Watch live: Biden addresses U.N. General Assembly in New York
CBSN
President Biden is addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, as he continues to call for global cooperation in support of Ukraine and as the Biden administration celebrates the return of five Americans who had been held in Iran.
Five U.S. citizens detained by Iran have touched down on U.S. soil after they were freed Monday in a complicated diplomatic deal that included the transfer of $6 billion in unfrozen Iranian oil assets and the release of five Iranians facing charges in the U.S.
Russia's war in Ukraine will be a key focus of Mr. Biden's remarks and of UNGA as a whole. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will speak at UNGA Tuesday in his first address to the assembly since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked assault on his country. Zelenskyy and Mr. Biden are also scheduled to meet at the White House on Thursday.
More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.