Number of dead and missing still unclear as first aid arrives in quake-hit Pacific nation of Vanuatu

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Amid the havoc wrought by a violent earthquake two days earlier, Ivan Oswald and his staff prepared for lunchtime service Thursday at Nambawan Cafe, on an idyllic stretch of Vanuatu’s waterfront.

The menu for the usual lunchtime rush was replaced with defrosted sausages for emergency workers sifting through rubble in search of those trapped alive or killed in flattened buildings when the massive, 7.3 jolt hit Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital 48 hours earlier. Search crews were joined Thursday by specialists arriving in waves from Australia, New Zealand and France.

Earthquakes are normal for the South Pacific nation made up of 80 islands and home to 330,000 people, but Tuesday’s terrifying shake was like nothing residents had felt before. Centered 30 kilometers (19 miles) offshore, at a depth of 57 kilometers (35 miles), the quake was followed by hundreds of rattling aftershocks.

The death toll was still unclear and official information remained scarce.

The government initially confirmed 14 deaths. Early on Friday, it said 10 had been verified by the hospital -- but officials expected the number would rise. More than 200 injured people were treated, officials said, but that figure has not been updated since around early Wednesday.

Nearly 1,000 people have been displaced, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, with that number too likely to grow.

On Thursday, telecommunications -- though piecemeal and patchy -- were more widely restored after a near total blackout following the quake. It offered residents of Vanuatu answers about the scale of the damage and about how many people were missing.

As word got around that Nambawan had power and an independent internet source, rescuers, tourists and locals visited to charge devices and attempt to locate their relatives.

“We've had a few tears,” said Oswald, the cafe's owner. “I can't help with the rescue, but I can help with this.”

The extent of the damage became clearer on Thursday. The worst-hit area was Port Vila's downtown, busy with lunchtime shoppers on Tuesday. Some outlying islands and villages near the quake's epicenter have experienced landslides.

Infrastructure damage was extensive, including to hospitals, roads, buildings, two major water reservoirs and gas pipes. Response efforts were hampered by access problems.

A massive landslide has blocked the sea port, limiting the transport of essential supplies and personnel, the UN humanitarian agency said. The airport was open only for aid flights on Thursday, but the runway has been deemed operational and the resumption of commercial services will be considered on Friday.

But risk of more serious slips loomed as rain began late Thursday night. A low pressure system moving towards Vanuatu threatened a low to medium chance of a cyclone, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and more rain was expected in coming days.

That could prompt further landslides, erosion and floods in already vulnerable areas, officials said, as they warned those living on hillsides to evacuate. An urgent environmental assessment was needed to prevent an ecological disaster, the UN update early Friday said.

Aid agencies told The Associated Press on Wednesday that their biggest worries were about drinking water and shelter for those unable to return home. The main utilities provider, UNELCO, said it could take two weeks to fully restore water service, according to the Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation.

The hunt for survivors and recovery of bodies centered on two collapsed buildings in the city center, with Australian search experts on Thursday joining locals who had desperately dug for people yelling out from the crumpled structures. After dramatic rescues of dust-covered survivors that lifted spirits on Tuesday and Wednesday, the mood had become bleaker about the prospects for those trapped, residents said.

It was not known how many people remained in the buildings — a garage and a surf clothing store. Among the dead was a French national, Vincent Goiset, said Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, France's ambassador to Vanuatu.

Two Chinese nationals were also killed, Vanuatu officials said.

Another building housing embassies for several countries — including the United States, France and New Zealand — also crumpled, but no casualties were reported. Military flights evacuated 148 Australian nationals from Vanuatu late on Wednesday.

Hundreds more foreigners waited for commercial flights to resume so they could leave. The quake at the start of the summer season in the tourism-dependent island nation threatened an economic crisis if tourists did not return, said Glen Craig, chair of the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council.

“We've had such bad luck,” said Craig, referring to the three cyclones that struck in 2023 and the collapse of Vanuatu's national airline in May. “We were just getting back on our feet and we were really looking forward to a bumper summer.”

In this photo released by Australian Department of Defence, Australians disembark from an aircraft at RAAF Base Amberley, Australia after a flight home from Port Vila, Vanuatu, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, following a powerful earthquake that struck just off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean. (CPL Adam Abela/Australian Department of Defence via AP)

In this photo released by Australian Department of Defence, Australian citizens board a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft for a flight home from Bauerfield International Airport, Port Vila, Vanuatu, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024 following a powerful earthquake that struck just off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean. (CPL Adam Abela/Australian Department of Defence via AP)

In this photo released by Australian Department of Defence, Australian citizens board a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft for a flight home from Bauerfield International Airport, Port Vila, Vanuatu, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024 following a powerful earthquake that struck just off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean. (CPL Adam Abela/Australian Department of Defence via AP)

Josephine Taut makes sausages for emergency workers at Nambawan Cafe in Port Vila, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, following a strong earthquake that struck off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean, Tuesday, Dec. 17. (Ivan Oswald via AP)

