A lot of you are feeling this war at the gas pump. I sure am. It now costs me $106 to fill my full-size pickup truck at the neighborhood station. I know the owner a little, and I raised my eyebrows at him when I was done. He shrugged. It was clear drivers had been grinding him about it all day.

You read abstractions about the war in Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, the unstable oil market. Then you go pump 10 gallons into your minivan and experience what that means at home. Ouch.

But don’t take it out on the station owner, Lydia DePillis told me. Lydia, who covers the American economy, reported on why price hikes at the filling station take so long to go away. When oil prices spike, profit margins shrink for businesses down the supply chain, she said. To recoup, they keep prices a little higher even as their costs shrink.

For her story, Lydia went deep on the math those gas station owners have to do as prices spike. She introduced readers to a Massachusetts gas station owner named Alex Weatherall:

He refills his tanks about every four days, and the “rack price” that his wholesale gasoline provider charges jumped to $3.347 per gallon last week from $2.398 on Feb. 25 — an increase of 39.6 percent. His last truckload cost $39,488.

Weatherall raised his price by only 33.8 percent: “He would charge more, but he feared losing business if his competitors did not follow,” Lydia wrote. “Fewer visits also mean lower sales at his convenience store and restaurant.”

Gas stations — and especially independently run ones like Weatherall’s — rely for much of their income on the snacks and sodas and cigarettes and beer they sell inside. “If I had to solely rely on fuel as my only source of profit, I wouldn’t stay in business,” another owner told Lydia. “I want the consumer to come in the store, and we do everything we can to entice them to come in.”

Feeling squeezed

Because those people who come into the store? They’re often regulars. They have relationships with the staff. They experience the gas station as a community hub. That can add to the pressure when it comes to setting prices — wherever you live. (Look at this map showing how much people pay in each state.)

My colleague Michael Barbaro, a host of “The Daily,” went to suburban Jacksonville, Fla., to hear about that pressure. He and his team spent time with a gas station manager named Cameron Joudi, who has had to ratchet up the price of his gas again and again. “He wasn’t repeatedly raising gas prices on strangers,” Michael said. “He was raising prices on people he really cares about. People who he knows are already stretched very thin.”

It’s hard, Joudi told Michael: “I hope they understand that I’m not pricing my gas to make a quick buck,” he said. “I’m pricing my gas how I need to price it in order to stay afloat.” Joudi said he makes around 10 cents to 15 cents per gallon he sells. His tank, Michael reported, holds around 8,000 gallons, which lasts a couple of weeks. That means a profit of between $800 and $1,200 — not a fortune.

But a rise can still hurt Joudi’s customers. “The Daily” spoke to one of them, a veteran who served in Afghanistan. Where did he get the money to cover the higher cost of his gas? From the grocery budget, he said:

We’ve been going to those food banks every now and then, which help out. I like those. A lot of local churches do help out, so that’s pretty nice. I have three kids. So I make sure that they eat first. So usually we’ll get all their food first.

Usually. Sometimes he and his wife don’t eat. Which is a good reminder: Pain at the pump is relative.

Related: Environmental groups are suing the Trump administration to stop BP from starting a new $5 billion drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico.

THE LATEST NEWS

War in the Middle East

U.S. officials said Vice President JD Vance would lead an American delegation back to Pakistan today for peace talks with Iran. But it’s not clear if the Iranians will show up.
The U.S. Navy has turned back 27 ships trying to enter or leave Iranian ports since its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz began last week, military officials said.
An Israeli soldier was photographed swinging a sledgehammer at a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military says it is investigating.

THE MORNING QUIZ

This question comes from a recent edition of the newsletter. Click an answer to see if you’re right. (The link will be free.)

A California man was charged with grand theft in a $34,000 scheme in which the police said he …

OPINIONS

Rebecca Archer’s daughter Renae was too young to get the measles vaccine before an outbreak in her town. She caught the disease — and died from its complications a decade later.

Here is a column by Thomas B. Edsall on Trump’s legacy as a kind of last will and testament.

MORNING READS

Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was this year’s poetry challenge.

TODAY’S NUMBER

225

— That is the number of electrical substations that power trains in the New York City subway. Dozens are nearing 100 years old and need renovation or replacement. See what they look like and learn what they do.

SPORTS

Boston Marathon: Both of last year’s champions defended their titles. John Korir was nearly three minutes faster than his 2025 win, setting a course record of 2:01:52. Sharon Lokedi won the women’s race in 2:18:51.

N.B.A.: What makes an N.B.A. champion? Here’s what seven metrics have told us over 20 years.

College sports: A Cal State Northridge volleyball player, Jordan Lucas, has gone viral for his eccentric celebrations. He’s embracing his role as an entertainer.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Anzac Day is coming up on Saturday. It commemorates members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought in the Gallipoli campaign in World War I. They had hard, flavorless rations, but in the years since, Anzac biscuits have provided sweeter memories — toasted rolled oats and shredded coconut combined with brown sugar and golden syrup. Cue an Australian accent: Fair dinkum.

The spare and literary fly-fishing novella “A River Runs Through It,” by Norman Maclean, turns 50 this month. It has sold more than a million copies. The spare and literary fly-fishing writer Monte Burke took a close look at the book’s history and wondered: Would it have been a hit if it came out today?

More on culture

The resale market for La Marzocco espresso machines is on fire, reports Priya Krishna, who covers food culture. The machines make good coffee, yes, but they also look cool and aren’t difficult to service. “They occupy this space that is like a Ferrari and a John Deere tractor at the same time,” one coffee executive told her.
A leather-bound collection of eight letters written by the Romantic poet John Keats to Fanny Brawne, his muse, went missing in the 1980s, stolen from a fat cat’s family estate on Long Island. Then last year someone tried to sell it to a Manhattan rare-book dealer. That sparked an investigation. Yesterday, after a ceremony at the district attorney’s office, the book went home to one of the family’s heirs. Its value? $2 million.
Late night hosts speculated about Kash Patel’s future.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Listen to Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life.” He turns 79 today.

Apologize with style, or compliment with elegance, using one of the online flower delivery services recommended by the etiquette crusaders at Wirecutter.

Ease the foot pain that can come when we swap winter boots for flip-flops and sandals. These three simple exercises may help.