Radio National Breakfast

They're the summer holiday staple that's been a bit late getting to the Christmas table this year.Cherry producers across many parts of the country are hoping the final week before Christmas puts their season back on track.Cool and wet weather through November and early December saw the season delayed by several weeks.

The stand off between the US and Venezuela continues to escalate with a second vessel seized and over 100 killed in deadly strikes.

Coverage and analysis of national and international events.

It's been a heartbreaking week for the country and a humbling one for the government.

The shock and anger in the community over the massacre of Jewish lives in Sydney came with an acknowledgement from the Prime Minister yesterday that more could have been done to stamp out anti-Semitism.

To break it all down, our Friday political panel 

• Guests:

  Tom McIlroy, is Political Editor at Guardian Australia 

  Michelle Grattan, Chief Political Correspondent at The Conversation 

  Phil Coorey, Political Editor at The Australian Financial Review

• Producer: Jason Whittaker 

As much of eastern Australia swelters through a heat wave, parched land and a predicted hotter summer is adding extra danger to the fire season.

This month, three people across the nation have died trying to fight fires - two of those deaths due to falling trees.

There's concern drought and extreme heat is weakening trees  making potential fire grounds more volatile and dangerous. 

Australian governments and law enforcement haven't done enough to address antisemitism - but Australia's recognition of a Palestinian state hasn't fuelled anti-Jewish sentiment. That's the view of one former leader of Israel - who has spoken out this week on the deadly Bondi terror attack.

Guest: Ehud Olmert, former Israeli Prime Minister

Producer: Anne Barker

The Coalition is calling on the Prime Minister to immediately recall Parliament to pass urgent legislation to eradicate antisemitism and strengthen Australia's counter-terrorism laws.

The federal government has announced a suite of reforms to clamp down on antisemitism in the wake of the deadly Bondi terror attack.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the government also "adopts and fully supports" recommendations in the report by the Envoy for combating antisemitism, Jillian Segal, which was handed to the government earlier this year.

Telco Optus has flagged it may terminate staff over September's network outage that affected calls getting through to Triple Zero.

The company has accepted 21 recommendations from an independent report into the outage, which finds cultural change is needed throughout the company. 

As Muslim worshippers gather at mosques around the country for the weekly Friday prayer,  Australia's central Islamic body has urged imams to promote unity and harmony.

It comes as the federal government yesterday announced tough hate speech laws with new federal offences for preachers promoting violence and vilification.