Why 2025 is a pivotal time for quantum science and applications

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Updated 26 February 2025
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Why 2025 is a pivotal time for quantum science and applications

  • UNESCO declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology to celebrate a century of breakthroughs
  • Saudi Arabia’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is leading the Kingdom’s quantum research, aligning with Vision 2030

LONDON: It is quite possible you haven’t noticed that 2025 is the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology — or IYQ, for short. Yet it is something hordes of scientists are very excited about, as is UNESCO, which came up with the idea.

What the UN’s science and culture organization has failed to do, however, despite planning events around the world “aimed at increasing public awareness of the importance of quantum science and applications,” is explain on its dedicated IYQ website exactly what it is.

To be fair, that’s not an easy question to answer.

The word “quantum” — Latin for “how much” — is an adjective that finds itself placed in front of a whole range of nouns including “physics,” “computers,” “mechanics,” “engineering,” “theory” and many more.

In these contexts, explains James Cruise, head of quantum computing at Cambridge Consultants, the word quantum refers to the smallest possible unit of something.

For instance, quantum physics studies the behavior of matter and energy at extremely small scales, such as atoms and subatomic particles.

“We’re getting better and better at controlling our world, and what’s going on now is we’re controlling the very, very tiny,” he said.

“We controlled electricity for our electrical and digital revolutions, and mechanical control drove the Industrial Revolution, and now we’re controlling the quantum mechanical realm, understanding how these really tiny particles behave to drive a new technological revolution based on that control.”

His field is quantum computing, which allows certain problems, such as cracking cryptography, to be solved ridiculously quickly — although “quickly” doesn’t really do the process justice.

“We are looking at tackling problems which would take millennia to solve, and being able to do them in days,” he said.

One example is the analysis of chemical processes, important in the development of new drugs, “which is very hard to simulate.”

“There are a lot of molecules and a lot of very complicated equations to solve, and at the moment, when we use computers in chemistry, we just can’t get accurate simulations, because this would take millennia to do all the necessary calculations.

“But with a quantum computer, you could actually do those simulations really quickly, in a day, or a week.”

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a major breakthrough in quantum computing with the development of a new chip powered by the world’s first topoconductor — a material capable of creating a new state of matter that is neither solid, liquid, nor gas.

The company claims this innovation could dramatically accelerate the timeline for building practical quantum computers, reducing it from decades to just a few years.

Unlike traditional quantum computing approaches, Microsoft’s topoconductor-based chip enables quantum systems to fit on a single, palm-sized chip, potentially paving the way for more stable and scalable quantum hardware.

But how does quantum computing actually work? For many, the “guru” of all things quantum is Hartmut Neven, vice president of quantum engineering for Google Quantum AI.

In a recent TED Talk, he tried to explain for a lay audience the theory behind quantum computing. It started well enough.

“Today’s computers, like a laptop or a server at the Google data center, operate on the binary logic of zeros and ones,” he said.

“A quantum computer replaces the binary logic with the laws of quantum physics. That gives it more powerful operations, allowing it to perform certain computations with way fewer steps.”

So far, so understandable. But not for long.

“So where does this superpower come from? Quantum computing is the first technology that takes seriously the idea that we live in a multiverse. It can be seen as farming out computations to parallel universes.

“The equations of quantum mechanics tell us that at any time, any object, myself, or the world at large, exists in a superposition of many configurations.”

Skip over the mysterious “how,” then, to Neven’s example and the bottom line that quantum computers are on course to be seriously fast at previously impossible computational tasks.

He invites the audience to envision a massive filing cabinet with a million drawers. An ordinary computer would have to open on average half a million drawers to find a particular item filed in one of the drawers, “but if you had access to a quantum algorithm, it would only be 1,000 steps to find the item.”

Although Neven and Google are leading the field, they have yet to convert the theory of quantum computing into real-life practical applications. But they are well on the way. They have passed the second of six milestones they need to reach, and expect to have built “a large, error-corrected quantum computer by the end of the decade.”

