As the flood waters recede, the clean up begins.

South Auckland businessman faces alleged gang threat amid financial scandal.

Two helicopters have been sweeping the Marokopa area today.

The voices of protest could be heard on the streets of Woodville.

Flooding, slips and rain have damaged properties around the city.

Jean Chegwidden has worked as a nurse for more than 60 years.

Mark Zuckerberg's wallet keeps getting fatter.

The Meta CEO is now the second-richest person in the world, overtaking Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault.

With a personal fortune of $US206 billion ($303 billion), according to recent figures from Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, he now only trails Elon Musk.

READ MORE: Costco is now selling platinum bars for $1591 in the US

Recent figures from Bloomberg's Billionaire Index show Zuckerberg has grown his personal fortune by a whopping $US78.1 billion ($114.9 billion) in 2024.

He joins an elusive US$200 billion ($294 billion) club that only counts two other members.

That includes Musk ($376 billion), the CEO of Tesla and X, and Bezos ($301 billion), the founder of Amazon. Arnault, the CEO of luxury brand LVMH, recently dropped out of the club, with a fortune of $US193 billion ($283 billion).

Zuckerberg, 40, who launched Facebook in 2004, has much of his wealth tied to Meta Platforms stock.

Shares of Meta (META) have surged by more than 72 per cent in 2024.

On Friday, Meta shares gained 2.26 per cent to close at a record high of $US595.94 ($875).

READ MORE: Streets underwater as New Zealand city cops biggest drenching in 100 years

Meta operates popular social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads, as well as instant messaging app WhatsApp.

Speaking on September 25 at the Meta Connect 2024 event, Zuckerberg said Meta AI is on track to become the most used assistant in the world.

"We're almost at 500 million monthly (active users), and we haven't even launched in some of the bigger countries yet," Zuckerberg said, referring to countries in the European Union.

Zuckerberg isn't the only tech mogul to see a big jump in their fortune this year. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, and Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, have seen their net worths surge in 2024 by $US63.5 billion ($93 billion) and $US55.9 billion ($82.2 billion), respectively.

Although it may go by different names around the country, millions of Australians will celebrate a well-earned public holiday next week.

If you're in NSW, the ACT, Queensland, South Australia, yours is coming up on Monday, October 7.

We've checked what the trading hours are for all the major retailers, and whether they'll be open on the October Long weekend.

Here's the full state-by-state breakdown:

READ MORE: When does daylight saving start, and do clocks move forwards or backwards?

Coles

NSW and ACT: Coles stores in NSW and the ACT will have their standard trading hours on Labour Day.

Queensland: The majority of stores will be open from 9am-6pm, but some stores will be open until 9pm.

SA: The majority of stores will be closed, except for Port Lincoln, Port Pirie, Berri, Port Augusta, Mount Barker, Whyalla, Murray Bridge Green, Mount Gamier, Victor Harbor, and Rundle Place.

Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia: Stores' opening hours will be unchanged.

Shoppers can check their local store's opening hours here. 

Aldi

Aldi's opening hours will be different from store to store, so shoppers were advised to check here for their local store's opening hours.

Woolworths

NSW: Most Woolworths stores will be open.

Queensland: Most stores will be open except Ipswich, Mt Isa Plaza, Toowong and Cloncurry.

South Australia: Most stores will be closed.

Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia: Stores' opening hours will be unchanged.

Shoppers were advised to check online here for their local store's hours.

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Liquorland, Vintage Cellars, and First Choice Liquor Market

Stores in states celebrating the public holiday will trade with reduced trading hours

Most Liquorland stores in South Australia will be closed on October 7.

Westfield

NSW: Westfield shopping centres will open at 10am, but close at different times.

• Westfield Kotara will close at 4pm.
• Westfield Tuggerah, Eastgardens, Hornsby, Liverpool, Mt Druitt, Penrith and Warringah Mall will close at 5pm.
• Westfield Bondi Junction, Burwood, Chatswood, Hurstville, Miranda and Parramatta will close at 6pm.
• Westfield Sydney and Sydney Central Plaza will close at 7pm.

ACT: Westfield Belconnen and Woden will trade from 10am – 4pm.

Queensland: Westfield North Lakes, Mt Gravatt, Carindale and Chermside will trade from 10am – 5pm, while the centres at Coomera and Helensvale will trade from 10am – 4pm.

Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia: Stores' opening hours will be unchanged.

READ MORE: The states and territories getting a public holiday in October 2024

Kmart

NSW: All stores will be open, with the majority having reduced hours.

QLD: All stores will operate under reduced trading hours, with most closing between 4pm and 6pm.

SA: Kmart shops in South Australia will either be closed or operating under shortened holiday trading hours.

Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia – stores' opening hours will be unchanged.

Dan Murphy's and BWS

Dan Murphy's stores nationwide will mostly open from 10am to 7pm.

BWS stores will mostly open from 9am and close between 7pm and 9pm.

Target

NSW: All stores will be open, with the majority having reduced hours.

QLD: All stores will operate under reduced trading hours, opening at 9am and closing at 5pm.

SA: Kmart shops in South Australia will either be closed or operating under shortened holiday trading hours.

Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia – stores' opening hours will be unchanged.

Bunnings

All Bunnings stores will be open on the October Long Weekend.

Trade Centres and Distribution centres will be closed.

Shoppers were advised to use the Bunnings website or app to check their local store's trading hours as opening times will vary.

Israel carried out a series of massive airstrikes overnight, hitting suburbs of Beirut and cutting off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria for tens of thousands of people fleeing Israeli bombardment.

The blasts in Beirut's southern suburbs sent huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shook buildings kilometres away in the Lebanese capital.

