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Ukraine has developed a laser weapon capable of shooting down targets from more than a mile away, the country’s drone force commander has claimed Speaking at a defense summit in Kyiv this week, Vadym Sukharevskyi, Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems said, “Today, we can already shoot down aircraft with this laser at an altitude of over 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).” “It truly works, it truly exists,” he said, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported, adding that efforts were being made to enhance the weapon’s scale and capabilities. The laser is named the Tryzub, or Ukrainian for “trident,” a nod to Ukraine’s national symbol representing independence, strength, and unity. Sukharevskyi did not offer any further details about the Tryzub laser and CNN cannot verify his claims. However, experts told CNN the existence of the Tryzub was “feasible.” Patrick Senft of the Armament Research Services, a technical intelligence consultancy specializing in arms in munitions research, told CNN that while little is known about the Tryzub system, “it is entirely feasible for Ukraine to develop a functional directed-energy weapon (DEW) capable of destroying some aerial targets.” “This is particularly achievable by using commercial, off-the-shelf welding lasers combined with other available technologies,” Senft said, pointing to the US Navy’s Laser Weapons System (LaWS) that has operated at comparable ranges since 2014. Senft explained that laser directed-energy weapons (DEW) were particularly effective against slow, low-flying drones deployed by Russia, as those drones consist of comparatively fragile components that are vulnerable to heat. Low-flying UAVs, like the Shahed-136/Geran-2 one-way-attack drones’ low altitude and steady flight pattern “make them particularly susceptible to sustained laser exposure,” Senft said, “as the weapon can concentrate energy on a specific point to destroy critical components.” Senft added that such weapons had two key limitations, related to how fast their target is traveling and how the lasers lose energy the farther they travel. Faster-moving or heat-resistant targets (e.g., artillery shells, ballistic missiles) are much harder to neutralize and demand a more advanced system, he said. Fabien Hoffmann of the Oslo Nuclear Project (ONP) said there were several technical challenges to deploying an effective laser system to counter drones or missiles. “These challenges include overcoming issues related to laser beam strength and the cooling of the system, atmospheric absorption and reflection of the laser beam (e.g., due to clouds or rain), and a phenomenon known as ‘thermal blooming.’ Thermal blooming occurs when the laser beam heats the surrounding air, causing it to spread out, which reduces its power and effectiveness at damaging the target,” he said. “To assess how effective it is in a missile defense role, we’ll need to see how it performs in practice,” Hoffmann added. Only a few countries are understood to be in possession of laser weapons, including the US, China and Israel. The UK is also currently developing its own laser weapons system, called the DragonFire , which is set to be operational in 2027. In April, former Defense Minister Grant Shapps said that the DragonFire could potentially be used in Ukraine to counter Russian drones, Reuters reported.'I hope it's a complete disaster for them': Former BYU linebacker and father of Sam Leavitt fully backs Sun DevilsJalandhar: Although the reasons for the prevailing crisis in Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the upheaval within the Sikh polity are usually projected as religious, they fundamentally stem from issues of justice and equitable law enforcement. Law was not allowed to take its own course in multiple cases and at multiple levels. Rather, the govt and law enforcement agencies helped those who were on the wrong side of the law. In the four points outlined by the SAD Sudhar Lehar leaders in their complaint to Akal Takht, which were read out by the Akal Takht Jathedar to SAD former president Sukhbir Singh Badal as charges against him, only one — pardon to Sirsa dera chief by the Akal Takht — pertained to the religious domain. That too was a case of using state and political influence over religious affairs. The other three points — withdrawing the 2007 blasphemy case against the Sirsa dera chief, failure to find and punish the accused in sacrilege cases of 2015, police firing at peacefully protesting Sikhs and killing two of them at Behbal Kalan, appointment of Sumedh Saini as DGP and rewarding former DGP Izhar Alam despite serious allegations of fake encounters against them — pertained to the justice delivery system . In the blasphemy case of May 2007, in which Sirsa dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was accused of imitating Guru Gobind Singh and there was huge turmoil in the state, even the state home department gave sanction for his prosecution. But the justice delivery system was blocked and the charge-sheet was never filed in the trial court, even as a senior Punjab Police officer filed an affidavit in the Punjab and Haryana high court stating that the case was registered against the dera chief after investigations and they had enough evidence to prosecute him. Instead, police filed a cancellation report in a Bathinda court just ahead of the 2012 assembly elections. In Aug 2014, the district and sessions judge, Bathinda, discharged the dera chief on the ground that the charge-sheet was not presented against him within the stipulated time of three years and accepted the cancellation report. In the case of sacrilege, the issue was primarily of enforcement of law as