Neven predicts that such computers will unlock a host of breakthroughs in multiple fields, such as designing more effective, more targeted medicines or lighter, faster-charging batteries for electric cars or aircraft, or even finally making reality the long-pursued dream of producing energy from nuclear fusion reactors.

FASTFACTS

• UNESCO declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology to celebrate a century of quantum breakthroughs. 

• Microsoft’s new topoconductor chip could accelerate quantum computing development from decades to just a few years. 

• Saudi Arabia’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is leading quantum research, aligning with Vision 2030.

Thanks to quantum science, your smartphone or watch, he predicts, may one day be able to warn you of the presence of dangerous viruses in the air or detect “free radicals,” the unstable atoms linked to cell death and illness, in your body.

“In conclusion,” said Neven, wrapping up his TED Talk, “we are making steady progress towards building the world’s first useful quantum computer and applying its enormous power to important challenges.

“A quantum computer will be a gift to future generations, giving them a new tool to solve problems that today are unsolvable.”

So if quantum technology is still at the “dream big” stage of development, why is UNESCO celebrating it this year in particular?

“The reason we’re celebrating this year is because the theory of quantum mechanics has been around for a century,” said Cruise.

“We are also at the point where the theory is now coming to fruition and actually seeing uses, and we’re building real-use cases and technology based upon this.”

Nominating 2025 as the centenary of the discovery of quantum science and technology is not without controversy. It was, after all, in 1922 that Danish physicist Niels Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work — a decade earlier — on the structure of atoms, “based on quantum theory,” the study of how everything operates at an atomic level.

Bohr is regarded as one of the fathers of quantum theory — a parenthood he shares with Max Planck and Albert Einstein, both of whom also received Nobel Prizes for their work on quanta.

Planck received his Nobel in 1918, “in recognition of the services he rendered to the advancement of physics by his discovery of energy quanta.” Einstein was awarded the prize in 1921 “for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery (in 1905) of the law of the photoelectric effect.”

Today, whether a century or more on from those pioneering discoveries, the potential of quantum technology to deliver a whole range of potentially transformative applications is being recognized and seized upon around the world — and Saudi Arabia is among the leaders of the pack chasing these golden prizes.

In 2021, in a pioneering collaboration with the World Economic Forum, Saudi Arabia launched the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, hosted by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh.

In December, C4IR Saudi Arabia published a report that spelled out the potential benefits of quantum technology, highlighted existing progress in the Kingdom and set out a roadmap for a vision of a “quantum economy” which “aligns with the bold goals of Vision 2030, positioning the Kingdom as a global key player in technological innovation and economic diversification.”

In her foreword to the report, the center’s managing director, Dr. Basma Al-Buhairan, wrote that the Kingdom “stands at the dawn of the quantum revolution — a transformative force that will reshape computation, communications and sensing across every industry.”

The report highlighted how quantum technology would “drive innovation across multiple sectors, creating new industries and economic growth” and leading to the development of new products, markets and jobs.

The list of fields in which quantum technology is predicted to have a transformative influence is wide, including energy efficiency, cyber defense, climate modelling, traffic management, machine learning, nanotechnology, cryptography, and the development of new materials and medicines.

Saudi universities are already offering a range of quantum-related programs, ranging from a course in quantum computation and security at Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University to a master’s in theoretical quantum optics at Jazan University, and quantum-related research is under way at multiple institutions.

The number of quantum-related publications, conferences and journals produced by Saudi universities and research institutes has increased dramatically from just a handful 15 years ago. In 2023 alone there were 100 conferences and more than 180 journal publications in the Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia, as Dr. Al-Buhairan concluded, “is strategically positioned to become a global quantum technology hub” and “aims to harness this technological revolution’s potential to foster economic growth, enhance national security, and improve citizens’ quality of life.”

In a call to arms, she urged “all partners and collaborators to continue this journey with us, exploring quantum technology’s vast possibilities and ensuring Saudi Arabia remains at the forefront of this exciting field … to realize the full potential of a quantum-enabled future.”


