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      Trump news at a glance: president meets Mamdani at White House and it was … nice?

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      It’s not as if they were holding hands and skipping down the halls of the White House, but President Trump and New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani appeared to get along well in their first meeting.Trump hosted the 34-year-old Democratic socialist, who defied early expectations to win the city’s Democratic primary, then the mayoral race. And Trump let it be known he was impressed by that, congratulating Mamdani and describing his victory as “an incredible race against smart people”.“I feel very confident that he can do a very good job,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as Mamdani stood to his right, offering praise for his ideological opposite. “The better he does, the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”It was a stark change of tune from Trump’s comments during the mayoral election, when he dismissed the candidate from his own party, Curtis Sliwa, as a lightweight and instead endorsing Andrew Cuomo, the independent and former Democratic governor, while branding Mamdani a “little communist”.It remains to be seen if the good vibes will last between the two political opposites. Mamdani is set to be sworn into office in January.Trump and Mamdani form an unlikely alliance at White House meetingDonald Trump and Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect, walked out of their meeting on Friday afternoon with an unlikely alliance, agreeing to work together on housing, food prices and cost-of-living concerns that have defined both their political appeals to working-class voters.“We agreed a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said in the Oval Office, sometimes jumping in to shield Mamdani from aggressive questioning from the press.The incoming mayor had framed the meeting as an opportunity to advance his central campaign platform: making New York more affordable. His promises include free public buses, government-run grocery stores, rent freezes for more than 1m stabilized units, and the city’s first universal childcare program.Read the full storyMarjorie Taylor Greene to resign from US Congress in JanuaryIn a four-page statement, the Georgia representative said the legislative branch has been “sidelined” and accused Republican leaders of refusing to advance conservative priorities such as border security or “America First” policies.The Republican congresswoman who was denounced by Donald Trump over her support for the release of the Epstein files, explained her decision in a 10-minute social media video posted on X.Last week, Greene said that she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety” after Trump announced he was withdrawing his support for and endorsement of the Georgia representative.Read the full storyZelenskyy says Ukraine has impossible choice as Trump pushes plan to end warVolodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine faces one of the most difficult moments in its history, after Donald Trump demanded Kyiv accepts within days a US-backed “peace plan” that would force it to give up territory to Russia and make other painful concessions.Trump confirmed on Friday morning that Thursday – Thanksgiving in the US – would be an “acceptable” deadline for Zelenskyy to sign the deal, which European and Ukrainian officials have said amounts to a “capitulation”.Read the full storyTens of thousands detained and deported during government shutdownUS immigration officials arrested, detained and deported tens of thousands of people in operations nationwide during the federal government shutdown, new data reveals. The arrests have led to a marked increase in the number of people held in immigration jails, with more than 65,000 currently detained nationwide – the highest number of people in immigration detention ever.Read the full storyUS data agency cancels October inflation reportThe US federal government will not publish official data on inflation for October, depriving policymakers at the Federal Reserve of key information as they consider whether to cut interest rates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics canceled the release of the closely watched consumer price index (CPI) for October, citing the government shutdown – the longest in history, before it ended earlier this month – and stating it could not “retroactively collect” the data required for the report.Read the full storyRFK Jr instructed CDC to change stance on vaccine and autismRobert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, said in an interview with the New York Times that he personally instructed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism.Read the full storyDemocrats investigating Epstein decry Andrew’s ‘silence’ Two Democratic lawmakers involved in the US congressional investigation into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein on Friday condemned Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s “silence” in response to their request that he sit for a deposition.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      A gold Rolex desk clock and a $130,000 engraved gold bar given to Donald Trump by a group of Swiss billionaires have raised questions in Europe and the US about the personalisation of US presidential power.

      Eric Swalwell, a seven-term Democratic US representative known for his pugnacious and persistent opposition to Trump, announced he will run for governor of California.

      The justice department sued California this week for allowing undocumented college students to pay in-state tuition for public universities, alleging the policy harms US citizens.

