◼ On January 5, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet (Alaska Airlines Flight 1282) took off from Portland International Airport only to quickly return when a section of its hull known as a “door plug” simply had blown off while the plane was ascending to 15,000 feet, leaving passengers terrified as the cabin lost pressure. Nobody was injured, but the resulting investigation has led to the temporary grounding of all Boeing 737 MAX jets in Alaska Airlines’ fleet and to the cancellation of hundreds of United flights. Both airlines have confirmed that they have since found loose bolts and installation problems on the plug doors of their other 737 MAX airliners. It is a black eye for Boeing, whose 737 MAX airliners were grounded worldwide in 2019 over safety concerns after two fatal disasters involving those planes occurred in quick succession. Boeing execs had better strap in for a bumpy ride.

◼ Day after day, Russia bombs Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv. Day after day, Russia kills Ukrainian civilians. Russia is using North Korean missiles and Iranian drones. The Polish foreign minister, Radek Sikorski  (who was once NR’s roving correspondent), said that the West ought to respond “in a language that Putin understands.” This includes the tightening of sanctions on Moscow and the supply of long-range missiles to Kyiv. The Ukrainians are losing territory and running out of ammunition. Congress has not yet agreed on legislation to aid Ukraine, although majorities of both chambers favor it. The Biden administration and our European allies are pursuing the option of seizing frozen Russian assets and transferring them to this embattled nation trying to hold on to its independence. We reiterate a point that is crucial to understand: The cost of helping Ukraine now is as nothing compared with the potential cost of dealing with Russia after a conquest of Ukraine.

◼ In an address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, Pope Francis called for a global ban on the “despicable” practice of surrogacy. He described “so-called surrogate motherhood” as “a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.” Children are gifts, the pontiff said, “never the basis of a commercial contract.” Couples who struggle with infertility deserve our sympathy, but the commodification of human life must be resisted. The pope is to be commended for restating that principle.

◼ Proving that it is possible to retire from a prestigious role without the help of a certificate from the coroner, Nick Saban, the extraordinarily successful coach of Alabama’s NCAA football team, has decided to call it quits. At 72, Saban has done it all. In an unparalleled career, he won seven national titles and twelve conference titles, produced 45 All-American players, gave Alabama its first four Heisman winners, and spawned some of the best in all of football. In total, Saban coached 369 college football games, and he won 297 of them. At Alabama, that record was a remarkable 206–29—a winning percentage of .877. There are few sports in which statistics and analytics are as important as they are in football, but, in addition to the numbers, Saban’s Alabama teams had that ineffable quality that no opponent ever wants to face: However dire the situation seemed, Alabama never quite seemed to be out of it. Even in his final year, Alabama battled every game to the last—knocking Georgia out of the playoff and breaking Auburn’s hearts with seconds left on the clock in one of the most shocking finales in Iron Bowl history. Happy retirement, coach.

◼ The Michigan Wolverines topped the Washington Huskies, 34–13, in the college-football national-championship game to close out the season with a record of 15–0. The Maize and Blue were undefeated this season—but not unblemished. For alleged recruiting violations, head coach Jim Harbaugh served a three-game suspension to begin the season. And he served a three-game suspension to finish the regular season, a punishment for a swirling off-campus sign-stealing operation that resulted in the midseason firings of two staff members. Controversies aside, Michigan proved that it was the nation’s best team between the lines.

◼ In the wee hours of the morning of her 21st birthday—June 3, 1944—a postal clerk in Blacksod, County Mayo, checked the weather gauges. Barometric pressure was falling, indicating an imminent storm. The post office served as a weather station, and the clerk, Maureen Flavin, recorded and reported local meteorological data to an office in Britain. Phone calls to her soon poured in: “Please check!” “Please repeat!” Meeting with a British military meteorologist, General Eisenhower reviewed Flavin’s findings and ordered postponement of D-Day, which had been slated for June 5. The forecast for the following day was acceptable though not great. By noon on June 6, the massive U.S. invasion of German-occupied France was under way, American soldiers storming the beaches of Normandy as the storm up in the sky passed. Flavin was not yet aware that her mundane clerical report was also an epic contribution to the Allied war effort. A butterfly flapping its wings in Ireland . . . Years later Eisenhower told President-elect Kennedy that D-Day had succeeded “because we had better meteorologists than the Germans.” The U.S. House of Representatives awarded Flavin, now Mrs. Sweeney, a medal in 2021. Dead at 100. R.I.P.