Five Russia neighbors mull withdrawal from land mines treaty

Updated 3 sec ago
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Five Russia neighbors mull withdrawal from land mines treaty

  • Polish defense minister called the decision 'necessary'
  • Red Cross voiced alarm at the growing acceptance in Europe of returning to using long-outlawed weapons

WARSAW: Poland, the three Baltic states and Finland, all of which border Russia, are “close” to an agreement on withdrawing from the treaty banning anti-personnel mines, Lithuania’s defense minister said Thursday.
All five countries have been concerned about their security since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and have previously said they were reviewing their backing for the Ottawa treaty.
But the Red Cross voiced alarm at the apparent growing acceptance in Europe of returning to using long-outlawed weapons.
Last week, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament he was going to recommend the country’s withdrawal from the treaty, drawing criticism from humanitarian groups.
Now the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — plus Finland may be set to join Poland, worried by signs of increasing aggression from Russia.
“We believe we are very close to this solution,” Dovile Sakaliene told reporters in Warsaw when asked about the possible pull-out from the convention.
At a joint press briefing with her Polish counterpart Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Sakaliene said all five countries were in “very intensive discussions” for a joint decision to “send a common strategic message.”
The Polish defense minister called the decision “necessary” and said it was important to “present a common position” on the issue.
More than 160 countries and territories are signatories to the Ottawa Convention, including Ukraine, but not the United States or Russia.
The treaty bans signatories from acquiring, producing, stockpiling or using anti-personnel mines.
The authorities in Kyiv have accused Moscow of “genocidal activities” for using anti-personnel mines during the conflict.
Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million people which was previously under Soviet rule, last week quit the international convention banning cluster bombs, in an unprecedented decision.
It has stressed the need to strengthen its defenses, fearing it could be next in line if Moscow succeeds in Ukraine.
Red Cross is “very worried”
In Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was “very worried” by recent developments and urged states to remind themselves what the conventions were for.
“It is precisely now that these treaties are relevant... and not in times of peace or stability,” ICRC chief spokesman Christian Cardon told reporters at the organization’s headquarters.
Cordula Droege, who heads the ICRC’s legal department, added: “As states seem to be preparing for war... we also have a questioning of the humanitarian treaties.
“There is a bit of panic in Europe at the moment, and I think states are taking very rash decisions.”
The flurry of announcements on land mines and cluster bombs “came as a bit of a shock,” Droege said.
“There’s a huge concern here that you will see an acceptance of weapons that are stigmatized and should continue to be stigmatized,” she said, recalling that most victims of cluster munitions and land mines are civilians.
“This idea that you can use these mines in a way that’s compatible with international humanitarian law, that you will only use them in areas or on front lines where they will be perfectly distinguishing between civilians and combatants, is just an illusion.”
Droege said it was worth asking “how far does it go?“
“Because will the next thing be that you say, well, actually, we need chemical weapons. They have a great military utility. Is that then acceptable?“


Inspired by diabetic father, Bangladeshi man’s juice recipes go viral in Ramadan

Updated 27 min 36 sec ago
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Inspired by diabetic father, Bangladeshi man’s juice recipes go viral in Ramadan

  • Imran Ahmed Saudagar started making healthy fresh juices for his father during COVID-19 pandemic
  • His first viral juice video, a Goa Lemon recipe based on a Nando’s drink, got 2 million views

DHAKA: In a two-minute video, Imran Ahmed Saudagar playfully juggles wood apples before cracking them open, scooping out the flesh, and blending it with jaggery, salt, and water into a creamy juice — one of his signature recipes, which for the past few years have accompanied Bangladeshi netizens during Ramadan.

The wood apple juice video was Saudagar’s first this fasting month and it immediately drew the attention of the tens of thousands of his followers, who welcomed back the “much awaited series” and the “Shorbot Saudagar Season.”

The word “shorbot” means “juice” in Bengali, and Shorbot With Saudagar is what the Dhaka-based advertising professional and accidental healthy juice influencer called his short recipe videos, which he started during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The inspiration to create the recipes came from his late father.

