US needs better leadership

The UN human rights chief took aim at President Donald Trump yesterday, saying the United States needed better leadership to meet challenges like surging xenophobia and religious discrimination.

In a keynote speech to the United Nations rights council's main annual session, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said he was "concerned by the new administration's handling" of key issues.

"Greater and more consistent leadership is needed to address the recent surge in discrimination, anti-Semitism, and violence against ethnic and religious minorities," Zeid added.

Zeid warned that Washington's "vilification of entire groups such as Mexicans and Muslims" as well as "false claims" about higher crime rates among migrants "fuel xenophobic abuses."

And, taking direct aim at Trump personally, Zeid said he was "dismayed at attempts by the president to intimidate or undermine journalists and judges."

Major media organisations as well as press freedom groups have accused Trump of demonising journalists in an unprecedented manner for a president, including by describing the media as "the enemy of the people."

The United States holds a seat on the 47-member rights council and had been an active member through much of Barack Obama's eight-year term.

But, representing the Trump administration last week, assistant secretary of state Erin Barclay told the council its work was often at odds with core American values, notably over its criticism of Israel.

Zeid had been the first top UN figure to speak out against Trump's initial travel ban and yesterday blasted a revised executive order that bars entry of people from six mainly Muslim countries.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the US House of Representatives intelligence committee said on Tuesday he had seen no evidence to support President Donald Trump's allegation he was wiretapped by then-President Barack Obama during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Republican Representative Devin Nunes said if Trump's assertion were true, the leaders of Congress and chairmen of its two intelligence committees, known collectively as the "Gang of Eight," should have been briefed.

"I have not seen that evidence," Nunes told a news conference. 

Trump made the accusation in tweets on Saturday, providing no evidence. An Obama spokesman denied it.