Australian citizen's are briefed on evacuation plans in Port Vila, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, following a magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean, Tuesday, Dec. 17. (DFAT via AP)

Australian citizen's are briefed on evacuation plans in Port Vila, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, following a magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean, Tuesday, Dec. 17. (DFAT via AP)

Damage to the inside of the Nambawan Cafe in Port Vila, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, following a strong earthquake that struck just off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean. (Ivan Oswald via AP)

Damage to the inside of the Nambawan Cafe in Port Vila, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, following a strong earthquake that struck just off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean. (Ivan Oswald via AP)

Members of Australia's Federal Police and other rescue workers stand by a collapsed building in Port Vila, Vanuatu, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, following a magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck just off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean, Tuesday, Dec. 17. (Australian Federal Police via AP)

A member of Australia's Federal Police stands by a collapsed building in Port Vila, Vanuatu, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, following a magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean, Tuesday, Dec. 17. (Australian Federal Police via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — This is not the run up to the midterm elections that Republicans wanted.

A year and a half after winning the White House by promising to lower costs and end wars, Donald Trump is a wartime president overseeing surging energy costs and an escalating overseas conflict that many in his own party do not like.

He offered little clarity to a nation eager for answers this week during a prime-time address from the White House, his first since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran more than a month ago, simultaneously suggesting that the war was ending and expanding.

“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said. “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”

Trump's comments come roughly six months before voters across the nation begin to cast ballots in elections that will decide control of Congress and key governorships for Trump’s final two years in office. For now, Republicans, who control all branches of government in Washington, are bracing for a painful political backlash.

“You’re looking at an ugly November,” warned veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse. “At a point in time when we need every break possible to hold the House and Senate, our edge is being chipped away.”

It’s hard to overstate how dramatically the political landscape has shifted.

At this time last year, many Republican leaders believed there was a path to preserve their narrow House majority and easily hold the Senate. Now they privately concede that the House is all but lost and Democrats have a realistic shot at taking the Senate.

Republicans are also struggling to coalesce around a clear midterm message on Iran.

The Republican National Committee has largely avoided the war in talking points issued to surrogates over the last month. The leaders of the party's campaign committees responsible for the House and Senate declined interview requests. Many vulnerable Republican candidates sidestep the issue, unwilling to defend or challenge Trump publicly.

The president remains deeply popular with Republican voters, and he has vocal supporters like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“That was the best speech I could’ve hoped for,” he wrote on social media after Trump's address on Wednesday evening. Graham said Trump “gave the American people a clear and coherent pathway forward.”

Trump made little effort to sell the conflict to Americans before the initial attack. Five weeks later, at least 13 U.S. service members have been killed and hundreds more injured. Thousands more troops have converged on the region, and the Pentagon requested $200 billion in new funding.

The Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for a fifth of the world’s oil, remains closed. The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. was $4.08 on Thursday, according to AAA, almost a full dollar higher than on President Joe Biden's last day in office.

On Wednesday, Trump insisted that gas prices would fall quickly once the war concluded but offered no solution for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, he invited skeptical U.S. allies to do it themselves.

He insisted that the war would be worth it.

“This is a true investment in your grandchildren and your grandchildren’s future,” Trump said. “When it’s all over, the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before.”

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who was once among Trump's most vocal allies in Congress, lashed out against his Iran policy.

“I wanted so much for President Trump to put America First. That’s what I believed he would do. All I heard from his speech tonight was WAR WAR WAR,” she wrote on social media. “Nothing to lower the cost of living for Americans.”

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say the U.S. military action in Iran has “gone too far,” according to AP-NORC polling from March. Roughly a third approve of how he’s handling Iran overall.

The possibility of sending U.S. forces into Iran also appears politically unpalatable.

About 6 in 10 adults are “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed to deploying U.S. troops on the ground to fight Iran. That includes about half of Republicans. Only about 1 in 10 favor deploying troops.

At the same time, Trump’s approval ratings have remained consistently weak. About 4 in 10 Americans approve of how he’s handling the presidency, roughly in line with how it’s been throughout his second term.

Republican strategist Ari Fleischer, a senior aide in former President George W. Bush’s administration, acknowledged that Trump has not received the polling bump in this war that Bush got after invading Iraq.

Bush, of course, worked to build public backing for the Iraq War before going in. Immediately after the 2003 invasion, Bush's popularity soared, as did the stock market.

Public sentiment and the economy soured only after the conflict stretched on. It ultimately spanned more than eight years, spawning a generation of anti-war Republicans — and sowing the seeds of Trump's “America First” foreign policy.

“My hope is that the Trump experience is the exact opposite of the Bush experience,” Fleischer said.

He said Trump must win the war decisively and quickly to avoid a further backlash, saying there could be a “very significant political upside if things end well, oil comes down and markets rally.”

Fleischer added that Trump's actions will matter much more than his words.

“Ultimately, he is not going to get judged on his persuasion or his explanations or his assertions, he’s going to get judged on results,” he said.

Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

In this image made with a long exposure, President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)