Category: World News

TEHRAN, Iran — Russia on Sunday sent three Iranian communications satellites into orbit, the second such launch since July, Iranian state television reported.

The report said that a Russian rocket sent the satellites to circle the Earth on a 500-kilometer (310-mile) orbit from the Vostochny launchpad in eastern Russia. The three satellites are dubbed Paya, Kowsar and Zafar-2.

The report said that Paya, weighing 150 kilograms (330 pounds), is the heaviest satellite that Iran has ever deployed into orbit. Kowsar weighs 35 kilograms (77 pounds), but the report didn’t specify how heavy Zafar-2 is.

The satellites feature up to 3-meter resolution images, applicable in the management of water resources, agriculture and the environment. Their life span is up to five years.

Russia occasionally sends Iran’s satellites into orbit, highlighting the strong ties between the two countries. In July, a Russian rocket sent Iranian communications satellite Nahid-2 into orbit.

Russia, which signed a “strategic partnership” treaty with Iran in January, strongly condemned the Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran that came during a 12-day air war in June and killed nearly 1,100 Iranians, including military commanders and nuclear scientists. Retaliatory missile barrages by Iran killed 28 people in Israel.

As a long-standing project, Iran from time-to-time launches satellite carriers to send its satellites into space.

The United States has said that Iran’s satellite launches defy a U.N. Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. U.N. sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired in 2023.

Brigitte Bardot, the French actor idealized for her beauty and heralded in the midcentury as the prototype of liberated female sexuality, has died at 91.

Long withdrawn from the entertainment industry, Bardot died at her home in southern France, Bruno Jacquelin of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals confirmed to the Associated Press. He gave no cause of death. Bardot had dealt with infirm health in recent years, including hospitalization for a breathing issue in July 2023 and additional hospital stays in 2025.

Bardot was known for being mercurial, self-destructive and prone to reckless love affairs with men and women. She was a fashion icon and media darling who left acting at 39 and lived out the rest of her years in near seclusion, emerging periodically to champion animal rights, lecture about moral decay and espouse bigoted political views.

And, as if in protest of her famed beauty, Bardot happily allowed herself to age naturally.

“With me, life is made up only of the best and the worst, of love and hate,” she told the Guardian in 1996. “Everything that happened to me was excessive.”

In her prime, Bardot was considered a national treasure in France, received by President Charles de Gaulle at the Élysée Palace and analyzed exhaustively by existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. She was the girl whose poster adorned the bedroom of a teenage John Lennon.

While Marilyn Monroe was playing it coy, Bardot was forthright and free about her sexuality, sleeping with her leading men without apology, sweaty and writhing barefoot on a table in the controversial 1956 film “…And God Created Woman.” Though many of her films were largely forgettable, she projected a radical sense of self-empowerment for women that had a lasting cultural influence.

Born Sept. 28, 1934, in Paris, the daughter of a Parisian factory owner and his socialite wife, Bardot and her younger sister were raised in a religious Catholic home.

Bardot studied ballet at the Paris Conservatoire and, at her mother’s urging, pursued modeling. By 14, she was on the cover of Elle magazine. She caught the eye of filmmaker Marc Allegret, who sent his 20-year-old apprentice, Roger Vadim, to locate her.

Vadim and Bardot began a years-long affair during which he cultivated the sex-kitten persona that would seduce the world. But Bardot wasn’t one to be cultivated. As Vadim once said, “She doesn’t act. She exists.”

Bardot married Vadim at 18, and that same year he directed her in “…And God Created Woman,” as a woman who falls in love with her older husband’s younger brother. The film, which prompted moral outrage in the U.S. and was heavily edited before it reached theaters, made Bardot a star and an emblem of French modernity.

“I wanted to show a normal young girl whose only difference was that she behaved in the way a boy might, without any sense of guilt on a moral or sexual level,” Vadim said at the time.

