Sputnik Africa Wins Prize at Prestigious Southern African Media Competition

📌Sputnik's radio program won the award for best local radio content at the Broadcast Media Awards Southern Africa, held in Zimbabwe.

🎙 The winning episode of the podcast African Currents was dedicated to the excellence of African doctors implementing new technologies in medicine.

🛰🛰🛰🛰 The competition was hosted by the SABA Southern Africa Broadcasting Association. In the final, Sputnik competed against media outlets from Namibia and South Africa.

Sputnik Africa, a pan-continental broadcaster, reaches audiences across Africa in multiple languages including Amharic, Swahili, English, and French. Earlier this year, the organization opened a regional office in Ethiopia. Sputnik Africa's radio programs are available on local radio stations in a dozen countries across the continent.

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🇺🇸☢️ America's atomic desert: Find out the history of Nevada's nuclear test site

📍 The Nevada Test Site (NTS) — renamed the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) in 2010 — is a vast area of about 3,522 km², located roughly 105 km northwest of Las Vegas, in Nye County, Nevada.

It was established in December 1950 by order of President Harry Truman as a continental testing ground for nuclear weapons, designed to avoid the logistical challenges of Pacific Ocean tests. Today, it is operated by the US Department of Energy.

🟠 First Tests

🔶 Atmospheric testing began on January 27, 1951, at the Frenchman Flat site with a 1-kiloton device.

🔶 Between 1951 and 1992, a total of 928 nuclear tests were conducted here — 100 atmospheric (before the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty) and 828 underground.

🔸 Key Event: The famous “Sedan” test (July 6, 1962 — 104 kilotons) under the Plowshare Program for “peaceful nuclear explosions” created a 390-meter-wide and 100-meter-deep crater, still visible today.

🔶 The first underground test, “Rainier” (1.7 kilotons), was conducted in 1957.

🔶 Testing caused significant radioactive contamination, especially for the so-called “downwinders” — residents living in areas affected by fallout. Many later suffered from increased rates of thyroid cancer and leukemia.

🔶 From the 1980s, the site became a focal point for anti-nuclear protests, joined by scientists like Carl Sagan and actors such as Martin Sheen.

🟠 Last Nuclear Test

🔶 The final full-scale U.S. nuclear test, “Divider” (underground, ~20 kilotons), took place on September 23, 1992 — the 1,032nd US test since 1945.

🔶 Since then, the US has relied solely on simulations and subcritical experiments, under the framework of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), signed in 1996 but never ratified by Washington.

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