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By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration says its trade fraud crackdown has already topped $1 billion in recoveries and alleged losses, less than a year after the launch of a task force dedicated to this initiative.

The figure includes money recovered through criminal and civil cases, including penalties, settlements, restitution, asset forfeitures and losses alleged in pending cases, according to the task force. Only $150 million of that total is tied to pending cases. The news was shared exclusively with CNN.

The Trump administration has made trade enforcement a central part of its broader effort to increase tariff collections and crack down on companies accused of circumventing US trade rules.

The task force, led by the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security, was established just as President Donald Trump’s delayed “Liberation Day” tariffs took effect, with rates as high as 50% on goods from certain countries. The Supreme Court later ruled the president lacked sufficient authority to impose the tariffs.

The steep tariff rates gave importers a greater financial incentive to reduce their duty bills — sometimes through legal strategies, such as adjusting products to qualify for different tariff classifications or using customs-regulated warehouses that allow companies to delay payments.

But it may have also pushed more importers to turn to illegal schemes, too.

A Goldman Sachs analysis last year estimated tariff evasion could eventually affect more than $200 billion in US imports and reduce tariff revenue by roughly $40 billion over the long term. The economists identified misreporting the value of goods, falsifying countries of origin and routing shipments through third countries with lower tariffs as among the most likely methods of evasion.

There are hints of possible tariff evasion in discrepancies between the value of imports the United States has reported for countries and the value that other countries reported they exported to the US during a given time, the economists said.

The analysis also noted that the impact could be smaller if the administration’s efforts to curb evasion proved effective.

The case that pushed the task force over the $1 billion threshold was an American jewelry importer charged with falsely declaring the country of origin and rerouting imported gold pieces through a country with a lower tariff rate.

The charges filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois allege the jewelry, which had an estimated total value of more than approximately $240 million, was associated with $13.6 million in missing tariff revenue.

“The Department’s focus remains constant: if you misclassify goods or falsify origins to evade any lawful duty, regardless of when those duties were enacted or evolve over time, we will investigate and prosecute you,” Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, who heads the task force, said in a statement to CNN.

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Por Jacopo Prisco, CNN

Un esqueleto de Tyrannosaurus rex procedente de Dakota del Sur se ha convertido en el fósil más caro jamás vendido en una subasta, tras alcanzar este martes la cifra récord de US$ 50.130.000 en Sotheby’s, Nueva York.

El esqueleto, con una antigüedad aproximada de 67 millones de años, ha sido apodado “Gus” en honor al difunto Gary “Gus” Licking, un ganadero del condado de Harding, Dakota del Sur, propietario del terreno donde se encontró el espécimen. Licking falleció en 2022, un año después de iniciarse la excavación del fósil.

El T. rex Gus mide 11,6 metros de largo y 3,8 metros de alto, con un cráneo de 137 centímetros, lo que lo convierte en uno de los T. rex más grandes jamás encontrados, según Sotheby’s. Incluye 183 elementos óseos fósiles, lo que supone un 61 % de su integridad ósea, o entre un 75 % y un 80 % de su integridad en masa.

Al igual que muchos otros esqueletos de T. rex, Gus proviene de la Formación Hell Creek, un legendario yacimiento geológico que se extiende por Montana, Wyoming y las Dakotas. Uno de los primeros esqueletos de T. rex se encontró allí en 1902, y el nombre T. rex se le dio a la especie basándose en los fósiles desenterrados en esta zona.

El récord anterior de subasta de fósiles pertenecía a Apex, el estegosaurio, adquirido en 2024 por el multimillonario Ken Griffin por 44,6 millones de dólares. Actualmente se encuentra a la mitad de un préstamo de cuatro años en el Museo de Historia Natural de Nueva York.

La estimación previa a la venta de Gus era de entre 20 y 30 millones de dólares. La oferta ganadora se realizó por teléfono.

Los paleontólogos generalmente creen que una vez que un fósil termina en manos privadas, es una pérdida para la ciencia. Las revistas científicas solo publican investigaciones realizadas con especímenes que se encuentran en colecciones de acceso público; si un fósil es de propiedad privada, los estudios no pueden reproducirse de manera confiable, un estándar importante para verificar los hallazgos científicos.

Gus posee muchas características que lo hicieron interesante tanto para científicos como para posibles compradores. El cráneo conserva aproximadamente el 82 % de los huesos originales, y el esqueleto incluye componentes poco comunes como la fúrcula, una pelvis completa y ambos pies. Sotheby’s afirma que solo se conoce otro espécimen con ambos pies bien conservados. Según los informes, Gus también muestra marcas de mordeduras y evidencia de fracturas que el dinosaurio sobrevivió.

La casa de subastas afirmó que Gus es uno de los fósiles de T. rex más completos jamás encontrados, pero su estado es menos completo que el de Stan —un T. rex vendido en subasta en 2020 por 31,8 millones de dólares, con un 70 % de su estructura ósea completa— y que el de Sue, el primer fósil de dinosaurio vendido en subasta en 1997. Este último esqueleto estableció el estándar con su impresionante 90 % de integridad.

Sin embargo, Gus se vende con “derechos completos”, lo que significa que no contiene fragmentos de otros dinosaurios protegidos por derechos de autor. Normalmente, cuando falta un hueso en un esqueleto, se compra un molde de otro esqueleto existente para completar el hueco.

El estándar de facto para este proceso es Stan, que proviene del mismo condado de Dakota del Sur que Gus. El comprador de Gus podría convertirse en un competidor de Stan y licenciar o producir moldes para museos o coleccionistas privados.

