Canada said Wednesday it ordered TikTok Technology Canada, the domestic unit of the social-media app's Chinese owner, to dissolve its business operations due to national-security concerns.
The decision follows a review and is on the advice of the country's security and intelligence agencies, said Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
He said the extraordinary move is to address "specific national-security risks," but didn't elaborate. A spokeswoman for Champagne didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokeswoman for TikTok, which is owned by China's Bytedance, said the Canadian government's decision would eliminate hundreds of jobs, and isn't in anyone's best interest. She said the company would challenge Champagne's order in court.
Despite the order, the government won't block citizens' access to the TikTok app or their ability to post content on the digital platform, Champagne said. "The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice," he said.
It was up to Canadians to "assess the possible risks of using social-media platforms and applications," such as how the information is protected and whether it is used by foreign actors, he said.
Canada has moved in recent months to align its policy vis-a-vis China closer to that in Washington. For instance, the Liberal government matched the Biden administration's 100% tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, and a 25% surtax on imports of steel and aluminum products from China.
The U.S. government says China's potential ability to use TikTok to wage information warfare and spy on Americans represents a national-security threat and it argues that divestiture from Chinese ownership is the only assurance of defusing the danger. TikTok is attempting to prevent the U.S. government from forcing the social-media app to sever its ties with China via the courts.
Earlier Wednesday, Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said government officials share the same concerns as Washington on China, in particular Beijing's "intentional policy" to flood the market with commodities.
President-elect Donald Trump, during his first term in office, wanted to ban TikTok. But this year, he reversed this decision and said Congress shouldn't ban TikTok over worries it could strengthen Meta Platforms' dominance in the social-media field.
The government's decision to ban ByteDance's Canadian unit but not the actual TikTok app was "curious," said Michael Geist, an internet-law professor at the University of Ottawa. "Banning the company rather than the app may actually make matters worse since the risks associated with the app will remain but the ability to hold the company accountable will be weakened," he said.
Last year, the Canadian government followed the lead of the U.S. and European Commission and banned the TikTok app from government-issued devices, citing an "unacceptable" level of risk to privacy and security.
China expressed respect for the U.S. election result and congratulated Donald Trump on his victory while an official newspaper called for a "pragmatic" approach to China-U.S. relations to handle their differences properly.
Trump, a Republican who has promised to implement stiff tariffs, recaptured the White House with a sweeping victory over Democrat Kamala Harris in Tuesday's election.
"We respect the choice of the American people and congratulate Mr. Trump on his election as president," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement late on Wednesday.
State-run newspaper China Daily said in an editorial on Wednesday that Trump's second presidency could mark a "new beginning in China-U.S. relations if the chance that has been offered is not wasted."
The next U.S. administration can strengthen dialogue and communication with China to handle differences "which range from the Taiwan question to trade and to the South China Sea," it said.
U.S. policies and "misconceptions" towards China have posed significant challenges for relations, China Daily said.
"A pragmatic approach to bilateral relations is essential in navigating the complexities of global challenges."
The proper handling of China-U.S. relations, which the newspaper called the world's most important bilateral relationship, "not only serves the common interests of both countries but also will inject greater certainty and stability into the world."
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held a telephone call with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and discussed continuing close ties across all areas in security and economic fields, a senior South Korean official said on Thursday.
Yoon and Trump shared concerns over North Korea's deployment of troops backing Russia in the war against Ukraine and Pyongyang's continued military provocations including ballistic missile launches, the official told reporters.
"They shared the view they need to discuss these issues in person and agreed to meet at an early time once they are able to set a date and location," Yoon's deputy national security adviser, Kim Tae-hyo, said.
Trump noted South Korea's success in shipbuilding and vessel maintenance and said he looked forward to discussing more about how South Korea can aid the American shipbuilding industry, Kim said as he briefed reporters on the 12-minute phone call.
Yoon congratulated Trump on winning the presidency on the "Make America Great Again" slogan and said the success of the three-way cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the United States was due in part to the foundation laid by Trump's first presidency, Kim said.
Former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki said during NBC's election night coverage that if Kamala Harris does not eke out a win in the blue wall states, the decision to ask President Biden to step aside as the Democratic candidate this summer will certainly be part of the Democratic Party's conversation.
"It will begin, depending on the outcome," she said. "If this is not a Harris win, that will certainly be part of the discussion. She's run a campaign over 107 days, that is not something we've seen in history, and there will be lots of questions about that -- the timing and the impact."
I’ve worked locum tenens off and on since 1982. Flexible schedules allowed me to write several books, pursue a parallel career as a medical journalist, lead medical missions in the Philippines, and develop modest expertise as an underwater photographer.
