Wildfires, Droughts, Pussy Riot, Oh My! [Current Events Cheat Sheet]

By Garnet Henderson

The Olympics may be over, but Ryan Lochte hasn’t stopped saying “Jeah.” Here’s what you missed while you were staring at his abs and trying not to listen to what was coming out of his mouth.

At Home

Representative Todd Akin of Missouri faced some serious rage after he said that in instances of “legitimate rape,” a woman’s body can somehow block an unwanted pregnancy. Say what?

A dredging vessel is working around the clock to suck up sediment from the bed of the Mississippi River and dump it to the side. The river is dangerously low due to this year’s severe drought, and needs to be kept deep enough for cargo ships to move through.

Hundreds of thousands of acres are burning across the West in wildfires, and some are so bad that they may continue until snowfall this winter.

The World

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has been staying in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since June. He is wanted in Sweden on accusations of rape and sexual molestation. Ecuador granted him asylum, but Britain won’t allow him to leave the country. He took to the balcony to accuse authorities of a witch hunt.

The United Nations observer mission in Syria ended, with the country no closer to peace than when the mission began.

The three women of Russian punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in prison for their criticism of president Vladimir Putin.

Sporty

Diana Nyad will attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. She has attempted to do so three times before.

Felix Hernandez pitched the 23rd perfect game in baseball history, and the first for the Seattle Mariners.

Hot on the Web

And now, sit back and allow your favorite movies to sing you Sir Mix-A-Lot’s classic song “Baby Got Back.”

Garnet is a student at Columbia University in New York City. She is “that person” who starts dancing at a party when everyone else is standing around, and if there were a Facebook stalking Olympics, she would be a gold medalist. She also loves cheesy 90s music, and almost died of happiness when Vanilla Ice retweeted her. Once. Follow her on Twitter @garnethenderson.