The State Department needs to better plan for worst-case scenarios, strengthen its crisis management capabilities and ensure top officials hear “the widest possible range of opinions,” including those who question their assumptions and decisions.

Those were some of the key findings of a State Department review of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, which contributed to the sudden collapse of the Afghan government and required a massive airlift to evacuate some 1,250,000 US citizens. and save Afghans who had helped the United States.

The report does not place the blame on any specific person and mentions Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken only in passing. It does say that the department’s participation in an executive’s planning for an evacuation was “hampered by the fact that it was unclear who in the department was in charge.”

The 87-page report — less than half of which was released publicly on Friday because much of it is classified — points to several factors largely beyond the Biden administration’s control as to the reason for the chaos that followed the collapse of the government and does not directly condemn the Biden administration.

It says, as Biden officials have done many times before, that the coronavirus pandemic severely limited operations at the US embassy in the months leading up to the withdrawal, making it difficult to process special US visas for Afghans entering the country. hoped to lead before the Taliban left. . It also suggested that the Trump administration had committed to withdrawing troops from Afghanistan after a 20-year occupation without planning how the United States could maintain a diplomatic presence in the country and what to do with the tens of thousands of Afghans who, fearing for the Taliban, reprisals, who had applied for special visas.

It also reiterates Mr Blinken’s and others’ claims that few US officials anticipated how quickly the Afghan military and government would collapse.

“That said,” it adds, “as security conditions in Afghanistan worsened, some argued for more urgency in planning for a possible collapse.” In mid-July, nearly two dozen US diplomats in Kabul sent a memo through the department’s “divergent” channel urging that evacuation flights for Afghans begin in two weeks and that the administration move more quickly to register them for visas.

Mr. Blinken ordered the review shortly after the US exit from Afghanistan. .

The report’s rollout had clear hallmarks of a calculated effort to dampen its public impact. It was released on the Friday afternoon prior to the July 4 holiday as many in Washington began vacation, and a background briefing for State Department reporters began minutes after the report was distributed to them, limiting their ability to ask detailed questions. comment on the findings was limited. .

Tucker Carlson, the sidelined prime-time Fox News host, released the first episode of what he said would be his new show on Twitter on Tuesday, possibly a showdown with the cable network, where he remains under contract until early 2025.

The 10-minute video, Mr. Carlson’s first extended commentary since Fox pulled him off the air in April, was similar to a stripped-down version of what his three million or so Fox viewers would have seen on his evening schedule.

There were no guests or segments produced – just a monologue by Mr. Carlson, touching on some familiar themes. He expressed his condolences to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and mocked President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. He accused the mainstream media of lying. He concluded by stating that UFOs and extraterrestrial life are “actually real.”

“As of today, we have come to Twitter,” said Mr. Carlson in the video. “We were told there are no gatekeepers here. If that turns out to be false, we will leave.”

He signed off the show, dubbed “Tucker on Twitter”, by promising to come back with “a lot more, very soon”.

Fox management took Mr. Carlson off the air after concluding that he was too much of a liability. The two sides have not agreed on the terms of a departure, including what kind of programming he could continue to do. Anchors like Mr. Carlson also usually have terms in their contracts that prevent them from making unauthorized media appearances.

Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr Carlson announced last month that he would be bringing a version of his Fox show to Twitter.

He was ousted after the Fox board discovered a racist text message he sent to one of his producers that was among the evidence Dominion Voting Systems collected as part of the defamation lawsuit over false claims of voter fraud that the network had broadcast.

Fox settled with Dominion for $787.5 million the day the trial was due to begin in April.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People issued a travel advisory for Florida on Saturday, saying that under Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state is “openly hostile to African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals.”

The NAACP is on board the League of United Latin American Citizensa civil rights organization that issued a travel warning for Florida on Wednesday, and Florida equalitya gay rights advocacy group that released one last month.

The NAACP’s travel advisory does not explicitly advise against travel to Florida. But it urges travelers to be aware of the state’s politics, and the organization said that “the governor and the state of Florida have shown that African Americans are not welcome in the state of Florida.”

The NAACP said in a rack on Saturday that the travel advisory was a “direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’s aggressive efforts to erase black history and limit diversity, equality, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.”

The advisory comes after Mr. DeSantis signed into law last week that hinders diversity programs at the state’s public universities and colleges. The advisory also mentioned concerns about a number of other laws recently passed in Florida regarding voting rights And concealed carry of guns.

Mr. DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

Following the signing of legislation last week on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, Mr. DeSantis said the law would take care of it “Florida’s institutions encourage diversity of thought, civic discourse and the pursuit of truth for future generations.” Mr. DeSantis has often spoken out about what he describes as “wake indoctrination” and leftist agendas in schools. It’s not clear how much impact the rulings will have on travel to Florida. But they, along with his escalating disputes with Disney, showed how Mr. DeSantis’ reliance on conservative culture-war issues as he gears up for what is expected to be a presidential run collided with the state’s signature industry.

Disney announced Thursday that it was abandoning a plan to build an Orlando office complex that would have cost about $1 billion and brought thousands of jobs to the state.

Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s president and chief executive, said in a statement Saturday that under Mr. DeSantis’ leadership, Florida had become “hostile to black Americans and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals on which our union was founded.”

“Let me be clear,” said Mr. Johnson, “failing to accurately portray the horrors and inequalities Black Americans have faced and continue to face is a disservice to students and a dereliction of duty to everyone.”

While the NAACP travel advisory follows new legislation restricting diversity, equality, and inclusion programs in Florida schools, the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, travel advisory raised concerns about legislation signed by Mr. DeSantis targeted undocumented immigrants earlier this month.

The law requires private employers in Florida with 25 or more employees to confirm an employee’s eligibility to work in the United States. It will also invalidate ID cards issued to undocumented immigrants in other states, like New Yorkand it requires Florida hospitals that accept Medicaid to ask patients if they are US citizens or if they are “lawfully present” in the country.

David Cruz, a LULAC spokesperson, said Sunday that the organization’s travel advice, depending on a person’s immigration status, was either a warning not to travel to Florida or advice to use caution when traveling there.

Domingo Garcia, the national president of LULAC, said during a press conference on Wednesday that Florida “used immigrants as political piñatas to basically just get votes”.

In addition to issuing a travel advisory, Mr. Garcia said LULAC is considering filing a lawsuit in federal court against the state of Florida when the legislation goes into effect in July. Mr. Cruz said the organization was also planning protests “in key Florida cities with significant Latino-essential working-class populations.”

Florida equality issued its travel advisory last month citing concerns about a number of Florida laws, including last year’s passage of legislation banning classroom instruction and discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in some elementary school classes, a law that opponents often refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Nadine SmithEquality Florida’s executive director said in a statement last month that her organization had to respond with a travel advisory “because the laws take away fundamental rights and freedoms.”

LULAC officials pointed to the economic impact Arizona experienced after the state passed legislation in 2010 that was seen as the country’s toughest effort to crack down on illegal immigration and criticized as encouraging racial profiling. a study at the found time that Arizona lost about $141 million in conference cases alone after the state passed its legislation.

Lydia Guzmán, the chair of LULAC’s National Immigration Commission and state director of the organization in Arizona, said the state has taken a serious economic hit as a result of negative reactions to the legislation.

“I see that happening in Florida as well,” Ms. Guzmán said.