initially it was a case of theft of “bir” of Guru Granth Sahib from the gurdwara of Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village, Faridkot district, on June 1, 2015. The final act of sacrilege happened well after four months on Oct 12, that too after an abusive warning through posters, at least two weeks before the final act. In this connection, Sudhar Lehar’s allegation was that there was a failure in finding the culprits and getting them punished. The police firing at Behbal Kalan on Oct 14, 2015, was also found blatantly illegal and even a murder case was registered against unidentified police officials initially, and action against them happened during the Congress regime. The issue of appointment of Sumedh Saini as Punjab DGP and the induction of former DGP Izhar Alam in the SAD and giving his wife an assembly ticket, even though both the top officers faced allegations of extrajudicial killings in Punjab, also pertained to helping or rewarding those who faced allegations of gross illegalities, whereas before coming to power in 1997, Parkash Singh Badal promised justice in such cases. Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India . 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A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few short months, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok's petition to overturn the law — which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January — and rebuffed the company's challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment. “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said the court's opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.” TikTok and ByteDance — another plaintiff in the lawsuit — are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, though its unclear whether the court will take up the case. “The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue," TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people,” Hughes said. Unless stopped, he argued the statute “will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025.” Though the case is squarely in the court system, its also possible the two companies might be thrown some sort of a lifeline by President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term but said during the presidential campaign that he is now against such action . The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, was the culmination of a years-long saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government sees as a national security threat due to its connections to China. The U.S. has said it’s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits , that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Officials have also warned the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect — a concern mirrored by the European Union on Friday as it scrutinizes the video-sharing app’s role in the Romanian elections. TikTok, which sued the government over the law in May, has long denied it could be used by Beijing to spy on or manipulate Americans. Its attorneys have accurately pointed out that the U.S. hasn’t provided evidence to show that the company handed over user data to the Chinese government, or manipulated content for Beijing’s benefit in the U.S. They have also argued the law is predicated on future risks, which the Department of Justice has emphasized pointing in part to unspecified action it claims the two companies have taken in the past due to demands from the Chinese government. Friday’s ruling came after the appeals court panel, composed of two Republican and one Democrat appointed judges, heard oral arguments in September. In the hearing, which lasted more than two hours, the panel appeared to grapple with how TikTok’s foreign ownership affects its rights under the Constitution and how far the government could go to curtail potential influence from abroad on a foreign-owned platform. On Friday, all three of them denied TikTok’s petition. In the court's ruling, Ginsburg, a Republican appointee, rejected TikTok's main legal arguments against the law, including that the statute was an unlawful bill of attainder or a taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment. He also said the law did not violate the First Amendment because the government is not looking to "suppress content or require a certain mix of content” on TikTok. “Content on the platform could in principle remain unchanged after divestiture, and people in the United States would remain free to read and share as much PRC propaganda (or any other content) as they desire on TikTok or any other platform of their choosing,” Ginsburg wrote, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China. Judge Sri Srinivasan, the chief judge on the court, issued a concurring opinion. TikTok’s lawsuit was consolidated with a second legal challenge brought by several content creators - for which the company is covering legal costs - as well as a third one filed on behalf of conservative creators who work with a nonprofit called BASED Politics Inc. Other organizations, including the Knight First Amendment Institute, had also filed amicus briefs supporting TikTok. “This is a deeply misguided ruling that reads important First Amendment precedents too narrowly and gives the government sweeping power to restrict Americans’ access to information, ideas, and media from abroad,” said Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the organization. “We hope that the appeals court’s ruling won’t be the last word.” Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, lawmakers who had pushed for the legislation celebrated the court's ruling. "I am optimistic that President Trump will facilitate an American takeover of TikTok to allow its continued use in the United States and I look forward to welcoming the app in America under new ownership,” said Republican Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on China. Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who co-authored the law, said “it's time for ByteDance to accept” the law. To assuage concerns about the company’s owners, TikTok says it has invested more than $2 billion to bolster protections around U.S. user data. The company has also argued the government’s broader concerns could have been resolved in a draft agreement it provided the Biden administration more than two years ago during talks between the two sides. It has blamed the government for walking away from further negotiations on the agreement, which the Justice Department argues is insufficient. Attorneys for the two companies have claimed it’s impossible to divest the platform commercially and technologically. They also say any sale of TikTok without the coveted algorithm - the platform’s secret sauce that Chinese authorities would likely block under any divesture plan - would turn the U.S. version of TikTok into an island disconnected from other global content. Still, some investors, including Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in purchasing the platform. Both men said earlier this year that they were launching a consortium to purchase TikTok’s U.S. business. This week, a spokesperson for McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative, which aims to protect online privacy, said unnamed participants in their bid have made informal commitments of more than $20 billion in capital.NUST's new rector assumes officeThey have seen him smiling on a hostel security camera, but don’t know his name. They found the backpack he discarded while fleeing, but don’t know where he's gone. As the search for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson ’s killer goes on, investigators are reckoning with a tantalizing dichotomy: They have troves of evidence, but the shooter remains an enigma. Police don’t know who he is, where he is, or why he did it, though they are confident it was a targeted attack instead of a random act. “The net is tightening,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday. Hours after he spoke, police divers were seen searching a pond in Central Park, where the killer fled after the shooting. Officers have been scouring the park for days for any possible clues and found his bag there Friday. Late Saturday, police released two additional photos of the suspected shooter that appeared to be from a camera mounted inside a taxi. The first shows him outside the vehicle and the second shows him looking through the partition between the back seat and the front of the cab. In both, his face is partially obscured by a blue, medical-style mask. Retracing the gunman’s steps using surveillance video, police say, it appears he left the city by bus soon after the shooting Wednesday morning outside the New York Hilton Midtown. He was seen on video at an uptown bus station about 45 minutes later, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. With the high-profile search expanding across state lines, the FBI announced late Friday that it was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, adding to a reward of up to $10,000 that the NYPD has offered. Police say they believe the suspect acted alone. Police provided no updates on the hunt Saturday, but investigators are urging patience — even with a killer on the loose. Hundreds of detectives are combing through video recordings and social media, vetting tips from the public and interviewing people who might have information, including Thompson’s family and coworkers and the shooter’s randomly assigned roommates at the Manhattan hostel where he stayed. “This isn’t ‘Blue Bloods.’ We’re not going to solve this in 60 minutes," Kenny told reporters Friday. “We’re painstakingly going through every bit of evidence that we can come across.” The shooter paid cash at the hostel, presented what police believe was a fake ID and is believed to have paid cash for taxi rides and other transactions. He didn't speak to others at the hostel and almost always kept his face covered with a mask, only lowering it while eating. But investigators caught a break when they came across security camera images of an unguarded moment in which he briefly showed his face soon after arriving in New York on Nov. 24. Police distributed the images to news outlets and on social media but so far haven't been able to ID him using facial recognition — possibly because of the angle of the images or limitations on how the NYPD is allowed to use that technology, Kenny said. On Friday evening, investigators found a backpack in Central Park that had been worn by the gunman, police said. They didn’t immediately reveal what, if anything, it contained but said it would be tested and analyzed. Another potential clue, a fingerprint on an item he purchased at a Starbucks minutes before the shooting, has so far proven useless for identifying him, Kenny said. Aided by surveillance cameras on nearly every building and block, police have been able to retrace the shooter’s movements. They know he ambushed Thompson at 6:44 a.m. as the executive arrived at the Hilton for his company’s annual investor conference, using a 9 mm pistol that resembled the guns farmers use to put down animals without causing a loud noise. They know ammunition found near Thompson’s body bore the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” mimicking a phrase used by insurance industry critics. Kenny said the fact that the shooter knew UnitedHealthcare group was holding a conference at the hotel and what route Thompson might take to get there suggested that he could possibly be a disgruntled