General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's days in office are numbered. But he's already stopped doing much of his job.
In the last three weeks, a bomb went off in a major city and the president said nothing about it. The coronavirus surged to horrifying new levels of illness and death in the U.S. without Trump acknowledging the awful milestones. A violent mob incited by the president's own words chanted for Mike Pence's lynching at the U.S. Capitol and Trump made no effort to reach out to his vice president.
Trump only belatedly ordered flags flown at half-staff to honor an officer who gave his life defending the Capitol, and couldn't be bothered to describe the officer's actions.
The transgressions, big and small — of norms, of leadership, of human decency — cast a pall over his final days in office, and, in the view of even close advisers speaking privately, have indelibly stained his legacy. A half-dozen current administration officials expressed dismay at the president's action's in recent weeks, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they are still working for Trump.
"Even after losing the election, President Trump had the opportunity to leave the White House with his head held high, celebrating achievements like the COVID-19 vaccine, progress in the Middle East, and the vibrant pre-pandemic economy fueled by tax reform," said GOP operative Michael Steel, a onetime aide to former House Speaker John Boehner.
"Instead, he chose to wallow in delusion and grievance, and — as a result — the defining images of his presidency will be a bloody, murderous mob looting the cathedral of our democracy, the United States Capitol," Steel said.
As the violence raged at the Capitol last Wednesday, Trump only reluctantly put out a pair of tweets appealing for calm at the insistence of aides. He followed it up with a presidential video on Thursday decrying the violence, apparently hoping to ward off potential legal exposure and efforts to remove him from office.
Now, as the FBI warns of armed protests across the nation and in Washington in the days leading up to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, Trump has said nothing in recent days to tamp down passions or ensure his supporters do not again resort to violence.
At the same time, Trump has continued to spread lies about election fraud, about his political opponent and about members of his own party. After the Nov. 3 vote, he retreated into a bunker of his own delusion, unable or unwilling to concede defeat, and dragged millions with him.
Two months later, aides are still struggling to convince Trump to make an effort to showcase and salvage his achievements in office, with limited success.
He agreed to travel to Texas on Tuesday to view the U.S.-Mexico border wall one final time in office. But he has yet to sign off on a proposal from aides for him to deliver remarks in his final week in office highlighting the development of coronavirus vaccines and his efforts to boost military funding.
It remains unlikely that Trump will deliver a farewell speech before leaving office, a tradition for departing presidents.
Trump's actions have cost him his megaphone, as social media companies suspended him from their platforms citing his provocative rhetoric. But Trump has made little effort to get his voice back, avoiding television interviews and interactions with reporters.
Instead, Trump has been stewing inside the White House, alternating between his private dining room off the Oval Office and the mansion's residence level, never far from a television set. Without Twitter or Facebook, he's used his phone to call an ever-shrinking circle of aides and allies to claim the role of the aggrieved.
Since the holidays, Trump has dictated that his daily public schedule — virtually devoid of any public events — include a bizarre affirmation that he is indeed on the job. "President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings."
The guidance has become a punchline in the White House, and close aides say it belies the truth: Trump effectively ceased acting like the president after the election, with his inability to focus on almost anything other than his defeat growing more pronounced as the weeks have passed.
Trump has not had an intelligence briefing on his schedule in months — though aides say he has sat for them sporadically. As the coronavirus has killed more than 375,000 Americans in the last year, he has done little publicly or privately to try to manage the raging pandemic. And weeks after one of the largest infiltrations of U.S. government computer networks was pinned on Russia, Trump's main response was to suggest it could have been China.
As Trump obsesses over his election loss and many of his defenders fade away, it has largely fallen to his dwindling cadre of White House aides to defend his record over the past four years and offer assurances the president is still on the job.
"President Trump has rolled back government regulations, built the strongest, most inclusive economy in history, brought much-needed agency accountability, is bringing our troops home, developed a safe, effective vaccine in record time, and changed the way domestic and international deal-making is done so that the results actually help hardworking Americans," said Trump spokesman Judd Deere. "This important work continues along with rebuilding our economy and fulfilling the promises he made that has led to a safer, stronger, more secure America."
Trump himself has made little effort lately to make that argument.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S.
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture presents a captivating evening with acclaimed singer-songwriter Alkinoos Ioannidis, who will perform at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall on Saturday, April 27, 7:30 PM, in a solo concert.
ATHENS - The "OLYMPOS - Global Spiritual Center" Association presents on Saturday, April 6, at 6:00 pm, at the "Antonis Tritsis" Amphitheatre of the Cultural Center of the Municipality of Athens, 50, Acadimias Street, the truly ingenious funding proposal for the construction of Heptapolis in the wider area of Delphi, entitled "World Green Taxation Fund".
ATHENS - Disregarding the recommendation of a prosecutor who said there wasn’t enough evidence, an Athens Mixed Jury Court found a 55-year-old man guilty of raping a 12-year-old girl but found her mother innocent of pornography.