Chris Minns is two years away from an election, so he can ride out these bad times, but an angry, scared Sydney is a big risk for Anthony Albanese.

Australians could head to the polls in a federal election within months. So when will it be and what are the key seats in the battle to lead the country?

Oscar Jenkins, once feared dead, is believed to be alive and in Russian captivity. Foreign Minister Penny Wong has called for his release and warned Moscow the federal government's response will be "unequivocal" if he is not treated humanely.

Labor has ramped up its spending on local projects in a bid to sway voters in some of the toughest battlegrounds at the federal election, pledging more than $1.2 billion this month amid a political row with the Coalition over spending cuts.

Australia Day events take place across the nation, with flag-raising ceremonies and tens of thousands of people from more than 100 countries taking the oath of citizenship.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing pressure to release information on possible foreign funding of antisemitic attacks in Australia.

Sydney restaurateur Judith Lewis couldn’t save the mezuzah, a framed parchment inked with Hebrew prayers, that was hanging in her family’s café when arsonists set it alight in the early hours one Sunday in late October.

Anthony Albanese has used his International Holocaust Remembrance Day address to vow action against “vile” anti-Semitism amid mounting pressure over a spate of attacks in Australia’s biggest cities.

Amid a spate of antisemitic attacks, the latest The Australian Financial Review/Freshwater Strategy poll showed law and order overtaking climate change as a top-three voter issue.

There have been at least nine major antisemitic incidents in Sydney since the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Australian police have said foreign actors could be funding a recent wave of antisemitic attacks, as authorities struggle to respond to violent incidents targeting synagogues and neighbourhoods with Jewish communities in Sydney and Melbourne.

Australian detectives are investigating whether foreign actors are paying criminals to commit antisemitic attacks in the country