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Tens of thousands of partygoers stranded for days at the Burning Man festival in Nevada because of flooding have started to leave the camp.

Attendees at the festival were told to conserve food and water and find shelter after around 1.5 inches of rain fell on Friday in the north Nevada desert, causing flooding and foot-deep mud.

Police also said the death of a man in his 40s at the festival was not weather-related but provided no further details.

Vehicles are seen departing the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, Nevada, U.S., September 4, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight

The sheriff of nearby Pershing County said he was investigating but has not identified the man or a cause of death.

Organisers had started to let traffic flow out of the makeshift city on Monday afternoon, with delays of around five hours to leave the site. The festival had been closed to vehicles.

“It really looked apocalyptic,” said festival volunteer Evi Airy about the exodus of people.

The mud covers the ground at the site of the Burning Man festival in Black Rock, Nevada, U.S., September 2, 2023, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. Paul Reder/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.
Pic: Eddie Codel
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Pic: Eddie Codel

“When you see the people walking barefoot in such a cold with the children. Some people have a small child here like three years old, four years old. I don’t know how they survived.”

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Attendees were also asked not to walk out of the Black Rock Desert – about 110 miles (177km) north of Reno – as others had done throughout the weekend, including celebrity DJ Diplo and comedian Chris Rock.

Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies.
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Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies.

Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies.
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Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies.

Diplo, whose real name is Thomas Wesley Pentz, posted a video to Instagram on Saturday evening showing him and Rock travelling in the back of a fan’s truck.

He said they had walked six miles through the mud before finding a lift.

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Chris Rock and Diplo escape Burning Man

“I legit walked the side of the road for hours with my thumb out,” Diplo wrote.

President Joe Biden told reporters in Delaware on Sunday that he was aware of the situation at Burning Man, including the death, and the White House was in touch with local authorities.

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The annual gathering, which launched on a San Francisco beach in 1986, attracts nearly 80,000 artists, musicians and activists for a mix of wilderness camping and avant-garde performances.

Some of the 64,000 people who remained on site have chosen to stay an extra night and watch the festival’s giant namesake effigy go up in flames on Monday, one day late.

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There are signs the world is losing faith in the dollar

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There are signs the world is losing faith in the dollar

First he took the US on a collision course with China. Then he came for the rest of the world.

He crashed into the financial markets and now Donald Trump has been gently tapping on the brakes all week.

The world’s economic policymakers have been on quite the journey over the past few months.

Many of them will have felt a little queasy as they got off the plane in Washington DC for the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) annual spring meetings.

This was their opportunity to talk. To strategise, strengthen alliances and figure out their next move.

Rachel Reeves was in the mix. While all the focus has been on a US-UK trade deal – and she is due to meet her US counterpart on Friday – the chancellor was also here to meet her G7 and G20 allies.

Countries across the world are eager for Mr Trump to reduce his tariffs but they are also looking to each other, reflecting on how the world might look in the future and whether the US is a reliable long-term partner.

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That much was obvious from a conversation with Paschal Donohoe, Ireland’s finance minister and president of the Eurogroup.

He told Sky News that Ireland, a highly US-orientated economy, was diversifying.

That being said, he was “more optimistic than some” that a high level of trade integration would prevail well into the future.

“What I think is very possible is the structure of that globalisation could begin to change,” he said.

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‘We’re confident,’ says Chancellor Reeves

That changing structure might include a rejection of China’s decades-long model of export-led growth.

Since joining the World Trade Organisation in 2001, China has been pumping out cheap goods into the world economy, making far more than it consumes at home.

Poor countries across the world have taken a similar approach to development but the US Treasury secretary said on the sidelines of the IMF on Wednesday that it was “absurd” for multilateral institutions to continue treating China like a developing economy.

He called for a “rebalancing”.

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There is a recognition among world leaders that some of Mr Trump’s grievances are reasonable.

They believe his approach is the wrong one but in interviews they are now talking about the negative consequences of trade imbalances and globalisation – the impact on communities and the undercutting of wages.

That wasn’t the case just a few months ago.

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Ms Reeves took it one step further. On Wednesday, the Treasury announced plans to tackle the dumping of cheap goods into the UK – no doubt aimed at China.

She announced a review of the customs’ treatment of low-value imports.

Currently goods valued at £135 escape the duty. The US has already taken action.

In an interview with Sky News, she said she was acting in the “national interest” but she is also looking for common ground with the Americans, as she seeks a deal that secures a reduction in tariffs.