“He was around 75 years old at the time. And he started refusing all kinds of fruits. So, I started creating different combinations of fruits and blended them together to make a new juice every day,” Saudagar told Arab News.

As he mixed new ingredients, his father enjoyed guessing them by taste and looked forward to the juice game the next day.

To make sure his father consumed what was beneficial, Saudagar consulted his doctors and sought help from nutritionists while preparing new blends.

Initially a family affair, the juices started to reach a wider audience a few months later, when Saudagar got married and his wife suggested that they should record the recipes.

“We started researching what kind of crockery I should use to cut the fruits, what fruit should we buy, what are the best fruit combinations. We discussed it every night and we started making different juices every day,” he said.

Their first viral blend was inspired by a Goa Lemon juice they tried at the fast chain Nando’s. Saudagar recalled it was with yoghurt, mint and lime, to which he added some vanilla ice cream.

“It was a blast. People started loving it. They tried it at home, and they were saying: ‘Oh man, this is like the original Goa Lemon,’” he said.

“I didn’t have the recipe. I just tried making it and it happened. The Goa Lemon video was (viewed by) around 2 million people.”

While pursuing a corporate career, Saudagar did the videos only in his free time but tried to make more, especially during the month of fasting, as his fans inspired him to do so.

“People started knocking to me just before the day Ramadan started: ‘Brother, when is Shorbot With Saudagar coming? When are you making new juice? When are you making new recipes?’” he said.

“Every day, people were commenting and replying on my posts: ‘I’m waiting for the new recipe, new video. But the best comment was: ‘Brother, I think, Ramadan is incomplete without your videos.’”

Since he started the project, Saudagar has recorded over 70 videos. While he may be short of new local fruits to explore, as he has already tried most of them, this fasting month he will try to develop some fruit-based electrolyte drinks.

“I’m still researching how to make it,” he said. “That should be one new thing. And also, I want to add more smoothies to help you with stomach health and digestion. You need to be healthy during Ramadan.”


US envoy visits Moscow for ceasefire talks that a Russian official says would help Ukraine

Updated 48 min 1 sec ago
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US envoy visits Moscow for ceasefire talks that a Russian official says would help Ukraine

  • The diplomatic development coincided with a Russian claim that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of a key town in Russia’s Kursk border region
  • Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia for talks with officials on the US ceasefire proposal

