Australia Behind AUKUS 'Eight Ball'.

• Position: IN BRIEF

* Australia's Defense Minister Richard Maries said budget pressures are among the challenges facing the nation as it looks to construct a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines through the AUKUS agreement.

"A series of false starts over the last 10 years" developing a new fleet of submarines "has really put us behind the eight ball, and now we find ourselves really facing a significant potential capability gap," Maries, who is also the nation's deputy prime minister, said at a recent CSIS event.

A major challenge will be the...