Speaking to US media on Thursday, she reiterated her shared concerns: “I absolutely understand the concerns the United States have about imbalances in trade in the global economy, particularly when it comes to China that runs large, persistent trade surpluses with countries around the world, including the US and indeed including the United Kingdom.”

The IMF too. While the Fund sharply downgrades global growth forecasts, it shied away from openly criticising the US president.

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IMF slashes UK growth forecast

Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, spoke of an erosion of trust between countries, and “concerns about the uneven distribution of gains from economic integration, its impact on the international division of labour, supply chain security, and global imbalances”.

So, Mr Trump has got policymakers to shift their priorities.

At the very least, he has brought a long-simmering issue to the boil. The world is thinking differently about China now.

The US is also showing signs that it’s thinking differently. After a bruising showdown with the bond markets, Mr Trump has rowed back on his liberation day tariffs.

The administration has softened its language, saying it wants reform and to work with institutions.

The president said tariffs could come down substantially on China.

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Day 96: ‘Vladimir STOP!’ Will Trump’s plea to Putin make a difference?

However, a lot of damage has already been done – not only his erratic tariffs policy, but also his attack on institutions, including the US Federal Reserve.

The world is now thinking differently about the US too, as are the markets.

Investors normally dive into US assets – government debt and the dollar – during times of turmoil, but Mr Trump’s pronouncement has caused traders to do the opposite.

There are signs that the world is losing faith in the US’ ultimate safe haven status.

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Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov says US and Moscow moving in ‘right direction’ for Ukraine peace

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Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov says US and Moscow moving in 'right direction' for Ukraine peace

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said the US and Russia are moving in the “right direction” to end the war in Ukraine.

“We are ready to reach a deal, but there are still some specific points – elements of this deal which need to be fine-tuned,” Mr Lavrov told CBS News’ Face The Nation show, which will air on Sunday.

“We continue our contacts with the American side on the situation in Ukraine, there are several signs that we are moving in the right direction.”

A Ukrainian serviceman carries a dog out of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike in a residential neighborhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, April 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
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A Ukrainian serviceman carries a dog out of a house damaged by the Russian airstrike in Kyiv. Pic: AP

It comes after Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv came under the largest attack since July last year with at least 12 people killed and more than 100 injured.

Ukraine’s air force said a total of 215 drones and missiles were launched at the country by Russia on Wednesday night, with Kyiv among the areas worst hit.

Ukrainian officials said rescuers were still recovering bodies from the rubble.

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Trump: ‘I think we’re going to get peace’

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The strikes triggered a reaction by Mr Trump, who posted on his Truth Social platform saying: “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV.

“Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”

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The US president was then asked about the Russian attacks while hosting Norway’s prime minister in the Oval Office, and said he “wasn’t happy” but insisted “we’re putting a lot of pressure on Russia”.

He was also asked about Crimea following reports that his peace plan includes the US acknowledging Moscow’s control of the territory.

Mr Trump admitted it would be “very difficult” for Ukraine to get the territory back, but reiterated his belief that “we’re getting close to a deal”.

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Day 96: ‘Vladimir STOP!’ Will Trump’s plea to Putin make a difference?

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the US wanted to see both Ukraine and Russia step up to finalise a deal and further discussions were planned for the weekend.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeated many times that recognising occupied territory as Russia’s is a red line for his country.

Speaking about the airstrikes, he said: “It is very important that everyone in the world sees and understands what is really happening.”

Mr Zelenskyy was on a visit to South Africa when the missiles hit his country, prompting him to cut the trip short.

He said preliminary information indicated that Russia “used a ballistic missile manufactured in North Korea” and Ukraine’s special services were verifying the details.

He added if the missile was found to have been made in North Korea, it would be further proof “of the criminal nature of the alliance between Russia and Pyongyang”.

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Day 96: ‘Vladimir STOP!’ Will Trump’s plea to Putin make a difference?

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Day 96: 'Vladimir STOP!' Will Trump's plea to Putin make a difference?

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As President Donald Trump appears to publicly criticise Vladimir Putin for the first time, US correspondents James Matthews and Mark Stone, along with Sky’s data and economics editor Ed Conway, discuss if it will help or hinder peace talks.

Plus, how does the device you’re listening to this episode on have to do with Trump’s tariffs?

If you’d like to watch Ed’s reporting on how luxury cars are beating Russian sanctions, you can find it here.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the TRUMP100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

Don’t forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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