employee or client. Investigators know from surveillance video that the shooter fled into Central Park on a bicycle and ditched it around 7 a.m. near 85th Street. He then walked a couple blocks and got into a taxi, arriving at 7:30 a.m. at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, which is near the northern tip of Manhattan and offers commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington. Investigators don't know what happened next. They are searching through more surveillance video but have yet to locate video of the shooter getting on a bus or exiting the station. “We have reason to believe that the person in question has left New York City,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told CNN on Friday. Police have determined from video that the gunman was in the city for 10 days before the shooting. He arrived at Manhattan’s main bus terminal on a Greyhound bus that originated in Atlanta, though it's not clear whether he embarked there or at one of about a half-dozen stops along the route. Immediately after that, he took a cab to the vicinity of the Hilton and was there for about a half hour, Kenny said. At around 11 p.m. on the night he arrived, he went by taxi to the HI New York City Hostel. It was there, while speaking with an employee in the lobby, that he briefly pulled down the mask and smiled, giving investigators the brief glimpse they are now relying on to identify and capture a killer.
The LNP government has met for its first party meeting since the election, with leader David Crisafulli focusing attention on fulfilling his key campaign pledge by Christmas. The new Queensland premier met with colleagues at Parliament House from about 4pm on Monday before the first sitting day this week. Premier David Crisafulli addresses his LNP colleagues on Monday. Credit: William Davis “The first thing we’re going to be discussing is the Making Queensland Safer laws,” Crisafulli said. “There’s a lot of hard work to do in the next couple of weeks. “I want Queenslanders to know we’re serious about serving them and being a good government.” As the Cross River Rail project continues to progress, crucial work affecting the existing rail network is slated for the holiday period, with up to 220 rail replacement buses expected to roll out to the rescue. At different stages across December and January all lines were expected to be affected, with timetable changes beginning from December 20 and continuing until January 19. Cross River Rail Delivery Authority chief executive Graeme Newton said the work involved “hundreds of metres” of track removal, connecting overhead line equipment at the southern tunnel entrance, and station work at select locations. “These works require continuous and extensive access to the rail corridor and could not be completed safely or efficiently with trains on the tracks,” he said. Head of Translink Deborah Hume said rail buses would keep the south-east’s transport network running for the period, but advised commuters and travellers to plan ahead and allow extra travel time. “All rail replacement bus timetables will be in Translink’s journey planner closer to the closures and can be accessed through the Translink app or on the Translink website,” she said. Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has welcomed the passage of the government’s key housing policy, while acknowledging there’s more work to do. In questioning O’Neil, Nine’s Today host Sarah Abo noted that the 40,000 people who would be assisted over four years via the help-to-buy scheme “barely skims the surface” when considering that “there is not a single city or region across Australia where the average income earner can even afford to buy a house right now”. Housing Minister Clare O’Neil arrives at question time on Monday. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen O’Neil agreed the policy was “not a silver bullet” but that “it was never meant to be”. “One of the things I want your viewers to know, is just be really wary about the snake oil salesmen in this housing debate who are pretending that there’s one thing we can do to fix the whole problem,” O’Neil said. “The truth is, we’ve had generations-in-the-making housing crisis in our country that’s been building for more than 30 years, and it requires our government to do lots of things differently.” O’Neil said the government was trying to build more homes, get a better deal for renters, and help more Australians into homeownership. “It’s a big, complex program and it’s going to take some time.” Read more about the passage of the housing bill here. A 1100-kilometre transmission line connecting the North-West Minerals Province to the electricity grid near Townsville could cost up to $9 billion to build. That is the latest price tag put on Copperstring 2032 by government-owned corporation Powerlink, as Nine News political reporter Tim Arvier reported on Monday night. The $9 billion includes a $2 billion contingency, and capitalised interest costs of $800 million, and follows a previous cost blowout to $6.2 billion, announced by the then Labor government in August. While documents provided to the LNP government suggest Powerlink made the higher estimate in August, Labor told Arvier that Treasury was behind the estimate of $6.2 billion. The bill to ban social media for children under 16 will be a “test” for Peter Dutton’s leadership, says Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth. Speaking on Nine’s Today , Rishworth said there was bipartisan support for the bill, but that Dutton was losing control of his caucus. “Just a couple of weeks ago, Peter Dutton said he would facilitate this important piece of legislation and support the government. And now we see our senators defying him,” she said. “So this is a test for Peter Dutton and his leadership.” Also on Today was Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, who said there were still concerns about digital ID laws and privacy. “We do want strong, robust laws to protect kids under 16 on social media platforms. “We’ve been out of the blocks before the government on this. We need to get the legislation right so it does actually get the outcomes we want. “And we need to make sure that those protections exist in the legislation.” Read more about the debate within the Coalition on the ban here. Social media companies, including Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta, have taken aim at the “rushed” consultation process for the ban on children under 16. