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New Tropical storm Epsilon, becoming a hurricane, might beat hurricane Delta's speeds of 275 mph in the center. Formed in the Bermuda, 26th hurricane from the Atlantic this year.

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The latest tropical storm is expected to become a hurricane by the time it gets closer to Bermuda later this week, with forecasters saying the island could feel some impacts.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said as of 5 a.m. EDT that Tropical Storm Epsilon is packing maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and is located about 765 miles southeast of Bermuda, moving east-northeast at 3 mph.

Epsilon formed on Monday, becoming the 26th named storm of the busy 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.
TROPICAL STORM EPSILON FORMS IN ATLANTIC, BECOMES 26TH STORM OF 2020 HURRICANE SEASON
According to the NHC, the storm is expected to make a turn toward the north and northwest later on Tuesday, with a general northwestern motion expected through Thursday.

Gradual strengthening is also expected over the next couple of days, and Epsilon is forecast to be at or near hurricane strength by Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

The storm will then approach Bermuda on Thursday, but it's still too early to tell what impacts the storm will have.

Current forecast tracks show Epsilon will just brush Bermuda later this week, but the island could still be impacted by tropical storm conditions. At this point, Bermuda will likely only see tropical storm conditions with the worst staying east of the island, but a track closer to Bermuda would increase impacts.
'BUBBLE CURTAIN' IS THE NEWEST CRAZY HURRICANE-KILLING IDEA
"Interests in Bermuda should monitor the progress of Epsilon," the NHC said.

Tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 275 miles from the center of the storm, and Epsilon is generating large swells that will impact Bermuda over the next couple of days.

Epsilon represents a record for the earliest 26th named storm, beating out Nov. 22 in 2005, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

There is just over one month left in the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30, but this season has broken numerous records as forecasters in September ran out of traditional names and went to the Greek alphabet for storms Alpha and Beta. Delta became a Category 4 storm before weakening and swiping Mexico, then took aim and roared into Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane.

NOAA forecasters had called for up to 25 named storms this season with winds of 39 mph or higher; of those, seven to 10 could become hurricanes. Among those hurricanes, three to six will be major, classified as Category 3, 4 and 5 with winds of 111 mph or higher.

That's far above an average year. Based on 1981-to-2010 data, that is 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE WEATHER COVERAGE FROM FOX NEWS
So far this year, there have been 26 named storms, including nine hurricanes and of those, three major hurricanes.

The last time the Greek alphabet was used in the Atlantic was in 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina. With a total of 27 storms that year, the first six letters of the Greek alphabet were used: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News' Adam Klotz and Brandon Noriega contributed to this report.

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Tropical Storm Epsilon forecast to become hurricane, pass near Bermuda

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The latest tropical storm is expected to become a hurricane by the time it gets closer to Bermuda later this week, with forecasters saying the island could feel some impacts. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said as of 5 a.m.

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The UK government will launch the first human challenge tests for Covid-19.

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uk government signs contract for first coronavirus human challenge studies - cnn

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UK government signs contract for first coronavirus human challenge studies

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The UK government has signed a contract for the first human challenge studies for the novel coronavirus, in which healthy volunteers are deliberately infected with the virus in controlled setting, and some receive an experimental vaccine.

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A women from Texas died on a plane due to covid. They said she didn't even know she had it.

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A Texas woman in her 30s died of COVID-19 during a commercial flight in July, officials announced over the weekend.

The unnamed woman passed away on the tarmac while the plane prepared to depart Arizona for the Lone Star State on July 25, BuzzFeed News reports. According to the outlet, it remains unclear if the woman knew she had contracted the coronavirus.

The late passenger lived in the city of Garland and had "underlying high risk health conditions," Dallas County authorities said in a news release issued Sunday. Officials did not disclose which airline she was flying with.
CORONAVIRUS IN THE US: STATE-BY-STATE BREAKDOWN
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told WFAA that the woman was "ill and having trouble breathing" on the plane. NBC DFW reports that she was given oxygen before she died.

"We don't know a whole lot," Jenkins explained. "We may not know if she was aware she was sick. Contact took place in Arizona."

The judge added that the woman's death serves as a "reminder that there is no age restriction in COVID."
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The traveler who died was one of three confirmed coronavirus fatalities announced by Dallas County on Sunday.

