BRITISH MPS TO VOTE ON BILL TO AVOID ‘CHAOTIC’ BREXIT

LONDON: MPs hold their first vote Monday on a bill to end Britain’s membership of the EU, which ministers say will avoid a “chaotic” Brexit but has been condemned as an unprecedented power grab. The legislation would repeal on Brexit day the 1972 law through which Britain joined the bloc, transferring in bulk around 12,000 existing EU regulations onto the British statute books. It is the next step in implementing last year’s historic referendum vote to leave the bloc, after Prime Minister Theresa May formally notified Brussels of Britain’s withdrawal in March. “Businesses and individuals need reassurance that there will be no unexpected changes to our laws after exit day and that is exactly what the Repeal Bill provides,” Brexit Secretary David Davis said. He added: “A vote against this bill is a vote for a chaotic exit from the European Union.” The main opposition Labor party has vowed to try to defeat the bill, however, arguing that its provisions to smooth the transfer of EU laws represent an unacceptable expansion of executive power.

CHINA SAYS NO RADIATION HARM FROM NKOREA NUCLEAR TEST

BEIJING: China has concluded that radiation levels remain normal in the provinces near the North Korean border after Pyongyang’s most powerful nuclear test yet spurred concerns of residual environmental damage. The Ministry of Environmental Protection announced Sunday it was ending its emergency radiation monitoring in response to the blast last week, which the North claimed was the successful detonation of a hydrogen bomb. “A comprehensive assessment has concluded that this DPRK nuclear test has caused no environmental impact on China,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its website, using the initials of the North’s official name. “After eight days of continuous monitoring, no abnormal results were shown.” More than 1,000 aerosol, air, iodine, water and sediment samples were taken at monitoring stations in northeast Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces as well as in eastern Shandong province, according to the ministry.