But the recent rise in locum tenens practitioners signals trouble for medicine.
What used to be the preserve of older physicians transitioning to retirement is now becoming a career choice. According to the 2024 Survey of Locum Tenens Physicians and Advanced Practice Professionals by AMN Healthcare, 81% of respondents said they started taking locum tenens assignments immediately after finishing medical training or in mid-career. What entices doctors to move from place to place, repeatedly adapt to new facilities and electronic medical records, live in cheap hotels, and work without paid vacations, health insurance, or retirement benefits?
A recent Doximity poll of 7590 physicians revealed that 63% would not want their children to pursue a medical career. And in a Medscape survey of 7000 physicians, a third of docs under 40 would not choose medicine again if they had a do-over. If a career in medicine brings high income and privileged status, why do so many physicians regret it and discourage their children from taking the same path?
Where Is Marcus Welby, MD?
Private practice is an endangered species that no one is trying to save. According to a 2022 AMA survey, 44% of physicians owned their practices compared with 76% of physicians in the 1980s. Even fewer younger physicians are choosing private practice. Among physicians under 45 years of age, only 32% owned their practices. Most physicians are now employees, not employers. They have lost control over their duties and work hours.
Hospitals and health systems have purchased many private medical groups. Private-equity companies own close to 1000 physician practices and staff up to 40% of emergency rooms. For these firms, profits are paramount.
Canary in a Coalmine
Locum tenens offers physicians unprecedented flexibility where they work, when they work, and how much they work. It provides an escape from overwhelming and unsatisfying clinical practice. While some physicians have fled to nonclinical careers, locums physicians can practice medicine without the burdens of administration, hospital politics, and ever-increasing overhead.
The locum tenens paradox is that its successful growth indicates a deteriorating traditional healthcare model. Locum tenens is not the problem, but it’s also not the solution. At best, locums is a pair of crutches that helps the current system limp along.
Healthcare is increasingly controlled by those who prioritize profit, not patients. If physicians become nothing more than complicit cogs in a dysfunctional system, burnout will fester. The profession will fail to attract the best and the brightest, the doctor shortage will increase, and the quality of patient care will decline. Everyone will suffer.
It’s already happening.
Andrew Wilner is an associate professor of neurology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, and a seasoned neurologist and epilepsy expert who has mastered the less conventional locum career path. He is the author of four books, including The Locum Life: A Physician’s Guide to Locum Tenens, and hosts the podcastThe Art of Medicine with Dr. Andrew Wilner.
Novo Nordisk said the side effects in trials so far for its experimental obesity drug CagriSema were similar to its GLP-1 drugs already on the market, and reiterated its expectation the new injection will deliver 25% weight loss.
Martin Holst Lange, Novo Nordisk's head of development, made the comments to Reuters after the company released better-than-expected third-quarter results.
The Danish drugmaker is due to release data from a late-stage trial of CagriSema, a two-drug combination obesity treatment that, like its popular obesity drug Wegovy, is injected, by the end of 2024.
CagriSema targets the same gut hormone as Wegovy does, but also targets a pancreas hormone called amylin.
Novo Nordisk has previously said that CagriSema has a potential of up to 25% weight loss, compared with the 15% weight loss of Wegovy.
Lange said on Wednesday the company still expects the data from its Phase 3 trial to reflect this higher weight loss.
"No change in our confidence level," he said.
Analysts view this data as "a must-win" for Novo's obesity-driven investment case, given the hot competition among pharma companies to deliver higher weight loss than Wegovy and Zepbound, the rival obesity injection that U.S. company Eli Lilly launched last year.
Novo's share price could go up to 20% higher or lower depending on it, predict ABG Sundal Collier analysts.
Lange said that Novo needed to collect more data on the psychiatric side effects of another experimental obesity treatment, monlunabant, in a Phase 2b trial before it could progress to a Phase 3 or late-stage trial.
The company's shares fell nearly 5% in September after results from a Phase 2a trial of monlunabant, a pill, came in below market expectations. Novo acquired the drug last year as part of its $1 billion purchase of Canadian biotech firm Inversago Pharmaceuticals.
Novo had already planned to conduct a Phase 2b trial even before it got the data from the latest trial, Lange said, but the Phase 2a trial did reveal new psychiatric side effects and suggests that perhaps excessively high dose strengths were tested. The new trial will involve a lower-dose strength, he said.
Monlunabant is a cannabinoid or CB1 receptor blocker. Although it has a similar effect as the GLP-1 drugs already on the market, it has a different mechanism of action.
The U.S. Air Force is considering revamping its operations in the Pacific to address increasing challenges from communist China. Rather than focusing solely on expensive fighter jets, it is shifting toward cost-effective technologies such as drones and hypersonic missiles and adopting dispersed operational tactics to maintain an advantage.
