I don’t want to love-bomb you, I want to love-learn you

Thousands of Chinese retirees take to the streets of Wuhan and Dalian, to protest against cuts to their health benefits. / Al Jazeera

French unions stage yet another day of strikes in protest of a plan to raise the retirement age. / Bloomberg

Residents of the Ohio village upended by a train derailment grow furious when the train company won't talk to them about hazardous chemicals. / NPR

BP, Shell, and ExxonMobil quietly back away from their climate promises. / Grist

Argentina and Uruguay confirm cases of bird flu, following Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. / Reuters

Unrelated: Artist Thomas Medicus's new "Human Animal Binary'' installation. / Colossal

Has "middle age" disappeared as a life stage? "There's no point trying to impose chronological age on what is or is not middle age." / The Guardian

Roxane Gay and her wife each recount traveling to Antarctica for a 60th birthday, to see a total eclipse of the sun. / AFAR

When restaurants win Michelin stars, their menu descriptions get longer. / Twitter

See also: A brief history of coffee prices. / Sprudge

Replika, aka the "AI companion who cares," experiences some abrupt changes to its erotic role-play features, leaving users confused. / Know Your Meme

Kevin Roose: Bing won't stop declaring its love for me. (Here is the transcript of the love-bombing.) / The New York Times

An interview with Will Shortz about his life in crosswords. / The New Yorker

At the end of an interview, Liam Neeson demonstrates how to throw a fake punch. / YouTube

Major THANKS to yesterday's anonymous supporter! 💕💕

This newsletter is backed by readers, not love-bombing and definitely ads (ads stupid), to cover costs. Please consider becoming a Sustaining Member or supporting via PayPal, crypto, or Venmo (open in app). Thanks!

✔️  Got a correction or a link we should consider? Email us or just reply to this newsletter.

Your headlines are sourced and written by Andrew Womack and Rosecrans Baldwin, Monday through Saturday.