rotated due to repeated Israeli strikes.

That has fuelled public anger, with many residents in Gaza accusing Hamas of distributing aid only to its supporters and excluding the wider population.

Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid that has entered Gaza during the ceasefire earlier this year, something Hamas denies. However BBC sources in Gaza have said that significant quantities of aid were taken by Hamas during this time.

Nisreen Khaled, a widow left caring for three children after her husband died of cancer five years ago, told the BBC: “When the hunger worsened, my children were crying not only from pain but also from watching our Hamas-affiliated neighbours receive food parcels and sacks of flour.

“Are they not the reason for our suffering? Why didn’t they secure food, water, and medicine before launching their 7 October adventure?”

Twice a week, Ben Bradshaw drops his young son off at a Sydney childcare centre before heading off to work.

Like thousands of parents and carers across Australia, the 40-year-old had always been confident that the staff have his child’s best interests at heart.

But in recent months, that trust in the childcare system has been “eroded”, the father-of-two says, after several high-profile cases of alleged sexual and physical abuse at centres across Australia.

“It’s that old adage of cockroaches – if you see one in your house, there’s 10 that you don’t see. These are the ones that get caught. It’s more scary the ones that you can’t see,” he tells the BBC.

In the past few weeks, 2,000 children in Victoria have been urged to undergo infectious disease testing after a childcare worker was charged with the mass sexual abuse of babies; police have named a Sydney man who worked for 60 after-school-care providers and is accused of taking “explicit” images of children under his supervision; a Queensland woman has faced court over allegations she tortured a one-year-old boy; and another two workers in Sydney have been charged after a toddler was left covered in bruises.

It comes as the nation is still reeling from the crimes of childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith – dubbed “one of Australia’s worst paedophiles” – who was late last year sentenced to life in prison for raping and sexually abusing almost 70 girls.

The series of allegations have sparked panic and fear among parents, child safety advocates have demanded action to fix what they call a dangerously incompetent system, and politicians have promised reform to keep Australia’s most vulnerable safe.

“Some childcare centres are still safe, but the current childcare system is definitely not working to protect children or prioritise their safety,” says Hetty Johnston, a leading child protection advocate.

“It fails at every step.”

In recent years, there has been a nationwide push to give more children access to early childhood education and care, which research indicates has many positive long-term impacts.

Millions of dollars have been poured into the sector from federal and state governments, including funding to guarantee three days of childcare for low and middle-income families.

Such measures have prompted rapid growth in the sector, with a rush of new centres opening which has deepened a shortage of qualified staff.

The growth has led to “significant vulnerabilities”, says Prof Leah Bromfield, director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection.

“Whenever you grow something really quickly, that comes with risks,” she says, listing off a lack of regulation and monitoring, limited training for managers, and the disparate and casual nature of the workforce.

“You put all that together and you’ve created a weak system from the perspective of a predatory perpetrator… a system where it’s easier to infiltrate.”

In the wake of the Melbourne child sexual abuse case where Joshua Dale Brown was charged with 70 counts of abuse against eight babies, the federal government gave itself greater powers to strip funding from providers that breach quality and safety standards.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the measure was not designed to “shut down centres” but rather increase pressure for them to “raise standards”.

But Mr Bradshaw wants more. He says taking away funding from a centre “doesn’t stop the crime, it just punishes it”.

“You have to do things that are proactive in nature.”

The spate of alleged crimes have sparked a heated national conversation about how to better protect kids. Limiting the role of men in childcare is one of the most controversial suggestions.

There was a public call to ban men from certain tasks such as changing nappies and taking children to the toilet – though some warned this could place extra pressure on female staff.

“It’s not about banning male educators, but about providing families with agency and informed choice,” says Louise Edmonds, an advocate for child abuse survivors.

Brown’s case prompted G8 Education – who owned the centre where he worked – to introduce so-called “intimate care waivers”, giving parents and carers the opportunity to choose who carried out private and sensitive duties. It also pledged to install CCTV at all of its centres.

