US-based scientists John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for “experiments that revealed quantum physics in action”, paving the way for the development of the next generation of digital technologies.

“My feelings are that I’m completely stunned. Of course it had never occurred to me in any way that this might be the basis of a Nobel Prize,” Clarke told the Nobel press conference by telephone on Tuesday.

“I’m speaking on my cell phone and I suspect that you are too, and one of the underlying reasons that the cell phone works is because of all this work.”

‘New surprises’ in century-old field of quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanical behaviours are well studied at the level of the incredibly small — atoms and sub-atomic particles — but are often seen as bizarre and unintuitive compared with classical physics and its far larger scale.

The Nobel winners carried out experiments in the mid-1980s with an electronic circuit built of superconductors and demonstrated that quantum mechanics could also influence everyday objects under certain conditions.

“It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises. It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology,” Olle Eriksson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said.

Quantum technology is already ubiquitous, with transistors in computer microchips an everyday example.

“This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics has provided opportunities for developing the next generation of quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, said in a statement.

Quantum computers use principles of quantum mechanics to make complex calculations, predict outcomes and perform analysis that in some cases could take traditional computers millions of years.

The field is considered to have the potential to help solve some of humanity’s most pressing concerns, such as tackling climate change. But it also faces challenges, including improving the accuracy of its chips, and timelines for commercially viable quantum computing remain disputed.

Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he is obsessed with winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But so far the award has eluded him throughout his two US presidencies.

Trump’s push for the prize, whose 2025 winner will be named on Friday, is fueled by a potent mix of a desire for prestige and a long rivalry with former president Barack Obama.

Sometimes Trump, who is often better known for his divisive rhetoric, anti-migration drive and embrace of foreign authoritarians, has appeared to acknowledge that he is an unlikely candidate.

“Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing,” Trump said during a speech to hundreds of the US military’s top officers in September.

But in the same breath Trump revealed his true feelings.

“It’d be a big insult to our country, I will tell you that. I don’t want it, I want the country to get it. It should get it because there’s never been anything like it,” he said at the same gathering.

‘Seven wars’

As the Norwegian committee’s announcement has drawn nearer, the steady drumbeat of Trump’s campaigning for the peace prize has intensified to unprecedented levels.

In recent weeks, barely a public event has gone by without Trump bragging about what he says is his role in ending seven wars.

Trump’s administration recently listed them as being between Cambodia and Thailand; Kosovo and Serbia; the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda; Pakistan and India; Israel and Iran; Egypt and Ethiopia; and Armenia and Azerbaijan.

But while Trump has been quick to claim credit for some — for example announcing a ceasefire between nuclear-armed Delhi and Islamabad in May — many of the claims are partial or inaccurate.

Trump has even bombed one of the countries he mentions. He ordered US military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program in June.

But perhaps the biggest issue is that the two main wars that Trump promised to end within days of his inauguration — in Gaza and Ukraine — are still raging.

His push for a deal between US ally Israel and Hamas to end the brutal two-year war in Gaza has reached a climax just days before the Nobel announcement — but is almost certainly too late to sway the committee.

Foreign leaders seeking to curry favor with Trump have been quick to talk up Trump’s chances.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nominated Trump for the prize, as did an Israeli advocacy group campaigning for the release of hostages in Gaza.

Pakistan also nominated Trump while the leaders of several African countries paid tribute to his supposed peacemaking efforts in a visit earlier this year.

Obama rivalry

But while Trump wants international recognition as “peacemaker-in-chief,” there is another driving factor.

Since the beginning of his presidential ambitions 10 years ago, “he has put himself in opposition to Barack Obama, who famously won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009,” Garret Martin, a professor of international relations at American University, told AFP.

The prize awarded to the Democratic former president, barely nine months after he took office, sparked heated debate — and continues to annoy Republican Trump.

“If I were named Obama I would have had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds,” Trump complained in October 2024, during the final stretch of the presidential campaign.

Three other US presidents have also won the award: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter, although Carter won his decades after his presidency for his subsequent peace efforts.

• Claims Russian forces now hold full strategic initiative on battlefield.
• Says Ukrainian troops retreating “in all sectors” despite resistance.
• Kyiv disputes claims, citing gains in Donetsk and Sumy regions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russian forces had captured almost 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) of land in Ukraine in 2025 and that Moscow retained complete strategic initiative on the battlefield.

Putin, addressing a meeting with Russian top military commanders, said Ukrainian forces were retreating in all sectors of the front. He said Kyiv was trying to strike deep into Russian territory, but it would not help to change the situation in the more than 3 1/2-year-old war.

“At this time, the Russian armed forces fully hold the strategic initiative,” Putin told the meeting in northwestern Russia, according to a Kremlin transcript.

“This year, we have liberated nearly 5,000 square km of territory – 4,900 – and 212 localities.”

Ukrainian forces, he said, “are retreating throughout the line of combat contact, despite attempts at fierce resistance.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry on Tuesday reported the capture of two more villages along the front, which Ukraine’s top commander says now extends over 1,250 km (775 miles).

Ukrainian accounts of the situation on the front line say Kyiv’s forces have made gains in the Donetsk region, particularly near the town of Dobropillia. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also said Ukrainian forces have regained ground in the border Sumy region, where Russia has established a foothold.

Russian Army General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces, told the meeting of top commanders that Russian forces were “advancing in practically all directions.” Ukrainian forces, he said, were focused on slowing the Russian advance.

Gerasimov, overall commander of Russia’s war effort, said Moscow’s troops were moving on the key cities of Siversk and Kostyantynivka in the main theatre of the Donetsk region.

He said they were clearing Ukrainian forces from the city of Kupiansk, under Russian attack for months in Ukraine’s northeast, and were moving forward in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions further south. They were also progressing in setting up buffer zones in Sumy and Kharkiv regions in the north.

In his remarks to the meeting, Putin said Russia’s objectives remained the same as when he launched its “special military operation” in February 2022, saying it was aimed at “demilitarising and denazifying” its smaller neighbour.