minister

His family and close friends said in a statement: “For more than a year he battled the brain cancer, glioblastoma. He leaves his wife Tracey, his sons Josh and Jed and a new grandson, and many friends and former colleagues who will all miss him greatly.”

March 13 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young warned Friday that preparing for war could increase the likelihood of conflict on the Korean Peninsula, emphasizing that “peace itself is the path forward.”

Chung made the remarks during the third meeting of the Korean Peninsula Peace Strategy Advisory Group held at the Inter-Korean Talks Headquarters in Seoul.

“People often speak lightly of war and repeat the phrase that if you want peace, you must prepare for war,” Chung said. “But preparing for war only raises the chances of war.”

Chung also pointed to growing global instability, citing the upcoming U.S.-China summit and tensions related to the Iran crisis.

“The Korean Peninsula sits on unstable ground and tends to sway whenever global events shift,” he said.

Noting the global interconnectedness of security issues, Chung said the distance between Seoul and Tehran is about 6,700 kilometers but developments in the Middle East can still affect the Korean Peninsula.

“A war 6,700 kilometers away is shaking the Korean Peninsula,” he said, adding that the situation underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the region.

Experts attending the meeting suggested that North Korea’s recently proposed “two-state theory” should be reinterpreted in light of current conditions.

They proposed linking it to the inter-Korean confederation stage of South Korea’s long-standing National Community Unification Plan and called for the creation of a new peace roadmap for the Korean Peninsula reflecting changing security dynamics.

Participants also urged the government to shift from a “pace-maker” role to a more proactive “peace-maker” role by expanding diplomatic engagement.

They recommended exploring multilateral approaches involving neighboring countries and international organizations in addition to dialogue between the United States and China.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260313010004062

Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad says Qatar will ‘not hesitate’ to ensure its stability as US-Israeli war on Iran continues.

Qatar’s Interior Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad has said the situation in the Gulf country is “stable” amid Iranian drone and missile attacks launched across the Middle East in response to the US-Israeli war on Iran.

In an interview with Qatar Television on Friday, Sheikh Khalifa said the Qatari government had a plan in place to deal with the prospect of more Iranian attacks amid a regional war.

“The security situation in the country is stable, and we will not hesitate to take any measure that ensures the stability of our nation,” he said.

The interior minister said Qatar’s early warning system has been effective as authorities responded to reports of falling missile fragments at more than 600 sites across the country.

He added that Qatar has enough water to last for several months, as well as food reserves that will cover the nation’s needs for a year and a half.

Sheikh Khalifa’s remarks come as Qatar and other countries in the Gulf region have faced a barrage of Iranian attacks since the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28.

While Iran has said it is targeting US and Israeli military interests in the wider Middle East, the strikes have hit civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas facilities.

That has prompted a slowdown in regional energy production, which – coupled with Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key Gulf waterway – has raised concerns around the war’s effects on global economies.

Earlier this week, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution denouncing the Iranian attacks on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, Qatar’s ambassador to the UN, had condemned the firings as “a clear violation of international law and the UN Charter”.

The attacks, she told reporters in New York on Wednesday, “impacts deeply the foundation of understanding upon which bilateral relations between our countries have been built”.

Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi also says Qatar and Oman cannot act as mediators while under attack.

Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs has called for a de-escalation in hostilities across the Middle East and urged Iran and the US to return to the negotiation table for a mediated solution.

Speaking to Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi said that Iran’s attacks on its regional neighbours bring “benefit for no one”.

Iran has responded to a nearly two-week-long bombardment campaign from the United States and Israel by firing missiles and drones at its neighbours in the Gulf region and beyond, causing casualties, damaging critical infrastructure and severely disrupting the region’s energy-driven economy.

Al-Khulaifi said Qatar remains “extremely worried” about the wider range of attacks, including against civilian infrastructure.

“It’s unfortunate where we are standing right now,” the minister said.

