North Korea’s military has suffered “multiple casualties” after landmines exploded in the heavily armed border that separates the country from South Korea, local media reported on Tuesday.

The explosions in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) were reported just hours before the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was due to visit the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, for the first time since 2000.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency referred to “casualties” caused by landmine explosions, while the NK News website quoted the military as saying several soldiers had been “maimed or killed”.

In what appears to be an unrelated incident, dozens of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border on Tuesday for the second time in less than two weeks, but retreated after warning shots were fired, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The DMZ has separated the two Koreas since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, but not a peace treaty.

The 4km (2.5-mile) wide strip of land bisecting the peninsula is strewn with landmines designed to deter enemy troops from making incursions that could upset the delicate decades-old standoff along the border.

The North Korean troops injured in the landmine explosions were working on creating “barren land” and laying additional mines along the border, an official from the JCS said, without revealing the date of the incident.

The soldiers had “suffering multiple casualties from repeated landmine explosion incidents during their work,” it said.

On Tuesday, an estimated 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers carrying tools crossed the Military Demarcation Line dividing the two countries on Tuesday morning, Yonhap said, citing the JCS.

The soldiers left after forces in the South fired warning shots and broadcast warnings via loudspeakers set up along the border, the JCS said, adding that the brief incursion appeared to have been accidental.

The incidents come at a time of rising tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul.

In recent weeks, the North has sent more than 1,000 balloons laden with rubbish to the South, where activists reciprocated with those containing anti-North Korean leaflets and flash drives loaded with K-pop and TV dramas.

The South also suspended a 2018 agreement designed to reduce cross-border tensions and resumed pop music and propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers set up along the 155-mile long border.

Yonhap quoted a JCS official as saying that the border work had been carried out in locations where North Koreans had fled to the South.

“North Korea’s activities seem to be a measure to strengthen internal control, such as blocking North Korean troops and North Koreans from defecting to the South,” the JCS official said.

North Korea has deployed hundreds of troops to lay mines, build walls and reinforce roads in recent weeks, Yonhap said. Earlier this month, the South fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed an overgrown section of the border, apparently by accident.

Our field club recently visited this area of wild ground on the edge of town called Danes Moss. The trip was inspired by local naturalists who have logged more than 1,600 plant and animal species there in short order.

That urgency to record its wildlife has been driven, in turn, by Cheshire East council, which has earmarked Danes Moss for 900 new houses. Not only does this decision ride roughshod over all the implications entailed in that biodiversity, it follows decades of encroachment that has already consumed half the site for human use.

The new proposals are also judged to entail the release of 220,000 tonnes of CO₂. That’s because it’s a raised peat bog, the largest in Cheshire and the one rare habitat sequestering more carbon than all others, including rainforest. As well as a buffer for our climate change, Danes Moss is a remarkable living, breathing space – a mosaic of quagmire interspersed with flower-smothered paddocks and lush marsh vegetation bounded by jungles of birch and willow.

The place is currently host to a million insects. As we zoned in on these marvels, one after the other, it was easy to forget that all the abundance could be destroyed. We soon found a new one to add to the site total – an earth-hugging grasshopper relative called the common groundhopper. Despite apparent modesty, groundhoppers are joyous creatures, and every one I’ve ever seen has had unique colour patterns. This little fid of life is also far more complex, more full of mystery than any dead star the astronomers would have us fuss over in outer space.

Find of the day, however, was smaller still and would fit on your pinky as on a throne. It’s a moth called little longhorn, a smudge of glittering copper barred with white and only found at one place in Cheshire. You can guess where. What that presence implies is something about all great living places: they exist in four dimensions. Danes Moss is as old as any landscape in our region and a 5,000-year continuous commonwealth of life. To violate it will symbolise yet again how this nation takes its place among the most nature-depleted on Earth.

A suspected bird strike has caused a Virgin Australia plane to make an emergency landing in New Zealand after one of its engines caught fire shortly after takeoff.

The Melbourne-bound flight left Queenstown on Monday evening with footage emerging later that appeared to show fire coming from the Boeing 737-800.

