Axios

Poor planning among senior officials during both the Trump and Biden administrations contributed to the chaotic and deadly U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, according to a report released Friday.

Driving the news: The State Department's long awaited after action report found that under both presidents, "there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow."

Brazil's highest elections court voted Friday to ban former President Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years for undermining the country's democracy by making false claims about its voting system.

Why it matters: The ruling, if upheld after an expected appeal to the Supreme Court, will prevent Bolsonaro from running in the next presidential election, scheduled for 2026.

The U.S. is pressing the Lebanese government and military to take steps to dismantle a Hezbollah outpost that was established several weeks ago in Israeli territory on the Israel-Lebanon border, four Israeli and U.S. officials told Axios.

Why it matters: Hezbollah has increasingly taken what Israel sees as provocative steps near the border, raising concerns of a possible escalation that could lead to a new armed conflict between Israel and the militant group along a border that has been mostly stable since the 2006 war.

Air quality alerts were issued in cities across some 23 U.S. states Thursday as lingering smoke from Canada's worst-ever wildfire season continued to pose a health threat to millions of Americans.

The big picture: Detroit, D.C., New York City and Toronto endured some of the world's worst air quality Thursday, per Swiss air technology company IQAir. Alerts stretched from Colorado to Vermont and down to Georgia. Canadian officials warn this extreme weather event will likely last all summer as climate change leads to more instances of critical fire weather.

The U.S. has a key advantage over China as the two superpowers compete for supremacy in artificial intelligence: The most advanced chips used to train AI are designed in the U.S. and built with tools from allied countries.

Driving the news: The Biden administration is poised to expand its efforts to keep those highly advanced chips out of China, and thus keep Chinese AI firms behind the curve.

U.S. envoy for Iran Rob Malley told Axios on Thursday he went on leave several weeks ago because of an investigation that has affected his security clearance.

Why it matters: Malley was a key player in the Biden administration's efforts to try and return to the 2015 nuclear deal and in crafting the administration’s Iran policy.

Among the books being released this year are several family sagas and tales of strife told through a Latina lens — a rarity in U.S. publishing.

The big picture: Publishing houses are increasingly putting out and promoting these types of books by diverse authors — and with diverse stories — in response to public pressure to be less white-centric.

Less than 40 years after emancipation, a group of Black Americans headed West with the dream of setting up an "Afrotopia" in New Mexico.

The big picture: Historian Timothy E. Nelson's forthcoming book, "Blackdom, New Mexico: The Significance of the Afro-Frontier" documents that migration and the rise and fall of a multiracial community known as Blackdom.

U.S. Latino and Latin American authors have carved out their own space in some of literature's most sought-out genres — fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, and horror — while including in their works critiques of colonialism, colorism, government violence, and mistreatment of Indigenous traditions.

The big picture: Similar to lauded authors like Octavia E. Butler who centered race and misogyny in tales of time travel or aliens, Latina authors are becoming best sellers with works that mix genres and real-life parallels.

Protests and unrest are rocking parts of France after the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old driver of Algerian and Moroccan descent during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb earlier this week.

The latest: A prosecutor announced Thursday that the officer who shot and killed Nahel M will be formally investigated for voluntary homicide. Authorities also said they deployed 40,000 police officers to help quell the unrest after some demonstrators set cars and public buildings on fire for a second day to protest against police brutality and systemic racism.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will address a joint meeting of Congress on July 19, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced on Thursday.

Why it matters: Herzog will be the second Israeli president to give such an address. The first was his father, Chaim Herzog, in 1988.

Firefighters in Canada are now battling 497 active wildfires across the country after 31 new blazes ignited, according to the latest data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

The big picture: New figures show 3,023 fires have burned across some 19.7 million acres of land during what officials this week declared has been Canada's worst wildfire season on record.

The U.S. Consulate in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah went into lockdown as a shooting outside the building left two people dead, American and Saudi officials said Wednesday.

The big picture: A Saudi police spokesperson said security forces opened fire on a man who got out of his car near the consulate "carrying a firearm in his hand," per local media. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a statement to media a security guard died in the shooting, "as well as the assailant," but no Americans were harmed.