Bernard Arnault, the boss of luxury goods group LVMH and France’s richest man, has attacked a proposed two per cent tax on billionaires as an assault on France’s economy and denounced the plan’s architect as a far-left ideologue.

The tax, which would target wealth above 100 million euros ($A177 million), has gained political traction in France, where Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu faces pressure from the Socialist Party to include it in the 2026 budget or face a confidence vote that could topple his government.

“This is clearly not a technical or economic debate, but rather a clearly stated desire to destroy the French economy,” Arnault told Britain’s Sunday Times.

He accused the plan’s architect, economist Gabriel Zucman, of being “first and foremost a far-left activist” who uses “pseudo-academic competence” to promote an ideology aimed at dismantling the liberal economic system.

Arnault said the liberal economic system was “the only one that works for the good of all”.

Zucman, a professor at France’s Ecole Normale Superieure and the University of California, Berkeley, rejected the accusations.

“I’ve never been an activist for any movement or party,” he said on X, adding his work was grounded in research, not ideology.

Zucman was among 300 economists who publicly backed the economic platform of the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire alliance ahead of 2024’s legislative elections.

He has recently argued in media appearances that the ultra-rich pay proportionally less tax than many other citizens – a gap the proposed levy aims to close.

The tax has broad public support, with an Ifop poll commissioned by the Socialist Party in September showing 86 per cent approval.

Optus was warned at least five times of a triple-zero call outage, as the telco giant’s boss shuts down questions about whether he will resign over the scandal.

A botched firewall update blocked hundreds of triple-zero calls from Optus customers in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Early investigations appeared to show established processes were “not followed”, Optus chief executive Stephen Rue said.

“We are speaking with the individuals involved as to the full technical detail of the network failure,” he told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

“We will leave that for the investigation.”

Two customers contacted Optus call centres early on Thursday morning before the outage was fixed after more than 13 hours.

A review has uncovered another three calls over the issue but “red flags” were not raised because call volumes were normal, Mr Rue said.

An eight-week-old boy from Gawler West, north of Adelaide, was among four deaths linked to the fault.

But SA Police said the outage was “unlikely to have contributed” to the boy’s death because his grandmother immediately used another phone to contact triple zero after her initial call failed. 

“The preliminary investigations indicate the child’s death is not due to any delay in (SA Ambulance Service) attending the Mulga St house, despite the failure of the first attempt to call 000,” it said.

Its investigation into the death of a 68-year-old Queenstown woman was “more complex”, with work continuing to determine the outage’s impact.

The deaths of two Perth men, a 74-year-old from Willetton and a 49-year-old from Kensington, have also been connected to the fault.

Two callers from NSW were unable to get through to emergency services because they were close to SA and connected to towers across the border, Mr Rue said.

Optus was not aware of further issues with those calls following welfare checks with NSW Police.

The telco had paused all network system changes as it reviewed processes and was monitoring triple-zero call volumes and failure rates state-by-state 24 hours a day, Mr Rue said.

Optus has been slammed for keeping governments and the public in the dark over the fault until Friday afternoon, as well as failing to heed the recommendations of a review into a November 2023 outage.

Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain said the latest outage was “absolutely disgraceful” and labelled the company’s failure to advise state and federal governments “beyond reprehensible”.

“Optus clearly needs to review its protocols,” she told ABC TV.

The federal coalition is calling for a broader independent investigation into the triple-zero network, on top of reviews orchestrated by Optus and the Australian Communications Media Authority.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said the behaviour of Optus, as a universal service provider, was “abhorrent” and “beyond belief”.

“They do need to face penalties for this, the government needs to crack down,” he told Nine’s Today.

With political pressure mounting, Mr Rue deflected when asked if he had considered resigning over the scandal. 

“I am absolutely determined and focused to work through these processes that we’re doing here and to implement recommendations,” he said.

About a third of the 18 review recommendations stemming from the 2023 outage, which resulted in fines totalling more than $12 million, are yet to be implemented.