Ms Johnston – who founded child protection group Bravehearts – says these are natural responses, but cautioned that, though “men are definitely a higher risk”, women do abuse children too and offenders can do so in all kinds of settings.

“They are opportunistic… when others don’t pay attention, when they are distracted, complacent, disinterested or too trusting, they create ‘opportunities’ for offenders.”

Other practical measures centres could adopt to improve child safety include having two educators with direct line of sight of children at all times and getting rid of blind spots in centres – replacing solid doors with glass panes, eliminating windowless walls, and putting more mirrors up to create “incidental supervision”.

“It’s all about reducing opportunities for predators to isolate or conceal in nooks and crannies,” Ms Johnston says.

But massive system reform is also long overdue, experts say.

In 2017, more than 400 recommendations emerged from a years-long royal commission into child sex abuse in institutional settings – like churches, schools and childcare – but critics say progress has stalled on some of the most significant changes.

One of those outstanding recommendations, to be discussed by the country’s attorneys-general at a meeting this month, is to overhaul Australia’s checks on those who work with children.

Currently, each state and territory complete what is essentially a police check required for those who work alongside children, but they don’t share the information with each other. Advocates have called for a nationalised system, but some say the checks themselves don’t go far enough.

“It’s inconsistent, relies too heavily on prior convictions,” Ms Edmonds says.

For instance, many say, the system should capture red flags such as formal complaints, workplace warnings, police intelligence, and people identified as alleged abusers in confidential applications to the national redress scheme set up after the royal commission.

Casting a broader net is important, experts argue, as child abuse allegations can be difficult to stand up in court. Often the witnesses are young children, who are either non-verbal or have limited vocabulary, may struggle with memory, and often have a lack of situational understanding.

“Catching someone red-handed and being able to prove it beyond reasonable doubt is almost impossible,” Ms Johnston says.

That’s why Prof Bromfield is among those calling for a national registration scheme for the childcare sector – like those that exist for doctors or teachers. It would require workers to prove their qualifications, could provide a detailed work history, and would bind them all by a code of conduct.

Advocates argue the system could also capture many of the things the working- with-children checks currently do not.

“Often in child sexual abuse cases, when you look back, you see lots and lots of red flags,” Prof Bromfield says.

“There might be a pattern, but [at the moment] we just don’t see that because they are moving between states or between sectors or between providers.”

Mr Bradshaw says having access to more information about staff would help parents like him make informed decisions.

Childcare is a necessity for his family, he explains, as he works full-time and his wife, a high school teacher, works four days a week.

But often, there’s little detail about the childcare centre’s staff “beyond the pictures on the wall” of the teachers and educators, so parents often have to assess a provider “based on vibes”.

“It’s a bit of a blackbox and you’re bound because you need to have your kids in childcare so you can pay for living in a big city.”

That’s where greater education for parents is needed too, Prof Bromfield says, so they know what questions to ask and, in the worst-case scenarios, how to spot signs of grooming themselves.

Tips include enquiring about a provider’s child safety policies, asking about its staff turnover, and assessing the physical spaces for any visibility issues.

There also needs to be better, more regular training for managers in the sector on how to prevent and identify problematic behaviour or patterns, experts say.

For Prof Bromfield – who was part of the team which conducted the royal commission into child sex abuse – these are conversations she has been having for over a decade.

But she is hopeful the current crisis will shock Australia into taking greater action.

“Perhaps one of the things that will happen is there will be greater political will to prioritise safety for children,” Prof Bromfield says.

“The big lesson is that we can never rest on our laurels when it comes to children’s safety.

“Perpetrators just keep getting smarter, working around the systems we’ve got. We can’t forget the lessons of the past… and we can’t assume that this is a problem that’s gone away.”

While torrential rains lash China, Pakistan and parts of India, sweltering heat has enveloped Japan and South Korea as extreme weather claims hundreds of lives in the region.