      Donald Trump has assembled the least diverse US government of the 21st century, filling the corridors of power with white men at the expense of women and people of colour, research shows.

      The US justice department is recruiting legal experts to serve as so-called “deportation” judges as part of the Trump administration’s effort to carry out its immigration crackdown.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 20 November 2025. More

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      I ❤ NY: Queens recognises Queens as Trump gives Mamdani warm reception

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      The armies of lefty America and of Maga were assembled ready to watch their champions do battle. After all, Donald Trump had called Zohran Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and “total nut job.” The incoming democratic socialist New York mayor in turn had called the Republican US president a “despot” and “fascist”.But anyone expecting to see fists fly and shirts torn in the Oval Office was in for a disappointment. Trump, 79, and 34-year-old Mamdani actually got on rather well. In fact beautifully, bewilderingly, bizarrely well. Instead of Batman v Superman, this was Toy Story besties Woody and Buzz Lightyear.Perhaps the old left v right binaries really are dead. This was a case of game recognising game – of Queens recognising Queens. Trump is now on much better terms with Zohran Mamdani than Marjorie Taylor Greene, his fellow Republican. Mamdani got a warmer reception from Trump than from the leaders of his own party – a world turned upside down.The buddy movie began with Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk and Mamdani standing to his side, a statuette of George Washington behind him. “We have one thing in common – we want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” the president said, referring to New York.He added: “I think you’re going to have hopefully a really great mayor. The better he does – the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party, there’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”That great thud was the sound of White House reporters’ jaws hitting the floor of the Oval Office. That shredding noise was the sound of Republican strategists destroying their playbook to demonise Mamdani as the Marxist face of the Democrats.The bromance – as incongruous as Trump laughing and joking with Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral – went on with plenty of tactile body language. Mamdani, who will be the first Muslim mayor of New York and once proclaimed himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” reported: “It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City, and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers.”Once reporters started asking questions, Trump acknowledged that Mamdani has views that are “out there” but predicted he is “going to change” and “is going to surprise some conservative people, actually”.Both men noted that some Mamdani voters had also voted for Trump. The democratic socialist said it was because of “cost of living, cost of living, cost of living” – and he looked forward to delivering with the president on “the affordability agenda”. Trump acknowledged: “Some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have.”So when Mamdani was asked about his past description of Trump as a despot with a fascist agenda, he artfully pivoted from points of disagreement back to affordability. The president then interjected: “And I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting.”What would count as an insult these days? Totalitarian? Tyrant? Dictator? Führer? When a Fox News reporter asked if Mamdani stood by his comments that Trump is a fascist, Trump interjected before he could fully answer the question.“That’s OK. You can just say yes. OK?” Trump said, patting Mamdani affectionately on the arm. “It’s easier … than explaining it. I don’t mind.”Cute – but historians may opine that a US president lightly shrugging off the term fascist was not a stellar moment in the history of the republic.Trump jumped in again when a reporter asked Mamdani why he flew to Washington instead of taking a train, which uses less fossil fuels. “I’ll stick up for you,” the president said, before saying flying was faster and Mamdani was busy.And when someone asked about Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a staunch Trump ally running for governor of New York state, having branded Mamdani “a jihadist”, the president said he did not agree, calling him “a very rational person”.One can imagine Stefanik being reached for comment and saying, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”Indeed, it was hard to get a wafer between Mamdani and Trump. The president, who had previously threatened to strip federal funding from the biggest US city if Mamdani won the 4 November mayor’s race, said: “I expect to be helping him not hurting him – a big help. Because I want New York City to be great.”Asked if he would feel comfortable living in New York under a Mamdani administration, the billionaire Trump responded: “Yeah, I would, I really would – especially after the meeting, absolutely. We agree on a lot more than I would have thought.”He elaborated by saying they had discussed how, when democratic socialist Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2016 presidential race, Trump picked up “a lot” of his voters on his way to the first of his two presidencies because Sanders had raised issues such as rip-off trade deals. “Bernie Sanders and I agreed on much more than people thought,” Trump said.The comment implied that the far left and far right ends of the political spectrum are not at opposite ends in a straight line but rather curve toward each other like the ends of a horseshoe. Hence Trump and Mamdani might have more in common than they do with the establishment moderates of their own parties.Certainly both channeled frustration with the status quo and the elites. But as Trump courts oligarchs, plans a lavish ballroom and enriches his own family, his claim to economic populism is hard to swallow.Perhaps his warm handshake with Mamdani on Friday was less about ideology than Trump’s love of a winner leaving the president willing to flatter the mayor-elect.As Trump put it: “It’s an amazing thing that he did.”Perhaps the president recognises a fellow savant when it comes to insurgent election campaigns. Or perhaps two New Yorkers sitting in a room and saying I ❤ NY is a language no one else can quite understand. More

