Plus: Golden Globes winners and highlights, and a mouse on a cleaning mission
| | | | | | | Hello. A two-year Africa Eye investigation into Nigerian preacher TB Joshua gives voice to dozens of former "disciples" who recall horrific abuse at his hands. In Jerusalem, Yolande Knell explores how three months of fighting in Gaza in the aftermath of Hamas's attack on southern Israel has worsened distrust between Israelis and Palestinians. Catch up with the Golden Globes and scroll to the end for a close encounter with Welsh Tidy Mouse. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Years of abuse by Nigerian 'prophet' | | | | TB Joshua was hugely influential in Nigeria - and across the world. Credit: Getty Images |
| | On his death in June 2021, TB Joshua was hailed as one of the most influential pastors in African history. Rising from poverty, he had built an evangelical empire that counted dozens of political leaders, celebrities and international footballers among his associates. But the charismatic leader secretly committed sexual crimes on a mass scale, a BBC investigation helmed by Africa Eye's Charlie Northcott and Helen Spooner and spanning three continents has found. More than 25 former "disciples" of the Synagogue Church of All Nations spoke to the BBC - from the UK, Nigeria, US, South Africa, Ghana, Namibia and Germany - giving powerful corroborating testimony about their experiences within the church, with the most recent experiences in 2019. This investigation contains accounts of torture, rape and self-harm and readers' discretion is advised. | | | | |
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| | | | | | | | AT THE SCENE | Jerusalem, Israel | | The deepening Israeli-Palestinian distrust | | Three months since the deadly Hamas attacks on southern Israel prompted a barrage of air strikes on Gaza, and a consequent ground invasion by Israeli military, there is little mutual sympathy for the hurt the fighting caused to civilians on either side of the conflict. | | | | Yolande Knell, Middle East correspondent |
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| | Heading towards the Old City, I find Tzafir Bracha who has come for a visit. He is one of tens of thousands of Israelis, most of them evacuated, from southern Israel who has not returned home for three months. Tzafir believes the world should see that Hamas must be defeated so it is no longer a threat. "You have to find the people that caused this and take them [away] from society and only then can you really have peace," he says. Many Palestinians from the occupied East of Jerusalem tell me they feel restricted in what they can say publicly. Haneen, a student nurse, tells me she doubts Israel's official version of what happened on 7 October: "We know there is some part that's right, but other parts are not right." |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | China pushes US disinformation in Taiwan | | | | One expert estimates that affecting the outcome of the election would require persuading just 3% of voters. Credit: Getty Images |
| | Disinformation experts say China has a hand in spreading, and may even be creating, "yimeilun" or US scepticism through rumours that question the faithfulness of Taiwan's biggest ally, portraying the island as a pawn exploited by America. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Danger alert | | Sound-based maps are helping rangers protect wildlife in South America. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | A retired postman started noticing that someone was tidying up the work tools in his shed overnight. Keen to solve the mystery, he installed a night vision camera. The footage revealed a mouse, since nicknamed Welsh Tidy Mouse, picking up clothes pegs, corks, nuts and bolts. Watch the little rodent at work. |
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