The peak national consumer advocacy group for communications has called for the federal government to fast-track legislation and appoint an independent technical expert to oversee Optus’ triple-zero systems.

“The current form of telco self-regulation has yet again proven to be a failure,” Australian Communications Consumer Action Network CEO Carol Bennett said.

“It needs to change.”

Australia has been urged not to ignore threats of “punitive measures” from top Republicans, as the prime minister lands in the US for one of his most important diplomatic ventures.

Anthony Albanese arrived in New York City on Sunday morning Australian time ahead of a long-awaited United Nations General Assembly meeting where Australia, Canada, France and the UK will recognise the state of Palestine.

But hours before touchdown, a group of top Republican congress members and allies of Donald Trump issued an open letter to the leaders of those nations warning recognition “may invite punitive measures”.

“This is something that very well could be a point of contention between the Albanese government and the Trump administration,” United States Studies Centre director Jared Mondschein told AAP.

“It should not be ignored.”

But that doesn’t mean Australia cannot stand its ground.

The UK’s foreign policy – like Australia’s – has begun to diverge from the US after decades of generally moving in lock step with the world power.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been able to work through his differences with the US president.

“I would not be surprised if Prime Minister Albanese and President Trump are able to overcome their differences of opinion on this matter too,” Mr Mondschein said.

Mr Albanese is hoping to secure his first face-to-face meeting with Mr Trump, though talks have not yet been scheduled.

Some speculated the two could hold discussions on the weekend before the UN event, but this was dispelled when the president announced he would attend the funeral of right-wing American commentator Charlie Kirk on Sunday in Arizona.

The prime minister was due to meet with the US president in June during the G7 summit, but was left wanting when Mr Trump departed the event early to intervene in escalating Middle East violence.

In the months since, a bilateral meeting has arguably become a lesser priority for Mr Albanese.

The US in August spared Australian goods from a tariff hike, leaving its products at the baseline 10 per cent – which is the lowest rate levied against any American trading partner.

But there is still much to discuss that extends beyond the bilateral US-Australia relationship, like the security environment and strategic competition in the Pacific.

“If Australia and the United States – who are the closest of allies – are able to get aligned on this, then that will give momentum to other allies in the region,” Mr Mondschein said.

Stepping onto the tarmac at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, Mr Albanese emphasised the importance of Australia’s role on the world stage.

“What we want to see is increased peace and security and stability around the world,” he told reporters.

“We are a country that play a positive role in our region, in the Pacific, as well as of course … our traditional allies such as our Five-Eyes partners including the United States and the United Kingdom.”

The letter from Republican members of Congress, including former presidential nominee Ted Cruz, claims the recognition of Palestine would undermine prospects for peace and reward terrorism.

“Proceeding with recognition will put your country at odds with long-standing US policy and interests and may invite punitive measures in response,” it read.

Their statement comes days after a UN inquiry branded Israel’s offensive in Gaza as an act of genocide against Palestinians.

Australia has condemned the denial of aid and killing of civilians in the territory.

Since October 2023, Israel’s military campaign and throttling of aid has killed 65,000 Palestinians and left 641,000 people at risk of catastrophic levels of starvation, local health ministry and UN sources have found.

Israel’s recent offensive began after designated terror group Hamas killed 1,200 civilians and took about 250 more hostage.

A failed emergency call during a widespread Optus outage is unlikely to have cost a baby boy his life, police say.

A botched firewall update on Thursday blocked hundreds of calls to triple zero in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

An eight-week-old boy from Gawler West, north of Adelaide, was among four deaths authorities had linked to the fault.

While the boy’s family was impacted, police now believed the outage is “unlikely to have contributed to the death”.

“The deceased boy’s grandmother has told investigating police that she attempted to call 000 using her mobile phone when she was alerted to the fact her grandson was not breathing,” SA Police said in a statement on Sunday.

“When her call was not connected, she immediately used another mobile telephone in the house and was successfully connected to 000.