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      Trump and Mamdani form an unlikely alliance at White House meeting

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      Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect, walked out of their meeting on Friday afternoon with an unlikely alliance, agreeing to work together on housing, food prices and cost-of-living concerns that have defined both their political appeals to working-class voters.“We agreed a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said in the Oval Office, sometimes jumping in to shield Mamdani from aggressive questioning from the press.The sit-down – which many had anticipated would be contentious, given months of intense rhetoric in which Trump branded Mamdani a “communist lunatic” – instead produced camaraderie, warm words and concrete pledges of cooperation between the Republican president and the self-described democratic socialist who secured a commanding electoral victory earlier at the beginning of November with over 50% of the vote.“I feel very confident that he can do a very good job,” Trump said after the meeting, offering praise for his ideological opposite. “The better he does, the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”The president congratulated Mamdani on his mayoral victory, describing it as “an incredible race against smart people” – and the two politicians shook hands.Trump added that he had already seen signs the young politician might surprise both conservative and liberal observers alike.For Mamdani, the meeting represented vindication of his strategy to focus the discussion on economic issues rather than ideological divides. He described the meeting as “productive” and “focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City”.“We spoke about rent, we spoke about groceries, we spoke about utilities, we spoke about the different ways in which people are being pushed out,” Mamdani told reporters after emerging from the Oval Office.Trump added: “We had some interesting conversation, and some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have.” He pointed to their agreement on lowering crime and building housing.The meeting marked the first face-to-face discussion between the combative Republican president and the defiant democratic socialist.For Mamdani, a leftwing state assemblymember until his shock primary victory, the sit-down presented an early test of his ability to negotiate with a president who controls vast federal resources that the city depends upon. Mamdani’s team made the first move in reaching out for a meeting, all while Trump earlier threatened to withhold federal funding from New York if Mamdani took office, though he has since suggested a more conciliatory posture, telling Fox News: “I’m so torn, because I would like to see the new mayor do well, because I love New York.”The administration has deployed multiple pressure tactics ahead of the meeting. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have signaled plans to escalate operations in New York City, while a number of rightwing congressional Republicans suggested investigating whether Mamdani’s citizenship is valid, despite his naturalization in 2018 after immigrating from Uganda as a child.Mamdani’s team spent Thursday preparing for the encounter through calls with Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and the civil rights leader Al Sharpton to strategize the approach. He also spoke with Robert Wolf, the former chief executive of UBS Americas and a known ally of Barack Obama.When asked on Thursday whether he feared receiving hostile treatment similar to the contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, earlier this year – where Trump accused Zelenskyy of “gambling with world war III” – Mamdani brushed aside concerns. “I’ll stand up for New Yorkers every single day,” he replied.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe incoming mayor had framed the meeting as an opportunity to advance his central campaign platform: making New York more affordable. His promises include free public buses, government-run grocery stores, rent freezes for more than 1m stabilized units, and the city’s first universal childcare program.“I view this meeting as an opportunity for me to make my case,” Mamdani said on Thursday. “It behooves me to ensure that I leave no stone unturned in looking to make this city more affordable.”Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, similarly said Trump’s willingness to meet was evidence of his openness to dialogue across political divides.“President Trump is willing to meet with anyone and talk to anyone and to try to do what’s right on behalf of the American people, whether they live in blue states or red states, or blue cities,” Leavitt said.But the underlying tensions were not subtle. Trump got directly involved in the mayoral election, dismissing the candidate from his own party, Curtis Sliwa, as a lightweight and instead endorsing Andrew Cuomo, the Independent, formerly Democratic governor, while branding Mamdani a “little communist”. The Trump administration also yanked federal aid for critical infrastructure projects – including the Gateway Tunnel between New York and New Jersey and the Second Avenue subway line – during budget negotiations.Among New York voters, Trump garnered only 27% approval compared with 70% disapproval in CNN’s exit polling from the mayoral election. However, 10% of Trump’s 2024 voters also cast ballots for Mamdani, suggesting there is indeed overlap in their populist economic messaging, despite their vast ideological differences. More

