Battle of Marston Moor
On the 2nd of July 1644, the Battle of Marston Moor was the first significant Royalist defeat in the English Civil Wars. Two years after the beginning of the civil war in England, King Charles I was on the defensive in the north. A Royalist army was overwhelmed in York by a Parliamentary army, supported by Scottish associates. The final battle was fought outside York at Marston Moor, which gave Parliament full control of the north.
In spring of the same year, a Royalist army was led by the Marquis of Newcastle headed from south to York, where it was soon overwhelmed by a joint Parliamentary and Scottish force led by the Earl of Leven and Sir Thomas Fairfax. King Charles, I ordered his nephew, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, to take the troops and release the barrier. Rupert caused the Parliamentary army to break the barrier and head out to meet the Royalist army.
The two sides met at Marston Moor. Both of them had around 7,000 cavalries, but 20,000 combined Parliamentary and Scottish infantry easily outnumbered the 11,000 Royalist infantry. The two sides marched in the middle of the battlefield with cavalry on either wing. A short weaponry exchange at around 2:00 pm took place, leading Prince Rupert to believe that the battle would not be re-commenced until the next day.
However, Parliamentary forces attacked during a thunderstorm at 7.30pm. A cavalry troop led by Oliver Cromwell, who was later nicknamed as Ironside by Prince Rupert, a name which applied to his forces, attacked and defeated the Royalist cavalry on their right wing.
Sri Lanka Protesters Demand to End Abuse Inquiry
Protesters secured the United Nations offices in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on July 6th 2010, demanding that the international organisation end an investigation into the accusations of abuses. The protest which was led by the government minister followed on a day after the European Union stated it would temporarily suspend preferential treatment for Sri Lankan imports because the government had not committed to resolving the human rights complaints from the last stages of the country’s long civil war.
Officials in Sri Lanka had resisted any outside examination of by government forces, which led to the breakdown of the Tamil Tiger insurgency the year before, discharging the efforts as empire-building. Human rights groups and the European Union investigation team had pointed out the evidence of indiscriminate killing and torture inside the country’s borders.
On July 6 2010, hundreds of protesters led by a government minister, Wimal Weerawansa, burned down the statue of the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and kept the workers from leaving the agency’s compound. They called Mr Ban to disband a three-member panel, which he had appointed a month prior to recommending him on suspected violations of “human rights and humanitarian law”.
The European Commission said that the Sri Lankan imports would not enjoy “GSP-plus” treatment beginning on August 15, which meant higher tariffs would be applied to imports worth 1.56 billion. This would cause the most harm on Sri Lanka’s garment and fisheries industries, with some tariffs jumping from zero to as high as 18 percent.
The European Union offered the trade benefit to 16 countries that had agreed to comply with conventions on human, labour rights, maintainable developments and good governance. The European Commission said that the investigation found out that Sri Lanka did not fully comply with the conventions on civil and political rights, torture and the rights of children.
Pune floods due to failure of the Khadakwasla and Panshet dams
On July 1961, the new Panshet dam had started to develop some problems, even before it was complete. Against some advisories, the dam was being filled up during the 1961 monsoon season. Cracks had started developing and yet there was a lot of debate on whether the dam was in real forthcoming danger. A determined last-ditch effort by the Army Jawans managed to delay the unavoidable by a few hours.
During this incident, thousands of sandbags were organised, the dam would have cracked in the night, creating havoc for the residents of Pune. The few hours delay meant that the blast happened early morning and the wall of flood waters reached Pune later in the morning. The flood waters of Panshet also broke the smaller Khadakwasla dam.
Residents started getting some warnings in the morning, and the residents had begun to move out who were living near the riverside. For many hours, the high water levels continued. More than 100,000 families needed to be relocated, and the death toll exceeded to 2,000, though no official numbers were made available.
The floods completely cut off the electric and water supply. The clean-up and rebuilding took many months, and the old, riverside city landscape changed forever. Most of the bridges were ruined and needed to be fixed and, in some cases, they needed to be rebuilt.
Pakistan Floods trap thousands
On the 31st of July 2010, around 800 people died, and one million were affected as the country battled the worst flooding in its history. The city of Peshawar had been completely cut off from the rest of the country, and the Pakistani military had sent out boats and helicopters to the surrounding areas to rescue the stranded villagers.
Meanwhile, the army engineers were working around the clock to avert the floodwaters away from major roads, so that the rescue teams could reach the wrecked areas. Officials had given warnings about the rising death toll, as many of the regions of the country were made unreachable.
Sonia Cush, who is the Director of the Emergency Response at Save the Children charity in Washington DC, told Al Jazeera that they were able to help flood survivors because they were situated near the severely affected areas in Pakistan. She also stated. “Our doctors have treated over 600 people in the last two days, and they have seen a lot of cases of fever, skin affections and diarrhoea”.
