China Coast Guard used water cannons on Philippine coast guard and fisheries bureau vessels at Scarborough Shoal on Friday, the second consecutive day of such action, after a water cannon was fired for more than two minutes at a Filipino vessel on Thursday. Earlier in the week, Chinese Coast Guard personnel struck a Philippine Navy serviceman with a wooden baton at the Second Thomas Shoal. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visiting Manila, said a US Coast Guard vessel had intervened during that incident, positioning between the two sides to allow retrieval of the wounded sailor. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. spoke by phone with President Donald Trump late Thursday and received assurance Manila’s concerns would be raised at a September meeting with Xi Jinping, while the US Seventh Fleet posted a photo of the George Washington Carrier Strike Group transiting the Luzon Strait into the South China Sea on Friday.