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      Trump’s DoJ sues California over college tuition benefits for undocumented students

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      The justice department sued California on Thursday for allowing undocumented college students to pay in-state tuition for public universities, alleging the policy harms US citizens.The lawsuit, filed in the US district court for the eastern district of California, marks the third time this week that the Trump administration has sued California. In addition to challenging the state’s in-state tuition policy, the lawsuit argues that California unlawfully extends eligibility for scholarships and subsidized loans to undocumented students.Among the defendants are the state, top California officials, and the state’s two public university systems: the University of California and California State University.“Federal law prohibits aliens illegally present in the United States from receiving in-state tuition benefits that are denied to out-of-state US citizens,” reads the complaint. “There are no exceptions.”California law does allow some students to qualify for in-state tuition rates, which are lower than out-of-state tuition, even if they technically qualify as non-residents. This includes students who have had “three full-time years or the equivalent at any combination” of California high school, California adult high school, or California community college.The California Dream Act, two bills passed in 2011, permits undocumented students to apply for, and obtain, state-based financial assistance, according to San Francisco State University. Undocumented students cannot receive federal financial aid for college.The justice department’s civil complaint alleges that California policy on undocumented student tuition is “unconstitutional” and wants a judge to “declare it illegal and permanently enjoin its enforcement”.“California is illegally discriminating against American students and families by offering exclusive tuition benefits for non-citizens,” said Pamela Bondi, the US attorney general. “This marks our third lawsuit against California in one week – we will continue bringing litigation against California until the state ceases its flagrant disregard for federal law.”The Trump administration has filed similar lawsuits against policies in other states, including Illinois, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Kentucky and Texas. Half the country now has similar laws to California’s.In June, after the administration sued, Texas ended its decades-old law. And Florida last year scrapped its law that allowed in-state tuition for high school graduates who weren’t in the country legally.Supporters of the state tuition breaks argue that they don’t violate federal law if they provide the same rates to US citizens in the same circumstances – meaning they are residents of the state and graduates of one of its high schools. The California Dream Act also allows such students to apply for state-funded financial aid.Many of the students were brought to the US by their parents when they were children, and supporters of the laws say they are as much a part of their communities as US citizens.The complaint cites an executive order signed in February that directs federal departments and agencies to block undocumented people from receiving public benefits. Another executive order signed in April directs officials to stop enforcing laws and practices that favor undocumented people over US citizens. The lawsuit argues that the Republican president’s orders enforce federal immigration laws.The University of California defended its decades-old in-state tuition policy.“While we will, of course, comply with the law as determined by the courts, we believe our policies and practices are consistent with current legal standards,” it said in a statement.The lawsuit comes weeks after the California supreme xourt let stand a lower-court ruling that the University of California’s policy barring students without legal status in the US from campus jobs is discriminatory and must be reconsidered.University system officials had warned that the decision would put them in a precarious position as they negotiate with the Trump administration after the withdrawal of federal research funds.The UC is dealing with federal grant suspensions and a White House demand that it pay a $1bn fine over allegations, including antisemitism and the illegal consideration of race in admitting students to its Los Angeles campus.The California State University system is the nation’s largest and among its most diverse, with more than 460,000 students. More than a quarter of undergraduates are first-generation college students, according to the university system.The University of California serves about 300,000 students. More

