Monday 30 May 2022: Fuel price news, Wordle hint, and more – What’s happening today

The month is coming to an end and we’re off to a slow start today – Monday, 30 May 2022. Residents in KZN are warned to brace for bad weather, and the country’s biggest fuel price hike in history is expected this week

Meanwhile, load shedding has been suspended but the system remains constrained. Just lovely.

Monday 30 May 2022 at a glance

In South Africa today

KZN’s bad weather

The South African Weather Service (Saws) warned KwaZulu-Natal residents to brace themselves for more bad weather conditions on Monday.

Residents along the coastline can expect damaging gale-force winds accompanied by “very rough sea conditions with wave heights of 4 to 6m”.

Impacts include damages to coastal infrastructure, small vessels at risk of capsizing, disruption at ports and harbours, and difficulty navigating at sea.

Elevated load shedding risk

Eskom said on Sunday that load shedding had been suspended “due to a marginal improvement in generation capacity”.

That said, the system is still constrained and “an elevated risk of load shedding over the coming weeks” remain.

Just three power stations – Tutuka, Kendal and Duvha – accounted for 44%, or nearly half, of all Eskom plant breakdowns in the 12 months to March.

Fuel price intervention

Gloom week ahead as South Africa could be facing the biggest fuel price hike to date – an increase of approximately R4 per litre

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana said government “intervened” over the weekend, and an announcement will be made soon.

Meanwhile, economist Dawie Roodt warned without intervention, we could easily be paying R25/litre for petrol by the end of this week. 

ALSO READ: Petrol price horror: Fuel prices have doubled in five years

Monday 30 May 2022 is…

Water a Flower Day

30 May 2022 is Water a Flower Day. The commemorative day is used to highlight the importance of caring for garden plants.

Many argue that caring for plants can be a therapeutic act – it’s the ideal opportunity to destress after a long day and unwind.

Today, put a little extra effort into your garden. Or, if you don’t even have a garden, now’s your chance to plant something and watch it thrive!

Loomis Day

Mahlon Loomis was a dentist in the 1800s but Loomis Day has nothing to do with teeth. This guy had a bright idea: To charge a layer of the atmosphere.

His goal was to create an electrical conduit between two metal towers set high on mountaintops. His experiments led to patenting wireless telegraphing inventions.

Since we use wireless communication in every sphere of our lives today, Loomis rightly deserves our recognition and respect.

Wordle hint, Monday 30 May 2022

If today’s Wordle is tripping you up, fret not; we’ve got your back. Wordle 342 is not a common word so you might need a little help.

Before you give up, though, try these tips:

• Use a word with the post popular vowels – A and E – and make sure the same letter doesn’t appear twice in your guess.
• Avoid letters such as X, Z and Q until later one; these are used as often as A, E, R, S and T.
• I personally start the game with ARISE and MOUNT, however, RAISE and TOUCH is worthy contenders too.

ALSO READ: Cabinet needs to be ‘guided’ by Godongwana on fuel price hike

Today’s Wordle starts with the letter A. It contains two vowels, and one consonant appears twice. You’ll wind this thing in the ocean. Hope that helps!

From our readers

Is Cyril out of touch with reality?

First, President Cyril Ramaphosa lambasted developed Western countries for hogging vaccines, although he wanted it for free of course.

He got his wish and the vaccines duly arrived.

As a result of the corrupt ANC’s incompetence and lack of trust in them, few people got vaccinated and now government can’t even give away the excess vaccines as the expiry dates approach.

There are no takers. He further pushed for locally produced vaccines, at the producer’s cost of course.

Again he got his wish, but orders for the vaccine is nonexistent, even in Africa, with the result the producer will close shop.

To try and prevent this, Ramaphosa now tries to convince the German chancellor to market SA’s locally produced vaccines in the same developed Western countries he insulted in the early stages of the pandemic.

Out of touch with reality, ignorant, arrogant?

From LR.

Today in history

Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heresy

Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who lived on the borders of the duchies of Bar and Lorraine and who became the saviour of France, was burned at the stake for heresy on 30 May 1431.

The hundred years war between England and France entered a crucial phase in 1415 when King Henry V defeated the forces of King Charles VI.

Joan of Arc persuaded King Charles VII to send an army to relieve Orléans and led the French army in a momentous victory over England at the Siege of Orléans

US President kills man during a duel

On this day in 1806, Andrew Jackson – who later served as president of the United States from 1829–37 – fatally shot Charles Dickinson during a duel.

Jackson accused Dickinson of cheating on a horse race bet and then insulting his wife, Rachel.

It’s estimated the US president participated in a number of duels, some claiming the figure is anywhere between five to 100.

Global news today

Reporting by AFP.

Race to save undersea Stone Age cave art

To reach the only place in the world where cave paintings of prehistoric marine life have been found, archaeologists have to dive to the bottom of the Mediterranean off southern France.

Then, they have to negotiate a 137-metre natural tunnel into the rock, passing through the mouth of the cave until they emerge into a huge cavern, much of it now submerged.

Three men died trying to discover this “underwater Lascaux” as rumours spread of a cave to match the one in southwestern France that completely changed the way we see our Stone Age ancestors.

The cave and its treasures, some dating back more than 30,000 years, are in grave danger thanks to climate change and water and plastic pollution.

Since a sudden 12-centimetre rise in the sea level there in 2011 – and the water mark rising a few millimetres every year – Vanrell and his colleagues have been in a race against time to record everything they can.

Hurricane Agatha en route to Mexico

The first hurricane of the Pacific season was rapidly strengthening off the southwestern coast of Mexico where it is likely to strike Monday as a major storm, the country’s weather service warned.

As of Sunday night, Agatha was forecast to climb to a Category Three on the Saffir-Simpson scale, strengthening in intensity as it churned about 225 kilometers southwest of Puerto Angel, Mexico, according to a report by the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

“It is forecast that the hurricane will probably make landfall as a Category Three between Puerto Escondido and Huatulco, Oaxaca,” said Mendez, adding that she expected landfall Monday.

Ukraine pushes back in Kherson as Zelensky visits east

Ukrainian forces have counterattacked in the country’s south, claiming to have pushed back Russian troops near three villages in the Kherson region, as President Volodymyr Zelensky made his first visit to the embattled east since the start of the war.

Zelensky, who on Monday will press EU leaders to break a deadlock on a new round of sanctions against Russia, a day earlier walked the streets of the devastated Kharkiv region’s capital in a bullet-proof vest.

While one-third of the northeastern region remains under Russian control, “We will for sure liberate the entire area,” Zelensky said after the visit, also revealing he had fired the city’s security chief in a rare public rebuke.