Climate change has made weather extremities more intense, frequent and unpredictable, scientists say.

This pattern is especially pronounced in Asia, which according to the World Meteorological Organization is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average.

The region has lost $2 trillion (£1.5 trillion) to extreme weather – from floods to heatwaves and droughts – over the past three decades, according to the annual Climate Risk Index survey.

Japan marked its hottest day on record on Tuesday, with 41.8C (107F) registered in Isesaki city, Gunma prefecture.

The country had also experienced its hottest-ever June and July this year.

Fifty-six people are believed to have died from heatstroke between mid-June and the end of July, Tokyo’s medical examiner’s office said earlier this week.

Authorities have suspended some train services over concerns that the heat could warp or deform the rails.

“I’m really concerned about global warming, but when it comes to my daily life, I can’t live without turning on the air conditioner,” an office worker in Japan told AFP news.

“I don’t really know what I should be doing, I’m just desperately getting through each day.”

This intense heat is expected to ease a little in the coming days, with some parts of Japan expected to see as much as 200mm of rain in the coming days.

This rain and briefly cooler air will allow some relief from the swelter.

South Korea marked a record streak of 22 “tropical nights” in July where temperatures exceeded 25C.

Last month, the country’s emergency services also reported a surge in calls about heat-related illnesses.

Government agencies and workplaces have relaxed their dress codes to help employees work more comfortably and reduce dependence on air conditioning amid the heat.

Parts of Vietnam are also baking in unprecedented heat, with Hanoi recording its first-ever August day above 40C. The capital city has turned into “a pan on fire” in the last few days, Nam, a construction worker, told AFP.

It’s a different picture in China, where floods across the country, from Shanghai to Beijing, have killed many in recent weeks.

Southern China has been battered by heavy rain, and on Wednesday emergency workers raced to clear debris as the region braced for more landslides and floods.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. The flooded streets are threatening to worsen an outbreak of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus in the province.

Such rains are frequent in southern China at this time of the year, but have been enhanced further by tropical storm activity – more especially in the last month.

Just last week, there were three active storms in the west Pacific, whilst prior to June, tropical storm activity was almost non-existent.

Mountainous districts of the capital Beijng late last month were hit by deadly floods late last month which killed dozens including 31 residents in an eldercare home.

Heavy rains are especially deadly in mountainous areas prone to landslides and densely populated areas, where flash floods often catch residents off-guard.

More than 100 people are missing in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand after a cloudburst – an extreme, sudden downpour of rain over a small area – triggered flash floods.

In Pakistan, nearly 300 people, including more than 100 children, have died in rain-related incidents since June. The deluge has also destroyed hundreds of homes and buildings – at least a quarter of schools in the Punjab province have been partially or completely damaged, according to British aid agency Save the Children.

Tuesday also brought more than 350mm of rain to Hong Kong, which reports say makes it the city’s wettest August day since 1884.

For context, Hong Kong gets about 2400mm a year, most of which falls in summer between June and August.

US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order hitting India with an additional 25% tariff over its purchases of Russian oil.

That will raise the total tariff on Indian imports to the United States to 50% – among the highest rates imposed by the US.

The new rate will come into effect in 21 days, so on 27 August, according to the executive order.

A response from India’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said Delhi had already made clear its stance on imports from Russia, and reiterated that the tariff is “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.

“It is therefore extremely unfortunate that the US should choose to impose additional tariffs on India for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest,” the brief statement read.

“India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests,” it added.

The US president had earlier warned he would raise levies, saying India doesn’t “care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine”.

On Wednesday, the White House said in a statement that the “Russian Federation’s actions in Ukraine pose an ongoing threat to US national security and foreign policy, necessitating stronger measures to address the national emergency”.

It said India’s imports of Russian oil undermine US efforts to counter Russia’s activities in Ukraine.

