US President Donald Trump

Donald Trump has ratcheted up his feud with the US media by announcing he will skip the annual correspondents’ dinner set for April 29, the first US president to do so in 36 years. By boycotting the event Trump breaks a tradition that began in 1921.

“I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!” Trump wrote Saturday on Twitter. The last time a president missed the event was in 1981, when Ronald Reagan was recovering after being shot in an assassination attempt. Reagan however phoned in with friendly remarks.

Richard Nixon, who despised the media, skipped the event in 1972.

Refugee influx at US-Canada border

Most of the hundreds of people streaming over the US border into Canada in recent weeks are asylum-seekers, coming from Syria, Yemen, Turkey or Sudan.

In an interview, Jean-Nicolas Beuze, the representative in Canada of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said it was too soon to know whether the cross-border flow of people is an uptick or signals a longer trend.