The Burning Man festival in Nevada has been dominated by rain, mud baths and videos of Chris Rock and Diplo’s escape – but a slightly different picture is emerging online.
Social media has seen a torrent of misinformation claims of an “Ebola outbreak” at the festival – causing mass panic.
The hashtag #Ebola has made up almost a quarter of posts on TikTok and Twitter from the Nevada region over the past few days.
Sky News has been taking a look at where some of them have come from – and why they’re false.
Tens of thousands of partygoers have been stuck in the northern Nevada Black Rock Desert following heavy rain that began on Thursday.
One of the false claims circulating is that an Ebola outbreak was confirmed at Black Rock City by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – the US health regulator.
Screenshots of a fake post by the CDC claiming that an outbreak had been “confirmed” – posted on Sunday on platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter – have had over 300,000 views.
The post features a manipulated health advisory infographic from a previous CDC Ebola campaign, but replaces the subtitle of “Recently in Africa?” to “Recently in Nevada?”
The screenshot makes it look like the official CDC X page, which uses the handle of @CDCgov, published the post.
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But a closer look at the real account shows the centre has not publicly mentioned anything about an outbreak in Nevada.
A community note on X does warn that the post is either “deliberate misinformation” or a joke that got “out of hand”, but some critics say the note was added too late.
#Ebola dominates almost quarter of posts
The hashtag #Ebola has also dominated social media posts from the Nevada region over the last few days, data from social listening platform TalkWalker shows.
Between 27 and 31 August, Ebola does not appear in posts from TikTok and X from the region of Nevada.
Image: Ebola was one of the top posted terms on TikTok and Twitter in Nevada between 1 to 4 September. Pic: TalkWalker
However, between Friday and Monday, where weather has disrupted the festival – #Ebola dominates 21.4% of posts across both social media platforms in the region – demonstrating how widespread the claim has become online.
It’s unclear why the misinformation surrounding the event focused specifically on an Ebola virus outbreak, and where it originally started.
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The misinformation online has even caused confusion for festivalgoers still at Burning Man, who have been posting to confirm there has not been an outbreak of the virus.
Other posts surfacing online also mention Marburgvirus – which is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola.
An actor who appeared in animated series King Of The Hill and hit show Parks And Recreation has been shot dead near his home.
Jonathan Joss, 59, was found injured by police in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday evening.
Officers tried to save him but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The actor’s husband claimed the gunman shouted “violent homophobic slurs” before opening fire, and that Joss had pushed him out the way to save his life.
“He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other,” alleged Tristan Kern de Gonzales on Facebook.
He said the couple had previously faced harassment from neighbours, much of it “openly homophobic”.
Joss’s husband said they had been checking for mail at his old home – which earlier this year burned down in a fire that killed their three dogs – when they noticed the skull of one of the animals in front of the property.
He said they began “yelling and crying” and claimed they were approached by a man who threatened them with a gun.
“We were standing side by side,” said Mr Kern de Gonzales. “When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life.”
However, San Antonio police said it had found no evidence that the shooting was a hate crime.
“Should any new evidence come to light, we will charge the suspect accordingly,” said a statement.
A 56-year-old man, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, has already been charged with murder.
Joss is best known for voicing Native American character John Redcorn in cult show King Of The Hill, which ran for 13 series and more than 250 episodes from 1997 to 2009.
He also had a recurring role in NBC’s Parks And Recreation as tribal elder and casino owner Chief Ken Hotate.
A King Of The Hill reboot is due to start in August and Joss had been in Austin, Texas, for events promoting the comeback the day before he was killed.
He posted a video on Instagram saying he was signing autographs at a comic book store, adding that he had already worked on four episodes of the revival.
“The fans get to revisit King Of the Hill again, which I think is an amazing thing because it’s a great show,” he said in the video.
The suspect is being held in a detention centre in San Antonio, but the lawyer representing him could not be traced as they were not listed in court records.
Elon Musk has criticised US President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, calling it “outrageous” and a “disgusting abomination”.
The bill, which includes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks, was passed by the House Republicans in May, and has been described by the president as a “big, beautiful bill”.
The tech billionaire hit out at the tax cuts on his platform X, writing: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Image: Elon Musk left his ‘special government employee’ role last week. Pic: AP.
In American politics, “pork” is a political metaphor used when government spending is allocated to local projects, usually to benefit politicians’ constituencies.
The White House brushed Musk’s comments aside, claiming they did not surprise the president.
In a press conference on Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill”.
She added: “This is one, big, beautiful bill.
“And he’s sticking to it.”
The White House on Tuesday asked Congress to cut back $9.4bn in already approved spending, taking money away from DOGE.
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What did Musk achieve at DOGE?
The billionaire tweeted: “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!!) and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
He also suggested voting out politicians who advanced the president’s tax bill.
“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” Musk wrote in another X post.
Questions have also been raised about whether the department has actually saved taxpayers as much money as suggested.
Musk initially had ambitions to slash government spending by $2trn (£1.5trn) – but this was dramatically reduced to $1trn (£750bn) and then to just $150bn (£111bn).
Image: Elon Musk brought his son X Æ A-12 to the Oval Office during a press conference earlier this year. Pic: Reuters.
He recently told The Washington Post: “The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realised. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC to say the least.”
By law, status as a “special government employee” means he could only serve for a maximum of 130 days, which would have ended around 30 May.
The family of the man accused of throwing petrol bombs at a pro-Israel group in Colorado have been taken into custody.
Immigration officers detained Mohamed Soliman’s relatives, believed to be his wife and five children.
Soliman, an Egyptian national, moved to the US three years ago and lived in Colorado Springs but was there illegally after his visa and work authorisation expired. He reportedly has two teenage children and three younger children.
“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” said homeland security secretary Kristi Noem on X.
The attacker allegedly yelled “Free Palestine” and had a total of 18 petrol bombs – but police said he “got scared” and only tossed a couple.
Soliman also had a makeshift flamethrower in the form of gas in a backpack sprayer, according to a FBI statement, but told investigators he did not use it.
Twelve people were injured, authorities said. The victims were aged between 52 and 88 and three of them were still being treated in hospital on Tuesday.
Image: Mohamed Soliman appeared with a bandaged ear in a mugshot. Pic: Boulder Police Dept.
Soliman was allegedly dressed as a gardener to get as close as he could to the small group. Authorities said he told them he had no regrets.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Boulder attack was “aimed against peaceful people who wished to express their solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas, simply because they were Jews”.