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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Por Charlotte Reck, CNN

Un piloto de una aerolínea aprovechó un vuelo de prueba de dos horas para escribir un mensaje travieso en el cielo: las palabras “Estoy aburrido” mientras sobrevolaba el Reino Unido.

Mientras algunas personas muestran su aburrimiento haciendo garabatos en una hoja o mirando el teléfono, este piloto llevó su mensaje a otro nivel: aproximadamente a 335 metros (1.100 pies) de altura.

El sitio web de seguimiento de vuelos Flightradar24 captó el mensaje, que fue trazado durante un vuelo realizado la mañana del sábado, hora local.

Los datos de seguimiento muestran que el avión de Ravenair emprendió un recorrido de dos horas desde la ciudad inglesa de Liverpool, en la costa noroeste, y sobrevoló localidades vecinas del norte, en la península de Wirral y el condado de Cheshire, antes de cruzar al norte de Gales.

Durante unos 20 minutos, el piloto dibujó su traviesa confesión con amplios giros sobre el estuario del río Dee, dejando una inconfundible firma en el cielo.

Según la aerolínea, el Piper Tomahawk realizaba un vuelo de prueba a cargo de un instructor de vuelo de unos 20 años, después de que una pieza fuera reemplazada en la aeronave.

“Creo que el piloto estaba literalmente un poco aburrido porque era solo un vuelo de prueba”, dijo Wayne Barrett, gerente de operaciones, a la BBC. “Aunque hay que reconocer que fue una maniobra bastante hábil”.

Barrett explicó que se había sustituido el cilindro del avión, un mecanismo esencial donde se quema el combustible para generar potencia, y era necesario realizar un vuelo de prueba para garantizar que la aeronave fuera segura para volver a operar.

El avión demostró estar en condiciones de volver al servicio, dijo Barrett, aunque bromeó con que la ocurrencia del piloto era impresionante para alguien que aseguraba haberse aburrido de la tarea.

“Estaba un poco aburrido, pero probablemente al final tuvo que concentrarse mucho para escribir las palabras, así que seguramente estaba de todo menos aburrido”, dijo Barrett.

Pero el piloto bromista no recibirá ninguna reprimenda, aseguró Barrett. “El avión ya está de regreso, sano y salvo, en el hangar, y el piloto está disfrutando de su día libre”.

CNN se puso en contacto con Ravenair para solicitar comentarios.

No es la primera vez que un piloto se sale de lo habitual para enviar un mensaje.

En 2020, cuando la pandemia de coronavirus obligó a imponer confinamientos y las advertencias de seguridad se propagaban por todo el mundo, un piloto en Austria despegó para dibujar en el cielo un mensaje importante: “Quédate en casa”.

Ese recordatorio también fue captado por Flightradar24 y se produjo durante un vuelo de 24 minutos al sur de Viena, la capital del país.

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By John Fritze, Devan Cole, Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett will implore House and Senate lawmakers Tuesday to provide millions of dollars more for security during a pair of rare hearings in which the justices will take on a wide range of questions from lawmakers for the first time since before the pandemic.

Kagan focused her testimony before a House subcommittee on the increase in threats faced by Supreme Court justices and other federal judges. There has been a spike in threats aimed at the justices in recent years.

“For some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize,” Kagan told House lawmakers. “But, as the chief justice has said, all members of the court continue to do their jobs as they believe legally right, adjudicating cases without fear or favor.”

Liberal justice Kagan and Barrett, who was placed on the high court by President Donald Trump, are appearing before House and Senate appropriations subcommittees to make a pitch for additional security funding. Justices last testified before Congress in 2019.

The judiciary has requested nearly $921 million for security overall, a $29 million increase compared to last year, for frontline security forces at federal courthouses. The ask includes an increase of nearly $15 million to make members of the Supreme Court Police available to protect the justices and their families, including at their homes.

Security incidents involving judges that the Marshals Service classified as of “significant concern” jumped 57% in 2025. Kagan also spoke to the security posture at the high court in an unusually personal tenor.

“I first joined the court in 2010. Our security was much different at that time,” Kagan said. “I did not have a security team of my own, and was accompanied by security personnel only when I participated in work-related, public events.”

The highest-profile incident involving a Supreme Court justice took place in 2022, when a Californian who now identifies as Sophie Roske flew across the country and appeared in Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s neighborhood with a bag full of guns and other weapons intending to kill the justice. Roske last year was sentenced to just over 8 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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