The Israeli military did not comment on what the intended target was, and there was no information yet available on casualties. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported there were more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area.

READ MORE: Australian billionaire pledges $18 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza

Meanwhile, Israel's military said that Hezbollah had launched about 100 rockets into Israel on Friday, as fighting continued between Israel and the militant group.

The Israeli military also said on Friday that a strike in Beirut the day before killed Mohammed Rashid Skafi, the head of Hezbollah's communications division.

The military said in a statement that Skafi was "a senior Hezbollah terrorist who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000" and was "closely affiliated" with high-up Hezbollah officials.

Thursday's strike along the Lebanon-Syria border, about 50 kilometres east of Beirut, led to the closure of the road near the busy Masnaa Border Crossing.

Israel said it had targeted the crossing because it was being used by Hezbollah to transport military equipment across the border. It said fighter jets had struck a tunnel used to smuggle weapons from Iran and other proxies into Lebanon.

Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weaponry from Iran via Syria. The group has a presence on both sides of the border, a region where it has been fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

Associated Press video footage showed two huge craters on each side of the road. People got out of cars, unable to pass the site of the strike, carrying bags of their possessions as they crossed on foot.

Tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks.

The new wave of strikes came after Israel warned people to evacuate communities in southern Lebanon, including but also beyond an area that the United Nations declared a buffer zone after Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006.

Israel launched a ground incursion into Lebanon on Tuesday and its forces have been clashing with Hezbollah militants in a narrow strip along the border. A series of attacks before the incursion killed some of the group's key members, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived Friday in Beirut for meetings with Lebanese officials. He warned that if Israeli carries out an attack on Iran, Tehran would retaliate in a harsh way.

Araghchi's visit to Beirut came three days after Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel, the latest in a series of rapidly escalating attacks that threaten to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.

"If the Israeli entity takes any step or measure against us, our retaliation will be stronger than the previous one," Araghchi said after meeting Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Iran is Hezbollah's main backer and has sent weapons and billions of dollars to the group over the years.

In the Iranian capital, Tehran, the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led Friday prayers and delivered a speech where he praised the country's recent missile strike on Israel and said Iran was prepared to conduct more strikes if needed.

He spoke to thousands of people at the capital's main prayer site, the Mosalla mosque, which was decorated with a huge Palestinian flag.

The strike at the main border crossing was the first time it has been cut since the beginning of the war.

Lebanese General Security recorded 256,614 Syrian citizens and 82,264 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syrian territory between September 23 — when the Israel launched a heavy bombardment of southern and eastern Lebanon — and September 30.

There are half a dozen border crossings between the two countries and most of them remain open. Lebanon's minister of public works said all border crossings between Lebanon and Syria work under the supervision of the state.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across Lebanon's southern border almost daily since the day after Hamas' cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, in which the militants killed 1200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it carried out a strike Thursday in Tulkarem, a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank, in coordination with the Shin Bet internal security service.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 18 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp there.

Violence has flared across the Israeli-occupied territory since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October 2023. Tulkarem and other northern cities have seen some of the worst violence.

Israel declared war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to their October 7 attack.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have since been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.

Nearly 2000 people have been killed in Lebanon in that time, most of them since September 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Israel's military said on Friday that militants in Gaza fired two rockets into Israeli territory, the first time Israel has seen rocket fire from Gaza in about a month.

The military said one of the rockets was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system and the other fell in an open area near a kibbutz across the border from Gaza.

The number of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel has slowed considerably since the start of the war.

Australian billionaire Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest has called on other philanthropists and big business to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, today pledging a further $18 million through his Minderoo Foundation.

$7.3 million will be provided to support World Central Kitchen's work in Gaza, funding more than 1.5 million meals, and another $7.3 million will be provided to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

$3.6 million will be provided to the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), UNICEF and others working to deliver water and sanitation infrastructure across Gaza.

READ MORE: Australia pledges another $10 million to Gaza, West Bank amid 'catastrophic' humanitarian crisis

Since 7 October 2023, the escalating crisis in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory has caused more than 41,000 civilian deaths and 96,000 injuries, and a lack of medical supplies, food, water and fuel have depleted an already under-resourced health system, according to the World Health Organization.

"Minderoo Foundation will not sit on its hands while children starve to death," Forrest said in a statement.

"We are one of few philanthropies in Australia giving to the humanitarian needs in Gaza.

"We want to see the philanthropic and private sector respond more strongly to the humanitarian needs in Gaza."

World Central Kitchen has delivered 70 million meals to Palestinians since October 7.

The UN World Food Programme delivers food parcels to families in shelters, supports bakeries, and provides hot meals and specialised nutritional products for mothers and children.

READ MORE: 'Sitting and waiting to die': Australian teacher stranded in Lebanon

Nicola Forrest said the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza demanded swift action.

"It is heartbreaking to see the suffering of civilians in Gaza, especially children, who suffer disproportionately as innocent victims of conflict," she said.

About 1.8 million people in Gaza, including 900,000 children, require humanitarian water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) assistance, according to UNICEF.

"The lack of clean water and safe sanitation is on the verge of becoming a catastrophe," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council last year.

"Unless access to clean water is urgently restored, more civilians, including children, will fall ill or die from dehydration or waterborne diseases."

The funding announced today brings the Minderoo Foundation's humanitarian support in Gaza to nearly $41 million (US$28 million) since October 2023.

Forrest has called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the region.

Forrest was named Australia's second wealthiest person last year in the Australian Financial Review 2023 Rich List, but dropped to number eight in this year's edition.

In 2013, he and his then-wife Nicola pledged to give away the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

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