Start your week smart: Tax deadline, Trump’s trade war, Blue Origin launch, ‘The Last of Us,’ the Masters

By Andrew Torgan and Daniel Wine, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s aggressive measures to crack down on immigration are hurting beer sales, according to Modelo and Corona owner Constellation Brands. About half of Constellation’s US customers are Hispanic, and some have stopped going out to restaurants and gathering in large groups out of fear of being swept up in deportations, the company’s CEO said.

Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart.

Sunday spotlight

With the April 15 tax filing deadline just two days away, few federal government agencies have endured as much turmoil the past few months as the Internal Revenue Service.

The agency has been squarely in the crosshairs of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which proposed a dramatic downsizing of the IRS workforce by May 15. One IRS worker said of DOGE that “‘delete’ is one of their favorite terms.” More than 7,000 IRS employees have been laid off.

It remains to be seen what effect — if any — all the chaos will have on the processing of this year’s tax returns and refunds.

1️⃣ Last-minute filers: If you’ve been procrastinating and haven’t submitted your tax return yet, don’t worry. There are plenty of other people in the same boat. CNN’s Jeanne Sahadi breaks down what you need to know and how to avoid penalties.

2️⃣ What’s new: If keeping up with changes in the law were a sport, 2017 and 2025 might be considered the Tax Olympics. Many crypto investors’ transactions will be reported to the IRS for the first time this year.

3️⃣ By the numbers: Fewer Americans have filed their federal taxes and more have requested extensions, compared with last year. Tax professionals said it’s mostly been “business as usual,” but they’ve seen delays when trying to resolve disputes for clients.

4️⃣ Agency in turmoil: Three IRS leaders have departed already this year — an unprecedented level of upheaval. Acting director Melanie Krause just stepped down. Her predecessor decided to retire after several weeks in the role. Before that, Commissioner Danny Werfel resigned on Inauguration Day.

5️⃣ Deportation deal: The IRS just reached a data-sharing agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to help find undocumented immigrants. That came days after the agency sidelined dozens of senior IT professionals who were seen as possible “blockers.”

Top headlines

• Battle lines over Trump’s agenda put GOP leaders in a jam
• Four charts show how Trump’s trade war could hit US farmers
• Israeli strike destroys part of last fully functioning hospital in Gaza City
• Judge has ruled legal permanent US resident Mahmoud Khalil can be deported. What comes next?
• US consumer sentiment plummets to second-lowest level on records going back to 1952

The week ahead

Monday
The European Union’s trade commissioner will reportedly meet with US officials in Washington, DC, with the intent of reaching a deal on tariffs. Last week, the EU announced a 90-day pause on countermeasures against the US, a day after President Trump unveiled a similar pause on his “reciprocal” tariffs. “We want to give negotiations a chance,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said of the pause.

And as Trump prepares to send more immigrants with criminal records to El Salvador’s notorious mega prison, that country’s president is set to travel to the US. President Nayib Bukele is expected to visit the White House to discuss the use of Cecot prison, the largest in the Americas. The Trump administration has even fielded a recent proposal from private security contractor Erik Prince to establish a US-run migrant detention facility in El Salvador, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.

Private spaceflight company Blue Origin is scheduled to launch an all-female crew on a suborbital flight. Among the six-person crew are journalist Gayle King, singer Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez, a pilot, journalist and vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund who is also engaged to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Friday
April 18 marks the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s legendary ride to warn the residents of Lexington, Massachusetts, that British soldiers stationed in Boston were about to march into the countryside northwest of the town.

Saturday
April 19 marks 30 years since the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured several hundred more. (Editor’s note: The linked story contains graphic images.)

Listen in

One Thing: 🎧 ‘Dangerous’ research cuts
In this episode of the “One Thing” podcast, CNN’s David Rind speaks to University of Michigan professor Katie Edwards about how she is dealing with cuts to her research grants. Listen here.

Photos of the week

Check out more images from the week that was, curated by CNN Photos.

What’s happening in entertainment

TV and streaming
Season 2 of HBO’s “The Last of Us” premieres tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. The first season of the critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic series took home eight Emmy Awards. (HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

In theaters
Set in the 1930s, “Sinners” stars Michael B. Jordan playing identical twin brothers who return to their hometown in the Jim Crow-era South to open a juke joint. As expected, the pair are soon confronted by the local band of racists — or, more precisely, racist vampires. It opens on Friday. (“Sinners” is from Warner Bros. Pictures, which, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)

If you prefer something a bit more family friendly, check out the animated “Sneaks,” featuring the voices of Anthony Mackie, Chloe Bailey and Laurence Fishburne.

What’s happening in sports

At a glance …
The final round of the Masters tees off today. Rory McIlroy is in position to win his first career Masters after becoming the first golfer to ever begin his round by carding five consecutive threes. He holds a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau. The prestigious tournament got off to an unusual start on Thursday, with one golfer admitting to urinating in Rae’s Creek on the 13th hole at Augusta National after failing to notice the location of a nearby restroom, and another competitor hooking his drive into the gallery on the opening hole on route to shooting an 18-over-par 90 to record one of the worst first-round scores ever.

In basketball, Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets became just the third player in NBA history to average a triple-double for the season.

For more of your favorite sports, head on over to CNN Sports as well as Bleacher Report, which — like CNN — is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

Quiz time!

Looking for a challenge to start your week? Take CNN’s weekly news quiz to see how much you remember from the week that was! So far, 7.3% of readers who took the quiz got a perfect score and 44% got eight or more questions right. How will you fare?

Play me off …

‘Money, Money, Money’
Consider this your final reminder that Uncle Sam wants you … to file your taxes. (A note to readers unfamiliar with ABBA: The Swedish pop group was a mainstay of 1970s music and pioneers of the perpendicular faces camera shots that often appeared in their music promo clips — the short films artists made that preceded music videos.) (Click here to view)

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.