The Breakdown puts a selection of Australia’s daily news into context. Today’s picks:

• What are the American and Australian militaries up to in the Pacific Ocean?

• Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott stands by Cardinal George Pell — again.

• Sending Australian goods back to China could become even more lucrative.

Harder, Better, Faster ... And ‘More Lethal’

Every other year, the United States and Australia conduct military training operations together known as the Talisman Saber exercises. This year’s began yesterday off the coast of Queensland and the Northern Territory, and they are the largest ever, with more than 30,000 Australian and American Army, Navy and Air Force personnel participating.

Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., chief of the United States Pacific Command, said the troops should strive “to be faster, more precise, more cost-effective and most importantly, more lethal.” With United States-China relations cooling — and with the Pentagon watching a Chinese buildup in the South China Sea — the exercises are a test of Australia’s ability to strike a balance in its relations with both countries.

So, what’s the real purpose of these exercises? Think of military exercises as part geopolitical symbolism, part substantive training. The weight of each aspect can vary wildly. Where does Talisman Saber fit? Somewhere on the functional end, said Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an independent think tank. “It is very much designed to test what military people call ‘the interoperability’ of the two military forces — their capacity to work together,” he said, adding that the operations were “very demanding.”