In real life, Bardot left Vadim for her costar Jean-Louis Trintignant. She went on to master a comic-erotic persona in the popular 1957 comedy “Une Parisienne” and portrayed a young delinquent in the 1958 drama “Love Is My Profession.”

By 1959, she was pregnant with the child of French actor Jacques Charrier, whom she married as a result. Together they had a son, Nicolas.

In Bardot’s scathing 1996 memoir, “Initiales B.B: Mémoires,” she details her crude attempts to abort the child, asking doctors for morphine and punching herself in the stomach. Nine months after the baby was born, she said, she downed a bottle of sleeping pills and slit her wrists, the first of several apparent suicide attempts during her life. When Bardot recovered, she gave up custody of her son and divorced Charrier.

“I couldn’t be Nicolas’ roots because I was completely uprooted, unbalanced, lost in that crazy world,” she explained years later.

Bardot earned her greatest box-office success in the 1960 noir drama “The Truth,” playing a woman on trial for the murder of her lover. Her best performance likely came in Jean-Luc Godard’s acclaimed 1963 melancholy adaptation “Contempt,” as a wife who falls out of love with her husband. She was later nominated for a BAFTA award for her performance as a circus entertainer turned political operative in the 1965 comedy “Viva Maria!”

All the while, though, Bardot courted drama and lived large.

While she was married to German industrialist Gunter Sachs, she had an affair with French pop star Serge Gainsbourg. He wrote Bardot the erotic love song “Je t’aime … moi non plus,” which went on to become a hit by Donna Summer, altered and retitled “Love to Love You Baby.” By 1969, she had divorced Sachs and was romantically linked to everyone from Warren Beatty to Jimi Hendrix.

The celebrity life eventually exhausted Bardot, and she grew to fear that she’d end up dying young like Marilyn Monroe or withering away in public view like Rita Hayworth. Though she exuded confidence, she admitted in her memoir that she battled depression as she sought to juggle the many moving pieces of her chaotic life.

“The majority of great actresses met tragic ends,” she told the Guardian. “When I said goodbye to this job, to this life of opulence and glitter, images and adoration, the quest to be desired, I was saving my life.”

Nearing 40, she quit acting and spent the rest of her life bouncing between her Saint-Tropez beach house and a farm — complete with a chapel — outside Paris. She devoted herself to the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals.

As an animal rights activist, her list of enemies was long: the Japanese for hunting whales, the Spanish for bullfighting, the Russians for killing seals, the furriers, hunters and circus operators.

At her home in Saint-Tropez, dozens of cats and dogs — along with goats, sheep and a horse — wandered freely. She chased away fishermen and was sued for sterilizing a neighbor’s goat.

“My chickens are the happiest in the world, because I have been a vegetarian for the past 20 years,” Bardot said.

In 1985 she was awarded the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian decoration, but refused to collect it until President François Mitterrand agreed to close the royal hunting grounds.

In 1992 she married Bernard d’Ormale, a former aide to Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Front and frequent candidate for France’s presidency. Later, Bardot became an ardent supporter of Le Pen’s daughter Marine, leader of France’s anti-immigration far right.

Two French civil rights groups sued Bardot for the xenophobic and homophobic comments she made in her 2003 book, “A Cry in the Silence,” in which she rails against Muslims, gays, intellectuals, drug abusers, female politicians, illegal immigrants and the “professionally” unemployed. She was ultimately fined six times for inciting racial hatred, mostly while speaking out against Muslims and Jews. She was fined again in 2021 over a 2019 rant wherein she dubbed the residents of Réunion, a French Island in the Indian Ocean, “degenerate savages.”

“I never had trouble saying what I have to say,” Bardot wrote in a 2010 letter to The Times. “As for being a little bunny that never says a word, that is truly the opposite of me.”

Bardot stirred controversy again in 2018 when she dismissed the #MeToo movement as a campaign fueled by a “hatred of men.”

“I thought it was nice to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass,” she told NBC. “This kind of compliment is nice.”