“The preliminary investigations indicate the child’s death is not due to any delay in (SA Ambulance Service) attending the Mulga St house, despite the failure of the first attempt to call 000.”

SA Police said an investigation into the death of a 68-year-old Queenstown woman was “more complex”, with work continuing to determine the impact of the outage.

The deaths of two Perth men, a 74-year-old from Willetton and a 49-year-old from Kensington, are also being probed over the fault.

Optus was not aware of the “severity” of the outage until being notified by a customer about 1.30pm, Optus chief executive Stephen Rue said.

The update was cancelled and access to the emergency line was restored after 13 hours.

Optus had also been contacted by the telecommunications industry ombudsman about two complaints from people trying to inform the company about the outage.

“Early review suggests that we had not handled these calls as would be expected,” Mr Rue said.

“Optus will be appointing an independent person to lead a review into this entire incident from every aspect.”

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli was briefed on the fallout by the state’s top cop Steve Gollschewski on Sunday.

Although the commissioner was “confident” Queenslanders weren’t impacted, Mr Crisafulli said a system “deep dive” was underway and his state government would reach out to Optus.

“With great profits come great responsibility, and we’re asking all of them (telcos) to do better,” he told reporters.

The federal coalition is calling for a broader independent investigation into the triple zero network, on top of reviews orchestrated by Optus and the Australian Communications Media Authority.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said the behaviour of Optus, as a universal service provider, was “abhorrent”.

“The fact that Optus has just in some blasé way ignored the risks that are there for Australians to be able to ring triple zero is just beyond belief,” he told Nine’s Today on Sunday morning.

“They do need to face penalties for this, the government needs to crack down.”

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said it took a call from him to the Optus CEO before the problem was fixed.

“The lack of information flow from Optus to the South Australian government’s appropriate authorities is somewhat bewildering and it raises a lot of questions,” he said.

Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells slammed the telco for failing to heed the recommendations of a review into a November 2023 outage when customers were also unable to contact triple-zero.

“Many of the things that happened in this outage are failures to implement some of those recommendations, including alerting the public or emergency services authorities,” she said.

Mr Rue defended not publicly revealing the outage until Friday night in a snap press conference more than a day after the problem was identified and rectified.

He said Optus was focused on determining the facts and conducting welfare checks before informing governments and the public.

The White House says an agreement on video platform TikTok’s US business is expected to be signed in the coming days.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt says details about TikTok’s future in the United States “have already been agreed upon”.

“Now we just need this deal to be signed and that will be happening, I anticipate, in the coming days,” Leavitt told US broadcaster Fox on Sunday.

TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, has faced months of uncertainty over the app’s operations in the US, where it has about 170 million users.

US officials have expressed concern that the Chinese government could gain access to vast amounts of personal data and use the platform to exert political influence. TikTok and ByteDance have rejected this.

Under the deal, TikTok would be “majority-owned by Americans in the United States. There will be seven seats on the board, that controls the app in the United States, and six of those seats will be Americans”, Leavitt said.

The agreement would require that all data on American users will be stored on US cloud computing infrastructure run by US software firm Oracle.

“The data and privacy will be led by one of America’s greatest tech companies, Oracle, and the algorithm will also be controlled by America as well,” Leavitt said.

President Donald Trump is trying to keep the short video app with 170 million US users from being banned after Congress passed a law in 2024 that ordered it shut down by January 2025 if its US assets were not sold by owner ByteDance.

Trump has credited TikTok with helping him win re-election last year and has 15 million followers on his personal account. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.

Trump has granted extensions to the deadline, repeatedly delaying enforcement despite no legal basis for doing so.

Trump has delayed enforcement of the law amid efforts to extract TikTok’s US assets from the global platform, line up American investors and ensure the new ownership qualifies as a full divestiture needed under the 2024 law.

In the US, ByteDance – and thus also TikTok – are seen as Chinese companies. ByteDance counters that the company is 60 per cent owned by international investors and is based in the Cayman Islands.

