Arizona teenager saved by brother after black bear attack
A teenage boy was saved by his brother after a black bear barged into his cabin and left him with scratches across his face and arm – with the animal having a sit down on a sofa on the family’s porch after the attack.
Brigham Hawkins, 15, was “just chilling” in one of two cabins on his family’s property in Alpine, Arizona, when the bear “walked in through the front door and swiped him across the head” on Thursday evening, his mother Carol said.
Ms Hawkins told Sky News’ US partner NBC News that Brigham has a “neurological disorder” and she believes he would have been killed if her other son Parker, 18, had not intervened.
The mother said: “The front door was open to let the cool night air in.
“Brigham was watching YouTube and didn’t realise what was happening.”
Ms Hawkin said her son “started screaming” during the attack, adding: “[The bear] got him on the nose and the cheek and then went ahead and got his forehead and the top of his head.”
Parker ran over from the other cabin in the family’s garden after hearing the screams, Ms Hawkins said.
She continued: “Parker at first thought it was a big dog of some kind.
“Then the bear saw Parker and began to chase him. That gave Brigham time to slam the door shut in his cabin.”
Ms Hawkins added that Parker then managed to make it back to the other cabin as the bear followed him.
She continued: “[The bear] was just pacing there for a while as we watched him through the window.
“Then he sat down on a couch on the porch and just looked around. It was insane.”
Ms Hawkins said that while she dialled 911 and called a neighbour for help, her husband Shane waited for the bear to look away before darting to the cabin where Brigham was holed-up.
“He slammed the door in the bear’s face,” she said.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD), whose agents arrived at the scene, said at one stage during the family’s ordeal the bear entered Brigham’s cabin a second time before “swiping at the victim’s arm”.
However, the bear was no longer besieging the cabins by the time the AZGFD agents arrived.
“After arriving on scene, AZGFD wildlife officers were able to quickly locate and dispatch the bear,” the agency said in a statement.
The bear was a male estimated to be three years old and his carcass will be tested for diseases, the AZGFD said.
Ms Hawkins said her son is “doing better” and has already received a round of rabies shots as a precaution.
Reflecting on why the bear may have attacked, she said: “He may have just been hungry… but that’s just not a normal way for a bear to behave.”
Read more:
Bear alert in Japan after man found dead
Bear goes on rampage in Slovakia
Bear attacks security guard in Colorado hotel
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
October 2023: Bear attacks security guard in Colorado hotel
Ms Hawkins continued: “[Brigham] has a neurological disorder and would not have been able to get away from the bear.
“It took a few miracles happening at the same time to save him.”
She added: “This really could have been a lot worse.
“We’re still in disbelief that this happened, but we’re also feeling very blessed.”
There have been 16 bear attacks on people in Arizona since 1990 – with two of them having been fatal, according to the AZGFD.
The most recent fatality occurred when a 66-year-old man was killed while drinking a cup of coffee in the woods in Prescott last year.
Dozens of websites, banks and apps are being affected by a major internet outage.
The problem, which started on Monday morning, appears to be related to an issue at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
As of 9.20am, there were more than 2,000 reports of the Amazon Web Services outage in the US alone, according to Downdetector, which monitors issues and outages in real-time.
On its service status page, the company said it was seeing “increased error rates” and delays with “multiple AWS services”.
Here’s what we know so far.
Pic: PA
Pic: PA
Pic: PA
What has been affected?
Multiple banks, the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) website, mobile phone networks and video-chatting platform Zoom are among the websites having technical issues.
All Amazon products – including Prime Video and Amazon Music – have also been affected, as well as the main Amazon website.
Here’s a full list of what has been affected by the internet outage, according to Downdetector:
• Snapchat
• Ring
• Roblox
• Amazon Web Services
• Life360
• My Fitness Pal
• Amazon
• Xero
• Signal
• Canva
• Fortnite
• Blink Security
• Zoom
• HMRC
• Clash Royale
• Clash Of Clans
• Asana
• Wordle
• Slack
• Smartsheet
• Epic Games Store
• Duolingo
• Amazon Alexa
• Jira
• Vodafone
• Tidal
• Coinbase
• Atlassian
• IMDB
• Amazon Prime Video
• Pokemon Go
• BT
• Peloton
• EE
• Ancestry
• Square
• Playstation Network
• Eventbrite
• Amazon Music
• Sky
• Flickr
• Hay Day
• Rocket League
• Perplexity AI
• Dead By Daylight
• Bank Of Scotland
• Lloyds Bank
• Halifax
What has AWS said?