Flight tracking websites show that immediately after taking off the plane headed south from Queenstown – rather than west to Melbourne as was scheduled.

It performed a holding pattern while flying over the South Island before landing at the airport in Invercargill, about 150km south of Queenstown.

The Boeing 737-800 jet was carrying 67 passengers and six crew. It landed safely about 50 minutes after leaving Queenstown and was met by fire trucks on the tarmac.

“At this time, we are not aware of any physical injuries to guests or crew,” Virgin Australia’s chief operations officer, Stuart Aggs, said.

Passengers said they saw flames coming from one of the engines and heard loud bangs, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Michael Hayward said it was completely dark outside when the plane took off at 6pm local time.

“Within 10 seconds of going airborne, you hear just the loudest ‘bang’, golden lights filling within the cabin and a burst of flames off the right-hand engine,” he told ABC radio.

Hayward said he was quite anxious as were the other passengers – with a few cries in the cabin as people realised something had gone wrong.

“I could see flames shooting out of [the engine] at regular intervals,” he said, adding the captain later informed passengers the plane had hit a flock of birds.

“There was an initial worry but it wasn’t long until people realised OK, it’s under control, so just sit back, relax and whatever happens happens.”

Queenstown airport’s chief executive, Glen Sowry, said on Tuesday that a bird caught in the engine was the most likely cause of the incident.

“At this stage, we believe that it’s highly probable that it was a bird strike, but until such time as the engine has been inspected by engineers in Invercargill we won’t be able to confirm that for sure,” Sowry told RNZ.

Bird strikes were a known risk but incidents were infrequent, the CEO said. The airport took regular risk-management measures, including keeping the grass short and not allowing standing water nearby.

“If you get a bigger bird that is ingested into an engine, which looks probably what may have occurred on this occasion, then – depending on where in the engine it goes – it can damage critical parts.”

The runway had been inspected two minutes before the plane took off and no bird activity had been recorded, Sowry said.

Aircraft are designed to be able to operate and land using one engine.

The Virgin Australia flight most likely took a pre-determined safe route, designed for instances of engine failure, to avoid nearby mountains, Sowry said on Tuesday.

Queenstown airport released a statement confirming the flight “experienced an issue just after takeoff” and was diverted to Invercargill.

Passengers were given accommodation in Invercargill overnight and were then transported back to Queenstown airport where they were expected to be booked on alternative flights to Australia on Tuesday.

The rate of birds striking planes at New Zealand’s airports is about four in every 10,000 aircraft movements, the country’s aviation regulator says on its website.

– Additional reporting Australian Associated Press

The pop star and soon-to-be Glastonbury headliner Dua Lipa has said she is willing to risk a backlash over political statements after she recently described military operations in Gaza as “Israeli genocide”.

In an interview with the Radio Times, the 28-year-old said she repeatedly checked herself before making a statement, but did so if she felt it was for the “greater good” and worth the risk.

The Grammy award-winner last month reposted to her 88 million Instagram followers a graphic from the group Artists4Ceasefire, along with the hashtag #AllEyesOnRafah, which trended in the days after Israel’s bombing of the city in Gaza.

She wrote: “Burning children alive can never be justified. The whole world is mobilising to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza.”

Recently, she was referenced in an Israeli drill rap song that called for violence against public figures who have expressed pro-Palestinian views.

Lipa told the Radio Times: “When I speak about things that are political, I double-, triple-check myself to be: ‘OK, this is about something that is way bigger than me, and it’s necessary – and that’s the only reason I’m posting it.’ That is my only solace in doing that.

“It’s always going to be met with a backlash and other people’s opinions, so it’s a big decision. I balance it out, because ultimately I feel it’s for the greater good, so I’m willing to [take that hit].”

Lipa, who was born in London to Kosovan-Albanian parents, suggested her heritage influenced her overt politics.

“[Speaking up is] a natural inclination for me, given my background and heritage, and that my very existence is somewhat political – it’s not something that is out of the ordinary for me to be feeling close to,” she said.

In the same interview, Lipa revealed she continued to support Labour and suggested she would vote for the party in the forthcoming UK elections, but stopped short of backing Keir Starmer personally.