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland introduced the world-leading reform to parliament last Thursday, which she said would make the online environment better for young people. The consultation period for groups and individuals to make submissions closed on Friday. A Senate committee held a one-day hearing on Monday and is due to report back on Tuesday. In submissions to the inquiry, several groups, including social media companies, pointed to the short notice period. Snap Inc. wrote that “the extremely compressed timeline” had allowed stakeholders little more than 24 hours to provide a response, which “severely” constrained thorough analysis and informed debate. X, formerly Twitter, also criticised the “unreasonably short time frame of one day”, writing that it has “serious concerns as to the lawfulness of the bill”. Meta, which owns Facebook, wrote that there had been “minimal consultation or engagement” and urged the government to wait for the results of the age assurance trial before progressing with the legislation. TikTok said that despite the “time-limited review”, there was a range of “serious, unresolved problems” that the government must clarify to ensure there wouldn’t be unintended consequences for all Australians. AAP The LNP government has met for its first party meeting since the election, with leader David Crisafulli focusing attention on fulfilling his key campaign pledge by Christmas. The new Queensland premier met with colleagues at Parliament House from about 4pm on Monday before the first sitting day this week. Premier David Crisafulli addresses his LNP colleagues on Monday. Credit: William Davis “The first thing we’re going to be discussing is the Making Queensland Safer laws,” Crisafulli said. “There’s a lot of hard work to do in the next couple of weeks. “I want Queenslanders to know we’re serious about serving them and being a good government.” The temperature in Brisbane is going to come close to 30 degrees today, on a partly cloudy day with the mere chance of a morning shower. The city is predicted to be warmer in the days to come, with the likelihood of showers stronger later in the week. Here’s the seven-day outlook: Stories making the rounds further afield this morning: Treasurer Jim Chalmers has revealed the budget bottom line is getting worse before the looming federal election, with warnings he faces a $27 billion blowout over the next four years. Labor has gained a crucial concession from the Greens after a year of dispute over a $5.5 billion housing plan, but other bills are on the brink of defeat after Senate crossbenchers blasted Labor for trying to rush through changes on various issues. Social media companies including Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta have taken aim at the “rushed” consultation process for the proposal ban on children under 16. In the US, Special Counsel Jack Smith asked a federal judge to dismiss the case accusing President-elect Donald Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. And Israel’s cabinet will meet on Tuesday to approve a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, with expectations that an accord could be announced “within hours”. Good morning, thanks for joining us for Brisbane Times’ live news blog. It’s Tuesday, November 26, and we’re expecting a partly cloudy day and a top temperature of 29 degrees. In this morning’s local headlines: Ahead of the return of parliament, Brisbane Times state politics reporter Matt Dennien has analysed official diaries to determine who the new ministers scheduled the most meetings with before their election victory last month. Brisbane home prices are forecast to rise by 9 to 14 per cent next year – the highest capital city increase apart from Perth. Police are investigating the death of a child in Innisfail in Far North Queensland on Monday afternoon. The Brisbane Lions have added their voices to a campaign by local charity Beyond DV for men to take the lead in eliminating violence against women. And Grant Howard has been a coal miner since he left school, now based in the Bowen Basin in Queensland. At the weekend he was arrested at a protest, trying to hasten the end of his industry.