Todas las miradas están puestas ahora en el comprador, cuya identidad aún se desconoce, y en qué decidirá hacer con el fósil.

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The post Un raro fósil de T. re

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN

(CNN) — A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton from South Dakota has become the world’s most expensive fossil sold at auction, after fetching a record $50,130,000 at Sotheby’s in New York Tuesday.

The skeleton, which is about 67 million years old, is nicknamed Gus after the late Gary ‘Gus’ Licking, a cattle rancher from Harding County, South Dakota, who owned the land where the specimen was found. He died in 2022, one year into the excavation of the fossil.

Gus the T. rex is 38 feet long and 12.5 feet tall, with a skull measuring 54 inches, which makes it one of the largest T. rexes ever found, according to Sotheby’s. It includes 183 fossil bone elements, making it about 61% complete by bone count, or 75% to 80% complete by mass.

Like many other T. rex skeletons, Gus comes from the Hell Creek Formation, a legendary geological boneyard that stretches across Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. One of the first skeletons of T. rex was found there in 1902, and the name T. rex was given to the species based on fossils unearthed in this area.

The previous record for a fossil auction belonged to Apex the Stegosaurus, bought in 2024 by billionaire Ken Griffin for $44.6 million. It is currently halfway through a 4-year loan at New York’s Museum of Natural History.

The presale estimate for Gus was between $20 and $30 million. The winning bid was placed over the phone.

Lost to science?

Paleontologists generally believe that once a fossil ends up in private hands, it is lost to science. Scientific journals will only publish research conducted on specimens held in publicly accessible collections; if a fossil is privately held, studies can’t be reliably reproduced, an important standard for verifying scientific findings.

Gus has many features that made it interesting both to scientists and prospective buyers. The skull has about 82% of the original bones represented, and the skeleton includes rarely found components such as the wishbone, a complete pelvis and both feet. Sotheby’s said only one other specimen is known to have two well-represented feet. Gus reportedly also shows bite marks and evidence of fractures that the dinosaur survived.

The auction house said Gus is one of the most complete T. rex fossils ever found, but the specimen is less complete than Stan — a T. rex sold at auction in 2020 for $31.8 million, which is about 70% complete by bone count — and Sue, the first dinosaur fossil ever sold at auction in 1997. The latter skeleton set the standard with its impressive 90% completeness.

Gus, however, comes with “full rights,” meaning it does not contain any copyrighted bits of other dinosaurs. Usually, when a bone is missing from a skeleton, a cast from another, existing skeleton is purchased to fill in the gap.

The de facto standard for this process is Stan, which comes from the same South Dakota county as Gus. The buyer of Gus could, potentially, become a Stan competitor and license or produce casts for museums or private collectors.

All eyes are now on the buyer, whose identity is currently unknown, and what they will decide to do with the fossil.

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By Ben Church, CNN

(CNN) — Note: This story first appeared in The Beautiful Game by CNN Sports, our daily newsletter on all things World Cup. To subscribe, click here.

Here we go then, the first semifinal of this year’s World Cup is upon us and it’s a true clash of heavyweights – world No. 1 France up against world No. 3 Spain.

It’s a tie that many had predicted before a ball was even kicked in North America and one that is finely balanced.

France is just about the favorite today given its superior form this summer, but Spain has beaten Les Bleus on the last two occasions at knockout tournaments so will feel confident heading into the tie.

We’ll have everything you need to know about this World Cup semifinal, starting with Spain’s not-so-secret weapon.

The Main Thing: Can Lamine Yamal finally turn up when it really matters?

I appreciate it’s crazy to put so much pressure on the shoulders of a player who only turned 19 yesterday. But Lamine Yamal’s rise through the ranks has been so spectacular that it almost belies his age.

He’s already a three-time La Liga winner for Barcelona, a European champion with Spain and now stands just two wins away from adding the World Cup to his trophy cabinet this summer.

So far, though, the winger has struggled to make a big impact this summer, perhaps still feeling the effects of the hamstring injury that saw him miss the final weeks of the domestic season.

He was teased back into the starting lineup during the early stages of the tournament so now, in theory, he should be fully fit.

“It’s the most important match of my career so far,” he said yesterday. “We’re all very excited, I would put it in the top spot.”

France will be very wary of Yamal. The teenager is simply unstoppable when he gets in the flow and has threatened to explode into action on more than one occasion during this competition.

He may have scored just one goal so far, but no player in the tournament has received the ball more behind the defensive line. That shows just how much intent there is in Yamal’s game. He’s desperate to cause havoc; he’s just been missing that final touch that is often so lethal.

His threat is so big that teams have tasked at least two players to mark Yamal during matches. Against Belgium in the quarterfinal, the youngster often had three people on him whenever he received the ball. It means he hasn’t been able to fully show what he can do.

Against France, though, he’s likely to have a little more space with his opposition more worried about attacking rather than its defending responsibilities. It’s this reason that Yamal often turns up against the bigger teams, as he’s done several times in the Champions League over the years.

It’s perhaps lazy to boil this game down to a battle between Yamal and France’s Kylian Mbappé – although some will certainly do so. Yes, both are their nation’s heroes, but there are so many other world-class players on display that the win could easily be decided by someone else other than these two forwards (Spanish editor’s note: Mikel Merino, I’m looking at you).

For Yamal, it’s all about seeing the game in its context and maintaining a perspective that allows him to enjoy the experience.

“There are situations in life way more difficult than a football match,” Yamal said when asked if he’s worried about the pressure of a semifinal.

“I always think that I have to be calm because that’s all it is, a game. When it’s over, life goes on.”

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