Mars Mission: NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which was carried to Mars by the Perseverance rover, is set for the first ever flight on the red planet. WSJ goes inside the company that partnered with NASA to design and build an aircraft for a completely different atmosphere from Earth. Photo: NASA/JPL

News: The Top 5 Stories For April 9, 2021 (Video)

Five stories to know for April 9: Britain’s Prince Philip dies at the age of 99, the fate of the Dakota Access pipeline is at stake, Friend of Matt Gaetz expected to plead guilty in sex trafficking case, Derek Chauvin’s trial continues and a gunman opens fire at a cabinet-making plant in Texas

1. Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth and a leading figure in the British royal family for almost seven decades, has died aged 99.

2. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will lay out its recommendations on the Dakota Access oil pipeline at a federal court hearing and the industry has grown worried that President Joe Biden’s administration will decide to shut it.

3. A friend of embattled Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida is expected to plead guilty in a sex trafficking and fraud case in a federal court in Florida, two law enforcement officials said.

4. Medical experts used anatomical diagrams and charts to testify on Thursday that George Floyd was killed by police pinning him to the ground, not a drug overdose, challenging a key assertion by former police officer Derek Chauvin in his murder trial for Floyd’s deadly arrest.

5. A gunman opened fire at a cabinet-making plant in Texas where he worked, killing one person and wounding six others before he was taken into custody in the latest of several mass shootings in the United States over the past three weeks.

Bike Tours: ‘Park Of The Aqueducts’ – Rome (4K)

Ancient Park of the Aqueducts (Parco degli Acquedotti) in Rome located just outside the city on  the Appian Way. The Roman water system consisted of artificial channels for conveying water and run for some or all of their path through tunnels constructed underground. There are three Roman aqueducts which gave a possibility for Roman inhabitants to receive 1.000 liters of water per each person daily in 52 A.D.

Aerial Views: Corciano – Perugia, Italy (8K Video)

Corciano is a comune in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 8 km west of Perugia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 17,008 and an area of 63.7 km². Corciano borders the comuni of Magione and Perugia.

Video timeline: Chiesa del Carmine 0:06​ Castiglione Ugolino 2:22​ Corciano 2:31

Morning News Podcast: Union Vote At Amazon, New Jobs Created In .U.S

A.M. Edition for April 9. The final results in a closely watched union vote at Amazon are expected today. McDonald’s closes hundreds of restaurants at Walmart stores. 

WSJ’s Eric Morathlooks at the U.S. cities where new jobs are being created. Companies entice employees to take some time off. Marc Stewart hosts.

Walks: ‘Montpellier – Southern France’ (4K)

Montpellier is a city in southern France, 10km inland from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The town’s stately Gothic Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, distinguished by conical towers, dates to 1364. The city’s Antigone district is a chic, modern development inspired by neoclassical motifs. Paintings from French and European Old Masters hang at the Musée Fabre.

Science Podcast: Views Of Magnetars, When Human Brains Got Complex

Host Sarah Crespi talks with Contributing Correspondent Joshua Sokol about magnetars—highly magnetized neutron stars. A recent intense outburst of gamma rays from a nearby galaxy has given astronomers a whole new view on these mysterious magnetic monsters. 

Also on this week’s show, Christoph Zollikofer, a professor of anthropology at the University of Zurich, talks about the evolution of humanlike brains. His team’s work with brain-case fossils suggests the complex brains we carry around today were not present in the early hominins to leave Africa, but later developed in the cousins they left behind. 

Analysis: Electric Car Startups Vs. Tesla (Video)

Lucid, Fisker, Rivian and Canoo are among the well-funded startups racing to release new electric vehicles. WSJ asked CEOs and industry insiders how new auto companies plan to challenge Tesla’s market dominance and take on legacy car makers. Photo composite: George Downs

Analysis: The Electric Vehicle Battery Shortage

U.S. automakers are finally making bold commitments to electrify their fleets, but in the short-term, there may not be enough lithium-ion batteries to go around. While China dominates the battery manufacturing supply chain, and Europe is working to catch up, the U.S. still lags far behind.

As batteries become a matter of energy independence and national security, here’s what the U.S. can do to catch up. As automakers continue to grapple with a semiconductor shortage, some experts say the next supply chain crisis for the U.S. could involve lithium-ion batteries. As companies like GM, Ford and a slew of start-ups are ramping up their electric vehicle ambitions, current battery production in the U.S. will not be able to keep up with demand.