A holy week is scarred by violence

Easter tragedy ... more Mueller report ... Earth Day ... SCOTUS & census ... "Endgame" ... NFL draft ... NOLA Jazz Fest

view in browser update subscription preferences Sunday 4.21.19 Happy Easter! We wish a blessed holiday to all who celebrate. To others this week, a joyous Passover. However you worship, we send you hopeful tidings today and for many seasons to come. Here's what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart. By Michelle Krupa and Faith Karimi More than 200 people are dead after explosions rocked churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka.  A militia is detaining immigrants at gunpoint at the border in New Mexico. Some are calling it kidnapping.  Two decades after students massacred 13 people at Columbine, the former principal's still trying to move on. Northern Ireland police arrested two teens in the killing of investigative journalist Lyra McKee.  This flu season is the longest in a decade, but the CDC says it's not nearly as deadly as last year's.   Egyptians head to the polls Voters cast ballots today and Monday for some controversial constitutional amendments, including one that would allow President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to stay in power until 2030 and another that would expand the military's power. Hill leaders can skim a less-redacted Mueller report The Justice Department is due to provide a secure reading room starting Monday for select lawmakers to review more of the special counsel's report than was released last week. Protect the mothership this Earth Day Join your fellow earthlings Monday for our planet's largest civic-focused day of action. You can help imperiled species, join a US cleanup event or teach kids about changing their habits to conserve resources. SCOTUS ponders a key census question In one of the term's most significant cases, justices on Tuesday are set to review lower court opinions that held that the Trump administration violated the Constitution and federal law when it decided to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census. If your colleagues feel like family … Be sure not to overlook Administrative Professionals Day on Wednesday. And definitely pack a double lunch (with dessert) on Thursday for National Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day. Maria Butina gets sentenced The Russian woman who pleaded guilty in connection with conspiring to help Russia gain political influence in the United States is due to learn her fate Friday. She's been jailed for more than eight months – two months longer than the sentence both sides agreed on – so the resolution may be her deportation. Lawyers debate Robert Kraft's spa video The New England Patriots owner's attorneys are set are argue Friday that law enforcement used false information to get a warrant for the prostitution sting that nabbed Kraft, so the state's video evidence should be banned at trial. Kraft has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution.   Content By: CNN Underscored Thursday is National DNA Day, which honors the discovery in 1953 of DNA's double helix and the completion in 2003 of the Human Genome Project. To mark the event, many at-home DNA kit purveyors are slashing the prices of their ancestry, health and even dog DNA kits, so learning about who we are and where we come from is affordable and accessible. CNN Underscored has a list of the top DNA kit deals happening right now, so you can learn about your ancestral history for less. Look up! It's the Lyrids! The meteor shower will light up the skies, especially in the western United States. The Lyrids appear every year from about April 16 to 25. They've been seen for more than 2,700 years, NASA says, making them one of the oldest known showers.   Read about the cocaine superhighway Every shipment of the drug from South America is so lucrative that traffickers use their planes only once, then sometimes set them on fire. That's one of the staggering findings from a monthslong CNN investigation. Check it out, along with CNN's weekend reads.   CNN hosts back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back town halls Five – count them, five – town hall events featuring top Democratic presidential candidates will be broadcast internationally Monday night from New Hampshire. They'll feature: US Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 7 ET; US Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 8 ET; US Sen. Bernie Sanders at 9 ET; US Sen. Kamala Harris at 10 ET; and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 11 ET. 'Avengers: Endgame' lands in theaters Find out who lives, who dies and who's back after more than 21 installments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (but don't spoil it for others). The much-anticipated movie opens Wednesday internationally and Friday in the US. White House Correspondents' Association gets dolled up Breaking from its tradition of having a comedian roast the President and the press corps, the fundraiser will feature US presidential biographer Ron Chernow. Meantime, Trump is skipping the event for the third-straight year. Coverage begins Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on CNN.   What to do with that first-round pick How will your team handle its options? Here's how to watch every twist and turn of the three-day NFL Draft, starting Thursday. All athletes face off at the Arafura Games The atypical event, in Australia's Northern Territory, welcomes disabled athletes to compete alongside their able-bodied peers in track-and-field events, swimming, tennis and table tennis. Nine days of sport begins Friday.   The 50th Jazz Fest opens in New Orleans And it wouldn't be real without Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, a native son who traces his musical rise to the moment he was called up as a kid to the festival stage. (Click here to feel the funk.) Share Tweet ALL CNN NEWSLETTERS update preferences or unsubscribe CNN Five Things shows up in your inbox every weekday at 6 a.m. ET and on Sundays at 9 a.m. ET. Like what you see? Don't like what you see? Let us know. We're all about self improvement. Did a friend forward you this newsletter? Sign yourself up! Sign up to get updates on your favorite CNN Original Series, special CNN news coverage and other newsletters. Copyright © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc. A WarnerMedia Company, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to CNN's 5 Things newsletter.