Stranded atop his overturned truck in Tonopah, Arizona, as floodwaters surged around him — rising from below the windows to the top of them in minutes — a driver was plucked to safety in a dramatic hoist rescue. A deputy was lowered about 80 feet to secure him in a harness, and the whole operation took less than five minutes.

After surviving stage-four lymphoma, a full right-sided stroke, and a heart transplant, Laura Gober hiked a 12,000-foot trail in Colorado — and cried happy tears at the top. Less than a year after finishing therapy, she calls the climb proof of one thing: her donor lives on through her. — AZ Big Media

Sixteen-year-old Braden, who has battled serious heart problems his entire life, is recovering in the ICU after finally receiving the heart transplant he had been waiting for. Still intubated, he used his fingers to sign letters to his parents — O-R, not for operating room, but for Olivia Rodrigo, whose November 11 Atlanta show he hopes to attend. — The Pop Bible

After losing contact with her friend on the steep volcanic trails of northern Lanzarote, a hiker was found safe on the evening of October 1 by a fellow walker — as police, firefighters, and a drone joined the search. She was checked over by paramedics and taken to hospital for assessment, and the search was stood down. — Lanzarote Waits For You

After a Jupiter mom’s Facebook post flagged nearly $1,000 in unpaid lunch debt across local schools, real estate agent Andrew Levy decided not to wait for donations — he paid the entire balance for more than 400 students himself, and hopes his gesture inspires others to do the same. — Tampa Bay 28

When a burning SUV crashed outside his Fullerton home last week, 21-year-old construction worker Richard Vasquez grabbed a hammer, smashed the windows, and pried open the door to pull out the driver — who was suffering a medical emergency — as flames licked the vehicle. — Wide Open Country

When a car carrying two Beverly residents in their 80s rolled into Chebacco Lake and sank within minutes, a bystander dove in and pulled both of them to shore before officers arrived — EMS treated the pair on scene, and both are expected to be okay. — Particle

Six-year-old Sam, who loves the sensory room and play therapy at Acorns Children’s Hospice, is the face of the charity’s Be a Kid Week (October 5–11), encouraging grown-ups to rediscover play — from dressing up to silly challenges — to help seriously ill children make more memories with the people they love. — West Mids Life

What began as six-year-old Grace’s $10 lemonade stand for the Salvation Army grew over seven summers into a community tradition — joined by sister June and, this year, 14 stands across the Quincy area — raising about $55,000 for families facing hunger and homelessness before closing its final season. — HFG Insider

Brothers CJ, 14, and Cree, 12, were honored with “More childhood, please” young-leader awards from Akron Children’s Hospital for their annual lemonade stand, which has raised about $22,000 for Stark County kids with cancer. — The Repository

Shadow, a wolf-dog missing for days in California’s North Bay, is finally home safe after his owner, an animal care officer, and a kind bystander teamed up to calm him and get a leash on him — ending with a big hug on the ground and a community that never stopped reporting sightings. — Dooglovers

Adrien Brody spent his birthday bringing home Laszlo, a rescue puppy nobody else wanted, calling the day “full of blessings” — proof that adoption changes two lives at once, and that the most overlooked pups make the very best companions. — The Animal Rescue Site

More than 100 Oklahoma dogs and cats took a chartered jet to the Pacific Northwest, where shelters in Oregon and Seattle had them adopted into forever homes in under a week — a brand-new life for animals who had been waiting in overcrowded shelters. — Tulsa People

Genmab and AbbVie announced that adding epcoritamab to the standard R-CHOP regimen reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 51% for people newly diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma — the first late-stage win of its kind for this approach. — Reuters

This year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine celebrates optogenetics — a technique that lets scientists switch individual neurons on and off with light — work that has already helped a blind patient regain partial vision and could open new treatments for neurological and psychiatric disease. — Le Monde

The FDA has cleared Motivista, a prescription digital therapeutic for negative symptoms of schizophrenia — low motivation, social withdrawal, and loss of pleasure — giving millions of patients and families their first authorized treatment option for some of the condition’s most disabling symptoms. — USA Newshour

Trailing the Eagles 20-7 late, the Rams stormed back with two fourth-quarter touchdowns from Kyren Williams to steal a 24-20 win on the road — Williams racked up 80 rushing yards and 10 catches, including two catches on third down, to save Los Angeles’ season hopes. — New York Post

Down three points heading into Sunday singles at Medinah, the Americans rallied to win the 2026 Presidents Cup 17-13 — the largest last-day comeback in the event’s history and their 11th straight Cup title. — EssentiallySports

South Africa’s Tayla Kavanagh clocked 30:50 at the tRunsylvania International 10K in Romania, becoming the first South African woman to break 31 minutes and smashing the national record by 22 seconds — a triumphant cap on a season that followed two injury-hit years. — TheTopRunner

