Crucially, the reaction tolerated a wide range of halides (15, 17-19; Fig. ). The tolerance of Cl/Br and other transition-metal-sensitive groups, such as methanesulfonyl and nitrile, demonstrates the robustness of this methodology enabling further downstream functionalisation. Notably, fluorinated and trifluorinated aromatics, common in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, often deactivate cross-coupling chemistry due to their electron-deficient nature. Yet, in our anti-Friedel-Crafts mechanism, the electron deficiency of these substrates aided homolytic aromatic substitution (5, 7, 9, 15, 16; Fig. ).