It added that the US will determine which other countries import oil from Russia, and will “recommend further actions to the President as needed”.

Oil and gas are Russia’s biggest exports, and Moscow’s biggest customers include China, India and Turkey.

Russia is now the biggest seller of oil to India, accounting for more than 35% of India’s overall supplies, according to global commodities data platform Kpler.

Trade data shared with the Reuters news agency showed that India bought about 1.75 million barrels a day of Russian oil in the first six month of this year.

Speaking later at an event in the White House, Trump took a question from the BBC on the subject and said the tariff on India was just the start – “You’re going to see a lot more, so much secondary sanctions,” he said.

• Trump-Modi ties hit rock bottom with new tariffs
• How secondary tariffs on Russia could hit world economy

The threatened tariff hike follows meetings on Wednesday by Trump’s top envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, aimed at securing peace between Russia and Ukraine.

The additional tariff would mean a steep 50% duty on key Indian exports like textiles, gems and jewellery, auto parts, and seafood, hitting major job-creating sectors.

Electronics, including iPhones, and pharma remain exempt for now.

Delhi has previously called Trump’s threat to raise tariffs over its purchase of oil from Russia “unjustified and unreasonable”.

In an earlier statement, a spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry said the US had encouraged India to import Russian gas at the start of the conflict, “for strengthening global energy markets stability”.

He said India “began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict”.

The latest threatened tariff demonstrates Trump’s willingness to impose sanctions related to the war in Ukraine even against nations that the US considers to be important allies or trading partners.

This could be a warning that other countries could feel a real bite if Trump ramps up those kind of sanctions once Friday’s deadline passes, when the US president has threatened new sanctions on Russia and to place 100% tariffs on countries that purchase its oil.

This would not be the first time the Trump administration has imposed secondary tariffs, which are also in place to punish buyers of Venezuelan oil.

India has previously criticised the US – its largest trading partner – for introducing the levies, when the US itself is still doing trade with Russia.

Last year, the US traded goods worth an estimated $3.5bn (£2.6bn) with Russia, despite tough sanctions and tariffs.

Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have in the past referred to each other as friends and, during Trump’s first term, attended political rallies in each others’ countries.

But that has not stopped Trump from hitting India with the levies, suggesting diverging interests between New Delhi and Washington.

The Federation of India Exports Organisations has called the decision to impose additional tariffs “extremely shocking”, adding that it will hit 55% of India’s exports to America.

The tariffs are expected to make Indian goods far costlier in the US, and could cut US-bound exports by 40–50%, according to the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think tank.

“India should remain calm, avoid retaliation for at least six months, and recognise that meaningful trade negotiations with the US cannot proceed under threats or mistrust,” former Indian trade official and head of GTRI, Ajay Srivastava, said.

Once branded “Australia’s worst mother” but now considered the victim of one of its greatest miscarriages of justice, Kathleen Folbigg has been offered A$2m (£975,580, $1.3m) in compensation for 20 years of wrongful imprisonment.

Ms Folbigg was convicted over the deaths of her four babies in 2003, but freed in 2023 after a judicial review of her case found they may have died of a genetic condition.

Legal experts had estimated that the 58-year-old could expect one of the highest compensation payouts in Australian history, likely upwards of $10m.

However, on Thursday Ms Folbigg’s lawyer said the she had been offered $2m by the government, which they called “profoundly unfair and unjust”.

“The sum offered is a moral affront – woefully inadequate and ethically indefensible,” Rhanee Rego said in a statement.

“The system has failed Kathleen Folbigg once again.”

In a statement, New South Wales Attorney General Michael Daley said the decision was based on “thorough and extensive” consideration of Ms Folbigg’s application for compensation.

“At Ms Folbigg’s request, the Attorney General and government have agreed to not publicly discuss the details of the decision.”

Ms Folbigg’s four infant children – Caleb, Patrick, Sarah, and Laura – each died suddenly between 1989 and 1999, aged between 19 days and 18 months.

