Hello and thanks for joining our live coverage of national news this Friday, October 9.

Here’s what’s happened so far:

• The Australian Taxation Office’s controversial banning of credit card payments will no longer come into effect at the end of next month, after the government negotiated with the independent agency to delay the change. Jim Chalmers spoke about the government’s role earlier this afternoon.
• US immigration agents shot and wounded a man in his car with a child present, in the Marble Hill neighbourhood of New York City, according to the mayor, city police and eyewitnesses. The incident has sparked protests and prompted mayor Zohran Mamdani to call for ICE to be abolished.
• A Mexican judge is expected to hear closing statements before he hands down his verdict in the trial of three men accused of killing two Australians and their American friend in 2024.
• The AFP plans to expand its overseas operations into more countries to target offshore organised-crime figures orchestrating violence in Australia, its commissioner has revealed.

• And in entertainment news, iconic Australian rockers Powderfinger have announced they’ll return to the stage for a long-awaited reunion in 2027. The announcement follows days of cryptic billboards across Australia’s major cities.

NSW Health has warned the public over the circulation of multiple high-dose MDMA (ecstasy) tablets after they were found to contain a higher amount of MDMA than expected.

The tablets were detected by the government’s Drug Checking Service at a Sydney music festival on Saturday, October 3.

It is not the first time NSW Health has alerted the public to the circulation of high-dose MDMA tablets. However, their prolonged detection has caused heightened alarm.

Chief Addiction Medicine Specialist at NSW Health Dr Hester Wilson said the tablets could be in circulation anywhere across the state.

Gerhard Schroeder helped celebrate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 74th birthday at the leader’s home, the Kremlin said.

Pictures posted on Telegram showed Germany’s former chancellor and Putin smiling broadly and shaking hands, with an old-style stove and a Russian samovar used to boil water for tea in the background.

“Vladimir Putin found out from the morning news the day before that Gerhard Schroeder was in Moscow and had come on business for the company Globus,” the Kremlin said on Telegram.

“The president invited his old friend to his home. Gerhard Schroeder was with Vladimir Putin when the head of state celebrated his birthday yesterday.”

Australia is set to unveil the final version of a controversial plan to force liquefied natural gas producers to reserve as much as a fifth of their output for local buyers.

The government will introduce legislation underpinning the Domestic Gas Reservation Scheme next week, according to three people directly involved with the proposal, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.

Australia – now the world’s second-biggest LNG exporter after Qatari supply was choked off due to the Iran-Israel-US war – exports about three-quarters of its gas, but is facing a domestic shortfall on its more populated east coast toward the end of the decade.

The plan has faced vocal opposition from producers, who say it could stymie investment and damage the nation’s reputation as a reliable supplier to global markets.

The OpenAI employee in charge of government engagement in Australia – among other nations – is departing after six months in the job, according to a person familiar with the matter, just as the ChatGPT maker is facing scrutiny from regulators.

The executive, Sanghyun Lee, is based in Singapore and joined OpenAI in April after six years at Google, according to his LinkedIn profile. The reasons for his exit weren’t immediately clear. The source asked not to be identified discussing a private matter.

OpenAI declined to comment. Lee didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The news comes just days after OpenAI apologised to Australians for its AI accessing Services Australia’s Medicare statistics portal. The breach, which occurred in June, was detected at the company in August and reported to Australian authorities only in September.

Malaysia has forced more than 2 million students to stay home, as toxic haze from wildfires in Indonesia blanketed the region and the two nations’ leaders discussed efforts to tackle the crisis.

Schools across Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor states, as well as Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and the Rompin district in Pahang will be closed, Malaysia’s Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said in a Facebook post. The move follows similar action taken in the southern state of Johor, one of the worst-affected areas.

Neighbouring Singapore ranked as the world’s most polluted city, according to IQAir, raising concerns over this weekend’s annual Formula One race in the city-state. The event, with scheduled performances by Lana Del Rey, Mark Ronson and other international acts, is expected to attract at least 300,000 local and foreign visitors.

Race organiser Singapore GP Pte Ltd didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has almost been drowned out by protesters while providing an update into the latest shooting involving ICE agents.

A federal immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) officer shot and wounded a Dominican man while arresting him in New York City on Thursday (7am Friday AEDT), during what the Department of Homeland Security called a “targeted enforcement operation”. A boy believed to be the man’s son was with him at the time.

Speaking at a late night press conference on the streets of New York, Mamdani said he had just spent two hours on the phone with US President Donald Trump, seeking to secure the man’s release.

“Those negotiations were unsuccessful. Just moments ago, ICE put them in an unmarked vehicle and whisked them away,” Mamdani said.

A KPMG-sponsored culture review of the failings that led to the whistleblower scandal has found that there was a significant “say-do gap” between its stated ethical values and what its most senior executives did in practice.

“Ethical expectations were weakened by a perceived gap between professed values and visible actions,” the report said.

The external review by Principia Advisory found that these issues were compounded by structural weaknesses in the firm’s governance and oversight.

This resulted in a circular system where board members were charged with supervising senior executives who effectively controlled the pay and career progression of these same board members.

The rural NSW couple who successfully prevented a Hunter Valley coal mine from being expanded – with potential consequences for Australia’s entire coal sector – says she hopes her action inspires others to do the same.

Wendy Wales and partner Tony Lonergan, of Muswellbrook, spent four years legally challenging MACH Energy’s plans to enlarge its Mount Pleasant coal mine.

Their campaign culminated in the High Court this week narrowly upholding a judgement that the expansion plan could not go ahead due to the climate impact of the emissions the coal would cause once it was burnt, including overseas.

On News24 on Friday, Wales was asked if her success might incentivise other Australians to also take action.

Hurricane Isaias strengthened on Thursday as it barrelled toward the US Gulf Coast, prompting mandatory evacuations in parts of Florida and emergency declarations in Alabama as forecasters warned of life-threatening storm surges, tornadoes and flooding.

Isaias has already severely disrupted oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, forcing energy companies to evacuate offshore platforms and shut down operations.

The first Atlantic hurricane of the 2026 season was packing maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph) early on Thursday, the US National Hurricane Center said. Isaias was forecast to strengthen to near Category 3 intensity, with sustained winds reaching 110 mph (175 kph) on Friday before reaching the northern Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says there is no good news in the announcement that a ban on using credit cards for tax payments will be delayed until June next year.

The tax office had planned to initiate the ban from the end of November, in response to the Reserve Bank of Australia banning surcharges being added to credit card payments – a ban that came into effect this month.

A government-brokered deal now means the tax office will hold off on that change, but on News24 Taylor said this only amounted to small businesses being hit “tomorrow rather than today”.

“The reality of this government is they want businesses to cough up, to shut up and to close up,” Taylor said, insisting the government had the authority to compel the ATO to ditch its plan entirely.

“They should scrap it, and the prime minister should scrap this treasurer while he’s at it because, frankly, this is just another humiliating backdown after the widow’s tax, the death tax, and so on.”

Taylor claimed the extra money the government will give the ATO to allow for this postponement amounted to “a taxpayer-funded bailout”, and that the opposition was drafting legislation to stop the ATO’s ban entirely in time for parliament resuming next week.