Typhoon Kalmaegi kills 5 people in Vietnam as the Philippines prepares for a new storm

DAK LAK, Vietnam (AP) — Typhoon Kalmaegi brought fierce winds and torrential rains to Vietnam on Friday, killing at least five people and leaving widespread damage across the country’s central provinces, days after the powerful storm battered the Philippines and left scores dead or missing.

As floodwaters receded, recovery work began in battered towns and industrial zones, with local authorities and residents clearing debris and repairing roofs across central Vietnam.

Five people were killed — three in Dak Lak and two in Gia Lai provinces — while three others remained missing in Quang Ngai, according to state media. Six people were injured. Fifty-two houses collapsed and nearly 2,600 others were damaged or had their roofs blown off, including more than 2,400 in Gia Lai alone. Power outages affected more than 1.6 million households.

In the Philippines, where Kalmaegi made landfall earlier this week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a state of national emergency on Thursday as the country braced for another potentially powerful storm, Typhoon Fung-wong, known locally as Uwan.

The weather bureau said Fung-wong could expand to an estimated 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) in diameter before making landfall late Sunday or early Monday in northern Aurora province, potentially affecting the densely populated capital region of Manila.

Kalmaegi left at least 188 people dead and 135 missing in the Philippines, according to the Office of Civil Defense, displacing more than half a million people. Nearly 450,000 were evacuated to shelters, and over 318,000 remained there as of Thursday.

In the hard-hit central Philippine province of Cebu, 139 people died, mostly in floodings. Villagers mourned their dead on Friday, including at a basketball gym turned funeral parlor where relatives wept before a row of white coffins bedecked with flowers and small portraits of the deceased.

Jimmy Abatayo, who lost his wife and nine close relatives to the typhoon, was overwhelmed with sorrow and guilt as he ran his palm over his wife’s casket.

“I was able to swim. I told my family to swim, you will be saved, just swim, be brave and keep swimming,” said Abatayo, 53, pausing and then breaking into tears. “They did not hear what I said because I would never see them again.”

Many areas in Vietnam reported uprooted trees, damaged power lines and flattened buildings as Kalmaegi weakened into a tropical storm and moved into Cambodia on Friday.

Factories lost their roofs and equipment was damaged because of flooding in Binh Dinh province. In hard-hit Quy Nhon, residents woke up to find corrugated metal roofs and household items scattered along the streets.

As the skies cleared and sunlight broke through on Friday morning, residents in Dak Lak province stepped out to assess the wreckage left behind.

Streets were littered with fallen branches and twisted sheets of metal, and muddy water still pooled in low-lying areas where the river had surged to record heights overnight. Shopkeepers dragged out waterlogged goods to dry in the sun, while families swept mud from their doorsteps and patched together missing roof tiles.

Kalmaegi struck Vietnam as the country’s central region was still reeling from floods caused by record-breaking rains. Authorities said more than 537,000 people were evacuated, many by boat, as floodwaters rose and landslides loomed. The storm was forecast to dump up to 24 inches (600 millimeters) of rain in some areas before moving into Laos and northeast Thailand later Friday.

Three fishermen were reported missing Thursday after their boat was swept away by strong waves near Ly Son Island off Quang Ngai province. Search efforts were later suspended due to worsening weather, state media said.

The Philippines experiences about 20 typhoons and storms each year and is among the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

Vietnam, which is hit by around a dozen storms annually, has endured a relentless series this year. Typhoon Ragasa dumped torrential rain in late September, followed by Typhoon Bualoi and Typhoon Matmo, which together left more than 85 people dead or missing and caused an estimated $1.36 billion in damage.

Scientists warn that a warming climate is intensifying storms and rainfall across Southeast Asia, making floods and typhoons increasingly destructive and frequent.

Kristen Corbosiero, a professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University at Albany, said a normal year has 23 named storms by this time, but Kalmaegi and Fung-Wong are the 26th and 27th named storms. Kalmaegi is the fourth strongest typhoon this season, she said.

“If you look at the climatology for the Philippines and for Vietnam, it’s almost the entire year that they can get them because the warm waters that fuel the storm just are there,” Corbosiero said.

