Head of Vietnam's parliament resigns amid corruption probe

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The head of Vietnam’s parliament has resigned, according to state media, making him the latest senior member of government to leave office amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign that's shaken the country's political and business elites.

The resignation of National Assembly Chair Vuong Dinh Hue adds to growing instability in the country. President Vo Van Thuong resigned in March — just over a year after the previous president, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, resigned to take political responsibility for corruption scandals during the pandemic.

“It also highlights the extreme uncertainty in a political environment that's often boasted of its stability, as three top leaders have been axed in just a year,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

Hue's resignation came days after his assistant Pham Thai Ha was arrested on charges of abusing his position and power for personal gain on April 21, according to state media outlet VN Express.

Initial reports did not say that Hue was implicated in corruption, but noted that investigators found that the parliamentary leader had “violated Party regulations, and his violations have affected the reputation of the Party, the State and himself.” Vietnam’s Communist Party accepted what it called a voluntary resignation from Hue, according to VN Express.

Hue, 67, had been the chair of Vietnam’s national assembly for over three years. That made him the fourth most important politician in Vietnam, along with the President, the Prime Minister and the head of the Communist Party.

Political instability could threaten Vietnam’s economic ambitions as it vies to become an alternative to China in the region’s supply chain. On a visit to Vietnam earlier in the month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he wants to further increase investment in the country.

Ha’s arrest resulted from an expansion of the ongoing investigation into the Thuan An Group, said Vietnam News Agency, citing Ministry of Public Security spokesperson Lt. Gen. To An Xo. Company chair Nguyen Duy Hung and several others were arrested earlier in April.

The Blazing Furnace campaign has singed businesses, and led to an unprecedented death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan in Vietnam’s largest-ever fraud case.

Giang, the analyst, said Hue was previously seen as a likely successor to Trong. “His downfall will only intensify Vietnam’s succession crisis,” he said.

Vietnam’s leaders are next due to convene a Communist Party congress in early 2026.

Meanwhile, experts say, rivals are jostling to position themselves as a successor to Trong, who was elected to an unprecedented third term as party chief in 2021. Given his age, experts say that it is unlikely that he will continue for another term.

FILE - U.S. President Joe Biden, left, meets with Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, Vuong Dinh Hue in Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Sept. 11, 2023. Vietnamese state media outlet VN Express reports that the head of Vietnam’s Parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue, has resigned. He is the latest member of senior government to leave office amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Vietnamese Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue pose for a photo at the national assembly in Hanoi, Vietnam, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. Vietnamese state media outlet VN Express reports that the head of Vietnam’s Parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue, has resigned. He is the latest member of senior government to leave office amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign. (AP Photo/Minh Hoang, Pool, File)

FILE - Vietnam Communist party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, center left, is presented with a bouquet by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, center right, in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. Vietnamese state media outlet VN Express reports that the head of Vietnam’s Parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue, has resigned. He is the latest member of senior government to leave office amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign. (Le Tri Dung/VNA via AP, File)

FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Vietnamese Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue shake hands as they pose for a photo at the national assembly in Hanoi, Vietnam, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. Vietnamese state media outlet VN Express reports that the head of Vietnam’s Parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue, has resigned. He is the latest member of senior government to leave office amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign. (AP Photo/Minh Hoang, Pool, File)

FILE - Vietnamese Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue speaks to Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting at the national assembly in Hanoi, Vietnam, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. Vietnamese state media outlet VN Express reports that the head of Vietnam’s Parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue, has resigned. He is the latest member of senior government to leave office amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign. (AP Photo/Minh Hoang, Pool, File)

Storm chasers spotted a tornado on the ground Monday in rural Oklahoma while large hail pelted parts of Kansas as forecasters issued a rare high risk warning for the two states with the possibility of long-track twisters.

The greatest risk of damaging weather includes areas in Oklahoma, such as Sulphur and Holdenville, still recovering from a tornado that killed four and left thousands without power late last month. Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring.

The storm chasers detected several small funnels emerging from clouds before identifying a twister near the small 1,000-person Oklahoma town of Okeene. No damage was immediately reported, but the National Weather Service warned those in the area to take shelter.

Meanwhile, apple-sized hail of 3 inches (7.62 centimeters) in diameter was reported near Ellinwood, Kansas, a town of about 2,000 residents 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Wichita.

