PARIS/MORONI — Several hundred people and possibly even thousands may have been killed when the most powerful cyclone in nearly a century hit the French Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, a senior local French official said on Sunday.

“I think there will certainly be several hundreds, maybe we will reach a thousand, even several thousands,” prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville said on local media channel Mayotte La 1ere.

Asked about the death toll from Cyclone Chido, the French interior ministry said “it will be difficult to account for all victims” and a figure could not be determined at this stage.

Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte overnight, Meteo-France said, with winds of more than 200 kph (124 mph), damaging housing, government buildings and a hospital. It was the strongest storm in more than 90 years to hit the islands, the forecaster said.

“Honestly, what we are experiencing is a tragedy, you feel like you are in the aftermath of a nuclear war… I saw an entire neighborhood disappear,” Mohamed Ishmael, a resident of Mayotte’s capital Mamoudzou, told Reuters by phone.

Aerial footage shared by the French gendarmerie showed the wreckage of hundreds of makeshift houses strewn across the hills of one of Mayotte’s islands, which have been a focal point for illegal immigration from nearby Comoros.

Local media images showed a mother pushing a newborn baby’s crib along the flooded corridor of Mayotte’s hospital. Capsized police boats lay onshore while coconut trees had crashed through the roofs of many buildings.

“My thoughts are with our compatriots in Mayotte, who have gone through the most horrific few hours, and who have, for some, lost everything, lost their lives,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.

In the last few decades thousands of people have attempted to make the crossing from Comoros, off the coast of East Africa, to Mayotte, which has a higher standard of living and access to the French welfare system.

Over 100,000 undocumented migrants live in Mayotte, according to the French interior ministry.

It was difficult to ascertain the precise death toll after the cyclone, which also raised concerns about access to food, water and sanitation, authorities said.

“For the toll, it’s going to be complicated, because Mayotte is a Muslim land where the dead are buried within 24 hours,” a French interior ministry official said earlier.

Located nearly 8,000 km (5,000 miles) from Paris, Mayotte is significantly poorer than the rest of France and has grappled with gang violence and social unrest for decades.

More than three-quarters of the people in Mayotte live below the French poverty line. Tensions were stoked earlier this year by a water shortage.

An air bridge was being put in place from Reunion island, another French overseas territory on the other side of Madagascar, the government said.

The disaster is the first challenge faced by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, days after he was named by Macron following the collapse of the previous government.

The cyclone went on to hit northern Mozambique on Sunday, but the full extent of the impact was not clear. Internet monitor NetBlocks said on X that heavy rain and winds had damaged power and telecommunications infrastructure.

In Comoros, two people were slightly injured, 24 displaced, and 21 homes were destroyed, authorities said.

France colonized Mayotte in 1843 and annexed the whole archipelago, including Comoros, in 1904.

In a 1974 referendum, 95% backed separation but 63% on Mayotte voted to stay French. Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli declared independence in 1975. Mayotte is still ruled from Paris. — Reuters

BEIJING — China’s Communist Party must “turn the knife inward” to eliminate problems of discipline, including corruption, President Xi Jinping said, a new call to hunt down corrupt officials and those who corrupt them.

Since coming to power over a decade ago, Mr. Xi has cracked down on corruption involving party members, whether they were corrupt high-ranking “tigers” or lowly “flies” who failed to implement government policies.

But despite the sweeping crackdown, the party continues to be plagued by graft, particularly within the armed forces. Two former defense ministers have been purged from the party in the past two years for “serious violations of discipline,” a euphemism for corruption.

The party must take counter-measures against any interest group, organization of power, or privileged class from preying on or corrupting party members, Mr. Xi warned in a speech published on Monday by Qiushi Journal, a flagship party magazine.

“As the situation and tasks facing the party change, there will inevitably be all kinds of conflicts and problems within the party,” he said.

“We must have the courage to turn the knife inward and eliminate their negative impact in a timely manner to ensure that the party is always full of vigor and vitality.”

Mr. Xi’s call to “turn the knife inward” was part of a speech he gave at a major meeting with the party’s anti-graft watchdog on Jan. 8, but had not been disclosed previously.

The excerpts published on Monday suggest a renewed and wider push to instill discipline and hunt down officials seeking personal gain and those who lead them astray.

Last month, the defense ministry disclosed that an admiral who had served on the Central Military Commission, the country’s highest-level military command body, was under investigation for “serious violations of discipline.”

Last year, about 610,000 party officials were punished for violating party discipline, of which 49 were officials above the vice minister or governor level, according to statistics from the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. — Reuters

SEOUL — When South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol cited claims of election hacking and “anti-state” pro-North Korean sympathizers as justification for imposing a short-lived martial law, right-wing YouTuber Ko Sung-kook had heard it before.

