The new version of powerpress did not make a difference.
But, I manually (because I could not access the WP Plugin area) deactivated all the plugins.
1. Accessed via FTP ... Renamed the wp plugin folder... changed from plugins to pluginsxxx
2. Plugin area was visible as was the update area.
3. Changed the plugins folder back to "plugins"
4. Accessed the Plugins area of the WP dashboard and reactivated the plugins.
Good to go.
I am not sure what happened, but it occurred immediately after doing an upgrade to 5.0.5 of powerpress through the plugin area of the WP dashboard... somehow triggered an issue with activation because after the upgrade, the other plugins remained active, but powerpress was in active so for some reason, after the upgrade, it did not activate.