The National Weather Service said that more than 3.4 million people, 1,614 schools and 159 hospitals in Oklahoma, portions of southern Kansas and far north Texas, face the most severe threat for tornadoes.

In all, nearly 10 million people live in areas that could be affected, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said.

Schools and colleges across the state, including the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Public Schools and several metro-area school districts, shut down early and canceled late afternoon and evening classes and activities.

Oklahoma’s State Emergency Operations Center, which coordinates storm response from a bunker near the state Capitol, remains activated from last weekend’s deadly storms, and the state’s commissioner of public safety told state agencies to let most of their workers across Oklahoma leave early on Monday.

Monte Tucker, a farmer and rancher in the far western Oklahoma town of Sweetwater, spent Monday putting some of his tractors and heavy equipment in barns to protect it from hail and letting his neighbors know they can come to his house if the weather becomes dangerous.

“We built a house 10 years ago, and my stubborn wife put her foot down and made sure we built a safe room,” Tucker said. He said the entire ground-level room is built with reinforced concrete walls.

Tucker said there’s not much you can do to protect cattle from severe storms, but he said the animals tend to know when the weather turns threatening.

Bill Bunting, deputy director of the Storm Prediction Center, said a high risk from the center is not something seen every day or every spring.

“It’s the highest level of threat we can assign. And it’s a day to take very, very seriously," he said.

The last time a high risk was issued was March 31, 2023, when a massive storm system tore through parts of the South and Midwest including Arkansas, Illinois and rural Indiana.

The risk on Monday in parts of the southern Plains is the worst in five years, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said.

“If you look at a meteorology textbook about how to get a significant tornado outbreak in the southern Plains, all the ingredients you need are here today,” Porter said.

Cities that could see stormy weather include Kansas City, Missouri, and Lincoln, Nebraska.

The number of storms and their intensity should increase quickly in the evening hours across western parts of Oklahoma and up into south-central Kansas, Bunting said.

The expected thunderstorms could produce winds up to and potentially exceeding 80 mph (49.71 kph), according to Porter. Even worse, those “supercell” storms can produce destructive tornadoes.

“The kinds of tornadoes that this storm can produce are particularly intense, and they can be long-lasting,” Porter said. “These are the tornadoes that sometimes can last for 45 minutes or an hour, even more, creating paths of destruction as they move along.”

The high risk is due to an unusual confluence: Winds gusting up to around 75 mph (46.60 kph) have been blasting through Colorado’s populated Front Range region, including the Denver area, on Monday.

The winds are being created by a low pressure system north of Colorado that is also pulling up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, fueling the risk of severe weather on the Plains, said Greg Heavener, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Denver-area office.

Colorado is not at risk of tornadoes or thunderstorms, he said.

The dangerous Plains weather will move east, potentially creating overnight risk in places like Kansas City and Springfield in Missouri through early Tuesday, Porter said.

“This is not going to be a atmospheric setup where the sun is going to go down and the thunderstorms are going to wane and there’s going to be no additional risk," noted Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini. "The risk for tornadoes tonight will continue into the evening and overnight hours making it very challenging.”

The entire week is looking stormy across the U.S. The eastern U.S. and the South are expected to get the brunt of the bad weather through the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati, where more than 21 million people live. It should be clear over the weekend.

Meanwhile, floodwaters in the Houston area began receding Monday after days of heavy rain in southeastern Texas left neighborhoods flooded and led to hundreds of high-water rescues.

Bunting advises people in the affected areas to develop a severe weather plan.

“Make sure that you have ways to communicate with your family members,” he said. “Make sure everyone knows where their shelters are,” and how they can continue to receive warnings.

This story has been updated to correct that heavy rain fell over southeastern Texas, not southwestern Texas.

St. John reported from Detroit, Michigan. Murphy reported from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri. Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin contributed to this report from Denver, Colorado, and Heather Hollingsworth from Mission, Kansas.

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate solutions reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

A tornado spins west of Hawley, Texas, as cars pass on U.S. 277 on Thursday May 2, 2024. (Ronald W. Erdrich/The Abilene Reporter-News via AP)

Clouds amass over power lines follow days of storms on Sunday, May 5, 2024, in Humble, Texas. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

A mailbox is partially submerged on a flooded street in an unincorporated area in east Harris County near Houston on Sunday morning, May 5, 2024. The nearby San Jacinto River, overflowing due to heavy rainfall earlier this week, caused the flood waters. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)