A recent report from the U.S. Air Force’s China Aerospace Studies Institute highlights the need to update equipment priorities to counter China’s military expansion. Lessons from the Russia–Ukraine war have shown that modern conflicts consume resources rapidly, making reliance on a limited number of costly weapons impractical. To prepare for prolonged engagements, developing advanced yet affordable weapons is crucial.
Long-range precision strikes and the use of drones have emerged as game-changers, allowing forces to remain effective while avoiding heavy enemy fire. Dispersed operational tactics have also proven advantageous, helping forces preserve strength and counterattack effectively. With these insights, the U.S. Air Force is preparing for potential conflicts in the Indo-Pacific, which could be more extensive and intense than the Russia–Ukraine war.
China seeks to alter the global power balance and push U.S. forces out of the Indo-Pacific using anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategies. These involve the use of missiles, aircraft, and naval defenses to block access, making it costly or difficult for opponents to access contested regions.
To counter this, the Air Force think tank recommends focusing on inexpensive, easily replaceable weapons capable of penetrating defenses, such as low-cost drones and hypersonic missiles. While advanced aircraft such as the B-21 bomber and next-generation fighter jets remain important, there is increasing emphasis on survivable, high-tech weapons and expendable platforms.
Air Base Defense
A significant concern is the vulnerability of U.S. air bases in the region, particularly in Japan, which Chinese missiles, drones, and hypersonic weapons could target. The Department of Defense (DOD) noted in its 2023 China Military Power Report that the People’s Liberation Army has consistently expanded its long- and mid-range ballistic missile capacity, enabling it to target critical U.S. military installations throughout the Indo-Pacific, including key bases on Guam.
Additionally, the DOD estimates that as of May 2023, Beijing possessed more than 500 operational nuclear warheads, with numbers growing. Given China’s expanding missile capabilities, strengthening base defenses alone is insufficient. Therefore, the United States is adopting a new strategy: spreading out deployments to reduce risk.
The U.S. military is repositioning its forces across multiple locations to reduce the risk of being targeted. This strategy involves identifying, upgrading, and restoring airfields throughout the Pacific, including old World War II sites, under an initiative known as Agile Combat Employment. This includes redeveloping airfields like the one on Tinian, a small island near Guam that was a strategic location during World War II.
The airfields in Tinian are being expanded for the first time in decades. By positioning aircraft across a range of bases—including allied bases, remote islands, and civilian runways—the Air Force aims to increase flexibility and survivability.
Michael P. Winkler, the Pacific Air Force’s deputy director for air and cyberspace operations, emphasized the need to avoid putting all aircraft in one place to prevent creating a “big, juicy target” for adversaries. This strategy requires access to more airfields during crises, necessitating coordination with regional allies like Japan and the Philippines.
Operational Resiliency
Securing access agreements with regional allies is crucial, as they are in a position to offer numerous military and civilian runways, although not all meet the Air Force’s requirements. U.S. pilots are visiting potential locations like Basa Air Base in the Philippines and airfields in Tinian, Guam, Saipan, and Palau to familiarize themselves and prepare for future operations. Upgrades are underway at several sites to enhance facilities and train personnel.
While the Second Island Chain, which includes some U.S.-controlled areas, is easier to access and upgrade, the First Island Chain is strategically more important due to its proximity to China. This chain includes Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Operating there requires cooperation with regional partners, whose political situations can be unpredictable. Despite these challenges, the United States currently maintains strong partnerships in the region.
Recent military exercises have tested this dispersed approach. In February, U.S. and allied aircraft operated from multiple airfields on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. During the U.S.-led Valiant Shield exercises in June, U.S. fighter jets used Japan’s Matsushima and Hachinohe bases for the first time. Under the U.S.–Japan alliance agreement, Japanese bases can serve as evacuation sites for U.S. aircraft in emergencies.
However, spreading out forces presents challenges, particularly in logistics. In a conflict, the United States must deliver equipment, spare parts, fuel, munitions, and support personnel to scattered and potentially contested locations or pre-position supplies there. This is complex, and the strategy’s effectiveness depends on reliable support. The Air Force must balance the benefits of dispersion with logistical practicalities.
On a similar note, Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank, said operating from more locations with smaller units reduces the chance of a successful large-scale attack by the Chinese regime, adding a layer of deterrence.
This strategic shift reflects a broader recognition that the nature of warfare is changing. The Air Force is adapting by embracing new technologies and tactics, prioritizing flexibility, resilience, and cost-effectiveness. By dispersing forces and investing in advanced yet affordable weapons, the Air Force aims to maintain its edge in a rapidly evolving security environment.
