Hope Going Solo 

U.S. Soccer suspended goalie Hope Solo for six months in response to her calling the Swedish players “cowards” after the US loss to them in the Rio Olympic quarterfinals. In addition to her suspension, U.S. Soccer also terminated Solo’s contract with the women’s national team. Among the mixed reactions were a large number of people who found it unfair that Solo received such a harsh punishment. They compared it to swimmer Ryan Lochte, who lied to the Brazilian authorities but was not severely punished by USA Swimming, thus deeming Solo’s punishment an act of sexism. Solo has a major track record with controversy, but do you think she deserved such a harsh punishment because of her comments?

HACKED! 

Hackers have breached Illinois and Arizona election systems. This means that names, addresses, birthdays, sex, last four digits of social security numbers, and driver’s license numbers of about 200,000 individuals were compromised. This comes right after a similar Dropbox hack, in which the info of over 68 million users was vulnerable. So, now’s probably an appropriate time to change all of your account passwords from “password” and “1234.”

Red, White, and Boos 

49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick received a lot of backlash recently for choosing not to stand during the national anthem at a football game. His reason? He doesn’t want to honor a country that “oppresses black people and people of color.” Kaepernick joins the ranks of other athletes like Lebron James and Chris Paul in their raising awareness for minorities. While Kaepernick was bombarded with criticism about his decision, he’s been receiving support from non-other than veterans themselves with the twitter hashtag “#VeteransForKaepernick.” Since then, Kaepernick has worn socks depicting police as pigs, and he plans to continue the protest in his next games. Meanwhile, football fans are saying, “This is not what we came for.”

Better Late Than Never

On Thursday, Georgetown announced that it would be giving legacy priority to descendants of the 272 slaves who were sold to pay off university debts in 1838. Jesuit priests connected to the school sold these slaves and received approximately 3.3 million dollars that they used to save the school. There are likely 12,000 to 15,000 descendants currently alive, but if this also included the slaves who maintained the campus, the number may be upwards of 20,000. The university will also be renaming two of its buildings that were named after university presidents involved with selling the slaves. Georgetown is the first university to repay the descendants of slaves, but there is a call for other universities to do similar. Georgetown may be the first, but it seems that they will not be the last to finally (153 years later) try to make reparations for its unseemly past.

Not Just A Wetsuit 

Controversy sparked in France when French police forced a Muslim woman to remove her burkini, a swimsuit that covers everything except feet, face, and hands, at a beach in Nice. Multiple French towns decided to ban burkinis due to the recent onslaught of terrorist attacks on French soil. On social media (aka twitter), many people criticized the French government for discriminating against these Muslim women. Many French towns have since lifted the ban on burkinis. Although there are a few towns who have yet to lift the ban, this is still a major victory for French Muslims.

Mission to Mars (Sort of) 

Six scientists just rejoined the world after spending a year in an isolated dome in Hawaii.Their purpose? To simulate what living on Mars would be like. They couldn’t go outside without wearing spacesuits, and all their food came from inside the dome. (Is it just us, or can you not stop picturing real-life versions of The Martian?) Their conclusion was that a mission to Mars is feasible, especially because they had a constant supply of water in the seemingly dry ground. This could be the proof scientists need to start designing technological tools for a mission to Mars.

Brazil and Rousseff’s Breakup 

That sound you hear is Brazil and recently impeached President Dilma Rousseff singing “We Don’t Talk Anymore.” Fortunately for Rousseff, and perhaps unfortunately for Brazil, she will be able to run again in 2018. (Not that someone would recommend this after her impeachment trial ended with a vote of 61-20.) Rousseff was found guilty of breaking budgetary laws, and consequences of her actions were up in the air for a while. Her Vice President Michel Temer is currently serving as interim president and will continue to do so until the 2018 general election. However, Rousseff has not taken her impeachment sitting down. She called it a “coup” and claims she has committed no crimes. Don’t roll the credits just yet, cause this show’s just getting started.

Zika’s in the House

In case you didn’t have enough reasons to hate mosquitoes at the beach, here’s one more. Mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus have now been found in Miami Beach based on tests done on three mosquitoes. Although we have heard about U.S. citizens testing positive for Zika, this announcement changes everything because it is the first discovery of Zika-carrying mosquitoes on U.S. soil. Since the announcement, mosquito control and trapping procedures have been put into place in the Miami area.

Travis Rudolph’s New Friend 

If you pay any attention at all to social media, then you have probably seen this picture of Florida State wide receiver Travis Rudolph sitting across from a redheaded boy in a middle school cafeteria. Travis, along with other members of his team, was visiting the middle school Tuesday when he saw student Bo Paske sitting alone. Unfortunately, this isn’t out of the norm for Bo Paske, who has autism. Travis sat with Bo, and they quickly bonded over their mutual love of Florida State. Since then, Bo’s mom says that he hasn’t had a shortage of students wanting to sit with him. Bo said sitting with Travis was like “sitting on a rainbow.” Florida State, you just gained a whole lot more fans.

Pop Culture Announcement

Taylor Swift skipped the VMA’s because she got assigned to jury duty. Yes, folks, celebrities are humans, too.