“We also believe that there is no pathway to a sustainable and long-lasting solution other than returning to the negotiation table,” he told Al Jazeera.

Qatar condemns in the “strongest terms, the unjustified and outrageous attacks on the state of Qatar that directly impact its own sovereignty”, he said.

Doha will continue to take “every possible and legal measure to defend and practise its exercise of self-defence against this aggression”, he added.

Al-Khulaifi said the conflict demands a “global solution” to ensure that the Gulf’s energy supply chain keeps moving through the Strait of Hormuz, where global traffic has been severely disrupted by the conflict.

Ensuring freedom of movement through the waterway is “very critical,” he noted.

It is notable, Al-Khulaifi pointed out, that Iran has targeted countries such as Qatar and Oman, which had previously served as regional mediators and tried to “build bridges between Iran and the West”.

Neither country can play that role as long as the attacks continue, he said.

“We will not be able to fulfil that role under attack, and that’s something the Iranians need to understand.”

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani tried to convey those points during a phone call with Tehran several days ago, the foreign minister said, when he urged Iran to cease attacks on its neighbours.

“The regional countries are not an enemy of Iran, and the Iranians are not understanding that idea,” Al-Khulaifi told Al Jazeera.

Doha also remains in contact with officials in the US and has encouraged US President Donald Trump to cease hostilities, he said.

“Our line of communication is always open with our colleagues in the United States, and we keep encouraging and supporting the pathway of peace and resolving conflicts through peaceful means.

“We really hope that the parties can find that pathway, end military operations, and return to the negotiation table.”

March 8 (UPI) — Former rapper Balendra Shah appears poised to be Nepal’s next prime minister, after his party won the general election by a landslide.

Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra Party, or RSP, captured 117 out of the 165 directly-voted seats in the Federal Parliament of Nepal and is currently leading in eight more contested seats. Final results, including seats appointed by proportional representation, are expected to be announced in the coming days.

Shah, 35, transitioned from a rapper to a politician in 2022, when he was elected mayor of Kathmandu.

The former musician became a figurehead of the September 2025 movement that saw young people take to the streets to protest Nepalese Prime Minister Sharma KP Oli’s law banning social media use. The protests expanded into criticism of government corruption and the country’s political system as a whole.

A government crackdown on the protests resulted in the deaths of 19 protesters, and led to public unrest resulting in 70 deaths and the resignation of Oli’s government.

Shah’s party has pledged to create 1.2 million jobs, reduce forced migration, raise the per capital income from $1,447 to $3,000 and provide social safety nets including health insurance.

Kathmandu, Nepal – Facing thousands of raucous supporters, 35-year-old Balendra Shah lifted his signature black rectangular sunglasses, asked his audience to look him in the eye, and said: “I love you.”

It is a sentiment that millions of young Nepalis appear to reciprocate.

Balen – as he is popularly known – was a nobody until 2013, when he almost overnight became a rap sensation. Nearly a decade later, in May 2022, he stunned Nepal’s deeply entrenched mainstream political parties by winning the post of mayor of Kathmandu, the country’s capital, while contesting as an independent.

When the Himalayan nation of 30 million people erupted in popular protests against the government of then-Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in September 2025, Balen emerged as a high-profile backer of the protesters. He was the first choice of many Gen Z activists to take over as interim leader after Oli was forced to resign. But he instead supported former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki for the post. It is now that this was a tactical move.

As Nepal heads to its first election since the protests last year, and Karki’s brief term ends, Balen is positioning himself as the future prime minister the country needs. And true to style, he is doing it with a bang: He is contesting the parliamentary elections from Jhapa-5, a seat about 300km (186 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, against Oli, the man protesters deposed just five months ago.

On the surface, the odds appear stacked against him. The region is a stronghold of Oli and the Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), which the former prime minister heads. Balen is contesting as a candidate of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), a centrist party formed less than four years ago, which won 10 percent of the national vote in the last elections in 2022.

