Midday Roundup: Stop and smell the rotting flesh

Phew-tiful flower. Sunday at 4 p.m. a rare flower bloomed at the United States Botanic Garden Conservatory in Washington and proceeded to stink up the place. As it blooms, the corpse flower, a native of Sumatra, Indonesia, heats up and starts smelling like rotting flesh, which attracts insects like dung beetles. The bloom can last anywhere between 24 to 48 hours before it collapses, and it may not bloom again for years or even decades. If you can’t make it to D.C. in time, you can view it (without the aroma) on the garden’s live flower cam.

The reporter in the front row. Helen Thomas, a reporter known as the “Dean of the White House Press Corps,” died Saturday at age 92. Covering presidential administrations dating back to John F. Kennedy, Thomas developed a reputation for her opinionated and brash style, but her journalistic career came to an abrupt end in 2010 when her hostile attitude toward Israel was revealed in an internet video.

Brazil welcomes pope. Pope Francis, in his first major overseas trip as pontiff, arrives in Brazil today. In Rio de Janeiro, thousands of enthusiastic young Catholics have gathered to greet him. The 76-year-old Argentina native is the first pope from Latin America, a region where 39 percent of Catholics worldwide reside.

Zimmerman to the rescue. Last Wednesday, four days after his acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman helped a family of four escape an overturned SUV in Sanford, Fla. The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said Zimmerman was not a witness to the single-car accident and that he left after talking to deputies. No one was injured in the accident.