UN General Assembly kicks off in New York City

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took aim at the United States in a blunt pre-recorded speech Tuesday afternoon, invoking two moments that he said “made history” this year: the Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6, and Afghan civilians seen falling from American evacuation planes last month in Kabul.

In the light of such scenes, Raisi called for the US to refrain from trying to influence the world, saying the world no longer cares about “America First” or “America’s Back” — a jab at both President Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump.

“Freedom does not fit in the backpacks of soldiers coming from outside the region,” he added.

In his first address to the United Nations General Assembly since becoming president, Raisi also attacked the US for keeping sanctions on Iran, amid stalled negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

“We want only what is rightfully ours. All powers must stay true to the nuclear deal in practice,” he said.

President Biden met with Iraq's President Barham Salih on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the White House announced Tuesday in a readout of the meeting, saying the two "discussed strengthening the bilateral relationship and deepening cooperation on regional diplomatic initiatives."

The meeting was not listed on Biden's schedule released by the White House.

Colombian President Iván Duque called on free and fair elections in Venezuela to address the “millions of Venezuelans fleeing the narco dictatorship and infamy,” and outlined the steps his government has undertaken to address the issue.

"We undertake this challenge not being a rich country and at an enormous fiscal cost. The situation requires that through the donor conferences that have been established, we now need to see the disbursements of the commitments of the international community, and I urge you to do that," Duque asked.

Duque said his government's goal is to naturalize the 1.8 million Venezuelan migrants living in Colombia.

With the temporary protection status, Venezuelans can legally work in Colombia and earn the same amount as a Colombian citizen would, according to a government statement from August.

Duque also addressed the talks between the government of Nicolás Maduro and Venezuelan opposition taking place in Mexico City, saying “those talks do give some hope” but the only effective solution to “the worst migration crisis affecting the planet” is holding a free and transparent presidential election that involved international observation as soon as possible.

Colombian President Iván Duque on Tuesday called for the fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

"Today, I call upon the international community to strengthen multilateralism in the area of health and to make progress in the fair distribution of vaccines, delegates," Duque said during his address at the United Nations General Assembly, calling out what he called “shortcomings in multilateralism” in a coordinated response “during the most critical times.”

The equitable distribution of the Covid-19 “is our moral duty," he said, adding that Colombia is making progress in the national vaccination plan "to cover as the minimum 70% of our citizens."

President Biden met with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations.

The two leaders touted the US-Australian relationship just days after the announcement of their new partnership drew the ire of France.

He said they would be discussing a free and open Indo-Pacific, conversations that will continue with the first in-person Quad leaders meeting Friday at the White House with leaders from India and Japan.

Biden said Australia is working “in lockstep” with the US on challenges including Covid-19, climate change, and defending democracy, reiterating his view that the world is at an “inflection point.”

Morrison thanked Biden for his leadership and touted the US-Australian partnership, saying the two nations have always stood together to pursue freedom.

“So, Mr. President, I want to thank you for your leadership and your focus on the Indo-Pacific region. There's no doubt – you get it,” Morrison said.

Biden told Morrison the two had a “lot of work to do” as the spray concluded. He did not respond to shouted questions.

Some background: Biden's comments come following tension between European leaders and the White House over a scuppered submarine deal. The French government has been seething since last week, when Australia abandoned a huge deal to buy conventional submarines from France. Instead, the US and UK announced they would help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines as part of a new security pact called AUKUS.

The move has opened a new fissure in the Western alliance and sparked growing public criticism from other European officials.

You can read more about the submarine deal here.

President Biden took a shouted question on the situation on the southern border as he departed the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday.

"We're getting it under control," he said.

What we know: Videos taken by Al Jazeera and Reuters appear to show law enforcement officers on horseback using aggressive tactics when confronting migrants, including authorities swinging long reins near migrants who crossed the US-Mexico border near Del Rio, Texas.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday said he was "horrified" by the images.

"I was horrified by what I saw," Mayorkas told CNN's Brianna Keilar on "New Day." "I'm going to let the investigation run its course. But the pictures that I observed troubled me profoundly. That defies all of the values that we seek to instill in our people."

Thousands of migrants – many of them Haitian – have gathered in a temporary site under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas as they wait to be processed by US immigration authorities. They sleep in the dirt, surrounded by growing piles of garbage, exposed to the elements and without much food and water, in hopes of being processed by the overwhelmed US Border Patrol.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is contradicted by data and aerial images, non-governmental organizations say. 

Bolsonaro said in his remarks that the Amazon had “a 32% reduction in deforestation in the month of August when compared to August of the previous year.”

Brazil's president used numbers from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) released on Friday that points to a 918 square kilometers deforestation rate for August.

The number is almost double of what was registered in August 2018, before the Bolsonaro administration. Data from the Amazon Institute of Man and Environment (Imazon) – which monitors the deforested areas by satellite – however, points to 1.606 square kilometers of deforestation in August, a 7% rise in comparison to the same month of 2020. It is also the highest rate for August in a decade, according to Imazon´s satellites imagery.

After Bolsonaro's speech in New York, Amazon in Flames Alliance, a group formed by NGOs Amazon Watch, Greenpeace Brazil, and the Brazilian Climate Observatory, released aerial images of an expedition at Rondonia and Amazonas states on Brazilian Amazon between Sept. 14 and 17.

The images show large areas of the Amazon deforested in July, already consumed by fire, scars from mining activities within protected areas, illegal landing strips, large plots of land being prepared for planting, and cattle grazing alongside recent fires.

Some background: Under the Bolsonaro administration, Amazonas surpassed Rondonia as the third state with the worst level of deforestation, according to INPE. In August alone, 8.588 fire spots were registered in the state, surpassing the record for the same month in 2020, which, in turn, had surpassed that of 2019. Fires are used by land grabbers and ranchers as a tool to deforest areas and take the land.

“Enforcement agencies such as IBAMA need to recover their capacity to act. Losing the southern Amazon, considered the heart of the Amazon, could bring us even closer to the forest’s tipping point. This is a time to act against the crimes, and not to cover them up,” says Ana Paula Vargas, Amazon Watch Brazil Program director.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been criticized for his handling of the global pandemic, told the UN General Assembly that Covid-19 “caught everyone by surprise” in 2020.

Bolsonaro, who is unvaccinated against the virus, said lockdown measures "left a legacy of inflation, particularly in foodstuffs, all over the world."

“In Brazil, to cater to the needs of the low-income population, who were forced to stay at home by decisions taken by governors and mayors, people who lost their income, we granted an emergency aid of 800 US dollars to 68 million people in 2020.”

The Brazilian president has publicly spoken out against lockdowns, receiving criticism from governors, such as São Paulo governor João Doria.

However, Bolsonaro said that by November this year, all citizens “who have chosen to be vaccinated in Brazil will be duly covered."

"We support vaccination efforts," he said, although he acknowledged his own government's lack of wider vaccine participation. “However, my administration has not supported a vaccine or health passport, or any other vaccine related obligation.”

President Biden wrapped his more than 30 minutes remarks to the UN General Assembly with an optimistic call for the global community to rally behind building “a better future,” by meeting the list of challenges he laid out in his first address as president. 

Biden said democracy lives in peaceful protesters, human rights advocates, journalists, women fighting for freedom among others in countries like Belarus, Zambia, Syria and Cuba, while nodding to the US’ own struggles in democracy. 

“I stand here today the first time in 20 years the United States is not at war. We’ve turned the page. All the unmatched strength, energy, commitment, will and resources, our nation are now fully and squarely focused on what's ahead of us, not what was behind," he said.