To date, 89,987 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the county, where the viral disease has claimed the lives of 1,085, per Sunday's statement.
CLICK HERE FOR FOX NEWS' CONTINUING CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
As of Tuesday morning, 856,948 cases of coronavirus, and 17,481 deaths, have been reported in Texas, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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Texas woman died of coronavirus during flight, officials confirm

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A Texas woman in her 30s died of COVID-19 during a commercial flight in July, officials announced over the weekend. The unnamed woman passed away on the tarmac while the plane prepared to depart Arizona for the Lone Star State on July 25, BuzzFeed News reports.

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NASA is set to break a peice of a near earth asteroid for the first time to gain research about asteroids.

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The spacecraft is set to kiss the surface of astroid Bennu at 6:12 p.m. ET.

NASA is set to touch an asteroid, break off a sample, and bring it back to Earth for the first time during a history-making mission that culminates on Tuesday.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft -- an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer -- is set to attempt a touch-and-go sample collection on the asteroid Bennu starting Tuesday afternoon.

"It feels like something really amazing is about to happen," Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said at a news conference Monday.

"This is a historic first mission for NASA, returning an asteroid sample, and it is hard. It is hard even without COVID, but COVID made it even harder," he added, lauding the team effort that went into Tuesday's big event.

The spacecraft launched four years ago, has been orbiting Bennu for two years. On Tuesday it will briefly touch its surface via a robotic arm at 6:12 p.m. ET for less than a minute to grab a sample.

The spacecraft is then expected to remain in Bennu's orbit until 2021, when it will begin its journey home. It's expected to land back on Earth with the sample in 2023.

Starting at just before 2 p.m. ET Tuesday, the Osiris-REx will begin its set of maneuvers to slowly descend to the Nightingale landing spot on the surface of the asteroid, which is expected to take over four hours. NASA will broadcast a stream of animations displaying the sample collection activities in real time starting at 1:20 p.m. ET on its website.

Starting at 5 p.m. ET, there will be also be a live broadcast from Lockheed Martin of the Osiris-REx's descent to the surface and sample collection attempt. This livestream can also be watched on NASA's website.

If successful, this will be the first time NASA has grabbed a piece of an asteroid in space.

The spacecraft and asteroid are some 207 million miles from Earth during the touch-and-go mission, so it takes approximately 18.5 minutes for signals to travel from Earth to the spacecraft -- meaning the "live" broadcasts will actually be 18.5 minutes after the events in space happened.

This also means that ground control will not be able to command the activity during the event, so the spacecraft will complete it almost entirely autonomously.

The OSIRIS-REx is slated to collect at least 2 ounces of Bennu's rocky material -- about the size of a Snickers bar -- to bring back to Earth. If successful, this will be the largest sample returned from space since the Apollo program, according to NASA.

"Asteroids are like time capsules floating in space that can provide a fossil record of the birth of our solar system," Lori Glaze, the planetary science division director at NASA, said in a news conference Monday. "They can provide valuable information about how the planets including our own came to be."

While Glaze acknowledged asteroids can also pose an impact threat to Earth, she offered reassurance that there are currently no known asteroids that are an impact threat to Earth over the next 100 years. Bennu, Glaze said, has a 1-in-2,700 chance of hitting Earth at the end of the next century.

Dr. Jamie Elsila, a research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, said one of the primary goals of the mission "is to understand the origins of the solar system, and that includes the origins of life on Earth."

While they are not looking for life or evidence of life on Bennu, Elsila said they are excited about the organic compounds they expect to find on Bennu, and "the role that asteroids might have played in delivering these life-forming compounds to Earth."

Zurbuchen said Bennu is "almost a Rosetta Stone."

The asteroid "tells the history of our entire Earth, of the solar system, during the last billions of years -- and the violent evolution of that history as well," Zurbuchen said.

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NASA to skim the surface of an asteroid and bring a sample home

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The spacecraft is set to kiss the surface of astroid Bennu at 6:12 p.m. ET. NASA is set to touch an asteroid, break off a sample, and bring it back to Earth for the first time during a history-making mission that culminates on Tuesday.

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35 years after a murder Victims  body was found his murderer was identified by his belt buckle.

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a victim is identified -- because of his belt buckle - cnn

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35 years after his murder, a victim is identified -- because of his belt buckle

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More than 35 years after his body was discovered, a murder victim in Florida was successfully identified by police because of a belt buckle his family member recognized.