She said: “For me, over the past three or four years, I’ve kind of decided that standing behind a certain political party leader is probably not the route I want to take. I’ve always supported Labour so that’s where I’ll always stand, but I don’t think I’ll be publicly going for or against anyone … because politicians overall just have a way of letting you down.”

Lipa is due to headline Glastonbury at the end of this month on the Pyramid stage in Pilton, Somerset. Her most recent album, Radical Optimism, was released last month to favourable reviews.

Ian McKellen is “in good spirits” and expected to make “a speedy and full recovery” after a fall during Monday evening’s performance of Player Kings, a spokesperson for the Noël Coward theatre in London has said.

McKellen was taken to hospital after the fall. The audience was evacuated from the West End theatre and informed that the evening show was cancelled.

McKellen, 85, who plays John Falstaff, was in a battle scene involving the Prince of Wales and Henry Percy when he fell off the front of the stage.

As the house lights came up, the actor cried out in pain and staff rushed to help, the BBC reported.

Paul Nero, a writer and broadcaster, wrote on X: “Audience shocked by Sir Ian McKellen’s fall off stage tonight at Noel Coward theatre. Staff working hard to help him. Thoughts with him, cast and crew.”

An audience member, Paul Critchley, a Methodist minister from Norfolk, told the PA news agency: “Sir Ian seemed to trip as he moved downstage to take a more active part in the scene.

“He picked up momentum as he moved downstage which resulted in him falling off the stage directly in front of the audience.

“The house lights came up very quickly as the stage management and front of house team dealt with the incident. We were evacuated immediately so that Sir Ian could be treated in privacy.

“An announcement was made by theatre management that the show had been cancelled, that Sir Ian was receiving treatment and an ambulance had been called.

“It was a shock to witness his fall and I wish him a speedy recovery. My thoughts are also with his fellow cast members, stage crew and front of house team at the Noel Coward Theatre.”

Another member of the audience, Sandro Trapani, told the BBC the incident was “very shocking”.

“I really hope that he is going to be all right,” she said. “As far as I saw, he was conscious because he was asking for assistance.”

Player Kings is a production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts I and II, and started its 12-week West End run in April.

The play, adapted and directed by Robert Icke, is due to move to the Bristol Hippodrome in July and will also be staged in Birmingham, Norwich and Newcastle.

McKellen’s career has spanned more than six decades. On screen he is best known for playing Magneto in the X-Men films and Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s fantasy trilogy, based on the books by JRR Tolkien.

On the stage he has played Shakespearean characters including Richard II, Macbeth, Coriolanus and King Lear.

His many acting credits have led to a number of accolades over the years including several Olivier Awards.

A Texas evangelical pastor and former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump has confessed to sexually assaulting a young girl in his past.

Robert Morris, a founding pastor of Dallas-based Gateway megachurch, was accused by an Oklahoma woman of sexual abuse in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 and continuing until the age of 16.

Morris confirmed the allegations to a religious publication, the Christian Post.

In a statement to the Christian Post, Morris said: “When I was in my early 20s, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying.”

In her own statement to the Christian Post, the victim of the assault said she was “appalled” at the description of her as a “young lady” and said the repeated abuse had taken decades for her to process. She said her family had threatened Morris with the police and later considered filing a lawsuit.

Other churches where Morris has ministered, such as Shady Grove church in Grand Prairie, were allegedly aware of his abusive history, but Morris told the Christian Post he received counseling and had since “walked in purity and accountability in this area”.

Shady Grove church became the Gateway church’s Grand Prairie campus in 2013.

Morris told the Christian Post: “In March of 1987, this situation was brought to light, and it was confessed and repented of. I submitted myself to the Elders of Shady Grove Church and the young lady’s father. They asked me to step out of ministry and receive counseling and freedom ministry, which I did.”

Despite his admission, Morris will continue to be a primary speaker at the church on weekends and his son, James Morris, will assume his father’s senior pastor duties next year.

Morris was never criminally charged and by the time his accuser decided to explore legal action, she was advised the statute of limitations for criminal or civil action had probably expired.