In fact, Mr. Ko had made the same claims himself many times to the 1.1 million subscribers of his Kosungkook TV channel on YouTube.

“If President Yoon Suk Yeol listens to the voices of YouTubers attentively, he may understand what the people really think, what the public sentiment of the president’s supporters are, that’s what I’m expecting,” Mr. Ko told Reuters.

Mr. Yoon was impeached and removed from duties on Saturday in a contentious parliamentary vote over his Dec. 3 martial law decree, sparking a constitutional crisis and splitting Mr. Yoon’s own conservative People Power Party (PPP).

PPP leader Han Dong-hoon, a former confidant of Mr. Yoon who went on to advocate for the president’s impeachment, announced his resignation on Monday and blamed South Korea’s right-wing media for creating divisions among conservatives.

“If we sympathize with extremists like the conspiracy theorists and extreme YouTubers, or if we are consumed by their commercially produced fears, there is no future for conservatism,” said Mr. Han, who was a common target of Mr. Ko’s criticism.

A columnist for the conservative-leaning JoongAng Ilbo newspaper on Friday said Yoon’s “YouTube addiction” had ruined his regime.

“If you are addicted to YouTube, you fall into a world of delusion dominated by conspiracy theories… President Yoon watched too much YouTube,” the column said.

Mr. Yoon’s office did not respond to Reuters’ questions about his viewing habits or the sources for his claims used to justify imposing martial law.

FOREIGN INTERFERENCE CLAIMS
Speaking in his modest office that doubles as a studio, Mr. Ko said he does not know if Mr. Yoon watches his show but is glad YouTubers provide an alternative platform which seemed to reflect the president’s thinking.

Elected president in 2022 in the narrowest election in South Korean history, Yoon invited right-wing YouTube activists and commentators to his inauguration, and hired a YouTuber who pushed claims about Chinese Communist infiltration of domestic politics to head the public servant training agency.

In a defiant speech on Thursday that hit many of the favored talking points of right-wing commentators, Mr. Yoon condemned his political opponents as obstructionist “anti-state forces” that side with enemies in North Korea, said Pyongyang may have hacked the South’s elections and defended his martial law order as a legal move to protect democracy.

In South Korea, the label being pro-North Korea can carry high stakes with the ongoing threat from ostensibly communist North Korea and Cold War-era laws that effectively ban activities deemed related to communism or supporting Pyongyang.

In November, a former official with South Korea’s biggest umbrella union, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), was sentenced to 15 years in prison for receiving orders from North Korea to incite protests.

Another theme, particularly since the PPP faced a drubbing in April’s parliamentary election, has been questions over the security of the National Election Commission (NEC), one of the locations where Mr. Yoon deployed troops.

The NEC said it had consulted the spy agency last year to address “security vulnerabilities” but there were no signs the election system had been compromised.

Shin Jin-wook, a sociology professor at Chung Ang University, drew parallels between Mr. Yoon and US President-elect Donald J. Trump.

“When traditional newspapers and television networks took a critical stance on President Trump, Trump blamed them as fake news or garbage. Trump pointed to social media like YouTube as the right ones instead,” Shin said.

‘FAKE NEWS’
About 53% of South Koreans say they get news on YouTube, higher than an average of 30% in other countries, according to a 2023 report by Korea Press Foundation. That was up from 24% in 2016.

A 2018 survey by Chosun Ilbo newspaper showed 70% of right-wing rally participants said YouTube is their primary news source.

Kim Sang-wook, a PPP lawmaker who backed impeachment, said right-wing YouTubers had turned into Mr. Yoon’s PR machine.

Mr. Ko rejected claims that Yoon and the conservative YouTubers had a particularly symbiotic relationship, saying similar dynamics play out on the liberal side of the political spectrum as well.

The military’s martial law decree called for media to be controlled, and troops were sent to the offices of a prominent left-wing YouTube media personality who is critical of Mr. Yoon and told Reuters he went into hiding.

As Mr. Yoon faced impeachment last week Mr. Ko said Mr. Yoon’s martial law order was the last resort to govern the country and urged “patriot right-wing fighters” to come out onto the streets in support.

“An all-out war has begun between the pro-North Korea faction that wants to impeach President Yoon… and our right-wing people,” Mr. Ko said.

On Saturday, Mr. Ko attended a rally in Seoul with tens of thousands of Mr. Yoon supporters waving South Korean and US flags, greeting fans who wanted to shake hands and take pictures together.

“Dr. Ko is a great political commentator who awakens conservative citizens and guides them in the right direction,” said Lee Kwang-hyun, 71, a fan at the rally who decried “fake news.”

Mr. Yoon is fighting against election fraud just like Mr. Trump, Mr. Lee said, adding he opposed impeachment in part because it would prevent Mr. Yoon from attending Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January.

“I believe Yoon’s ideology and spirit has completely turned toward saving our country,” he said. — Reuters