Today’s Big Story

Labor Day

The history and meaning behind the holiday

Summer is unofficially wrapping up. Labor Day weekend has arrived and if you’re planning on traveling, you’ll see plenty of crowds out there. The Transportation Security Administration is preparing for its busiest Labor Day travel period on record, with an 8.5% increase in passenger volume over 2023. United Airlines and American Airlines said they are expecting their busiest Labor Day operations ever. Or maybe you plan on staying home, firing up the barbecue and doing a little online shopping. Either way, this is the long weekend most of us try to find ways to relax.

This year is actually the 130th anniversary of the federal holiday celebrating the American worker. While actions by unions in recent years to advocate for workers are a reminder of the holiday’s activist roots, the three-day weekend it creates has become a touchstone in the lives of Americans and serves as a reminder that fall is around the corner.

According to the History Channel, the annual celebration of workers and their achievements, “originated during one of American labor history’s most dismal chapters.” In the late 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order to eke out a basic living. Despite restrictions in some states, children as young as five toiled in mills, factories and mines across the country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts’ wages.

The idea of a “workingmen’s holiday” originated in New York in 1882 and then caught on in other industrial centers across the country. Soon, several states passed legislation recognizing it. But Congress wouldn’t legalize the holiday until 12 years later, when a watershed moment in American labor history brought workers’ rights squarely into the public’s view. On May 11, 1894, employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago went on strike to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives. In the wake of this massive unrest and in an attempt to repair ties with American workers, Congress passed an act making Labor Day a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories. On June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed it into law. More than a century later, the true founder of Labor Day has yet to be identified.

When Labor Day first became a federal holiday, unions in the U.S. were largely contested and courts would often rule strikes illegal, leading to violent disputes, the Associated Press reports. It wasn’t until the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 that private sector employees were granted the right to join unions. Later into the 20th century, states also began passing legislation to allow unionization in the public sector. But even today, not all states allow collective bargaining for public workers. Which explains why there’s been a resurgence in labor organizing, activism and support from young people in recent years.

Harris Speaks on the Record

Takeaways from her first major interview as the Democratic nominee

Vice President Kamala Harris was getting some flak for not sitting down for a interview after emerging as the Democratic nominee. Of course, with limited time, some thought it was probably smart to focus on building support and preparing for the convention. But, she finally sat down with CNN last night, speaking on her agenda for 2025 and a series of topics that she has so far avoided—and drawing instant criticism from Republican rival Donald Trump.

Alongside her running mate, Tim Walz, Harris explained how her positions on issues including fracking and border security have evolved since she first ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019. “My values have not changed,” she said. She also sought to frame the 2024 race as one that offers the American people “a new way forward” after a political decade in which Trump—in office or out—was a central figure. But she brushed off a question and refused to engage in Trump’s criticism of her gender and ethnicity.

Instead, she said her highest priority upon taking office would be to “support and strengthen the middle class” through policies including increasing the child tax credit, curtailing price gouging on everyday goods and increasing access to affordable housing. Trump responded on his social media platform with a long rant, saying “America will become a WASTELAND!”

The Other War

Why Sudan’s catastrophic war is the world’s problem

War-wrecked Sudan’s humanitarian crisis is at “a catastrophic breaking point” amid fighting and devastating flooding, the U.N. migration agency has said. American-led talks to halt Sudan’s war, convened at an exclusive Swiss ski resort, ended after 10 days last week with agreements to deliver food and medicine to millions of starving Sudanese in the country’s most famine-stricken areas. But the mediators failed to broker a cease-fire.

The Economist says the looming famine could be deadlier than Ethiopia’s in the 1980s: some estimate that 2.5 million civilians could die by the end of the year. And with more than 10 million people (a fifth of the population) forced to flee from their homes, the catastrophic war could spread chaos across Africa and the Middle East.

However, every time Sudan’s military leader, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, takes steps toward peace, “he faces immediate backlash from political forces in his coalition with nefarious reasons to extend this war,” one official told the New York Times. “They need this war, with all its unimaginable suffering, so that they can reclaim power that the Sudanese people would never give them voluntarily.” With cease-fire talks off the table, mediators pivoted to humanitarian issues. Although some are on opposite sides of the war—Egypt has traditionally backed Sudan’s army, while the Emiratis back the Rapid Support Forces—several diplomats said they put aside their political differences and worked together to negotiate concessions from both sides on humanitarian access.

Would You Use Baking Soda to Boost Performance?

It was the hottest supplement at the Olympics. And now a new study finds that it really works.

It was a surprising admission: An anonymous Olympic runner quoted in the Telegraph, said that at least 80% of elite runners are now using sodium bicarbonate, better known as baking soda, as a go-to supplement. “I figured if everybody else is using it…” he said in his post-race interview. “And it’s been working wonders.”

The science backs up the claims, too. According to Outside, after a lot anecdotal evidence, researchers finally published a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial supporting Maurten’s claims. In the European Journal of Applied Physiology, a team at Edge Hill University in Britain led by Eli Spencer Shannon presented data showing a 1.4% boost for cyclists in a 40-kilometer time trial, which works out to a gain of roughly a minute over the course of an event lasting an hour.

How exactly does it work? The traditional explanation was that hard exercise produces lactic acid, and baking soda is a base that counteracts that rising acidity. These days, the understanding has shifted: it’s hydrogen ions that interfere with muscle contractions, and baking soda helps pull them out of the muscle cells and neutralize them. There are other possible mechanisms, too—but the bottom line is that it works.

A Weekend Pairing

‘Only Murders in the Building’ + a Manhattan Cocktail

Only Murders in the Building returned to Hulu for a highly-anticipated fourth season this week. There can only be so many murders in one building, so in this season the unlikely podcasting trio (Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez) is heading to Los Angeles. As they try to investigate the events left over from last season on both coasts, we’ll also see the return of stars Meryl Streep, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and a wild cast of guest stars.

The new season picks up exactly where the third season left off: with the gang celebrating solving the murder of Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) while their friend Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch) dies—shot through a window in Charles’s apartment while fetching a precious bottle of wine. Sure, it’s a little grim. But the death of a relatively important character puts a new spin on a plot that might otherwise feel a bit like a reprise of the show’s meta-meditations on fame.

Get outside this weekend.