However, ByteDance has a large headquarters in Beijing and is therefore subject to many Chinese regulations.

Although its founders hold only a 20 per cent stake, they reportedly retain control through shares with more voting rights.

The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that US investors including Oracle, which is owned by Trump supporter Larry Ellison, and the investment firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz were expected to hold 80 per cent of a new US TikTok subsidiary, with the remaining 20 per cent held by Chinese shareholders.

with reuters

Mortgage holders may soon get a better idea of when they can expect another interest rate cut as the Reserve Bank’s boss defends the timing of its moves.

Governor Michele Bullock will face questions from federal parliament’s economics committee on Monday about interest rates, sluggish productivity and planned changes to card payment surcharges.

The appearance will be her first at a parliamentary hearing since the RBA board started cutting rates in February and the first since the federal election in May.

It comes as the Australian Bureau of Statistics prepares to release August inflation data on Wednesday, giving the central bank some indication of Australia’s economic temperature.

Analysts expect a small fall in the RBA’s preferred measure of underlying inflation but not enough to deliver mortgage holders a rate cut when its rate-setting board meets at the end of the month.

“(Inflation) will be consistent with the RBA remaining on track for further rate cuts but it won’t be enough to tip the RBA over into cutting in September,” AMP chief economist Shane Oliver told AAP.

Underlying inflation, also known as trimmed mean, sits at 2.7 per cent and in the upper end of the Reserve Bank’s target range.

The measure strips out volatile figures such as power prices to give analysts a better sense of trends across the economy.

Experts believe inflation could drop to 2.5 or 2.6 per cent on Wednesday, driven by the falling cost of housing, recreation and culture.

The trimmed mean would probably need to reach 2.4 per cent for the RBA to consider a September rate cut, Mr Oliver said.

Markets also expect the central bank to hold off cutting rates until November.

Inflation has been falling steadily since peaking in late 2022 and the Reserve Bank predicts consumer price increases will stay around the middle of its two-to-three per cent target band for the next few years.

Ms Bullock will also face questions about her push to end surcharges on card payments, which the central bank argues are outdated and inefficient.

Wall Street investors are meanwhile active and focused on tech and consumer discretionary companies.

The main US indices closed higher on Friday and posted a weekly gain as FedEx rose after positive earnings.

The parcel delivery company popped 2.1 per cent after it reported quarterly profit and revenue above analyst estimates as cost-cutting and strength in domestic deliveries helped offset weaker international volumes.

Australian share futures gained 24 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 9,186.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 rose 28.3 points on Friday, or 0.32 per cent, to 8,773.5, as the broader All Ordinaries gained 32.6 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 9,063.5.

The prime minister is embarking on one of his most important diplomatic endeavours as he lands in the US.

Anthony Albanese arrived in New York City on Sunday morning Australian time, hand-in-hand with fiancee Jodie Haydon, before a long-awaited United Nations General Assembly meeting.

The prime minister and his counterparts from the UK, Canada and France are set to officially recognise the state of Palestine, in a major departure from Australia’s historic alignment to US foreign policy.

“In the world, Australia plays an important role,” he told reporters on the tarmac of John F Kennedy International Airport in New York.

“What we want to see is increased peace and security and stability around the world.

“We are a country that play a positive role in our region, in the Pacific, as well as of course … our traditional allies such as our Five-Eyes partners including the United States and the United Kingdom.”

Mr Albanese hopes to secure his first face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump, though talks have not yet been scheduled.

Some speculated the two leaders could hold discussions on the weekend before the UN event, but this was dispelled when the president announced he would attend the funeral of right-wing American commentator Charlie Kirk on Sunday in Arizona.

The prime minister was due to meet with the Republican in June during the G7 summit, but was left wanting when Mr Trump departed the event early to intervene in escalating Middle East violence.

In the months since, a bilateral meeting has arguably become a lesser priority for Mr Albanese.

The US in August spared Australian goods from a tariff hike, leaving its products at the baseline 10 per cent – which is the lowest rate levied against any American trading partner.

