To improve security, we will soon start forcing password resets for any account that uses a weak password on the next login. If you have a weak password or a defunct email, please update it now to prevent future disruption.
I think it did have to do with North America - I rotated VPNs until I got pics to working. There was a problem with all the US IPs, but when I ended up on a European IP, things worked fine. Been having problems with pics on a couple of other sites as well, so it might be something going on on this side of the world.