AWS confirmed it was suffering from “increased error rates and latencies” for multiple services.
In a statement on its website, the company said: “We are actively engaged and working to both mitigate the issue and understand root cause,” an update on its website says.
“We will provide an update in 45 minutes, or sooner if we have additional information to share.”
The company is posting regular updates on the situation and said its engineers were “immediately engaged” as soon as they spotted the issue.
Concentrated in the US
ThousandEyes, a website that tracks the performance of local and wide area networks, servers and applications, shows many of the outages appear to be concentrated in the US.
A large portion is focused in Virginia, which is widely considered as the global capital for data centres.
Has something like this happened before?
US
Donald Trump mocks ‘No Kings’ protests with AI video of himself dropping brown sludge on protesters from jet
Donald Trump has responded to so-called “No Kings” rallies with an AI video of himself in a fighter jet, pouring brown sludge over protesters.
Millions of people were expected to take part in the demonstrations this weekend – the second such gathering after an initial nationwide day of protest in June coinciding with the US president’s birthday.
The term “No Kings” reflects the belief by some that Mr Trump is behaving like a “king” and some in his administration are depicting him as a monarch.
A protester in costume as Donald Trump presents the president as a prisoner in chains in Seattle. Pic: AP
One of the rallies in New York. Pic: Reuters
On Sunday, the president shared the AI video on his social media platform, Truth Social.
In the clip, an AI-generated version of Mr Trump is wearing a crown and sitting in a jet with “King Trump” written across it, to the soundtrack of Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone, from the film Top Gun.
The jet then drops thick brown sludge on to AI-generated protesters.
Supporters say the marches are a patriotic defence of free speech, while critics are calling them anti-American.
A large inflatable effigy of Mr Trump in Chicago. Pic: Reuters
This protest took place in Washington DC. Pic: AP
Mr Trump’s Republican Party has dismissed the demonstrations as “Hate America” rallies.
Many of the events featured marching bands, huge banners and signs, as well as effigies of the president and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes.
Thousands gathered along the waterfront in Portland, Oregon. Pic: AP
Protesters at the Wyoming State Capitol got creative with their signs. Pic: Wyoming Tribune Eagle/AP
The protests follow Mr Trump’s return to the White House and come against the backdrop of a government shutdown which has closed federal programmes and services.
There has also been criticism of what some see as an aggressive executive, confronting Congress and the courts, in ways that protest organisers believe are a slide toward authoritarianism.
This event in San Francisco was among thousands taking place across the US. Pic: Reuters
A ‘No Kings’ sign, outside City Hall in Los Angeles. Pic: Reuters
So far, the atmosphere at most of the protests appears to have been largely energetic and upbeat, with protesters calling for accountability and protections for civil liberties.
Organisers said events would be peaceful – a direct response to Republican and Trump administration claims that the protests could be unsafe.
Two survivors of a US airstrike, targeting what Donald Trump has described as a “drug-carrying submarine” in the Caribbean, have been repatriated to their home countries.
The US president posted footage of Thursday’s operation, part of a recent military campaign targeting boats transporting drugs to America.
“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“US intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics,” he added.
The US military staged a helicopter rescue for the survivors on Thursday after the strike on their semi-submersible
vessel, suspected of trafficking illegal narcotics. They were then transported to a US Navy warship.
Two other crew members on board were killed.
The semi-submersible vessel was struck by US forces on Thursday, leaving two dead and two survivors. Pic: @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
President Trump confirmed the survivors would be returned to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador “for detention and prosecution”. Both countries subsequently confirmed they had been handed over.
“America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea,” he added.
On Saturday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro posted on X: “We have received the Colombian detained on the narco submarine, we are happy he is alive and he will be processed according to the law.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Trump sends CIA into Venezuela and threatens land attack
Read more from Sky News:
Venezuela’s president pleads for peace
Is Trump planning to attack Venezuela?
Venezuela’s Nobel Peace Prize winner
The Trump administration has said previous strikes in the Caribbean have killed 27 people, raising concerns among some about the legality of the military operations.
The strikes also come against the backdrop of a US military buildup in the Caribbean that includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and around 6,500 troops as the US president escalates a standoff with the Venezuelan government.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Venezuelan president: ‘We don’t want a war’
On Wednesday, Mr Trump disclosed he had authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, adding to speculation in Caracas that the US is attempting to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Mr Maduro has denied any connection to drug smuggling and claimed the US boat strikes are a pretext for regime change, and violations of sovereignty and international law.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024