Balen’s volatile public communication – he has abused mainstream parties, India, China and the United States, and threatened to burn down symbols of power in Nepal – has sparked criticism and questions over whether he is ready for high office.

But Balen defied the pundits when he won the Kathmandu mayoralty. And observers and analysts say that for many Nepalis, he represents a breath of fresh air in a country where more than 40 percent of the population is under the age of 35, but where the leadership of all major parties is in its 70s.

“Young Nepalis see him as a decisive actor, who is not beholden to traditional political or business interests,” Pranaya Rana, a journalist who writes for the Kalam Weekly newsletter, told Al Jazeera. “Many admire his macho public persona and his willingness to take on entrenched political patronage networks.”

The craze

If young Nepal burned with anger in September, when protesters clashed with security forces and attacked senior politicians after a crackdown by authorities under Oli, Balen was still seething with rage two months later.

In a midnight post on Facebook in November, he lashed out: “F*** America, F*** India, F*** China, F*** UML, F*** Congress, F*** RSP, F*** RPP, F*** Maobaadi. You Guys all Combined can do nothing”, venting against the popular political parties and even nations that have close ties to Nepal. Being the Kathmandu mayor at the time, he deleted the post less than half an hour later.

Then in January, he quit as mayor and joined the RSP, one of the parties he cursed in the Facebook post. More recently, after Oli called on Facebook for a public debate among prime ministerial candidates of major parties, Balen rejected the suggestion and asked the ex-prime minister to take responsibility for the dozens of civilians killed during the Gen Z protests in September. He asked Oli to acknowledge that he was a “terrorist”.

Over the top? Not to many Nepalis.

The rapper-turned-politician’s confrontational style and rhetoric appear to have only endeared him to large sections of the youth. His beard and dandy, all-black clothing style – he occasionally wears the traditional Newari dress of the ethnic inhabitants of the Kathmandu valley – coupled with his trademark dark glasses, have become fashion symbols.

Kathmandu shops once ran out of the kind of black rectangular glasses he wears. Many online stores, including Daraz, the most popular seller in Nepal, still carry multiple choices of these shades, calling them “Balen Shah glasses”.

Unlike traditional politicians, Balen mainly stays away from mainstream media. Instead, he communicates with the wider public through podcasts, television shows where he is a judge, or through his favourite platform: social media. His 3.5 million followers on Facebook, 1 million on Instagram, 400,000 on X and nearly 1 million on YouTube give him an online audience unmatched in Nepal.

This is valuable capital with a generation constantly on their phones.

Yet Balen first made waves not as a politician, but as an upstart musician who shook Nepal.

Big cars, bigger songs

The youngest of four siblings, Balen was born in 1990 in Kathmandu. Balen’s father, Ram Narayan Shah – who passed away in December – was a government practitioner of ayurveda, the ancient Hindu healing system.

In an interview with Al Jazeera in September – three months before his death – Shah recalled Balen as a “bright and simple” child. The father’s work took him away from home frequently, but one clear memory from Balen’s childhood stuck out for Shah: “He wrote poems. I remember that, because I also wrote poems.”

Balen graduated with a civil engineering degree from Himalayan Whitehouse International College in Kathmandu and received a postgraduate degree in structural engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in Karnataka, India.

Then, in 2013, he engineered his first major career transition. The setting was a popular rap battle in Nepal, called Raw Barz, in which two contestants face-off live against each other. One of the organisers of the competition, who requested anonymity, told Al Jazeera that Yama Buddha, a popular rapper who has since passed away, recommended Balen to him.

Balen won the rap battle, gaining instant popularity. “More than a rapper, he was a poet. He was very good lyrically, and talked about suppressed [people],” the contest organiser recalled.

In 2021, Shah announced his candidature for the mayoral election and revealed that he had been plotting the run for at least two years. He swept the election, winning 61,767 votes, defeating candidates from the major political parties, the Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (UML), who received 38,341 and 38,117 votes, respectively.

