Our picksEurope under People-Smuggling Siege | Big National-Security Ideas | U.S. Atomic Bomb Went Missing, and more

Europe under Siege from People-Smuggling Gangs (Soeren Kern, Gatestone Institute)
Border authorities in countries across the European Union are struggling to stanch renewed flows of illegal migration. More than 126,500 migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East illegally entered the EU during 2019, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Illegal immigration throughout Europe continues unabated. In France, for instance, nearly 20,000 migrants were arrested in 2019, according to the police website France Bleu, which also reported that 189 people smugglers were arrested.
In Britain, The Telegraph newspaper reported that Albanian people smugglers were posting advertisements on social media platforms, including Facebook, promoting their ability to get people into Europe. The ads are accompanied by TripAdvisor-style feedback comments from “satisfied” customers.
The Telegraph, citing police sources, also reported that people smuggling gangs generate profits of up to £6 billion (€7 billion; $8 billion) a year, with migrants often paying more than £10,000 (€12,000; $13,000) to secure illegal entry into the U.K.

FBI Says Iranian Hackers Have Stepped up Reconnaissance Since Soleimani Killing (Sean Lyngaas, Cyberscoop)
The FBI has told U.S. companies that Iranian hackers have stepped up their probing and reconnaissance activity in the days since the U.S. military killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
In an advisory to industry this week obtained by CyberScoop, the FBI warned that Iranian hackers could target cleared defense contractors, government agencies, academia and nongovernmental organizations focused on Iran issues.
The FBI assesses that Iranian hackers could use “a range of computer network operations against U.S.-based networks in retaliation for last week’s strikes against Iranian military leadership,” says the memo, which is labeled “TLP White,” meaning its recipients can distribute it liberally.

Trump Broke It. Now He Owns It. (David Frum, The Atlantic)
The president withdrew from a flawed deal with Iran, but had no realistic alternative. With that choice comes responsibility for what ensued.

The Global Race for Big National-Security Ideas Is on (Amy Zegart, Defense One)
The United States faces genuinely new challenges—but tries to understand them using outmoded theories from a bygone era.

U.S. Calls Pensacola Attack Terrorism; Pressures Apple Over Gunman’s Locked Phones (Sadie Gurman, Dustin Volz, and Nancy Youssef, Wall Street Journal)
Attorney general seeks more information about radicalization of Saudi student who killed three people at a naval base last month

Iran’s Response to Soleimani’s Killing Is Coming (Sam Dagher, The Atlantic)
The killing of Qassem Soleimani was a monumental blow to the country’s regional ambitions. It could be about to go back to basics in its response.

“Broken Arrow”: When the First U.S. Atomic Bomb Went Missing (David Roos, History)
In 1950, an American B-36 bomber on a peace-time training mission crashed over British Columbia, Canada carrying a Mark IV atomic bomb, a weapon comparable in size to the nuke dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. According to testimonies from the surviving crew members, they had safely jettisoned the bomb, and detonated it in mid-air before the plane went down.
The crash became famous as the very first “broken arrow,” the U.S. military’s term for an accident involving a nuclear weapon. But questions swirled for decades about whether the bomb was really detonated over the ocean—or whether it went missing somewhere in the Canadian wilderness.

“No Zionists” and “No Straights”: Tweets from Teacher Rattle Elite New York City School (Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon)
As anti-Semitic attacks proliferate across New York City, the social media postings of one outspoken teacher at an elite Bronx private school are raising fresh concerns among Jewish parents and students.