She remained firm in those views in the final year of her life, decrying the societal shaming of playwright-comedian-actor Nicolas Bedos and actor Gérard Depardieu, who were both convicted of sexual assault. “People with talent who grab a girl’s bottom are thrown into the bottom of the ditch,” she declared in a 2025 TV interview, her first in 11 years. “We could at least let them carry on living.”

As she aged, Bardot mostly kept to herself, content to do the crossword puzzle when the newspaper arrived, tend to her menagerie and mail off hotly written pleas to world leaders to halt their animal abuses. She was largely vague when asked if she was still married to D’Ormale.

“It depends what day it is,” she said, laughing gently.

Piccalo is a former Times staff writer. Former staff writer Steve Marble contributed to this report.

A humble shelter operating out of a tent remains the last beacon of hope for the injured and hungry animal population in war-ravaged Gaza, even as its workers and volunteers face their own impossible conditions.

“You cannot look at a creature that trusts you and eat in front of it without sharing,” Saeed Al-Aar, who founded the Sulala Animal Rescue shelter in 2006, told NBC News last month.

Despite bombs raining down and a lack of tools, feed and medicine, the shelter has remained operational throughout the two-year conflict, working to help emaciated and injured dogs, cats, donkeys and horses.

At the shelter’s site in Deir al-Balah, several dogs with three legs are among the animals running around, a stark reminder of the toll that the war has taken. In a large tent, veterinarians and volunteers work together to place an IV into the leg of a small, whimpering puppy.

Dr. Hossam Mortaja, one of the few remaining veterinarians in Gaza, is often forced to improvise, using expired medicines or human drugs like amoxicillin when veterinary supplies run dry.

“Animals suffer like humans — they feel fear, even convulsions,” he said. The organization shelters about 70 dogs and 50 cats, many injured or left without owners by the war. During the worst aid shortages, the team shared scarce rice, pasta and canned tuna with the animals, a desperate measure to prevent starvation.

Since the war erupted in October 2023, Gaza’s animal population has plummeted. According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, an estimated 97% of the strip’s livestock has been destroyed through bombing, starvation and looting. This includes cows, sheep, goats and poultry.

Large animals like donkeys and horses have dropped to around 30% of their former numbers.

Stray pets have not been spared; countless dogs and cats were abandoned as families fled, leading to a surge in malnutrition, diseases like parvovirus, anemia and respiratory infections. Veterinary reports describe animals in states of “cachexia” — severe wasting — with weakened immune systems exacerbating outbreaks of gastroenteritis, jaundice and eye diseases. Sulala’s clinic treats these conditions daily.

“People seek comfort in animals. Some find support in dogs, while others find it in cats. During the war, I witnessed many individuals caring for and sheltering animals, both cats and dogs. They reached out to us, and we consistently provided them with food,” Al-Aar told NBC News.

The Sulala Animal Rescue team worked in dire and dangerous conditions as Israel continued its assault on Gaza. Famine conditions in Gaza City have eased since the ceasefire began in October, according to a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the world’s leading authority on food crises, but the situation remains critical, with the entire strip still at risk of starvation.

Veterinarian Muath Talat Abo Rokba, who worked with Sulala and also ran his own veterinary clinic, was reportedly killed by Israeli forces in October, while the ceasefire was in effect. He had been visiting the ruins of his home in the Jabalia area, close to the “yellow line” marking Israeli-held territory, Sulala Animal Rescue said at the time. The IDF told NBC News that it was not aware of the specific incident.

“There are no words we have about losing him,” said Annelies Keuleers, a remote volunteer and spokesperson for Sulala Animal Rescue. “In many ways, he was absolutely irreplaceable.”

The shelter’s Instagram page has attracted a dedicated following amid the conflict, with 180,000 followers, many of whom are located in the West, eagerly watching for updates on Al-Aar, his team and the animals the organization helps.