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Holly Courtier was rescued after disappearing for 2 weeks in Utah's Zion national park. Early on the hike she hurt her head and became disoriented. She couldn't move more than 2 steps without falling down. She ended up at a water source where she thought she would be safe. However she was with no food those 2 weeks.

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rescued zion hiker is dehydrated and malnourished but 'in good spirits

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Rescued Zion hiker is dehydrated and malnourished but 'in good spirits,' friend says

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Hiker Holly Courtier, who was rescued after disappearing for almost two weeks in Utah's Zion National Park, spent the night in a medical center near Zion, a family friend said.

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People are proposing the idea of herd immunity to let low-risk individuals live without constraints from Covid, science however, does not support that claim.

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coronavirus task force member dr. scott atlas pushes herd immunity - cnn video

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Coronavirus task force member Dr. Scott Atlas pushes herd immunity - CNN Video

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Dr. Jorge Rodriguez tells CNN's Brianna Keilar it was irresponsible and cavalier for White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Scott Atlas to push herd immunity in an intverview last week.

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Studies are showing how across the world is learning how to adapt to social distancing and school.

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Lessons from abroad may offer clues on how schools in the U.S. can reopen.

The topic of kids returning back-to-school is always up for debate amid the coronavirus pandemic. But around the globe, the idea of kids heading back to the classroom may not be as controversial as it is here in the U.S.

A new report on children, schools and the coronavirus pandemic from the University of Washington, found that several countries including Cambodia, Afghanistan, Ghana and China returned to the classroom early on in the pandemic. And while some outbreaks occurred in schools, the report found "little evidence that schools were main drivers of transmission."

According to the report, when countries began reopening schools for in-person learning in April and May, modifications were implemented in schools such as reduced class sizes or staggered schedules.

One country that modified in-person learning to smaller class sizes was Denmark. In May, they were one of the first countries in the world to reopen their schools by putting children in "protective bubbles" of 12 -- where they ate, played and learned with the same pod of children and a teacher.

"We have seen that limiting group sizes, keeping those groups linked together, these are things that we know [that] work to control transmission," said Brandon Guthrie, Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, Departments of Global Health and Epidemiology.

Now this fall, school is relatively "normal" in Denmark with larger class sizes of 24.

In South Korea, schools were also able to bring students back for in-person learning in May with a few adjustments.

By having students among different grades alternate between returning to school and taking online classes, it helped reduce the risk of school-based transmission.

"We take turns going to school," said Jiho Yun, a ninth grade student in South Korea. "In the first week, the 7th graders go to school and the 8th and 9th graders stay home taking online classes."

When Yun does go to school, she has to check in using a COVID-19 symptom tracker and undergo five temperature checks throughout the day.

According to experts, the model of bringing students based on different age groups or grades works if it's decided early on which group of students benefit most from in-person learning.

In Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, there was a push to get younger students back in classrooms first. While in Germany, schools had older students return to classrooms in person because they believed they could more "effectively adhere to the physical distancing measures," according to Guthrie.

And in countries like Uruguay, schools focused on bringing students back to the classroom from rural areas, who the government determined were less likely to have access to remote learning.

While the report does point out that there is "clear evidence for the potential for widespread transmission" for COVID-19, the research provided based on how other countries were able to successfully reopen can offer some clues for how schools in the U.S. could safely reopen and what could potentially work.

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New study shows how students around the world are returning back to school amid COVID-19

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Lessons from abroad may offer clues on how schools in the U.S. can reopen. The topic of kids returning back-to-school is always up for debate amid the coronavirus pandemic. But around the globe, the idea of kids heading back to the classroom may not be as controversial as it is here in the U.S.

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Ohio Dad ended up dead after shopping with his family at the local Family Dollar Store. Ohio Dad had a disagreement with cashier which lead him to get kicked out. That was followed by an inpatient shopper following him out to reveal his impatient and angry feelings for him holding up the line by shooting him.

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An impatient shopper gunned down an Ohio dad for holding up the line at a Family Dollar, police said.