In a statement to the local Dallas news outlet WFAA, Gateway church said the “35-year-old matter” had been resolved: “Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago when he was in his 20s and prior to him starting Gateway church. He has shared publicly from the pulpit the proper Biblical steps he took in his lengthy restoration process.

“The two-year restoration process was closely administered by the Elders at Shady Grove Church and included him stepping out of the ministry during that period while receiving professional counseling and freedom ministry counseling. Since the resolution of the 35-year-old matter, there have been no other moral failures.”

Morris’s accuser said while she had forgiven him for the sexual abuse, she did not believe he should have returned to ministry.

Morris was appointed to Trump’s evangelical advisory board for his 2016 presidential campaign.

And in a 2020 roundtable discussion with faith leaders in Texas, then-president Trump thanked two pastors, one of whom was Morris, for attending the event.

“They’re great people. Great people with a great reputation. I have to say that,” Trump said. “Great reputation. And Gateway church – the team has been incredible in hosting us.”

A US military veteran who died earlier this month came out as gay in an obituary published after his death.

The obituary in the Albany Times-Union tells the story of Colonel Edward Thomas Ryan, a decorated army officer who served in the Vietnam war and was also a fireman in his hometown, Rensselaer, New York. He died on 1 June at the age 85.

In the obituary, Ryan added a note written in the first person just before his death: “I must tell you one more thing. I was Gay all my life: thru grade school, thru High School, thru College, thru Life.”

Ryan, or “Uncle Ed”, as he was known to some, admitted to being “in a loving and caring relationship with Paul Cavagnaro of North Greenbush”.

“He was the love of my life. We had 25 great years together. Paul died in 1994 from a medical Procedure gone wrong … I’m sorry for not having the courage to come out as Gay.”

Ryan said he did not come out sooner because he “was afraid of being ostracized: by Family, Friends, and Co-Workers”.

“Seeing how people like me were treated, I just could not do it,” he said.

The New York Times reported that Ryan showed the obituary to his niece Linda Sargent and her husband, Edward Sargent, a month before he died.

“Linda and I knew, you know what I mean? We never sat down and talked about it prior to that because my uncle was a private person. So we never broke that boundary. We knew, but we didn’t say anything,” Edward Sargent told the newspaper.

The revelation was met with a wave of support, with people from all over the world commenting on Ryan’s obituary.

One person wrote: “Many condolences and may you and Paul find eternal happiness together. Thank you for your service. I’m sorry you could never fully be yourself. Rest easy.”

“Rest in pride and power, Col. Ryan,” another person wrote.

Ryan is survived “by many nieces and nephews” and will be buried in Kinderhook, New York, next to his partner, Cavagnaro.

“Now that my secret is known, I’ll forever Rest in Peace,” Ryan said.

Male mountaineers should be more mindful of women’s concerns about their personal safety in remote areas and avoid patronising them by questioning their map-reading abilities, a climbing expert has said.

The advice comes in response to female hillwalkers and mountaineers saying sceptical attitudes towards their skills and unwanted attention are discouraging women from taking up the sport.

Writing in the latest edition of Scottish Mountaineering, Richard Tiplady, a Scottish Mountaineering member, made several recommendations based on “horror stories” from women.

These include that men abstain from asking women about their route, do not push invitations to walk together or pitch tents in close proximity, and avoid giving condescending or unsolicited advice or greeting them with dated language such as “darling” or “sweetheart”.

He added: “Never ever say to a woman: ‘I’ll walk with you to keep you safe’ (this rings major alarm bells).”

Tiplady wrote: “It’s rather simple. Respect people’s boundaries. Be friendly but don’t try to be friends. Treat someone as they would like to be treated. Then clear off and leave them alone.”

Tiplady said he was motivated to write the advice after learning from female friends that “men don’t realise how much women feel patronised by men on the hills”.

“This is just life, it’s not just the hills – but the hills are not necessarily different to anywhere else,” he said, adding that he had learned “I’ve got to handle myself in a way that makes [women] feel safe and secure, but in a way that doesn’t make [them] feel patronised.”