But that does not mean Australia is out of US sights.

A group of Republicans and allies to Mr Trump have warned against the recognition of Palestine in an open letter addressed to Mr Albanese, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“Proceeding with recognition will put your country at odds with long-standing US policy and interests and may invite punitive measures in response,” the statement said.

The group, which includes former Republican presidential nominee Ted Cruz, claims the policy would undermine prospects for peace and reward terrorism.

Their letter comes days after a UN inquiry branded Israel’s offensive in Gaza as an act of genocide against Palestinians.

Australia has condemned the denial of aid and killing of civilians in the territory.

Since October 2023, Israel’s military campaign and throttling of aid has killed 65,000 Palestinians and left 641,000 people at risk of catastrophic levels of starvation, local health ministry and UN sources have found.

Israel’s recent offensive began after designated terror group Hamas killed 1,200 civilians and took about 250 more hostage.

Optus is pledging to fully investigate a 10-hour triple-zero outage, accepting responsibility for a number of breakdowns during which at least four people died.

The telco’s chief executive says an independent investigation will be conducted after admitting the outage was caused by a botched firewall update to the system.

Stephen Rue admitted Optus had been contacted by the telecommunications industry ombudsman about two complaints of people trying to inform the company about the outage.

“Early review suggests that we had not handled these calls as would be expected,” he told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.

“Optus will be appointing an independent person to lead a review into this entire incident from every aspect, I hope to confirm that person in coming days.”

Optus was unaware of Thursday’s outage until being notified by a customer about 1.30pm after the emergency service line was unavailable for 10 hours, Mr Rue said.

The update was cancelled and access to the emergency line was restored, he said, but not before at least three people had died during the outage after hundreds of people were unable to reach emergency services.

The deaths included an eight-week-old infant in Adelaide. A 68-year-old woman in Adelaide and 74-year-old man in Perth also died while another West Australian death was confirmed on Saturday night.

WA Police have told Optus they believe the person likely tried to call triple-zero for help.

The telco said it would work with authorities to understand what happened.

Mr Rue pledged to give daily updates as more information about the grave incident came to light and said Optus accepted full responsibility for the problem.

Optus was slammed by the South Australian premier for not passing on adequate information to the state’s police after the outage, hampering locating people who needed help.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said it took a call from him to the Optus CEO before the problem was fixed.

“The lack of information flow from Optus to the South Australian government’s appropriate authorities is somewhat bewildering and it raises a lot of questions,” he said.

Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells slammed the telco for failing to heed the recommendations of a review into a November 2023 outage where customers were also unable to contact triple-zero.

Mr Rue defended not publicly revealing the outage until Friday night in a snap press conference more than a day after the problem was identified and rectified.

He said Optus was focused on determining the facts and conducting welfare checks before informing governments and the public.

Ms Wells questioned how the incident could occur again nearly two years after a similar outage after which a review identified problems Optus should have addressed.

“We’re disappointed that it’s happened again, no triple-zero outage is acceptable and this will be thoroughly investigated,” Ms Wells said.

“Many of the things that happened in this outage are failures to implement some of those recommendations, including alerting the public or emergency services authorities.”

US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, have called for a meeting with President Donald Trump to avoid a government shutdown when funding ends on September 30.

“Democrats have been clear and consistent in our position. We are ready to work toward a bipartisan spending agreement that improves the lives of American families and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis,” they wrote in a letter.

“However, we will not support a dirty spending bill that continues the Republican assault on healthcare.”

There was no immediate response from the White House.

Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, failed to address the funding issue before lawmakers left Washington DC on Friday for a break.

The House approved a Republican proposal to keep the federal government funded into November but the measure failed in the Senate. 

A Democratic proposal that would have boosted health care funds also failed.

It all leaves Congress and the White House with no easy way out of the stand-off that threatens a shutdown in less than two weeks when the current budget year and funding expires. 

Trump’s first term in office included a month-long shutdown, the longest in federal history, in 2018-2019.

