HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Heavy rain swept central Vietnam on Monday, triggering landslides and floods, killing at least seven, injuring dozens and stranding thousands.
The deluges have wreaked widespread destruction across a region already battered weeks ago by floods from record rainfall and the powerful typhoon Kalmaegi.
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Landslides block the road on Khanh Le pass, near the location where a passenger bus was buried by a fatal landslide in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Bui Toan/VNExpress via AP)
A passenger bus is crushed by a fatal landslide on Khanh Le pass in Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Minh Bang/VNExpress via AP)
A passenger bus is crushed by a fatal landslide on Khanh Le pass in Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Minh Bang/VNExpress via AP)
Landslides block the road on Khanh Le pass, near the location where a passenger bus was buried by a landslide in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Dang Tuan/VNA via AP)
Rainfall through Wednesday is expected to reach 30–60 centimeters (12–24 inches) in parts of central Vietnam, with some areas likely to exceed 85 centimeters (33 inches).
The hard-hit province of Khanh Hoa, a coastal region with hilly inland terrain, recorded one of its heaviest rainfall in years on Sunday night when earth and rocks collapsed on a bus traveling through the Khanh Le pass in the central highlands, state media reported.
The landslide crushed the front of the bus at around 9.30 p.m. local time, killing six people and trapping many passengers. Rescuers struggled for hours to reach the scene as heavy rain had also caused landslides on both sides of the pass, cutting off access. Rescue teams were only able to reach the bus after midnight, according to state media.
“Rocks and soil fell down with a loud bang. I was thrown on the roof of the bus before falling down," Nguyen Long Cuong, the 39-year-old bus conductor, told state media VN Express.
The bus was carrying 32 people from Vietnam’s financial capital, Ho Chi Minh City and was traveling from Da Lat in Vietnam’s central highlands to the coastal city of Nha Trang. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital. State media said two of the dead bodies were still trapped under the debris as the treacherous terrain hindered the work
The winding, 33-kilometer (20-mile) stretch carved into steep mountainsides is scenic and popular with tourists but prone to landslides in the rainy season.
The rains have triggered multiple landslides on major routes in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and traffic on several hilly passes has been suspended, state media said.
Also in Khanh Hoa, waterlogged soil collapsed on 10 workers at the Khanh Son pass on Sunday night, killing one and injuring another, while another remained missing, state media said. The seven others were able to flee to safety.
Flooding also hit the port city Cam Ranh and the coastal district of Cam Lam Sunday night, submerging more than 100 metres (328 ft) of railway lines under water and debris. Over 800 passengers on four trains were still stranded on Monday evening.
Flood waters inundated the Du Long Industrial Park on Monday, which houses several factories, including German and South Korean companies. Rains submerged factories by 1 meter (3.2 feet) of water and forced the power cuts, forcing thousands of workers to halt operations.
Torrential rain also flooded a national highway in the province of Dak Lak, prompting police to block the road and redirect traffic.
In the city of Hue, floods triggered landslides on Sunday in mountainous areas, blocking a major highway that runs from northern to southern Vietnam and cutting off several villages, isolating thousands, while in Quang Ngai province, rainfall of 150 to 235 mm (5.9–9.3 inches) collapsed a bridge over a stream, stranding 1,200 residents in remote hamlets.
On Sunday night, a tornado tore through the southern areas of Danang city and Quang Ngai province, ripping roofs from dozens of houses, uprooting trees and scattering debris.
Vietnam is among the world’s most flood-prone countries, with nearly half its population living in high-risk areas. Scientists warn that a warming climate is intensifying storms and rainfall across Southeast Asia, making floods and landslides increasingly destructive and frequent.
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Landslides block the road on Khanh Le pass, near the location where a passenger bus was buried by a fatal landslide in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Bui Toan/VNExpress via AP)
A passenger bus is crushed by a fatal landslide on Khanh Le pass in Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Minh Bang/VNExpress via AP)
A passenger bus is crushed by a fatal landslide on Khanh Le pass in Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Minh Bang/VNExpress via AP)
Landslides block the road on Khanh Le pass, near the location where a passenger bus was buried by a landslide in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Dang Tuan/VNA via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the U.S.-Israel military campaign is completed — but said “most of the people we had in mind are dead.”
The president, who four days ago had emphatically called on Iranians to “take over your government” once the U.S.-Israel bombardment ends, appeared to drift further away from the idea that the war presents an opportunity to end the theocratic rule that has been in place since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Trump said that many Iranian officials his administration had viewed as potential new leaders for the country had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli campaign that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and many other top officials.
Trump has not publicly identified anyone whom he views as a credible future leader for Iran. And it’s unclear what, if any, outreach the White House had with Iranian officials since the war started.
“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. “Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”
Trump said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran’s last shah who is trying to position himself for a return should Iran’s Shiite theocracy fall, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over leadership in Iran.
“It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate,” Trump said, adding that it may make sense for “somebody that’s there, that’s currently popular, if there is such a person” to emerge from the power vacuum.
Trump's comments came as he hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his first in-person engagement with a foreign leader since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran.
Trump said he wanted to avoid a “worst case” scenario where “somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person.”
“That could happen. We don’t want that to happen,” Trump added. “You go through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who was no better.”
The White House has stepped up its push to counter criticism that it moved unnecessarily quickly to launch a war of choice against Iran.
Trump’s decision to strike last week followed lengthy negotiations by the president’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner with the Iranians — talks the U.S. increasingly viewed as an effort to stall any progress.
After the most recent round of discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, last week, Witkoff and Kushner told Trump that reaching a nuclear agreement similar to one that former President Barack Obama struck in 2015 was possible, according to a senior administration official.
The official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity, described it as a potential “Obama-plus deal” and Witkoff and Kushner believed such an agreement would take months, but was possible.
Still, even as they expressed their willingness to pursue diplomacy and “fight for every point that we can” if that’s what Trump wanted, the negotiators stressed to the president that the Iranians were not willing to make a deal that would be satisfactory to the U.S.
Meanwhile, Trump sharply criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday for Britain's reluctance to join the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said, blasting Britain’s reluctance to let U.S. warplanes use its bases.
Starmer had initially blocked American planes from using British bases for the attacks on Iran that started on Saturday. He later agreed to let the United States use bases in England and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to strike Iran’s ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not to hit other targets.
The president also sought to push back on criticism from some of his staunchest allies over the decision to go to war — questions that grew louder after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the U.S. had decided to strike because “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”
“And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio said.
But Trump rejected the notion that the White House had been dragged into the conflict by Israel. “We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack,” Trump said. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”
Merz said during his visit with Trump at the Oval Office that Germany is “looking forward to the day after” the Iran war is over.
He said Berlin wants to work with the U.S. on a strategy for when the current Iranian government no longer exists.
“We are having a high interest in common approach and common work and what we can do,” Merz said. “And this is this is important not just for the Americans,” he said. “This is extremely important for Europe and extremely important for Israel and their security.”
Merz also noted surging oil prices were damaging the world economy, laying down an argument for finding a quick endgame to the conflict.
The president acknowledged that oil and gas prices were going to rise as the U.S. remains engaged in the strikes — yet argued it would be fleeting.
“We have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before,” Trump said.
The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday to about $3.11 in the United States, according to the AAA.
AP writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Fatima Hussein and Michelle L. Price in Washington, and Jill Lawless in London contributed reporting.
President Donald Trump meets with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump, right, talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