NASSAU, Bahamas -- Justin Thomas was long off the tee and made a few long putts on the back nine to overtake Scottie Scheffler with a 6-under 66 and build a one-shot lead Saturday over golf's best player going into the final round of the Hero World Challenge. Thomas is trying out a 46-inch driver - a little more than an inch longer than normal - that he previously used for practice at home to gain speed and length. He blasted a 361-yard drive to 8 feet on the par-4 seventh hole and led the field in driving distance. But it was a few long putts that put him ahead of Scheffler, who had a 69. Thomas was on the verge of falling two shots behind when he made an 18-foot par putt on the par-3 12th hole. On the reachable par-4 14th, he was in a nasty spot in a sandy area and could only splash it out to nearly 50 feet. He made that one for a most unlikely birdie, while behind him Scheffler muffed a chip on the 13th hole and made his lone bogey of a windy day. Scheffler never caught up to him, missing birdie chances on the reachable 14th and the par-5 15th. Thomas hit his approach to 3 feet for birdie on the 16th after a 343-yard drive. Scheffler made an 18-foot birdie putt on the 16th to close within one. Scheffler missed birdie chances on the last two holes from the 10-foot and 15-foot range, while Thomas missed an 8-foot birdie attempt at the last. "I had a stretch at 13, 14, 15 where I felt like I lost a shot or two there, but outside of that I did a lot of really good things today," Scheffler said. Thomas hasn't won since the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, and a victory at Albany Golf Club wouldn't count as an official win. But the two-time major champion has made steady progress toward getting his game back in order. "I'm driving it great. I've had a lot of confidence with it," Thomas said of his longer driver. "I feel like I've been able to put myself in some pretty good spots going into the green. I'm still not taking advantage of some of them as much as I would like, but that's golf and we're always going to say that." Thomas was at 17-under 199 and will be in the final group Sunday with Scheffler, who is trying to end his spectacular season with a ninth title. Tom Kim put himself in the mix, which he might not have imagined Thursday when he was 3 over through six holes of the holiday tournament. Kim got back in the game with a 65 on Friday, and then followed with 12 birdies for a 62. He had a shot at the course record - Rickie Fowler shot 61 in the final round when he won at Albany in 2017 - until Kim found a bunker and took two shots to reach the green in making a double bogey on the par-3 17th. Even so, he was only two shots behind. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley (68) was four back. "Feel like I've been seeing signs of improvement, which is what you want and that's all I can do," Thomas said. "I can't control everybody else or what's going on, I've just got to keep playing as good as I possibly can and hope that it's enough come Sunday."Government announces $5.9m funding boost to enable SBS' expansion into Western Sydney
Texas QB Quinn Ewers leaving Longhorns for the transfer portal after College Football Playoff predicted to potentially lead to a Jackson Arnold situation in Austin | Sporting NewsBRASILIA – Supermarket giant Carrefour’s support for French farmers’ protests against a trade agreement between the European Union and the South American bloc Mercosur has sparked a strong reaction in Brazil, including a refusal to supply beef to Carrefour stores in Brazil. Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard announced in social media posts last week that the French company would stop buying beef from all Mercosur countries, which also include Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Bompard wrote that he agrees with French producers' arguments that Mercosur beef is an unfair competitor due to lower production costs resulting from fewer environmental and sanitary requirements. Recommended Videos The executive encouraged other retailers to follow suit. Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture called Bompard's move protectionist, saying it was made “without any technical criteria.” The decision also angered Brazil's meatpackers. Though France makes up just a tiny sliver of Brazil’s beef exports, meatpackers worried that Carrefour’s decision would hurt its reputation in other markets. Beef giants JBS and Marfrig halted supplies last Friday to Carrefour's extensive supermarket chain in Brazil, including the food warehouse giant Atacadao. Both companies refused to comment on the boycott to The Associated Press, but Minister of Agriculture Carlos Fávaro confirmed it. “We support the reaction of the meatpackers. If Brazil ́s beef isn’t good enough for Carrefour’s shelves in France, it isn’t good enough for Carrefour’s shelves in Brazil either,” Faváro told Folha de S.Paulo newspaper on Monday. Carrefour Group in Brazil acknowledged the boycott in a statement, though it said there's not yet a shortage of beef in stores. It said it has “esteem and confidence in the Brazilian agricultural sector, with which it maintains a solid relationship and partnership.” “Unfortunately, the decision to suspend the meat supply has an impact on customers, especially those who rely on the company to supply their homes with quality and responsible products,” the statement said. “It is in constant dialogue in search of solutions that will make it possible to resume the supply of meat to its stores as quickly as possible, respecting the commitments it has to its more than 130,000 Brazilian employees and millions of Brazilian customers countrywide.” The backdrop for the conflict is the EU-Mercosur trade deal , which would increase agricultural imports to EU countries from South America. French farmers fear it will affect their livelihoods. An initial agreement was reached in 2019, but negotiations have faltered since then due to opposition that also includes some European governments. Brazil’s agribusiness sector also fears that the pending European Union Deforestation Regulation will outlaw the sale of forest-derived products within the EU’s 27-nation bloc if companies can’t prove their goods are not linked to deforestation. Its scope includes soy and cattle, Brazil’s top agricultural exports. Almost half of the country’s cattle is raised in the Amazon region, where 90% of deforested land since 1985 has turned into pasture, according to MapBiomas, a nonprofit network. The date of its implementation remains uncertain. ___ The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .