Start your week smart: Signal chat scandal, Trump’s car tariffs, Myanmar earthquake, March Madness, Musk’s political test
By Andrew Torgan, Daniel Wine and Kimberly Richardson, CNN
(CNN) — Every year, one of the world’s most popular vacation destinations falls silent for 24 hours. No Wi-Fi, no electricity, no driving. Even the airport shuts down. Find out why.
Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart.
Sunday spotlight
The Signal chat scandal sent shock waves around the world — all the way from Washington, DC, to Yemen — and the extraordinary breach will have lasting implications for US national security.
Senior officials in President Donald Trump’s administration inadvertently shared sensitive information about plans for an American military strike in Yemen with a journalist in a group text. Sources told CNN that the details were classified, though Trump administration officials have denied that. Trump said he wasn’t familiar with Signal, and he dismissed it as a “glitch.”
The demand for answers arrived swiftly. One day after the messages came to light, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were grilled during heated testimony before Congress.
What was shared: The Atlantic, whose editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to the Signal message chain, published the full sequence of texts. CNN annotated the key portions of the group conversation with additional reporting and context.
Under fire: The scandal revived concerns about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s judgment. Other top leaders have taken heat, but former national security and intelligence officials say it’s Hegseth who looks particularly bad given the level of detail he shared.
Long-term impact: Current and former US officials said they believe texts sent by national security adviser Mike Waltz and Ratcliffe might have damaged Americans’ ability to gather intelligence on the Iran-backed Houthis going forward.
Apps and privacy: Several tech platforms — including iMessage and WhatsApp — use encryption services for privacy. Data security experts largely agree that Signal is the gold standard, but it’s not meant for sharing classified government and military information.
Listen in: A former Trump national security official explains the potential dangers of what happened.
What’s next: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to preserve messages sent on Signal between March 11 and March 15. Top senators want a watchdog to investigate the matter, but some Republican leaders said “it’s time to move on.”
Editor’s note: We’re trying something new with the “Sunday spotlight” by taking a closer look at one topic. Let us know what you think.
Top headlines
• Before and after: Satellite images show the destruction left by Myanmar earthquake
• American woman detained in Afghanistan has been freed
• How Trump’s car tariffs will impact Americans, in 3 charts
• Under financial and political pressure, the LGBTQ+ community is ‘putting the protest back in Pride’ celebrations
• Prince Harry accused of ‘harassment and bullying’ by charity chairwoman
The week ahead
Tuesday
Florida will hold a special election to fill the vacant House seats of former Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz. Gaetz was President Donald Trump’s first pick for attorney general but subsequently withdrew his name from consideration amid persistent allegations of sexual misconduct and other alleged crimes. A report released by the House Ethics Committee after his withdrawal found evidence that Gaetz paid tens of thousands of dollars to women for sex or drugs on at least 20 occasions, including paying a 17-year-old girl for sex in 2017. Waltz, who was tapped by Trump to be his national security adviser, is a central figure in the Signal chat scandal (see above).
There is also an election to fill a seat of a retiring liberal justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court that will determine the court’s ideological balance, with the fate of a 19th-century abortion ban hanging in the balance. It’s shaping up as one of the most costly and contentious battles of the new year as billionaires — including George Soros and Elon Musk — have provided substantial financial support to the state Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.
Wednesday
Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada are scheduled to kick off — a day the president is referring to as “Liberation Day.”
Thursday
And Trump’s 25% tariffs on all cars shipped to the US are set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. ET, while tariffs on auto parts are set to go into effect no later than May 3. Tariffs — as we have covered many times here at CNN — are a tax on imported goods, and that price hike is often passed on to consumers in the form of higher sticker prices and repair bills.
Friday
The end of the work week brings the latest snapshot of the job market with the release of the monthly employment report for March. In February, the US economy added weaker-than-expected 151,000 jobs for the first full monthly tally of the labor market under Trump’s second term. The unemployment rate also ticked up to 4.1% as the Trump administration continued its large-scale slashing of government jobs and back and forth over its trade policy, both of which unsettled businesses and households — putting pressure on the economy.
Saturday
April 5 is the deadline for TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the app used by 170 million Americans to a new, non-Chinese owner or face a ban in the US. ByteDance’s original deadline was January 19, but President Trump signed an executive action that delayed enforcement of the ban shortly after taking office. Trump last week floated the idea of a reduction in tariffs on China if its government approves a sale of TikTok’s operations in the US.
Listen in
One Thing: Musk’s political test
In this episode of the “One Thing” podcast, CNN’s Arlette Saenz explains why Elon Musk is getting involved in Tuesday’s race for a single Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin. Listen here.
Photos of the week
Check out more images from the week that was, curated by CNN Photos.
What’s happening in entertainment
In theaters
Opening Friday, Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks and Sebastian Hansen star in “A Minecraft Movie,” the latest film based on a popular video game. (Editor’s Note: The children of one 5 Things staff member would argue that Minecraft is soooo much more than just a “video game.”) “A Minecraft Movie” is from Warner Bros Pictures, which, like CNN, is part of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn and Jay Ellis are featured in “Freaky Tales,” a set of four interconnected stories set in Oakland, California, in 1987. Described as a “multi-track mixtape of colorful characters,” the trailer alone will quicken the pulse of any Gen-Xer.
TV and streaming
Tonight on CNN, “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper” returns with a visceral examination of how the fentanyl crisis in America is evolving. The result of over two years of on-the-ground reporting, CNN anchor Kate Bolduan embeds with those most impacted by America’s opioid overdose epidemic. As the crisis enters its “third wave,” Bolduan engages with emergency medical technicians, physicians at treatment centers and people struggling with addiction themselves — all of whom are seeking new solutions to a decades-old problem. Watch “Fentanyl in America: A Way Out” at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
What’s happening in sports
At a glance …
It’s time to book flights to San Antonio: Florida and Duke are headed to Texas after big wins on Saturday to advance to the Final Four. The NCAA men’s Elite Eight wraps up today with Houston taking on Tennessee and Auburn facing Michigan State.
The NCAA women’s tournament rolled on with more Sweet 16 action. TCU defeated Notre Dame and will face Texas in the Elite Eight after the Longhorns dispatched the Vols. Paige Bueckers poured in a remarkable 40 points, setting a UConn record for most points in a tournament game. The Huskies won 82-59. In the final game of the night for the women, the Trojans held off a tough Wildcats team to book an Elite Eight showdown with UConn. The madness continues today with South Carolina playing Duke and UCLA taking on LSU.
Almost three years after retiring from the sport, Alysa Liu became the first American woman in 19 years to win a figure skating world title. Skating to “MacArthur Park Suite” by Donna Summer, Liu produced a flawless, fluent free skate that was greeted by a transfixed crowd who clapped and cheered every jump she landed.
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, 10% of readers who took the quiz got a perfect score and 48% got eight or more questions right. How will you fare?
Play me off …
‘The Final Countdown’
Unless President Trump chooses to intervene again, the clock is ticking down for TikTok users in the US. (Click here to view)
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