Michael Jordan gave $10 million to his alma mater’s School of Social Work — the largest gift in the school’s history — honoring his mother Deloris P. Jordan and funding scholarships plus the renamed Deloris P. Jordan Global Social Development Innovations Center. — lifestyle.celebhomes.net

TV stars traded the red carpet for the fairway at the 26th annual Emmys Golf Classic in Tarzana, raising more than $335,000 for the Television Academy Foundation’s education nonprofit work. — Business Wire

When a fan gifted the singer a handmade blue crocheted shirt before his show, Sombr quietly put it on anyway and walked on stage in it — her joyful tears when she spotted him said it all, and he called her “so talented” in his TikTok caption. — People

Scientists exploring the Mar Del Plata Canyon off Argentina have confirmed 57 new species — including a translucent sea cucumber nicknamed “Loki” and a vivid orange-red octocoral — plus five entirely new genera. The Schmidt Ocean Institute’s October 1 report calls it one of the fastest deep-sea discovery hauls ever. — Good Good Good

Astronomers have found what appears to be the first planet born after its star died, forming around a white dwarf from the remnants of a destroyed star. Since more than 95% of stars will one day become white dwarfs, the discovery suggests entirely new worlds — and possibly new chances for habitability — can emerge even after a star’s death. — CNN

Researchers have achieved the first single-molecule detection of amino acid handedness, a fundamental advance in chemical sensing that could spot the molecular fingerprints of life. The technique worked on samples from the Murchison meteorite and Chile’s Atacama Desert, opening the door to compact instruments that could one day hunt for extraterrestrial life. — phys.org

Major mobile gaming companies teamed up with UK charity SpecialEffect for a global fundraising event, donating a share of their October 2 sales revenue from hits like Hay Day, Golf Clash and Subway Surfers. The campaign is projected to raise more than $600,000 for the specialized technology and equipment loans that help disabled players game. — Hardcore Droid

Nintendo is celebrating Zelda’s 40th anniversary by adding the beloved Majora’s Mask soundtrack to Nintendo Music this week, along with digital cards on Nintendo Today! and limited-time Majora’s Mask profile icons on the Switch. A perfect excuse to revisit Termina’s hauntingly beautiful melodies. — Nintendo Life

Nintendo is marking Zelda’s 40th anniversary with a special Switch 2 console featuring a gold Triforce dock, arriving October 29. The celebration continues on November 5 with a ground-up Switch 2 remake of Ocarina of Time, complete with symphonic music and a textured foil cover for its first print run. — The Daily Game

The UAE-built probe — the mission’s only deployable payload — will fly past six asteroids before landing on 269 Justitia, which would make it only the seventh asteroid ever touched by a probe. Final integration begins soon ahead of the planned 2028 launch of the MBR Explorer spacecraft. — Morningstar

NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delany lifted off from Cape Canaveral alongside Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk and cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov to run science experiments designed to advance future missions to the Moon and Mars — while improving life on Earth. — Fox Weather

Blue Origin revealed a 20-meter-tall, vertically deployed solar array built to deliver more than 10 kilowatts of power for Moon Base operations at the lunar South Pole — a modular design that could one day grow into a shared power grid on the lunar surface. — Starlust

Yale scientists built an AI platform that spots amyloid cardiomyopathy — a deadly, widely underdiagnosed heart condition — from images of a simple ECG, right on a doctor’s smartphone. Catching at-risk patients earlier means doctors can intervene before extensive heart damage occurs. — Medical Xpress

In a real-world study of 8,391 patients at two UK hospitals, autonomous AI safely managed urgent skin-cancer referrals — autonomously discharging a quarter to a third of benign cases — potentially freeing up capacity for more than 8,500 additional face-to-face dermatology appointments. — Medical Xpress

Using machine learning to mine millions of pieces of unexplored biological data, researchers are identifying enzymes that can break down PFAS, microplastics and other persistent pollutants — putting millions of years of evolution to work cleaning up our environment. — phys.org

Africa is expected to install a record 17 gigawatts of solar this year — up 45% year over year — with 36 of the continent’s 54 countries set to set installation records. Much of the boom is quiet rooftop and small systems bringing power to homes and businesses in places where grids are unreliable. — Africa Newsroom

Researchers off China’s Weizhou Island have set a record for underwater photovoltaics, generating electricity from sunlight at a depth of 10 meters. The team tuned perovskite solar cells to harvest the blue and green wavelengths that penetrate the ocean — opening a whole new frontier for where solar power can go. — NewsTarget

Scientists from KAIST, Chungnam National University, Charles University, and Chalmers have built lithium-sulfur pouch cells that can be bent, wrapped, and fixed onto curved structures without falling apart. The nanowire cathode design retains nearly all of its capacity even shaped into cylinders and ovals — a big step toward batteries that double as the body of an aircraft or drone. — ScienMag