Associated Press writers Jim Gomez and Joeal Calupitan in Manila, Philippines, and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

This aerial photo shows a building submerged in flooding in Dak Lak, Vietnam on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025 after Typhoon Kalmaegi lashed Vietnam with fierce winds and torrential rains. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

Damaged houses along a river in Bacayan, Cebu province, central Philippines on Friday Nov. 7, 2025 after Typhoon Kalmaegi devastated the province and claimed lives. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Relatives and friends cry as they view coffins in Bacayan, Cebu province, central Philippines on Friday Nov. 7, 2025 after Typhoon Kalmaegi devastated the province and claimed lives. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Communications Office, damaged homes beside Mananga Bridge in Talisay, Cebu Province, central Philippines on Friday Nov. 7, 2025 after Typhoon Kalmaegi devastated the province and claimed lives. (Malacanang Presidential Communications Office via AP)

A damaged roof and an entrance in Dak Lak, Vietnam on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025 after Typhoon Kalmaegi lashed Vietnam with fierce winds and torrential rains. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

Fallen trees on a sidewalk in Dak Lak, Vietnam on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025 after Typhoon Kalmaegi lashed Vietnam with fierce winds and torrential rains. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

A damaged building blocks a road in Dak Lak, Vietnam on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025 after Typhoon Kalmaegi lashed Vietnam with fierce winds and torrential rains. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

People walk past a closed shop due to Typhoon Kalmaegi in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

Workers reinforce glass walls with scaffoldings ahead of Typhoon Kalmaegi in Quy Nhon, Vietnam Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (Thanh Tung/VNExpress via AP)

People watch rough waves caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

A man walks past an uprooted tree in Dak Lak, Vietnam, on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025 after Typhoon Kalmaegi lashed the country with fierce winds and torrential rains. (Tuong Quan/VNA via AP)

Debris sits on a road in Gai Lai, Vietnam, on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025 after Typhoon Kalmaegi lashed the country with fierce winds and torrential rains. (Sy Thang/VNA via AP)

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man who had a relationship with a Brazilian au pair is going to trial Monday in what prosecutors say was an elaborate double-murder scheme to frame another man in the stabbing of his wife.

Brendan Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the February 2023 killings of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan at the Banfields' home in northern Virginia. He has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family’s au pair, were with the wife and Ryan on the morning the victims were killed in the primary bedroom of the Banfield home, court records say. Authorities have said on that day, Banfield and Magalhães told officials they saw Ryan, a stranger, stabbing the wife after he entered the house. Then they each shot the intruder, Banfield and Magalhães said at the time.

Prosecutors have painted a different picture, arguing that Brendan Banfield and Magalhães lured Ryan to the house and staged it to look like he and the au pair shot a predator in defense. Officials have said Banfield and Magalhães had a romantic affair beginning the year before the killings.

Both the au pair and husband were arrested between 2023 and 2024 and initially handed murder charges in the case. In 2024, Magalhães pleaded guilty to a downgraded manslaughter charge after giving a statement to officials confirming parts of their theory.

In that statement, Magalhães said she and Brendan Banfield created an account in his wife’s name on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes. There, Ryan connected with the account in Christine Banfield’s name, and the users made plans to meet on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023, for a sexual encounter that would involve a knife, authorities said based on the statement from Magalhães.

Prosecutor Eric Clingan said last year that the au pair's statement helped the state solidify its theory ahead of trial.

“With 12 different homicide detectives, there were 24 different theories,” Clingan said. “Now, one theory.”

Not all officials investigating the case have believed Banfield and Magalhães catfished Ryan.

Brendan Miller, a former digital forensic examiner with the Fairfax County Police Department, testified last year that he analyzed dozens of devices and concluded Christine Banfield had connected with Ryan herself through the social networking platform.

An evidence analysis team at the University of Alabama peer-reviewed and affirmed Miller’s digital forensic findings, according to evidence submitted to the court.

Miller was transferred out of the department’s digital forensics unit in late 2024, though a former Fairfax County commander testified the reassignment was not punitive or disciplinary.

John Carroll, Banfield's attorney, argued that Millers' transfer was directly tethered to the case. He also said in court that Fairfax County police reassigned the case’s lead detective after that man had pushed back on the top brass’ catfishing theory.

“It is a theory in search of facts rather than a series of facts supporting a theory,” Carroll said.

Banfield, whose daughter was at the house on the morning of the killings, is also charged with child abuse and felony child cruelty in connection with the case. He will also face those charges during the aggravated murder trial.

FILE - This image provided by the Fairfax County Police Department and taken on Oct. 13, 2023, was submitted as evidence in the murder case against Brendan Banfield shows a framed photo of Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães on his bedside table in Herndon, Va. (Fairfax County Police Department via AP, File)