Jerry Saffo, 32, of Euclid, was pronounced dead by responding cops Friday at the store in Cleveland, where he went shopping with his girlfriend and children, police said.
LOUISIANA MAN CHARGED WITH SHOOTING AND KILLING TODDLER DURING VIOLENT RAMPAGE
Saffo got involved in an argument with a cashier over "payment arrangements" when he was checking out, prompting a security guard to intervene and escort him outside, police said in a statement.
GEORGIA POLICE SEEK ANSWERS IN SHOTGUN KILLING OF HONOR STUDENT, 13
The pair were discussing the issue when another man who was "angry with [Saffo] for making him wait" longer in the line came outside and confronted them in a parking lot, police said.

The security guard then went back inside as Saffo and the second man starting arguing, leading Saffo to punch him, police said.
MACHETE-WIELDING FLORIDA MAN DIES IN OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING
The suspect - described by investigators only as an "unknown male" - then pulled out a gun and shot Saffo before fleeing on foot, police said.

Saffo ran to the back of the building after being shot and collapsed. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
PENNSYLVANIA WOMAN, 19, KILLED IN ATTEMPTED CARJACKING
No suspects have been identified in the slaying as of Monday, Cleveland police Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia told The Post.

Saffo had been engaged since 2017, according to his Facebook page.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"Gone too soon," read a post on Instagram showing Saffo inside a car. "Keep family and friends in your prayers."

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Ohio dad shot by shopper who was angry he held up line, cops say

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An impatient shopper gunned down an Ohio dad for holding up the line at a Family Dollar, police said. Jerry Saffo, 32, of Euclid, was pronounced dead by responding cops Friday at the store in Cleveland, where he went shopping with his girlfriend and children, police said.

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Convicted killer attempted to escape prison, claiming he had a bomb strapped to him. Danish engineer, Peter Madsen, was sentenced to life in prison after dismembering a journalist's body in his own submarine, then dumping her at sea. Madsen had also threatened guards with a "pistol like object" upon escape. The man was later arrested and taken back to prison.

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The Danish inventor who is serving a life sentence in the murder of a Swedish journalist escaped from prison Tuesday by threatening that he was wearing a bomb - but was quickly surrounded by police, according to local reports.

Peter Madsen is seen on a video posted by the tabloid Ekstra Bladet surrounded by snipers as he sits on a grassy patch at the side of a road in Albertslund.

A reporter with the outlet reported that he was wearing a belt-like device around his waist. Members of the bomb squad also responded to the scene.
WHO IS PETER MADSEN, THE DANISH INVENTOR CHARGED WITH MURDERING KIM WALL?
Madsen has been kept in isolation amid concerns that he would try and escape from the lockup, according to reports Tuesday.

Danish police have said a man has been arrested after an attempted escape and the area was cordoned off.

Local media reported the situation continued for at least an hour but the convict has now been driven away by officers.

Photos from the scene in Albertslund, Copenhagen, show Madsen sitting against a fence surrounded by armed police.

Two officers lie on their stomachs on the ground in front of him and it looks like he is wearing an object around his stomach.

Madsen had threatened prison guards with a "pistol-like object" and also claimed to have a bomb, according to Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.
KIM WALL KILLER PETER MADSEN SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON
In a recent interview for a documentary, the 49-year-old admitted to the crime for the first time, answering "yes" when asked him whether he had killed Kim Wall in August 2017 after he invited her on board his 60-foot UC3 Nautilus for an interview.

Wall was last seen waving to her boyfriend after boarding the vessel to report on a story about Madsen, well known in Denmark for raising money to build rockets and subs.

Her dismembered torso was found days later at sea off Copenhagen and other body parts were found in weighted bags in October.

Madsen had admitted to dismembering Wall but his story flip-flopped as to how she died. On the stand, he claimed the journalist died from breathing toxic fumes that had built up in the sub.

During the trial, prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen accused Madsen of torturing Wall as part of his violent sexual fantasies.
This article first appeared in the New York Post.

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Convicted killer Peter Madsen arrested after prison escape attempt

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The Danish inventor who is serving a life sentence in the murder of a Swedish journalist escaped from prison Tuesday by threatening that he was wearing a bomb - but was quickly surrounded by police, according to local reports.

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Ruth Brandspiegel and Isreal Eisenberg, Holocaust survivers, were reunited over a zoom call on the first day on Yom Kippur. The call was for a prayer service for the holiday. They had first met each other in a labor camp in Australia and hadn't seen each other since 1949.