As mayor, according to his aide and press coordinator, Surendra Bajgain, Shah would arrive at his office at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) at about 10am. He would first meet all the department heads, go through files, “seek clarity” on questions he had, and then sign files, Bajgain told Al Jazeera.

He would wear his trademark black jacket and pants, and black shades, every day to the office. He would remove his glasses inside the office, Bajgain said. “But you’ll see him in those glasses when taking pictures or in public,” he added.

As a mayor, he lived in government-provided accommodation in the heart of Kathmandu with his wife and an infant daughter. A gym regular, he preferred lunch at home, but would sip on endless cups of tea and coffee in the office.

To get away from the public gaze, Balen “loves to go on long rides outside the valley, because here, people surround him very often in public,” Bajgain said.

His passion for cars also landed him in controversy, widely circulated online, when he was seen driving an expensive Land Rover Defender worth 40 million Nepali rupees ($275,0000) in January, while campaigning in Jhapa 5, his electoral constituency, for the March 5 election.

Given his strong anticorruption image, the sight of him in a high-end luxury vehicle drew heightened scrutiny. Critics accused him of a lack of transparency over the vehicle’s ownership and use, while some pointed out that, despite promoting modesty in public office, he rarely used public transport as the mayor. The car, it turned out, had been given to him by a wealthy businessman for use during his campaign.

Balen is now also pursuing a PhD in traditional infrastructure at Kathmandu University. But he is far from a reluctant public figure, nor is he an ivory-tower researcher.

Balen’s songs, which mock political parties, criticise corruption and talk of the sacrifices of everyday Nepalis, have been the soundtrack to the efforts by Nepal’s Gen Z to reshape the country’s politics in recent months.

One song, Nepal Haseko (Nepal Smiling), became an anthem during last year’s protests, and already has more than 10 million views on YouTube. In the song, children sing in the chorus: “I want to see Nepal smiling; I want to see Nepalis living happily.”

Another song, Balidan (Sacrifice) has 14 million views on YouTube. It talks about impunity and corruption. On the Discord server “Youth Against Corruption”, where Gen Z protesters picked the country’s interim leader after Oli’s resignation in September, the name “Balen” was mentioned 16,328 times — far more than anyone else’s.

But Balen also has his critics.

‘Set on fire’

In 2023, when Balen was mayor, his wife was in his official vehicle when a traffic policeman stopped it. Balen was not in the car. The government-plated vehicle was being used on a public holiday, which gives traffic personnel the right to ask the purpose of the vehicle use and whether the driver has a permit for it.

On social media, Balen blew up about the incident: “If any of our KMC vehicles are stopped by the government from tomorrow, I will set the Singha Durbar on fire. Remember, you thief government”. Singha Durbar houses many administrative offices along with the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Oli government initially wanted to charge him for the incendiary statement, but backed off – Balen’s comment on social media had drawn support. It was a sign of things to come. During the Gen Z uprising in September, Singha Durbar was severely damaged after being set on fire.

In another instance, in 2023, after India installed a mural of “Akhand Bharat” (a Greater India) – encompassing many of its neighbours – Shah hung a “Greater Nepal” map in his office, including territories that once belonged to Nepal but now lie within India’s borders.

The move instantly escalated into a diplomatic hurdle. Shah was accused of going beyond his mandate as a municipal leader and stoking nationalist sentiment for political gains. His supporters, however, hailed his move as an assertive counter to foreign dominance.

In 2023, Balen also banned the screening of Indian films in Kathmandu, alleging that an Indian movie had suggested that Sita, one of Hinduism’s most revered goddesses, was born in India. In fact, she was born in present-day Nepal according to Hindu scriptures.

As Kathmandu mayor, Balen bulldozed illegal structures and ordered rubbish to be dumped outside government offices. He temporarily halted waste collection from Singha Durbar. The move was a riposte to what he argued was the central government’s failure to coordinate with the city to address Kathmandu’s chronic waste management crisis.