Keri Wallace, a mountain leader in the Scottish highlands who co-founded Girls On Hills eight years ago to encourage more women to enter the sport, said she saw the advice as “an extension of the women’s personal safety issue we already see in the streets,” particularly in relation to being catcalled or harassed while running.

She previously surveyed female walkers about barriers and found over 50% had concerns, including around going to the toilet outdoors and venturing out in all-male groups.

She feels that there is a lingering effect on women’s confidence and sense of belonging from historical attitudes that “frowned upon” women going out in the mountains, believing them to be too delicate and weak.

These remained as “perceived or soft barriers, almost as a byproduct of the culture we still have around women’s abilities relative to men”.

In Wallace’s own excursions, she is regularly questioned by men about whether she knows how far away the summit is, prompting comments such as “surely you’re not going the whole way”, as well as expressions of surprise that she is a mountain leader, which she said could make you “feel like you don’t really belong there or you’re not competent”.

Wallace said these issues were primarily about confidence rather than safety, since assaults in the mountains are virtually unheard of. But she acknowledged that women carried over valid safety concerns from cities into wild areas, discouraging them from wild camping or staying in Scotland’s remote unlocked refuges, bothies.

She said men being mindful of this and giving women space when they encountered them alone could help women feel more comfortable, as it showed a level of consideration.

Ian Sherrington, the head of training at Glenmore Lodge who takes part in the Mountain Safety Group network, said he was not aware of formal discussions around women’s comfort and safety but he felt this was “very worthy of further investigation”.

“I would dig deeper first – [it] could be by approaching groups represented that have a concern,” he said. “I believe trained and qualified mountain leaders already played a positive part in supporting individual confidence in the mountains. Further learning in the best way to do that is always welcomed.”

Oasis Academy South Bank in Waterloo sits in a densely built-up corner of south London – so densely that the only space found for the school was in a recommissioned office block. There is no playground, no sports pitch, nowhere to play football at break time.

Steve Chalke is the founder of Oasis Charitable Trust, the organisation that runs the school, one of 54 in their charge across England. He admits it is a challenging environment.

“We are in an old 1960s office block. Kids have to be indoors at breaktime. We do have table tennis but for other sports there is no space. We hire the local park but it’s hard locally to hire sports pitches. It costs a lot because we are in central London and they aren’t always available.”

The land around the academy is hot property. Within walking distance, at Elephant & Castle station, cranes and diggers are a permanent fixture, building thousands of expensive private homes on land that was once council property.

One of the parents, Kathy, whose 12-year-old daughter – “high-energy, fidgety’’ – is a pupil at Oasis South Bank, says: “The lack of outdoor space is a downside, but I’m grateful we have a school in this area, because until 10 years ago we didn’t.”

The school is hugely oversubscribed. “We turn away many more children than we take,” says Chalke.

And Kathy and her daughter have some outside space – a shared garden for their flat and an allotment. “It’s not just about space, it’s about green as well,” she says. “Not everyone around here has that.”

Another parent, Sarah, says that it is the wider context that matters: “We are lucky to live near one of London’s last adventure playgrounds, so my son can head there after school, but I walk through many estates round here and see ‘No ballgames’ signs everywhere. That, for me, is more of a problem than what happens in school.”

Chalke and his team are busy looking for land they can use as city farms or specialist spaces for “the children we know can’t cope in the classroom”. They already have a city farm in Waterloo.

And he has concerns about the decisions that local authorities are making. “Down the road from us there is a former primary school – a Victorian building that will outlive any school building put up today. If we ran it we could have had six forms of entry – it had fantastic playgrounds.

“Instead the council sold it off in the 1980s. It’s now expensive apartments and those playgrounds are now private gardens and car parking space. So when we needed a new school in this area, all that was affordable was an office block.”

He warns that London boroughs are not keeping hold of enough land for children to live and breathe in.

“Councils are turning land into housing but leaving local schools without enough space. I’m seeing very cramped new schools where staff tell me: ‘You can’t swing a cat here’.

“Local authorities are not thinking of the next generation when they build too much housing. Once the space is gone, it’s gone for ever. Children need green space for their mental health and we neglect this to our long-term regret.”