Month: May 2026

Like automotive fuel, jet fuel prices have skyrocketed since US and Israeli missles landed in Iran two months ago. With the Strait of Hormuz still effectively shut despite ongoing talks, prices are set to go nowhere but up. Travelers, though, don’t seem to care. A CNBC report shows airlines forecasting high profits in the second quarter of the year despite high prices for aviation fuel (or Avgas). Airlines have been passing costs on to consumers, but ticket sales show no signs of slowing.

The price spike comes at a time when prices for fuel are already trending upwards. Warm weather in the northern hemisphere and the arrival of spring always mean more people on the road and in the sky, looking to shake off the winter chill. In March, travel-agency ticket sales rose 12 percent from a year ago. Domestic economy ticket prices are up too, 21% from a year prior. The cheap seats aren’t the only ones getting more expensive, either. Premium seats like Business and First Class tickets rose by 17% per trip. “… bookings have remained resilient amidst these changes, which is an encouraging sign,” JetBlue Airways
CEO Joanna Geraghty said on an earnings call.

Jet Blue and Amewrican Airlines sais revenue would rise 11% and 16.5% in the second quarter, respectively. This is in spite of what Geraghty said was the second largest disruption to air travel since the pandemic. “It’s possible especially given air ticket prices have grown well below general inflation since COVID” that fares stay high, saidUBS airline analyst Atul Maheswari. “As such, we think there is room for airfares to go up and stay higher. This could drive significant earnings growth and margin expansion for airlines in 2027 should jet fuel prices moderate. That said, we think demand would need to hold steady for airlines to maintain pricing next year.”

What this means for travelers is simple: airlines will continue to raise costs and blame fuel prices, even after prices have come down. The end result will be price increases on economy seats most of all, as premium seats tend to already have wide margins airlines can lean on. Budget airlines, like Spirit, can flounder as a result of smaller margins on cheap flights, leaving many budget travelers without options.

Video games take inspiration from other titles all the time, even if fans don’t see it in plain sight. Sometimes, the most unlikely predecessor paves a path for something even greater, and that’s exactly what happened with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The 2023 Switch game is now considered one of the best in the series and an all-time entry in Nintendo’s canon. It was everything Breath of the Wild was, but with an even more fleshed-out and advanced world.

The creation tools that allow players to build vehicles to their hearts’ desire are one of the first things that come to mind when thinking about the game, but this is a mechanic that was actually popularized by a cult classic Xbox 360 game, not appreciated by the public.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts didn’t go over well with series fans when it came out in 2008. Developer Rare’s move from Nintendo consoles to Microsoft hardware meant that the game was developed with a different audience in mind.

Instead of traditional 3D platforming like on the Nintendo 64, the game utilized a build-and-operate approach that turned Banjo’s world into a playground for crafting motorized vehicles and completing different objectives that were made easier or more difficult depending on what you were driving.

With almost 20 years in the rearview mirror, some fans on social media are now crediting the density of the building mechanics. Some even think that The Legend of Zelda’s vehicle gameplay is inspired by Nuts & Bolts, but it doesn’t live up to the Xbox 360 title.

TOTK has an amazingly powerful creation toolset that’s utterly let down by a game design that barely incentives engagement with it on any meaningful level.

Nuts & Bolts integrated its build system into the actual gameplay 10 times better. https://t.co/7BbIwAYjId

— André (@AndreSegers) April 30, 2026

This fan bemoans that TOTK doesn’t meld the vehicles with the world design as well as Banjo-Kazooie did. Another person thinks that Nuts & Bolts still reigns far superior and believes TOTK has no other legacy beyond the crafting elements.

Kinda funny that it took them 12 years to make this game and its only legacy is the part they ripped off from nuts and bolts https://t.co/9K7UXhu2hG

— Bring Back Banjo (@BringBackBanjoK) April 30, 2026

Both of these games are controversial in their own ways. Tears of the Kingdom is still one of the most critically acclaimed games on the Switch, despite some detractors. Nuts & Bolts is now viewed in a more favorable light than in 2008, but Banjo-Kazooie fans wish for there to be a true sequel to Banjo-Tooie.

Regardless of the opinion on these games, it’s wonderful to see such different game universes collide, emulate, and inspire one another even decades after their creation.

An AP Newsreport found a few Americans are saving money on gas in a creative new way: by visiting Native American reservations. Exempt from gas taxes, stations on “the rez” are cheaper than those even just 30 minutes away. At the Tulalip Market on the Tulalip reservation in Washington, gas is $4.84 per gallon, less than what Junelle Lewis is paying just 30 minutes away in the Seattle metro area.

“I purposely drove here just for the gas,” she said. For some, it’s a long way to go for gas, but in states like California, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, and Washington state, there are dozens of tribally owned fuel stations exempt from state fuel taxes. Gas prices have skyrocketed since American missiles fell on Iran, sending the national average to $4.15 per gallon as of publication. At the Chukchansi Crossing Fuel Station & Travel Center near Yosemite National Park, gas is 60 cents less than at nearby stations. In New Mexico and New York, two fuel stations fall as low as $3.79 and $3.65 per gallon, respectively.

Ordinarily, tribes pay a federal fuel tax – 18.4 cents per gallon of gas and 24.3 cents per gallon of diesel. Like many other stations, this gets figured into what tribal stations charge for gas. State tax exemptions mean the rest is down to the individual station. US law holds that states don’t have the authority to collect taxes from Native Americans on their land. The precedent is one of the longest-standing in an otherwise long history of walkbacks and violations of Native American sovereignty on reservations. “They’re cheaper here than anywhere else,” Todd Hall of Paden, Oklahoma, told AP News. He likes the “way the tribe operates,” and says the Citizen Potawatomi Nation gas station saves him about $5 a week on gas.