Yet to many belonging to the generation most hungry for change in Nepal, Balen has an allure no one else appears to have.

‘Shake up the status quo’

Aayal Sah, a 20-year-old first-time voter, is a resident of Janakpur – where Sita, the Hindu Goddess, is believed to have been born. He took three of his friends to see Balen’s first public appearance after joining the RSP. “I cannot directly vote for Balen as he is not contesting from our area, but I’ll surely vote for his party,” he told Al Jazeera.

Rana, the journalist at Kalam Weekly, said that for many, Balen “embodies the outsider spirit that many young Nepalis are looking for to shake up the status quo”.

Yet, Rana acknowledged, questions over Balen’s ability to lead Nepal linger as the country heads to elections. “A primary concern for most critics is Balen’s immaturity and his refusal to engage with the public. During his time as mayor, he gave no interviews to local media and did not answer any questions,” Rana told Al Jazeera.

After Oli quit office, when Gen Z protesters voted most for Balen to take over as interim leader on Discord, the then-mayor was not available on the phone when the youth movement’s leaders tried to reach him to see if he would take charge of the nation.

That, say analysts, was yet another example of Balen’s communication style: It is always one way, at his time and place of choosing.

But for many young Nepalis like Sah, the Janakpur resident, none of these chinks in Balen’s public life matter. “It’s the trust he has gained among the young people,” Sah said.

“He is the only one who can take the country forward.”

Currently anyone found with five types of food – even bought in duty free – will have the seized, destroys and face £5,000 fines

A government minister has given an update on a ban on anyone bringing food into the UK on aircraft. Since last April passengers face being stopped at the UK border and having items confiscated and could face fines of £5,000.

The ban is in place because of a food and mouth outbreak in Europe. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) banned items like sandwiches, cheese, cured meats, raw meats or milk into Great Britain.

Travellers are not allowed to bring cattle, sheep, goat, and pig meat, as well as dairy products, from EU countries into Great Britain for personal use, to protect the health of British livestock, the security of farmers, and the UK’s food security.

And yesterday the government issued an alert about a new outbreak in UK holiday hotspot Cyprus, meaning more restrictions have been brought in on commercial imports.

UK Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Christine Middlemiss said: “Foot and Mouth disease has now been confirmed in Cyprus, we remain in contact with our European counterparts to understand the latest situation.

“Robust plans are already in place to minimise the risk of disease incursion to support Britain’s farming community and food security.”

Those found with these items will need to either surrender them at the border or will have them seized and destroyed. In serious cases, those found with these items run the risk of incurring fines of up to £5,000 in England.

In a new parliamentary written question Labour MP Ben Goldsborough asked if enough was being done to inform the public and asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Emma Reynolds “If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of funding public awareness campaigns, including advertisements at airports and ports, on (a) foot and mouth disease and (b) African swine fever.”

DEFRA minister Dame Angela Eagle said extensive efforts have been made recently to highlight the ban: “ Biosecurity is a priority for this Government. To protect UK farmers and animals from serious diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease and African Swine Fever, we used the Christmas period as an opportunity to remind the public about the personal imports ban on travellers from the EU and EEA countries bringing dairy and meat products to GB, that came into force last year.

“This included promoting awareness of the rules to the travelling public and extending our reach through partnership channels across Government and with industry. Our insights survey results indicate that over 90% of respondents are aware that they should not bring back meat and dairy products from these countries.

“Any decisions on funding paid campaigns will be made based on the current threat level, evidence of effectiveness and available resources, ensuring maximum impact in protecting UK biosecurity.”