Prosecutors at her trial alleged she had smothered them, relying on circumstantial evidence – including Ms Folbigg’s diaries – to paint her as an unstable mother, prone to rage.

In 2003, she was sentenced to 40 years in jail for the murders of Sarah, Patrick and Laura, and the manslaughter of Caleb, later downgraded to 30 years on appeal.

Ms Folbigg has always maintained her innocence, and in 2023 a landmark inquiry into her case found her children could have died of natural causes because of incredibly rare gene mutations.

Ms Rego said the payment offered to Ms Folbigg did not fairly take into account the suffering she had endured.

“When Lindy Chamberlain was exonerated in 1994, she received $1.7 million for three years in prison,” she said, referencing another mother falsely convicted of murder after her infant daughter was taken from an outback campsite by a dingo.

“Kathleen Folbigg spent two decades in prison, yet for her wrongful imprisonment she has been offered $2 million.”

After her release, forensic criminologist Xanthe Mallett told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation she “wouldn’t be surprised” if compensation awarded was upwards of A$10m.

Meanwhile, Professor Gary Edmond, from the University of NSW, told the Guardian Australia that Ms Folbigg’s compensation payout “would have to be” the largest in the country’s history.

Other local media reported that she could receive damages of up to A$20m.

Famed Australian crocodile wrangler Matt Wright urged friends to “torch” evidence and tried to pressure a hospitalised witness after a fatal helicopter crash, prosecutors have told his trial.

The former Netflix star is accused of three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice over the crocodile-egg-harvesting disaster in 2022.

Mr Wright’s friend and Outback Wrangler co-star Chris “Willow” Wilson, who was suspended from the aircraft in a sling, died when it hit the ground. Pilot Sebastian Robinson also was seriously injured.

Mr Wright has pleaded not guilty, and his defence team deny he tampered with any evidence.

In their opening address to the Northern Territory (NT) Supreme Court, the prosecution said it was not alleging that Mr Wright was responsible for the crash, but accused him of interfering with the investigation.

He was not on board but was among the first on the scene in Arnhem Land, about 500km (310 miles) east of Darwin.

The court was told he had a “play around” with the dashboard of the damaged helicopter and falsely reported its fuel tank level.

Prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC also claimed Mr Wright was involved in “systemic under-recording” of flight hours and, worried he might be blamed for the crash, tried to destroy or alter the logs for the helicopter involved.

The jury was on Thursday shown transcripts of secret recordings made inside Mr Wright’s home, including a “critical passage” in which prosecutors claimed he was discussing requests from aviation authorities looking into the incident.

“Just torch it. I don’t know where it is but I’m thinking it’s either there – I’ve got to send it to CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority) or the ATSB (Australian Transport Safety Bureau),” Mr Wright said, according to the transcript provided by prosecutors.

Mr Gullaci also told the court that Mr Wright had visited Mr Robinson at a Brisbane hospital to put “the hard word” on the injured pilot. He alleged Mr Wright asked Mr Robinson to transfer flight hours from the crashed aircraft to another helicopter.

During the defence’s opening statement, lawyer David Edwardson SC said that under-recording flight hours was standard practice for many pilots in the NT – but Mr Wright “emphatically denies” he broke the law trying to cover this up.

Both parties agree that authorities were ultimately provided the correct, original flight records, he said, and recordings captured inside Mr Wright’s home and relied upon for two of the key allegations were “extremely poor”.

He added that the defence would dispute the evidence of conversations between Mr Wright and Mr Robinson, saying the pilot’s credibility – as well as his extended family’s – was “seriously in issue”.

Mr Wright is best known globally as the star of National Geographic’s Outback Wrangler and Netflix’s Wild Croc Territory reality shows. The 43-year-old also owns several local tourism businesses and has been a tourism ambassador for Australia.

His trial is expected to run for up to five weeks.