MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian state was committing more police to investigate a spate of antisemitic crimes, officials said on Tuesday after a childcare center was torched near a Sydney synagogue.

Police across the country have launched Australia Day operations with double demerit points now enforced in some states and territories.

Victoria Police withdrew from participating in this year's Midsumma Pride March following organisers' "trauma-informed" trial ban on uniforms.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian detectives are investigating whether foreign actors are paying criminals to commit antisemitic attacks in the country, police said on Wednesday.

Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, emphasized that the operation targeting these antisemitic crimes is “just getting started.”

Counter-terrorism police have taken over all the investigations into recent hate attacks on synagogues and other properties in the Australian state of New South Wales. Last Friday, the Allawah synagogue in Sydney was defaced in a separate incident by antisemitic graffiti.

and one person suffered burn injuries in the fire that was set at a Melbourne synagogue in December. Acting New South Police Wales Police Commissioner Peter Thurtell said Strike Force Pearl ...

While Cook is historically recognised as the explorer who charted and claimed the east coast of Australia for Britain in 1770, his arrival is also seen as a prelude to the violent colonisation, dispossession and systemic oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

A statue of British hero Captain James Cook has been vandalised just days before Australia Day celebrations kick off. The sandstone monument of the explorer and naval captain situated in Randwick, Sydney,

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to "just chill out" about Australia Day controversies.

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Another man has been charged over a synagogue fire as police prepare for heightened tensions over the Australia Day weekend after a wave of anti-Semitic crimes.