The News You Need To Read This Morning

This is an excerpt from Incoming, BuzzFeed News’ morning newsletter dedicated to making sense of this chaotic world we live in. Join the club.

For many forestlands all over the US, spring is when firefighters intentionally set fires. During the seasons when there is a lower chance of wildfires, forest services conduct controlled burns, also known as prescribed burns or low-intensity burns, in which they create planned fires to maintain the health of the forest and prevent future wildfires.

Practiced for millennia by Native Americans, prescribed burns allow for a “natural pruning — it does a cleansing of the forest,” Jason Virtue, a fire officer at the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota, told BuzzFeed News. The burns help maintain the “resiliency of the forest so it can sustain fires and [people do] not have to worry about fires taking out thousands and thousands of acres,” he added.

Prescribed burns have made a comeback in recent decades, after nearly a century of the federal government banning the practice. Federal fire policy prioritized fire suppression for most of the 20th century. But as destructive, uncontrolled wildfires — like the ones seen in California over the last several years — grow in frequency and intensity due to decades of fire suppression, climate change, and other factors, policy is returning to the Indigenous practice of controlled burning.

Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine

• A new UN-backed report released Thursday concluded that Russia was guilty of grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws. “The Commission is concerned with the number, the geographic spread, and the gravity of human rights violations and corresponding international crimes which it has documented during its mandate,” investigators wrote. “These have affected men, women, boys and girls of all backgrounds and ages.”
  • Investigators also found a few instances of Ukrainians violating international law, inclcuding the use of cluster munitions and rocket-delivered antipersonnel land mines and the torturing of at least two members of the Russian armed forces. 
• The report is likely to have little practical effect on Russia, but it will increase pressure for the country to be held accountable by the International Criminal Court.

SNAPSHOTS

Pregnancy is getting more dangerous in the US, new data shows, especially for Black people. The US has the worst maternal mortality rates among high-income countries; they’re more than double those of the second- and third-worst countries (France and Canada), according to the Commonwealth Fund.

A Florida man is accused of hiring someone to kill his wife’s ex-husband. Mario Fernandez Saldana, 35, has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony, child abuse, and murder.

Once a cheater, always a cheater? Inspired by the Scandoval, we asked experts on the psychology of infidelity about what drives people to cheat — and if relationships born out of affairs can last.

People are eating dog food for protein gains and I'm frightened. Dog food does not meet the nutritional requirements of humans, just as human food does not meet the nutritional requirements of dogs. Eat some lentils for crying out loud.

Seven sheriff's deputies and three Virginia state hospital workers have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a 28-year-old Black man who died in custody after deputies allegedly pinned him to the ground for 12 minutes while his hands and legs were shackled.

Irvo Otieno died while he was being admitted to Central State Hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, on March 6, while Henrico County sheriff's deputies were transferring him from the county jail to the state mental health facility. Otieno was initially taken into custody on March 3, when his family said he was experiencing a mental health crisis.

State police investigators were told that Otieno had become combative during the intake process, officials said. But, according to Otieno's family and their lawyers, video of the incident shows that the 28-year-old was not violent or aggressive and posed no threat. "Mental illness should not be your ticket to death," Caroline Ouko, Otieno's mother, said during a news conference Thursday. "And I don't understand how all systems failed him."

"Why would anybody not have enough common sense to say we’ve seen this movie before?" asked civil rights attorney Ben Crump, one of the lawyers representing the family. "If we continue to put pressure and weight and a knee while a person is in a prone position, we know how this movie is going to end."

Ted Lasso is still Ted Lasso, Olivia Craighead writes. How that makes you feel is between you and your god; fans of the show can rejoice, and its haters will have something to tweet about. 

AFC Richmond is back in the Premier League after a tie at the end of last season, and every prognosticator is expecting them to finish in last place. Meanwhile, Nate, who we can tell is an antagonist because his hair is silver now, is thriving as the coach of West Ham United — but embargoed episodes suggest his villainy hides a misguided yet kind heart. Rebecca, who is now desperate to beat Rupert and has the entire internet laughing at her football club, implores Ted to “fight back.” And in classic Ted fashion, fighting back means staying optimistic.

Even though the show has changed over the course of its run, at its heart it is still a series whose thesis hangs above the door to Ted Lasso’s office: Believe. In yourself, in others, in the beautiful game — you just have to believe.

Still reading, eh? Seems like you might want to get this in your inbox. No pressure though. Just some food for thought.