Anthony Albanese calls national cabinet following Sydney, Melbourne attacks [Video]

Federal police are investigating whether malicious foreign actors are paying local criminals to carry out violent antisemitic acts in the streets of Sydney and Melbourne, forcing an urgent meeting of police chiefs after a wave of hatred that federal police chief Reece Kershaw said was causing Jews to hide at home.

As the prime minister and state leaders agreed to a new national antisemitism database during a late afternoon national cabinet meeting, Kershaw issued a striking statement floating the possibility that Australians were being paid in cryptocurrency to target synagogues and houses in Jewish suburbs.

“We are looking into whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs,” he said in a written statement, adding that he was talking to law enforcement agencies …