Last week, China's coast guard mounted what the Philippines called an "unusual" show of force at Second Thomas Shoal, a hotly disputed submerged reef in the Spratly Islands where Manila maintains a small outpost in the form of the rusting warship BRP Sierra Madre, grounded there in 1999 to anchor its territorial claim.

We're going to have a lot of magnets in a pretty short period of time. In fact, we'll have so many we won't know what to do with them,' US president says - Anadolu Ajansı

US President Donald Trump has hinted at imposing hefty tariffs on China if it fails to supply rare earth magnets to the US. These magnets are crucial for industries like automotive, electronics, and defense.