Happy Wright Brothers Day everyone, for tomorrow! The White House has issued a proclamation to commemorate the first powered fight, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on 17 December, 1903.

“On Wright Brothers Day, we celebrate the ingenuity and perseverance of Orville and Wilbur Wright, whose aircraft expanded the limits of human discovery and lifted this nation to new heights,” the statement, signed by Joe Biden, says.

“When their Wright Flyer finally took to the skies… they launched the future of aviation and helped define the American spirit: bold, daring, innovative, and always asking what is next”.

Never missing an opportunity to brag, the White House is using the occasion to tout some of its own achievements.

“[The] Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is investing $25bn to renovate airport terminals; upgrade air traffic control facilities; and improve runways, taxiways, and other vital infrastructure that make flying easier and more secure,” it says.

“We have pushed airlines to rebook travelers’ tickets for free when flights are significantly delayed or canceled, and to disclose fees, like for checked baggage, clearly and up front. And we are exploring new technologies that can decrease carbon emissions coming from airplanes.”

Read the White House proclamation here.

January 6 panel preparing to release final report, referrals

Joe Biden is in Delaware, where he’s meeting with veterans at a National Guard facility named for his late son. The president is urging them to take advantage of new healthcare opportunities under legislation he signed in August.

Biden is scheduled to make public remarks at noon. We don’t know if he’ll restrict his comments only to the Pact Act, a law that helps veterans get screened for exposure to toxins, and which Senate Republicans famously blocked earlier this year in a political stunt, before relenting.

The toxins include agent orange, which was used for deforestation during the Vietnam War, and burn pits, where trash was destroyed on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to the Associated Press, the Biden administration has been hosting scores of events around the country to draw attention to the new benefits. More than 730,000 veterans have already received screenings, the White House says.

Beau Biden, the president’s elder son, served as a major in the Delaware National Guard. He died of brain cancer in 2015, and the president has suggested that exposure to burn pits on his base in Iraq may have been the cause.

Hundreds of thousands of railroad jobs disappeared in the US over the last 50 years, while railroad carriers made record profits. After their recent strike was blocked, workers are fighting back. Michael Sainato reports:

Railroad workers and unions are ramping up pressure on the US Congress and Joe Biden to address poor working conditions in the wake of the recent move to block a strike when Congress voted to impose a contract agreement.

Workers and labor activists in America have criticized that action for undermining the collective bargaining process in the US and workers’ right to strike.

Twelve labor unions representing about 115,000 railroad workers across the US had been negotiating with railway carriers since 2019 on a new union contract. By September the prospect of a strike threatened to shut down down the US railroads and hit the US economy to an estimated $2bn a day. That eventually prompted Congress – backed by the president – to impose the settlement.

“You always knew that this was the culmination of the process, you knew that Congress was going to push you back to work, you just didn’t know when and under what conditions that you’d be put back to work,” said Ross Grooters, a locomotive engineer based in Iowa and co-chair of Railroad Workers United.

Railroad workers had pushed for paid sick days to provide relief for grueling schedules caused by of labor cuts, with many workers on call 24/7 every day of the year, often having to work while sick or forgo doctor’s appointments because of their scheduling demands and strict disciplinary policies around attendance.

As conditions have worsened, railroad carriers have made record profits and spent billions of dollars on stock buybacks and dividends to shareholders. Meanwhile, US railroad jobs have declined significantly in recent years, from 1m in the 1950s to fewer than 150,000 in 2022, with drastic recent losses as the industry experienced a reduction of 40,000 workers between November 2018 and December 2020.

Now the imposed contract provides just one extra day of personal time off, with no days allotted for illnesses, and three days a year for doctor appointments with stipulations.

Read the full story:

Protecting the integrity of elections, and preventing another January 6-style insurrection, are up for discussion Friday as senators weigh an omnibus funding package to keep the government funded for another year.

The chamber passed a short-term deal late on Thursday to extend funding until 23 December, which Joe Biden will approve today after the House approved the same measure the day before.

It provides breathing space for a bipartisan team negotiating the longer-term deal, which Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer wants to see include the Electoral Count Act.

Among other measures, the law would clarify the role of the vice-president in the certification of general election results. The 2021 riot by Donald Trump supporters was sparked, at least in part, by the outgoing president’s false claim that his vice-president Mike Pence could refuse to certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, and keep him in office.

“I expect an omnibus will contain priorities both sides want to see passed into law, including more funding for Ukraine and the Electoral Count Act, which my colleagues in the Rules Committee have done great work on. It will be great to get that done,” Schumer told reporters.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader, has said he could support a omnibus bill, which will come in around $1.7tn, as long as it doesn’t contain any “poison pills”.

It would finance day-to-day operations of government agencies for the current fiscal year that began 1 October. Federal spending on programs such as social security and Medicare is not part of the annual appropriations process and is not included in the package.

Read more:

While it’s been quiet from politicians in the US (so far) over Elon Musk’s suspension of prominent journalists’ accounts from Twitter, European leaders are not holding back, and are threatening sanctions against the social media giant.

“News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying,” Věra Jourová, vice-president of the European Commission tweeted.

“EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced under our #MediaFreedomAct. @elonmusk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon.”

She did not specify what the sanctions could entail.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) compels companies using serving European web users to meet strict regulations in tackling manipulative algorithms, disinformation and other cyber harm.

Meanwhile, France’s industry minister Roland Lescure tweeted on Friday he would mothball his account.

“Following the suspension of journalists’ accounts by @elonmusk, I am suspending all activity on @Twitter until further notice”, he wrote.

Twitter: suspended accounts ‘were manually reviewed’

Good morning and happy Friday to all politics blog readers! After Elon Musk’s purge of several prominent US journalists’ Twitter accounts, the EU was quick to react, promising sanctions against the social media giant.

“We have a problem @Twitter,” the German foreign ministry tweeted, while a raft of other senior European officials are expressing their concern at curbed press freedoms.

Media outlets this side of the Atlantic are similarly outraged, and we’re waiting to see what US politicians have to say about it all. We’ll bring you reaction and developments through the day.

Here’s what else we’re watching on what’s shaping up to be a busy, and consequential day:

• Senators continue their discussions on an omnibus deal to keep the government funded for the next year after passing a week-long stopgap measure last night. Democrats want to include the Electoral Count Act, seeking to prevent another January 6-style insurrection.

• The House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack by followers of Donald Trump are wrapping up their business ahead of Monday’s final public hearing, but it’s unclear whether we’ll see the full report on that day.

• Joe Biden will meet veterans to talk about benefits and services resulting from the Pact Act during a town hall meeting at a National Guard center in Delaware named for the president’s late son Beau. He’ll speak at 12pm.

• The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will talk about international affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace thinktank in Washington DC.