MOSCOW: An envoy of US President Donald Trump arrived in Moscow on Thursday for talks on an American-proposed 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has accepted but which a senior Russian official said would help Kyiv by giving its weary and shorthanded military a break, three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The diplomatic development coincided with a Russian claim that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of a key town in Russia’s Kursk border region, where Moscow has been trying for seven months to dislodge Ukrainian troops from their foothold.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia for talks with officials on the US ceasefire proposal, according to a US official who wasn’t authorized to comment on the matter.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha, a Ukrainian operational hub in Kursk, hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk and wore military fatigues, couldn’t be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim.
The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops came as US President Donald Trump presses for a diplomatic end to the war. The US on Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior US and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting during talks held in Saudi Arabia.
Trump said Wednesday that “it’s up to Russia now” as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire. The US president has made veiled threats to hit Russia with new sanctions if it won’t engage with peace efforts.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t comment on Moscow’s view of the ceasefire proposal.
“Before the talks start, and they haven’t started yet, it would be wrong to talk about it in public,” he told reporters.
Senior US officials say they hope to see Russia stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days.
But Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, complained in televised remarks Thursday that a ceasefire would grant a “temporary break for the Ukrainian military.”
Speaking later to reporters in the Kremlin, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, reaffirmed that the US-proposed ceasefire would “give us nothing,” adding that it would “only give the Ukrainians a chance to regroup, consolidate their forces and keep doing the same in the future.”
Ushakov wouldn’t comment on Witkoff’s talks in Moscow on Thursday, saying that the parties agreed to keep them confidential.
Ushakov said that Moscow wants a “long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account Moscow’s interests and concerns.” His comments came a day after his phone call with Waltz.
Ushakov’s comments echoed statements from Putin, who has repeatedly said a temporary ceasefire would benefit Ukraine and its Western allies.
Ukraine has leveled similar accusations to Ushakov’s, claiming Russia would use a truce to regroup and rearm.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky chided Russia on his Telegram messaging app Thursday for what he said was its slow response to the ceasefire proposal, accusing Moscow of trying to delay any peace deal. He said that Ukraine is “determined to move quickly toward peace” and hoped US pressure would compel Russia to stop fighting.
The US still has about $3.85 billion in congressionally authorized funding for future arms shipments to Ukraine, but the Trump administration has shown no interest so far in using that authority to send additional weapons as it awaits the outcome of peace overtures.
By signaling its openness to a ceasefire, Ukraine has presented the Kremlin with a dilemma at a time when the Russian military has the upper hand in the war — whether to accept a truce and abandon hopes of making new gains, or reject the offer and risk derailing a cautious rapprochement with Washington.
The Ukrainian army’s foothold inside Russia has been under intense pressure for months from a renewed effort by Russian forces, backed by North Korean troops. Ukraine’s daring incursion last August led to the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since World War II and embarrassed the Kremlin.
Speaking to commanders Wednesday, Putin said that he expected the military “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the nearest future.”
Putin added that “it’s necessary to think about creating a security zone alongside the state border,” in a signal that Moscow could try to expand its territorial gains by capturing parts of Ukraine’s neighboring Sumy region. That idea could complicate a ceasefire deal.
Ukraine launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks. But the incursion didn’t significantly change the dynamic of the war.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, assessed late Wednesday that Russian forces were in control of Sudzha, a town close to the border that previously was home to about 5,000 people.
Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said late Wednesday that Russian aviation had carried out an unprecedented number of strikes on Kursk and that as a result Sudzha had been almost completely destroyed. He didn’t comment on whether Ukraine still controlled the settlement, but said it was “maneuvering (troops) to more advantageous lines.”
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Dmytro Krasylnykov, commander of Ukraine’s Northern Operational Command, which includes the Kursk region, was dismissed from his post, he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne on Wednesday. He told the outlet that he wasn’t given a reason for his dismissal, saying “I’m guessing, but I don’t want to talk about it yet.”


UK seeks tougher term for father jailed over daughter’s murder

Updated 13 March 2025
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UK seeks tougher term for father jailed over daughter’s murder

  • Urfan Sharif was jailed in December for murdering 10-year-old Sara Sharif following years of torture
  • Lawyers for the Solicitor General’s office are at the same time seeking a stiffer, indefinite, sentence for Sharif