Restrictions on meat, dairy and animal products for human consumption

You cannot bring in any of the following:

• cheese, milk and dairy products like butter and yoghurt
• pork
• beef
• lamb
• mutton
• goat
• venison
• other products made from these meats, for example sausages

You can bring the following into Great Britain from any country without any restrictions:

• bread, but not sandwiches filled with meat or dairy products
• cakes without fresh cream
• biscuits
• chocolate and confectionery, but not those made with a lot of unprocessed dairy ingredients
• pasta and noodles, but not if mixed or filled with meat or meat products
• packaged soup, stocks and flavourings
• processed and packaged plant products, such as packaged salads and frozen plant material
• food supplements containing small amounts of an animal product, such as fish oil capsules

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Morocco sentenced 18 Senegalese football fans last Thursday following disturbances at the Africa Cup of Nations final.

Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko has followed his country’s football association in denouncing Morocco’s jailing of 18 Senegalese fans following January’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final in Rabat.

The Teranga Lions supporters were arrested during the final in the Moroccan capital, which was controversially suspended as the Senegal players left the pitch in protest against the late award of a penalty to the host nation.

Fans, in response, attempted to enter the field of play during the match on January 19, leading to the arrest of 18 people who were later charged with hooliganism and violence against security officials.

Prison sentences were handed out last Thursday to them, ranging from three months to one year, along with fines of up to 5,000 dirhams ($545).

“It seems this matter goes beyond the realm of sport and that is regrettable,” Sonko told the Senegalese parliament on Tuesday.

“For two countries that call each other friends, like Morocco and Senegal, things should not have gone this far.”

The 18 fans have denied any wrongdoing but have not appealed the sentence. Senegal, however, will seek a royal pardon from Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.

“If they do not, we have agreements that bind us and allow us to request that the supporters serve their sentences in their own country,” Sonko added.

The Senegal Football Association had immediately spoken out at the time of the sentences, describing them as “incomprehensibly harsh”.

“Clashes occur in numerous stadiums around the world, including every weekend in Morocco, without resulting in such sanctions,” Bacary Cisse, the president of the FSF’s communications committee, said.

“The treatment of these supporters therefore appears disproportionate.”

Defence lawyer for the 18, Patrick Kabou, had said on February 6 that they were still “waiting to learn the charges”.

He added that some had chosen to go on hunger strike against their detention and treatment.

In response to the sentencing, Kabou echoed the “incomprehensible” sentiment, saying his clients were “victims”.

Senegal were the eventual winners of the final after the match resumed following the players’ protest, securing a 1-0 win in extra time.

The F-35’s ‘computer brain,’ including its cloud-based components, could be cracked to accept third-party software updates, just like ‘jailbreaking‘ a cellphone, according to the Dutch Defense Minister. The statement comes as foreign operators of the jets continue to be pressed on what could happen if the United States were ever to cut off support. President Donald Trump’s administration has pursued a number of policies that have resulted in new diplomatic strains with some long-time allies, especially in Europe.

“If, despite everything, you still want to upgrade, I’m going to say something I should never say, but I will anyway: you can jailbreak an F-35 just like an iPhone,” Gijs Tuinman said during an episode of BNR Nieuwsradio‘s “Boekestijn en de Wijk” podcast posted online yesterday, according to a machine translation.

Tuinman, who has been State Secretary for Defense in the Netherlands since 2024, does not appear to have offered any further details about what the jailbreaking process might entail. What, if any, cyber vulnerabilities this might indicate is also unclear. It is possible that he may have been speaking more notionally or figuratively about action that could be taken in the future, if necessary.

TWZ has reached out to the F-35 Joint Program Office and manufacturer Lockheed Martin for responses to Tuinman’s remarks.

As we have explored in detail in the past, the F-35 program imposes unique limits on the ability of operators to make changes to the jet’s software, as well as to associated systems on the ground. Virtually all F-35s in service today see software updates come through a cloud-based network, the original version of which is known as the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS). Persistent issues with ALIS have led to the development of a follow-on Operational Data Integrated Network (ODIN), the transition to which is still ongoing.

The ALIS/ODIN network is designed to handle much more than just software updates and logistical data. It is also the port used to upload mission data packages containing highly sensitive planning information, including details about enemy air defenses and other intelligence, onto F-35s before missions and to download intelligence and other data after a sortie.