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Holocaust survivors Ruth Brandspiegel and Israel "Sasha" Eisenberg met after World War II at a displaced persons camp in Austria where they became friends

NEW YORK -- Holocaust survivors Ruth Brandspiegel and Israel "Sasha" Eisenberg call their reunion a miracle that began on the holiest day in Judaism, and it only happened thanks to a prayer service that was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Decades ago their families, who came from the same city in Poland, escaped the Nazis, crossed into the Soviet Union and were sent to different labor camps in Siberia, where Eisenberg was born. They later met at a displaced persons camp in Austria, where they became close friends. They last saw each other there, in 1949, before losing track of each other's whereabouts.

More than 70 years later, Brandspiegel, now a Philadelphia resident, heard a familiar name being called out in a Yom Kippur service held in late September via Zoom by her son's synagogue in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

"I said to myself, Sasha? I know there's a lot of Eisenbergs, but Sasha Eisenberg? How could that possibly be?" she said. So she called son Larry Brandspiegel, a cantor at the East Brunswick Jewish Center, and asked him to help her check.

"He said, 'Oh mom, what are you talking about?'" she recalled. "I said ... just take a look.'"

After some back-and-forth on the phone with the Eisenberg family, Larry called with the good news: It was indeed her beloved childhood friend. She had heard his name during the service because his wife, Marsha, wanted to give him a shoutout after being married for 53 years.

"I even didn't know that Regina was in America!" said Eisenberg, 79, using Brandspiegel's original name which she adapted to Ruth after moving to America. "It's 70 years and I was a child. ... So I called it a miracle, because I don't see any other way that humans can organize such an event and make everything come together."

Brandspiegel was born in 1936 in Ciechanów. Her family escaped after Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the onset of World War II. After some weeks in Ukraine, her family was sent to a labor camp in Siberia and later to the Ural Mountains, "where it was a little warmer." After the war they briefly went back to Poland but left with the help of Jewish organizations to the Hallein Displaced Persons Camp in Austria, in 1946, where they befriended a family that hailed from their same hometown.

The Eisenbergs had left Ciechanów in the late 1930s, fearful of the Nazis. They, too, ended up in a Siberian camp and returned to Poland briefly after the war. With many relatives dead and all their property gone, they then went to Hallein and found themselves in the same barracks as the Brandspiegels.

"Of course, we were family already," said Brandspiegel, 83.

"Mishpacha," she added, using the Hebrew word for family.

Eisenberg's father died in a car accident in 1948, and he still remembers how Brandspiegel's dad, "a pious, religious man," helped him through his grief by reciting with him the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

"A thing like this, you don't forget," Eisenberg said. "So it was very emotional for me. And even as I speak now, I kind of tremble a little bit about it."

The following year his mother decided to take the family to Israel, where he lived in a kibbutz and served in the military before moving to Brooklyn in 1964. During the daytime he worked at a sweater factory as a floor boy. He improved his English at night school, and studied architecture and civil engineering at Pratt Institute. He and his wife had two children: Alissa, a teacher, and Kevin, a lawyer.

Meanwhile Brandspiegel's family had moved to Philadelphia in 1952. She attended high school and worked as a bookkeeper before marrying in 1957 at age 21. The couple opened a children's clothing store and had three children: Flora, Debbie and Larry.

So for years the long-lost friends were unknowingly living less than 60 miles apart. On Oct. 3, they were finally reunited.

Brandspiegel's son hosted a socially distanced gathering at his home in East Brunswick under a sukkah, a temporary shelter used to observe the seven days and nights of the Jewish fall holiday Sukkot.

For hours, they chatted, reminisced and looked at black-and-white photos from decades past. Both families cried joyful tears.

"It's a shame that we weren't able to hug under these circumstances," Brandspiegel said. "But it was something that I never expected, and this was something that gave me so much pleasure that I'm just crying. ... Sasha, Never forget that moment."

---

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through the Religion News Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

NEW YORK -- Holocaust survivors Ruth Brandspiegel and Israel "Sasha" Eisenberg call their reunion a miracle that began on the holiest day in Judaism, and it only happened thanks to a prayer service that was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Decades ago their families, who came from the same city in Poland, escaped the Nazis, crossed into the Soviet Union and were sent to different labor camps in Siberia, where Eisenberg was born. They later met at a displaced persons camp in Austria, where they became close friends. They last saw each other there, in 1949, before losing track of each other's whereabouts.

