Want $50 off your monthly internet bill? Find out if you qualify – National & International News – WED 12May2021

See if you qualify for $50 internet discount. AR-TN bridge closed indefinitely. Rights watchdogs slam EU states for refugee pushbacks.

NATIONAL NEWS

COVID-relief emergency plan gives $50 off internet bills

Starting today, Americans can apply for $50 off their monthly internet bills. This is thanks to the December pandemic-relief package which set aside $3.2 billion to keep Americans connected at a time when it matters most. 

The Federal Communications Commission did not supply an exact number but said that 10s of millions of Americans are eligible. It’s uncertain how long the money will last, but it’s likely to be several months. 

You might be eligible if you:

• Receive food stamps
• Have a child in the free/reduced-lunch program
• Use Medicaid
• Lost income during the pandemic (earning $99,000 or less for single filers, or $198,000 or less for joint filers).

More than 800 cellphone and home-internet companies are participating, including AT&T, Charter, Comcast, T-Mobile and Verizon. And you can still take part in the program even if you owe money to your phone or cable company.

You can also get $100 off the price of a desktop computer, laptop or tablet if you purchase it through your internet provider. You must pay between $10 and $50 of the cost of the device yourself.

People in tribal areas are eligible for up to $75 off the cost of their internet bill.

How to apply

There are other eligibility requirements as well. There are three ways for eligible households to apply. I suggest you try the first option, as you will likely have trouble accessing the web address given (it timed out multiple times when I tried):

1. Contact your preferred participating broadband provider directly to learn about their application process.
2. Go to https://getemergencybroadband.org (opens in new tab), to find out if you qualify, apply online and find participating providers near you. 
3. Call 833-511-0311 for a mail-in application, and return it along with copies of documents showing proof of eligibility to:

Emergency Broadband Support Center
P.O. Box 7081
London, KY 40742

If you want more information on eligibility before you contact your internet provider, you’ll likely have better luck accessing this site: https://www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit

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Bridge between Arkansas and Tennessee closed due to crack

A crack in the I-40 Hernando DeSoto “M” bridge connecting Memphis, TN, to West Memphis, AR, over the Mississippi has closed the bridge indefinitely to traffic on both sides. The Arkansas Department of Transportation shut the bridge down after finding the “significant” crack during a routine inspection.

The 1.8-mile bridge is less than 50 years old, having opened to traffic in 1973. It took 6 years to build and cost $57 million. Since 2000, the bridge has been undergoing a multimillion-dollar refit to withstand 7.7-magnitude earthquakes. In 2020, an average 35,000 vehicles, 29% of them trucks, crossed the bridge every day. 

TDOT and ADOT are re-routing traffic to the 71-year-old I-55 Memphis & Arkansas Bridge. River traffic in the area is also halted until further notice. 

The US Army Corps of Engineers currently ranks US infrastructure at a C-, which is actually up from previous score of D-. US bridges have a score of C, with 42% of all bridges being at least 50 years old, and 46,154, or 7.5% of bridges considered to be in “poor” condition.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Rights groups, EU commissioner slam refugee “pushbacks”

According to the Protecting Rights at Borders (PRAB) initiative, several European states have been informally cooperating to “pushback” refugees at their borders, denying them asylum rights. The group says that Italy, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Hungary have established informal bilateral agreements between countries to deny EU entry to thousands of men, women and children this year.

The Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatović, the EU’s top human rights watchdog, has also singled out Greece in particular for criticism.

Mijatović called on Athens’ center-right government to put a stop to the pushbacks. She writes, “I am deeply concerned that, two and a half years later,” after her previous visit to discuss the issue, “allegations of pushbacks persist. The way in which these operations are reportedly carried out would clearly be incompatible with Greece’s human rights obligations”. 

EU lets refugees down across the board

Greece’s dominant center-right party New Democracy (currently headed by PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis) has long had a dodgy reputation when it comes to the treatment of refugees. But it’s worth considering that for the better part of a decade, Greece and other less-affluent EU border states have been in the unenviable position of having to warehouse 100s of 1000s or even millions of refugees in total. Meanwhile, more affluent EU states have agreed to accept only a negligible fraction of incoming refugees.

And another EU country, Denmark, is currently revoking the residency status of thousands of Syrian refugees. Denmark has declared that war-torn Syria is now “safe” and is attempting to force refugees to return.

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