LONDON: The father of a British-Pakistani girl jailed for 40 years for her murder should have been given a whole life sentence from which he would never be released, a top government lawyer argued in a court appeal hearing Thursday.
Urfan Sharif was jailed in December for murdering 10-year-old Sara Sharif following years of torture.
Sharif, Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool and the child’s uncle, Faisal Malik, are all appealing their sentences at the Court of Appeal in London.
Lawyers for the Solicitor General’s office are at the same time seeking a stiffer, indefinite, sentence for Sharif.
The murder trial last year caused waves of revulsion in the UK as the horrific abuse suffered by Sara was revealed.
There was anger too at how the bright, bubbly youngster had been failed by the authorities supposed to be in charge of her care.
Her body was found in bed at the family home in August 2023 covered in bites and bruises with broken bones and burns inflicted by an electric iron and boiling water.
Lawyer Naeem Majid Mian, representing Urfan Sharif, who was 43 when he was sentenced, argued in court on Thursday that although Sara’s treatment had been “horrendous” it did not merit his 40-year sentence.
“There was no intention to kill... and (the death) was not premeditated,” he added.
But documents submitted to the court on behalf of the solicitor general, one of the government’s top legal officers, called for Sharif to have an indefinite sentence imposed.
“It is submitted that the judge was wrong not to impose a whole life order on the offender,” said lawyer Tom Little in a text submission.
“This case does cross that... threshold” of rare cases that can justify a whole life term.
A lawyer for Sara’s stepmother, Carline Carberry, also told the court that her sentence of 33 years was too long and did not “justly reflect her role.”
Passing sentence in December after the trial, judge John Cavanagh said Sara had been subjected to “acts of extreme cruelty” but that Sharif and Batool had not shown “a shred of remorse.”
They had treated Sara as “worthless” and as “a skivvy,” because she was a girl. And because she was not Batool’s natural child, the stepmother had failed to protect her, he said.
“This poor child was battered with great force again and again.”
Malik, 29, who lived with the family was sentenced to 16 years after being found guilty of causing or allowing her death. He is also seeking to appeal his term.
A post-mortem examination of Sara’s body revealed she had 71 fresh injuries and at least 25 broken bones.
She had been beaten with a metal pole and cricket bat and “trussed up” with a “grotesque combination of parcel tape, a rope and a plastic bag” over her head.
A hole was cut in the bag so she could breathe and she was left to soil herself in nappies as she was prevented from using the bathroom.
Police called the case “one of the most difficult and distressing” that they had ever had to deal with.
The day after Sara died, the three adults fled their home in Woking, southwest of London, and flew to Pakistan with five other children.
Her father, a taxi-driver, left behind a handwritten note saying he had not meant to kill his daughter.
After a month on the run, the three returned to the UK and were arrested after landing. The five other children remain in Pakistan.
There has been anger in the UK that Sara’s brutal treatment was missed by social services after her father withdrew her from school four months before she died.
Sharif and his first wife, Olga, were well-known to social services.
In 2019, a judge decided to award the care of Sara and an older brother to Sharif, despite his history of abuse.
The school had three times raised the alarm about Sara’s case, notably after she arrived in class wearing a hijab, which she used to try to cover marks on her body which she refused to explain.
Since December, the government has moved to tighten up the rules on home-schooling.
Sara’s body was repatriated to Poland, where her mother is from, and where a funeral was organized.


Nominee for White House briefing role pulled over Gaza war stance

Updated 13 March 2025
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Nominee for White House briefing role pulled over Gaza war stance

  • Daniel Davis called US support for Israel’s campaign a ‘stain on our character’
  • Senior Republicans opposed his appointment as deputy director for mission integration

LONDON: US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard decided against appointing a critic of Israel’s war in Gaza to a top government post over fears that doing so would anger members of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Daniel Davis, a senior fellow at the Defense Priorities think tank in Washington, was under consideration for the role of deputy director for mission integration, in charge of — among other things — putting together the president’s daily intelligence briefings.

However, a source within the administration told the New York Times that Gabbard reconsidered the appointment after Davis’s recommendation received criticism from several of her colleagues, Republican members of Congress, and other right-wing bodies and figures over his stance on Israel.

Davis wrote on social media in January that US support for the Gaza war was a “stain on our character as a nation, as a culture, that will not soon go away.”

On Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League said his appointment would be “extremely dangerous.”

Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA operations officer, said Davis’s stance on the conflict ran contrary to mainstream Republican positions.

“His overt criticism of Israel and total opposition to any military action against Iran seems to run counter to current administration policy,” added Polymeropoulos, a fellow at the Atlantic Council.

The NYT reported that “allies” of Davis said there was “no hint of antisemitism or opposition to Israel in his work.”

Davis is known to be skeptical of US involvement in a number of overseas conflicts, in line with the position of Defense Priorities, which has called for less American involvement in the Middle East and an end to the war in Ukraine.

Davis has also been vocal about the suffering of Palestinians, calling plans to remove people from Gaza “ethnic cleansing.”

Gabbard is also a skeptic of US overseas intervention, and while she has said little about Gaza in recent months, Davis has been vocal on social media in supporting similar stances to her on conflicts such as Ukraine and the transition in Syria. 

However, the Trump administration is known to be split on foreign policy directions the president should pursue, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz known to be more hawkish, especially on US policy toward Iran.