Massachusetts

While Athens and Nicosia are making an effort to enhance alliances and collaborations with key international players in the geopolitical and economic arena, there is a parameter that will always have its own added value and that is the Greek diaspora.

Churches throughout Greece opened their doors to the faithful after two months Sunday, but limited the number of congregants and dispensed disinfectant outside. Communion, however, was given using the same spoon.

On April 16th the Orthodox Church marks Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Great and Holy Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries.

Maundy Thursday is the Christian feast or holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles. The day is preceded by Holy Wednesday and followed by Good Friday.

When will we have a Covid-19 vaccine? Public-facing scientists such as the UK's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, and his US counterpart, Anthony Fauci, keep repeating that it won't be before 12 to 18 months. But other voices - including some of those in the race to create a vaccine themselves - have suggested that it could be as early as June. Who is right?

Two former presidential rivals endorsed Joe Biden on March 6 in the latest sign that the Democratic establishment is coalescing around the former vice president to stop the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, who ratcheted up attacks on his rival ahead of crucial contests next week.

Elizabeth Warren drops out of the US presidential race election after disappointing finishes in primary contests across the country on Super Tuesday.

Warren, a 70-year-old Massachusetts senator, will have a conversation with her campaign staff, AFP reports. She announced that she was withdrawing her candidacy for the party's presidential nomination.

The first batches of the new COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine are ready and sent to health regulators for approval. The vaccine was developed by American biotechnology company Modern Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to Times. The development process was completed in a record-breaking time. It's only 42 days since Chinese scientists released the genetic code of the virus.

Dame Minouche Shafik is one of the world's most distinguished academics. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1962, Shafik went on to study at Amherst College, Massachusetts, the London School of Economics and St Antony's College, Oxford, and has since worked for some of the most prestigious global institutions.

"Big WIN for us in Iowa tonight. Thank you!", Donald Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump campaign used yesterday's contest to test its organizational strength, deploying Cabinet secretaries, top Republican officials and Trump family members to the state, as AP reports.
It's unusual for Iowa to even be holding a GOP contest with an incumbent in the White House.

Theocharis Lalacos, who served until recently as Ambassador of Greece to the USA, will soon be taking over the reins of the Greek Embassy in Nicosia. He succeeds Ilias Fotopoulos, who concluded his term in Cyprus last October.