Npr.
On Monday, Donald Trump announced a pause on military aid to Ukraine.
It's a huge deal.
The US Is spending more on military assistance than the next nine other countries combined.
This freeze comes after the Oval Office blow up last Friday,
just before what was supposed to be a signing ceremony,
ceremony on a minerals deal between the US And Ukraine.
And to understand why Ukraine's minerals are so important to this very fraught negotiation,
you can look inside a Tomahawk cruise missile.
That is where you will find a very strong type of magnet,
a type so strong that it could crush your fingers off.
These magnets are part of small motors and electronics that the missile uses to help hit its target.
And the magnet in question is a neodymium magnet.
Neodymium is what's called a rare earth element.
It's one of 17 metals on the periodic table that help our modern economy spin.
Rare earth elements are also used in batteries,
TV screens and electric vehicles, as well as throughout the military.
Ultimately, there's almost no defense technology that I can produce without rare earths.
According to experts like Gracelyn Baskerin,
what makes the US military nervous is that China produces 70% of the world's supply of rare earths.