Though now dated, the video below still offers a useful explanation of ALIS’ functions.

ALIS: Keeping the F-35 Mission Ready

To date, Israel is the only country known to have successfully negotiated a deal giving it the right to install domestically-developed software onto its F-35Is, as well as otherwise operate its jets outside of the ALIS/ODIN network. The Israelis also have the ability to conduct entirely independent depot-level maintenance, something we will come back to later.

Issues with ALIS, as well as concerns about the transfer of nationally sensitive information within the network, have led certain operators, including the Netherlands, to firewall off aspects of their software reprogramming activities in the past. However, the work still occurs in the United States under the auspices of the U.S. military and Lockheed Martin.

As TWZ has written in the past:

“It’s this mission planning data package that is a major factor to the F-35’s survivability. The ‘blue line’ (the aircraft’s route into an enemy area) that is projected by the system is based on the fusion of a huge number of factors, from enemy air defense bubbles to the stealth and electronic warfare capabilities of the aircraft, as well as onboard sensor and weapons employment envelopes and integrated tactics between F-35s and other assets. To say the least, it is one of the F-35’s most potent weapons. Without it, the aircraft and its pilot are far less capable of maximizing their potential and, as a result, are more vulnerable to detection and being shot down.“

So, while jailbreaking F-35’s onboard computers, as well as other aspects of the ALIS/ODIN network, may technically be feasible, there are immediate questions about the ability to independently recreate the critical mission planning and other support it provides. This is also just one aspect of what is necessary to keep the jets flying, let alone operationally relevant.

TWZ previously explored many of these same issues in detail last year, amid a flurry of reports about the possibility that F-35s have some type of discreet ‘kill switch’ built in that U.S. authorities could use to remotely disable the jets. Rumors of this capability are not new and remain completely unsubstantiated.

At that time, we stressed that a ‘kill switch’ would not even be necessary to hobble F-35s in foreign service. At present, the jets are heavily dependent on U.S.-centric maintenance and logistics chains that are subject to American export controls and agreements with manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Just reliably sourcing spare parts has been a huge challenge for the U.S. military itself, as you can learn more about in this past in-depthTWZ feature. F-35s would be quickly grounded without this sustainment support.

Altogether, any kind of jailbreaking of the F-35’s systems would come with a serious risk of legal action by Lockheed Martin and additional friction with the U.S. government. What would have to happen for a country like the Netherlands to pursue that course of action would also likely be just one symptom of a much more serious breakdown in relations with Washington. Doing this could easily prompt a cutoff in spare parts and other support, if that had not already occurred, which would leave jailbroken jets quickly bricked on the ground. To be clear, cracking the software would do nothing to mitigate the downstream impacts of being shut out from critical sustainment pipelines.

Spats between President Donald Trump’s administration and certain U.S. allies have already created a degree of additional turbulence for the F-35 program, as evidenced by the ‘kill switch’ reporting last year. Most recently, trade disputes and other recent rifts in relations between Ottawa and Washington have led Canadian authorities to launch a review of their F-35 acquisition plans. There are broader questions now about the future of U.S. defense exports, especially in Europe, in light of other diplomatic rifts with Washington.

At the same time, despite his comments about the possibility of needing to crack the jet’s computer systems, Dutch Defense Minister Tuinman remained broadly supportive of the F-35 during the BNR Nieuwsradio podcast.

“Even if this mutual dependency doesn’t result in software updates, the F-35, in its current state, is still a better aircraft than other types of fighter jets,” Tuinman stressed, according to a machine translation of an accompanying story about the podcast from BNR.

Altgoether, questions very much remain about just what ‘jailbreaking an F-35’ might look like in practical terms, and how that might impact the operational utility of the jets in the absence of support from the U.S. government and Lockheed Martin. At the same time, Tuinman’s comments do underscore larger issues surrounding the F-35 program, especially for foreign operators, many of which are not new.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com