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      Democrats investigating Epstein decry Andrew ‘silence’ over interview request

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      Two Democratic lawmakers involved in the US congressional investigation into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein on Friday condemned Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s “silence” in response to their request that he sit for a deposition.Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the House oversight committee, and Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the panel, were among the Democrats who earlier this month sent the former British prince a letter seeking his cooperation in their inquiry into Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.“Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s silence in the face of the Oversight Democrats’ demand for testimony speaks volumes,” Garcia and Subramanyam said Friday, a day after the deadline they had set to receive Mountbatten-Windsor’s response.Documents the committee has obtained – many of which came from Epstein’s estate – along with testimony from abuse survivor Virginia Giuffre, “raise serious questions” the ex-prince “must answer, yet he continues to hide”, the lawmakers continued.“Our work will move forward with or without him, and we will hold anyone who was involved in these crimes accountable, no matter their wealth, status, or political party. We will get justice for the survivors.”Democrats on the investigative committee appear to have few options to compel Mountbatten-Windsor to talk. As the minority party, they lack the power to issue subpoenas, and the Republican chair James Comer has not commented on if he would take such a step against the former prince.Even if one was issued, Mountbatten-Windsor – who has strongly denied wrongdoing – could avoid the legal penalties for non-compliance by not coming to the United States.The lawmakers issued their statement days after Donald Trump had signed into law the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which will compel attorney general Pam Bondi to release documents related to the government’s handling of his case within 30 days.Trump, a one-time friend of Epstein, tried to stop the bill from moving through Congress, but backed down when it appeared clear it had the votes to pass the House of Representatives. However, the law includes exemptions for the release of documents that could undermine national security and jeopardize investigations.Critics have accused Bondi of being a Trump loyalist who has used the law enforcement agency’s powers to protect the president and retaliate against his allies. Last week, she announced that she would investigate ties between Epstein and Democrats, shortly after Trump demanded she do so.In a letter to Bondi on Friday, Garcia wrote that “politically motivated investigations are not a legitimate justification for withholding or redacting records” under the newly passed law.“There is already a concern president Trump will attempt, on dubious legal grounds, to exploit a provision which allows [the] DoJ to withhold information relevant to ongoing investigations,” Garcia said, echoing a concern expressed by Republican senators this week.He also noted that the committee is awaiting the justice department’s response to a subpoena they issued in August for documents related to Epstein, which Garcia said can be shared in their entirety with lawmakers, even if they are involved in an investigation.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Any additional federal investigations launched by the DoJ or the president do not impact our subpoena,” Garcia wrote, while adding that “the identity of survivors and potential victims” can be protected.In September, the justice department turned over more than 33,000 documents to the committee in response to its subpoena, but most of them were already publicly available.A source familiar said that the justice department is “sitting on a mountain of information” that may total up to 300 gigabytes of files. These include interview transcripts, court documents and emails, as well as records from the investigation that led to Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea to sexual abuse charges in Florida, and the sex trafficking investigation that led to his 2019 arrest in New York, sources said.As he campaigned to return to the White House last year, Trump, alongside his allies, made statements indicating that there was more to be revealed about Epstein and his ties to global elites.But in July, the justice department and FBI released a memo saying that they had no further information to share about his activities or relationships, while concluding that his death was a suicide, despite conspiracy theories to the contrary.The announcement sparked an uproar among Trump’s supporters, leading to a drawn out congressional campaign to force release of government files related to the case that culminated in this week’s passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. More

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      Robert F Kennedy Jr instructed CDC to change stance on vaccine and autism

