Australia news LIVE: Trump rules out fresh strikes; Christa Pike ‘up and walking’; closing statements in murder of Perth brothers in Mexico

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news this Friday, October 9. Here’s what is making headlines today.

The US has been accused of inaction by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after a deadly Russian bus strike killed at least 33 people.

Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy has joined the ranks of Labor ministers calling on the ATO to properly consult small businesses before implementing a ban on credit charge surcharges to pay for tax bills.

“My preference is for them to do their job and talk to small businesses and make sure they manage the process properly,” Conroy told Today this morning.

“The important thing is the ATO should be consulting properly, taking the time to get this right and managing the transition process.”

He called the government’s decision to ban credit card surcharges “really important”.

Environment Minister Murray Watt has defended the government’s surcharge ban and the ATO’s resulting prohibition of the use of credit cards to pay tax bills.

“We need to keep it in perspective when it comes to payments to the ATO, it’s only a very small number of taxpayers who pay their tax payments by credit card,” he told Sunrise. “It’s about 5 per cent for small businesses and about 2 per cent for individuals.”

“One of the things that’s been ignored in this debate … is that the processing payment fees that banks charge to their business customers have been significantly reduced as part of this change,” he said.

He said the idea that small businesses were having to absorb the charges was “simply not correct”.

Environment Minister Murray Watt said the ATO’s engagement with business groups has “got to be meaningful” after the body banned the use of credit cards to pay for tax bills.

“When they made clear that they intended to proceed with this, we insisted on them having a good transition plan with the business community and to consult with the business community about that,” he told Sunrise this morning. “We expect them to do that consultation properly.”

When asked about reports that the ATO had refused to consider a reversal of the change while engaging with business groups, Watt said ministers were engaging with the ATO to “make their expectations clear”.

“It’s got to be meaningful. It’s got to involve listening to people, and that’s exactly what we expect of the ATO,” he said.

“We were very clear with the ATO when they first proposed this that … they needed to work properly with their business community, and I’m sure that those expectations will be reinforced.”

Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong says she wants to see the dispute between the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and business groups resolved, after the agency scrapped the use of credit cards to pay tax bills in the wake of the government’s credit card surcharge ban.

“What I’d like to see is this resolved between the ATO and small-business representatives. That’s the negotiation, that’s the engagement, the consultation that we want to see,” she told Today.

“I know that only a small proportion of small businesses were using credit cards [to pay their tax] but obviously it is a change.

“But I again would make the point: the reason this occurred, the reason we did this, is because Australian consumers were paying a whole range of surcharges which weren’t transparent to them.”

She said the ATO was an independent body, and the government did not have the power to directly intervene in its decisions: “They are independent. Governments can’t direct the tax office to implement tax in a certain way.”

Airlines including Lufthansa and Air India have temporarily suspended operations to Saudi Arabia’s capital after explosions, including a large blast heard at the international airport in Riyadh, were reported on Thursday.

More than 275 flights were cancelled on Thursday at King Khalid International Airport, according to flight monitor FlightAware. The cancellations accounted for 40 per cent of scheduled arrivals and 30 per cent of scheduled departures.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen claimed responsibility for the latest attack on Riyadh’s airport, saying a ballistic missile caused damage, but provided no evidence. The Saudis had no immediate comment about the claim.

The Houthis’ military spokesman later said the group had fired additional ballistic and cruise missiles at airports in Riyadh and the south-western city of Najran, claiming the attacks disrupted flights.

A judge is expected to hear closing statements before handing down his verdict in the trial of three men accused of killing two Australians and their American friend in Mexico in 2024.

The men – Jesus Gerardo, known as “El Kekas”, and two others, identified as Irineo Francisco and Angel Jesus – have faced court in the coastal Baja California city of Ensenada over the past month.

They are accused of killing Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, along with their American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, in an alleged robbery-gone-wrong while the trio was on a surfing holiday.

After multiple delays, the boys’ mother Debra Robinson requested last week that a verdict be delivered before a pre-booked return flight home to Australia.

The judge agreed closing arguments would be heard on October 8, US time, with the verdict delivered the following morning. Any sentencing would likely take place the following week.

Closing statements are expected from both lawyers, the Robinson parents and Jack Carter Rhoad’s fiancee. Nine also reported the three accused may be given the chance to provide a final statement.

Death row inmate Christa Pike is “up and walking” – though mentally “foggy” – after waking up from the botched attempt to execute her in Tennessee last week, the BBC reported.

Pike, 50, survived two supposedly fatal injections, 30 years after she was sentenced to death for torturing and murdering her classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995, when Pike was 18. Experts have described it as unprecedented.

One of her lawyers, Stephen Ferrell, told the BBC he had not spoken directly to Pike but had been told her arms were swollen and barely functioning as she took her first steps in her hospital room.

He said Pike was “fairly well”.

US President Donald Trump ruled out a fresh attack on Iran before the midterm elections, responding to heightened speculation in the media that he might resume strikes shortly.

The US has dispatched a third aircraft carrier strike group, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, to the Middle East, and Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the US blockade of Iranian ports.

Axios reported on Wednesday (US time) that the Pentagon had ordered Central Command to finalise plans for resuming major combat operations, possibly before the midterms.

But Trump said he would not attack that early.