More than 70 years later, Brandspiegel, now a Philadelphia resident, heard a familiar name being called out in a Yom Kippur service held in late September via Zoom by her son's synagogue in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

"I said to myself, Sasha? I know there's a lot of Eisenbergs, but Sasha Eisenberg? How could that possibly be?" she said. So she called son Larry Brandspiegel, a cantor at the East Brunswick Jewish Center, and asked him to help her check.

"He said, 'Oh mom, what are you talking about?'" she recalled. "I said ... just take a look.'"

After some back-and-forth on the phone with the Eisenberg family, Larry called with the good news: It was indeed her beloved childhood friend. She had heard his name during the service because his wife, Marsha, wanted to give him a shoutout after being married for 53 years.

"I even didn't know that Regina was in America!" said Eisenberg, 79, using Brandspiegel's original name which she adapted to Ruth after moving to America. "It's 70 years and I was a child. ... So I called it a miracle, because I don't see any other way that humans can organize such an event and make everything come together."

Brandspiegel was born in 1936 in Ciechanów. Her family escaped after Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the onset of World War II. After some weeks in Ukraine, her family was sent to a labor camp in Siberia and later to the Ural Mountains, "where it was a little warmer." After the war they briefly went back to Poland but left with the help of Jewish organizations to the Hallein Displaced Persons Camp in Austria, in 1946, where they befriended a family that hailed from their same hometown.

The Eisenbergs had left Ciechanów in the late 1930s, fearful of the Nazis. They, too, ended up in a Siberian camp and returned to Poland briefly after the war. With many relatives dead and all their property gone, they then went to Hallein and found themselves in the same barracks as the Brandspiegels.

"Of course, we were family already," said Brandspiegel, 83.

"Mishpacha," she added, using the Hebrew word for family.

Eisenberg's father died in a car accident in 1948, and he still remembers how Brandspiegel's dad, "a pious, religious man," helped him through his grief by reciting with him the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

"A thing like this, you don't forget," Eisenberg said. "So it was very emotional for me. And even as I speak now, I kind of tremble a little bit about it."

The following year his mother decided to take the family to Israel, where he lived in a kibbutz and served in the military before moving to Brooklyn in 1964. During the daytime he worked at a sweater factory as a floor boy. He improved his English at night school, and studied architecture and civil engineering at Pratt Institute. He and his wife had two children: Alissa, a teacher, and Kevin, a lawyer.

Meanwhile Brandspiegel's family had moved to Philadelphia in 1952. She attended high school and worked as a bookkeeper before marrying in 1957 at age 21. The couple opened a children's clothing store and had three children: Flora, Debbie and Larry.

So for years the long-lost friends were unknowingly living less than 60 miles apart. On Oct. 3, they were finally reunited.

Brandspiegel's son hosted a socially distanced gathering at his home in East Brunswick under a sukkah, a temporary shelter used to observe the seven days and nights of the Jewish fall holiday Sukkot.

For hours, they chatted, reminisced and looked at black-and-white photos from decades past. Both families cried joyful tears.

"It's a shame that we weren't able to hug under these circumstances," Brandspiegel said. "But it was something that I never expected, and this was something that gave me so much pleasure that I'm just crying. ... Sasha, Never forget that moment."

---

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through the Religion News Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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Yom Kippur Zoom reunites Holocaust survivors 71 years later

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NEW YORK -- Holocaust survivors Ruth Brandspiegel and Israel "Sasha" Eisenberg call their reunion a miracle that began on the holiest day in Judaism, and it only happened thanks to a prayer service that was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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There's a flood in Vietnam that is the biggest one for decades. Millions of people will be homeless and so far at least 100 people have been killed.

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Vietnam faces deadly flooding disaster - Red Cross

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Floodwaters have killed over 100 and left homes submerged, crops destroyed and livestock swept away.

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In Australia authorities are urging more than 200 people to get tested for blood transmitted diseases. This comes after it was admitted that the same blood testing device was used on multiple people.

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australia quarantine blood-testing blunder prompts calls for hundreds to take hiv tests - cnn

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Hundreds urged to take HIV test after quarantine blood-testing blunder

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More than 200 former residents of coronavirus quarantine facilities in Australia are being urged to test for blood-transmitted diseases, including HIV, after authorities admitted they used the same blood-testing devices for multiple guests.