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      Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, said in an interview with the New York Times that he personally instructed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism.Countering decades of science showing vaccines to be safe, the US public health agency’s website was changed to say: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”In the interview, Kennedy said that while the large-scale epidemiological studies of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine had found no link to autism, and that studies of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal had also shown no link, there are gaps in the vaccine safety science.“The whole thing about ‘vaccines have been tested and there’s been this determination made’, is just a lie,” Kennedy said in his first interview with a major print publication.Public health experts, doctors and scientists have decried the update as the kind of misinformation the CDC has fought for decades as it promoted the use of life-saving childhood vaccines both in the US and abroad.Notably, the largest US county’s health department issued a statement Friday saying “there is no new evidence to support” the CDC website’s change pertaining to vaccines and autism – and the statement added that the modification is “not accurate”.“For more than 25 years, researchers around the world have rigorously examined whether vaccines cause autism,” the statement from the Los Angeles county health department said. “Over 40 high-quality studies involving more than 5.6 million children have found no link between any routine childhood vaccine and autism. This conclusion is supported by leading health authorities, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the California Department of Public Health, the World Health Organization, and leading research institutions.“The increase in autism diagnoses reflects improved screening, broader diagnostic criteria, and greater awareness – not a link to vaccines. The spread of this harmful myth stigmatizes members of the autism community and their families.” More

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      US transportation department unveils first female-modeled crash test dummy

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      The transportation department has unveiled a first crash test dummy in the US modeled specifically on female anatomy, a move officials say is meant to close decades of safety gaps in vehicle testing.Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, unveiled the THOR-05F, an advanced female design for a crash-test dummy with upgraded technical specifications. According to the transportation department, the dummy will be incorporated into federal vehicle crash testing once a final rule is published.Although men make up the majority of annual car-crash victims, women are more likely to die in collisions of comparable severity. Women are also 73% more likely than men to sustain serious injuries in a crash, according to studies. In addition, they face a higher risk of specific trauma, including pelvis and liver injuries.Despite the risks women face, the dummy used in the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s five-star crash tests is still a model designed in 1978: the Hybrid III, based on a 5ft 9in, 171lb man.Compared with the Hybrid III, the THOR-05F, which is described as more “durable, accurate and lifelike”, is equipped with over 150 sensors and can gather three times as many injury measurements as current dummies. It also represents a significant shift from the long-used Hybrid III, which has been the standard in crash testing for years.While the Hybrid III dummy assesses risk of skull fracture only, the Thor-05F can assess risk of skull fracture, brain injury and facial fractures. Additionally, with the Hybrid III only being able to bend in one direction – forward and backward, the Thor-05F can bend forward and backward, side-to-side and twist.Other differences include the spine area; while the Hybrid III has a rigid spine, the Thor-05F has a more life-like flexibility, allowing the dummy to sit slouched or erect and can measure forces in the lower spine. Additionally, unlike the Hybrid III which has no abdominal or pelvis sensors, the THOR-05F is able to measure pressure to assess risk to internal organs, as well as pelvis and hip forces from seatbelt and vehicle contact. Moreover, while the Hybrid III has no arm sensors, the new dummy is able to measure forces in upper and lower arms.“Its shape and response in a crash are based on female bodies, which will ultimately enable better assessment of brain, thorax, abdominal, pelvic and lower leg injury risk for small female occupants,” the transportation department said.Hailing the new dummy, Duffy said: “After years of delays, our team has worked hard over the last eight months to finalize the details for this new, state of the art female crash test dummy. Under the leadership of President Trump, this department will continue to put the safety of American families – including women – first.”Similarly, the National Highway Traffic Safety administrator, Jonathan Morrison, said: “This is a long overdue step toward the full adoption of this new dummy for use in our safety ratings and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.”Additionally, the US senators Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois – both co-sponsors of the She Drives Act, which seeks to improve vehicle safety testing – welcomed the announcement.“It’s far past time to make these testing standards permanent, which will help save thousands of lives and make America’s roads safer for all drivers,” Fischer said, with Duckworth adding: “Any progress here is good because there’s simply no good reason why women are more likely to be injured or die in car crashes.”Thursday’s unveiling follows other countries that have adopted improved, female-specific crash test dummies over the years including Australia and Sweden. More