Trump predicted on Friday that there could be “a closed country for a period of time”.

He said the government will continue to “take care” of the military and social insurance payments in a closure.

Republicans have insisted they are not to blame for any possible shutdown, turning it back on Democrats.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have put forward the short-term measure, which is a typical way that Congress resolves such logjams. 

That would keep government operations running at current levels as talks get underway.

While the House was able to narrowly pass the temporary funding measure on a mostly party-line vote, in the Senate the process can require a higher 60-vote threshold that means support is needed from Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats say they are working to protect health care programs.

The Democratic proposal would extend enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, plus reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans’ big tax break and spending cut bill enacted earlier this year.

Republicans have said the Democrats’ demands to reverse the Medicaid changes are a nonstarter but they have also said there is time to address the health insurance subsidy issue in the months ahead.

with AP

Police are working to determine whether a fourth person died after being left unable to contact triple zero due to an Optus outage.

The deaths of two adults and an infant after efforts to dial through to the emergency number failed during Thursday’s 10-hour outage have already been confirmed. 

An eight-week-old baby and 68-year-old woman died in Adelaide, while the third fatality linked to the incident, which involved up to 600 attempted triple-zero calls, was that of a 74-year-old from Perth.

WA Premier Roger Cook says police are also investigating the circumstances surrounding a fourth fatality.

“Optus must be held accountable for this incredibly tragic event and they must provide answers,” he told reporters on Saturday.

A customer alerted Optus to the outage after the telco failed to detect a system failure that blocked the triple-zero calls.

Chief executive Stephen Rue admitted the outage was caused by a botched firewall upgrade.

He said emergency call access was restored about 1.50 pm on Thursday. 

Optus was also notified shortly after by South Australian Police.

“There was a technical failure in the system and further there were no alarms to alert us that some emergency calls were not making it through to emergency services,” Mr Rue told reporters in Sydney.

Welfare checks were conducted into Thursday evening and Friday, with delays in the timing “due to the complexity of pulling records from the network”, he said. 

The deaths were not confirmed until Friday, he said while repeatedly defending the decision not to alert the public until a snap press conference that evening as Optus ascertained the facts.

“We take full accountability for the technical failure and that we were unaware of this for … an unacceptable gap in time,” he said.

Early reviews suggested two complaints referred by the telecommunications industry ombudsman from two people who contacted Optus on Thursday morning weren’t handled “as would be expected”, Mr Rue said.

“This information was not surfaced with the relevant escalation at that time.”

He confirmed an independent investigation would be launched.

Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells said she found it “particularly disappointing” the problems should have been addressed following recommendations from a review into a similar outage.

More than 10 million Optus customers and businesses were disconnected for more than 16 hours in November 2023.

People could not call triple zero on landlines, although it was still possible to do so on a mobile and the telco was fined more than $12 million for breaching emergency call rules during the nationwide outage.

“I find it hard to put into words how this could have possibly been allowed to happen again,” Ms Wells told reporters in Brisbane.

The outage would be thoroughly investigated, she said.

SA police worked through Friday night conducting welfare checks on 150 people whose triple-zero calls failed, Premier Peter Malinauskas said on Saturday.

Optus had a duty to inform authorities as quickly as possible “and the fact that didn’t occur until after a press conference on Friday beggars belief”, he said.

“They’ve got to make sure they’re letting our emergency services know … all the information the moment they have it, before they think about crafting a media statement.”

The premier was also scathing of Optus for only sharing the suburbs where the deaths had occurred with police, and said it took a call for him to the CEO to rectify this.

It was “somewhat extraordinary” police struggled to get information from Optus in light of what had happened, Mr Malinauskas said.

“The lack of information flow from Optus to the South Australian government’s appropriate authorities is somewhat bewildering and it raises a lot of questions.”

It was not yet known if the failed triple-zero calls had a direct impact on the emergencies in which people had died.

Mr Rue said he would speak with the families when appropriate.