THE NP CHRONICLE : 24TH AUGUST

The NP Chronicle 

24th August

Yasser Arafat (24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, President of Palestine from 1989 to 2004 and President of the Palestinian Authority (PNA) from 1994 to 2004.[3] Ideologically an Arab nationalist and a socialist, Arafat was a founding member of the Fatah political party, which he led from 1959 until 2004.

"Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you."

-- Yasser Arafat 

"Our goal is the liberation of our fatherland by any means necessary... I am with the current of history and those with the current of history will win."

-- Yasser Arafat 

William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, and became an independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Yorkshire (1784–1812). In 1785, he underwent a conversion experience and became an evangelical Anglican, which resulted in major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern for reform.

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges (/ˈbɔːrhɛs/ BOR-hess; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph (transl. The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers, and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magical realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.

Today is:

▪︎ International Strange Music Day

▪︎ Pluto Demoted Day

▪︎ Ukraine's Independence Day

▪︎ Birth anniversary of Yasser Arafat, William Wilberforce, Jorge Luis Borges 

▪︎ Death anniversary of Richard Attenborough, Sergei Dovlatov

UKRAINE

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the north; Poland and Slovakia to the west; Hungary, Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is Ukraine's capital and largest city, followed by Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipro. The official language of the country is Ukrainian. Ukraine covers an area of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi) with an estimated total population of 32.3 million in 2026.

Military & Security

▪︎ Military Size: Ranked 6th globally by number of active military personnel.

▪︎ Passport Power: Ranked 25th on the Passport Index, providing visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to over 142 countries.

Governance, Tech, & Economy

▪︎ Government AI Readiness: Ranked 40th out of 195 countries.

▪︎ Global Innovation Index: Scores strongly in knowledge/technology outputs (47th) and business sophistication (56th).

▪︎ Rule of Law Index: Placed 36th or higher in specific regional/global rule of law dimensions evaluated by the World Justice Project.

▪︎ Global Relocation Index: Ranked 114th out of 192 countries for living and relocating abroad based on cost, safety, and infrastructure.