Ukraine was hit by a massive cyberattack and the hackers warned authorities to "be afraid and expect worse"
 JANUARY 14, 2022 THE BIG STORY
Ukraine was hit by a massive cyberattack and the hackers warned authorities to "be afraid and expect worse" A cyberattack against Ukraine occurred overnight on Thursday and Friday morning, taking down more than a dozen government websites. Hackers replaced the homepage on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' website with a message that read, "[Every] Ukrainian!" it said. "All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future."
The Ukrainian Cyberpolice Department has opened a criminal investigation to uncover the cyberattack's cause, but some officials already see Russian fingerprints all over the attack.
Ukraine has been the target of several large-scale cyberattacks since 2014, the year Russia forcibly annexed Crimea and fomented the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv has repeatedly insisted that the attacks are part of Moscow's "hybrid war" – a combination of cyberwarfare, disinformation, and conventional military warfare – against it. Russia has denied responsibility for the cyberattacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has amassed around 100,000 soldiers near the Ukrainian borders and threatened a "military response" unless the US and NATO concede to its demands — including a guarantee that Ukraine can never join the western military alliance. Negotiations between the US, NATO, and Russia earlier this week failed to secure a deal to see Moscow pull back its troops. 😷 STAYING ON TOP OF THIS (PANDEMIC)
How Omicron is (and isn't) shaping government action
SNAPSHOTS If you're reading this, you just survived one of the hottest years ever. The last seven years on Earth have been the hottest on record with no signs of slowing down. Climate researchers predict we will reach an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius in the 2030s or early 2040s.
President Joe Biden acknowledged for the first time that Democrats will likely fail to pass voting rights reforms, in the wake of dozens of restrictive voting laws passed by Republicans across the country. Democrats appear poised to forge ahead with a vote anyway, knowing they don't have the numbers. It's exceedingly rare in the Senate for a majority party to set up a vote it knows it will lose, but Democrats say this issue is unique.
The Queen has stripped Prince Andrew of his honorary military titles and royal patronages. The Buckingham Palace statement came one day after a New York federal judge declined to dismiss a civil sexual assault case against the Duke of York.
Facebook's Spanish-language moderators said they're treated worse than English-focused counterparts. "Being in the office … has been nothing short of a nightmare," one moderator told BuzzFeed News.
THE RISE OF POLICE INFLUENCERS
Police departments are making their own "cops" videos counteracting police brutality depicted on social media  Officer Whitelaw films with his arm around a baton-training dummy while filming a KCPD recruitment vlog at the Regional Police Academy. Chase Castor for BuzzFeed News Police departments across the US are producing slick promotional videos, pushing a "good cop" image after years of outrage over shootings, many captured on video and published to social media, and the resulting protests demanding accountability.
They're largely a behind-the-scenes look at the job — the action, glamor, humor, and camaraderie. But they all share a message: We are the good cops.
Activists are calling it "copaganda." Meanwhile, some of the officers who make the videos are reckoning with their involvement in them.
"If you have to be the face of something, at least it's being the face for the right reasons, or good reasons, things that are positive," said Malcolm Whitelaw, the officer leading the Kansas City Police Department's video strategy. "Because there will be a face of the department some other way, so it might as well be me." IT'S MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT
These photos of America's best diners are Americana without the nostalgia Leah Frances' photography focuses on the interiors of diners — the very American restaurants modeled after the café cars on trains and grew in popularity in the early half of the 20th century.
Frances aims to capture "scenes where things once happened, never happened, or might still happen," but warns, "I don't want us to be buried in collective amnesia: Things were never 'normal.' For example, if a political figure, even if they're wealthy, if they sit beside you at a diner and eat a $4.99 hamburger suddenly they're authentic. They're working class. But of course, we all know it's more complicated than that."
 READ IT AND WEEP
Long reads to pass the time before the next Wordle game  Pedro Nekoi for BuzzFeed News Tara Reid deserves an apology. But she doesn't want one. At the dawn of the 2000s, Tara Reid was the quintessential It girl: a bankable, beautiful, blonde actor with sparkling blue eyes, perfect for rom-coms and gross-out comedies. But just a couple of years later, the shine had already started to wear off. Gossip magazines railed her for attending parties and clubs, and her body was endlessly dissected by the press, with zoomed-in photos of her legs and abs picked apart by bloggers and readers alike.
And yet, having survived the worst of 2000s tabloid culture, Reid barely wants so much as an apology. "Eventually it's going to go away, and it is going away," Reid said. "What are they gonna do? Pick on me when I'm 60? I'm a 90-year-old lady and I have a glass in my hand? Fuck off."
"I feel 42, not 22": The lost time of the pandemic We'll all be a couple of years older than we were when this all began, but it doesn't necessarily feel that way — in part because certain milestones and accomplishments we might have otherwise reached continue to evade us, and might still for years to come, writes Shannon Keating.
The pandemic has forced many of us to consider how we want to spend our remaining days — because they are limited, and because they are all we have. But during pandemic limbo, without the potential of a career, romance, or parenthood to give us a sense of identity and purpose, what's left?
Netflix's Hype House is so sad The members of the Hype House, who are all in their late teens and early 20s, live together in a mansion and create content for TikTok as a collective under the assumption that bringing more creators together will make their videos more dynamic and interesting.
Don't put limits on yourself this weekend, Alexa 📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by Alexa Lee and BuzzFeed News. You can always reach us here.
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