UN expert slams US on poverty, quitting global rights body

A human rights expert is criticizing the US for failing to tackle poverty, days after Washington quit the United Nations body that appointed him.

New York-based law professor Philip Alston today said high US income inequality "can only be made worse" by the Trump administration's policy of cutting taxes and restricting welfare.

A day before Alston presented his report to the Human Rights Council, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley branded it "misleading and politically motivated" in a letter to Sen Bernie Sanders.

Announcing the US pullout from the Geneva-based body Tuesday, Haley described the council as a "cesspool of bias". No US diplomats were present to respond today when Alston told the council of witnessing "raw sewage" pouring into poor residents' gardens in Alabama.