Keuleers, who volunteers from Belgium, told NBC News that she worries constantly for the safety of the rescue team on the ground.

“Saeed and his children have been in dangerous situations to try and pick up animals that have been left behind during evacuations, that have been starving there.”

She continued: “There’s been a couple of times where I hadn’t heard from anyone for a day or a day and a half. And that’s been scary, as I wasn’t sure how I would know if they were bombed or killed.”

Even with a fragile ceasefire in place, human suffering in Gaza remains acute, compounding the animal plight.

While the ceasefire has improved the flow of some deliveries into Gaza, the World Health Organization warned earlier this month that “humanitarian needs remain staggering, with current assistance addressing only the most basic survival requirements.”

Lucia Elmi, UNICEF’s director of emergency operations, warned that fragile gains made during the ceasefire “could vanish overnight if fighting resumes, adding: “We need sustained humanitarian access, restored basic services, and above all, lasting peace.”

Despite the dangers that persist for Al-Aar and the other veterinarians and volunteers, they remain devoted to helping animals, even at a time when so much human suffering persists.

“They live in fear and horror, just as we do,” Al-Aar said.

Screen siren Brigitte Bardot, whose portrayals of free-spirited ingenues made her an international sex symbol and the pride of France, and who turned her back on movie stardom in 1973 to become an animal rights activist, has died, according to French media and Associated Press.

She was 91.

Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died at her home in southern France. He did not provide a cause of death, and said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month after a period of ill health.

Leading tributes, French President Emmanuel Macron said Bardot “embodied a life of freedom” and lived a “French existence.” Jordan Bardella of the far-right National Rally party, which Bardot publicly supported in her later years, referred to her as a “passionate patriot” who represented “an entire era of French history.”

Bardot’s foundation paid tribute to her legacy on animal rights, from travelling to the Arctic ice floes to help baby seals, to lobbying for animal welfare legislation and securing convictions for perpetrators of animal abuse.

Her death comes two months after she underwent what her staff, in a statement to AFP, described as “minor surgery” for an unspecified ailment in October 2025.

At the time, Bardot quickly swatted away false online reports that she had died.

“I don’t know which imbecile launched this fake news regarding my disappearance, but know that I’m fine and have no intention of bowing out,” she had posted on X.

But a month later, in November 2025, Bardot was hospitalized again for what French news outlets described a “serious” health issue.

Born a brunette on Sept. 28, 1934, in Paris, Bardot became world famous after she dyed her hair blonde and starred in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman,” which was directed by her first husband, Roger Vadim.

The provocative French melodrama about a voluptuous teenager who scandalizes Saint-Tropez was a box office smash both abroad and in the United States, despite mixed critical reviews and condemnation by watchdog groups like The National Legion of Decency.

Dubbed a “sex kitten” by British film producer Tony Tenser, Bardot broke through as the so-called sexual revolution was underway, women were embracing birth control, and many moviegoers were searching for racier fare.

French feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir called her a “locomotive of women’s history” and “the most liberated woman in post-war France” in a 1959 essay titled “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome.”

French President Charles de Gaulle declared that Bardot was a “French export as important as Renault cars.”

Meanwhile, BB, as the French affectionately called her, went on to appear in more than 40 movies, including a handful of Hollywood productions, before retiring from acting at age 39.

But before she retreated to her estate on the French Riviera to lead a far more reclusive life, Bardot bared it all in the pages of Playboy to mark her 40th birthday.

And soon she was championing a new cause.

“I gave my youth and my beauty to men,” Bardot later said, “but I give my wisdom and experience to animals.”

Bardot appealed to the Danish queen to halt the mass killings of dolphins in the Faroe Islands.

Bardot became a hero to animal rights activists. And in 1985, when France awarded her the Legion of Honor medal, Bardot insisted it was for her work to save animals — not for her movies.

“I take this Legion of Honor for my fight in favor of animals,” Bardot declared.

In 1986, the former actor founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation and harnessed her fame to lead campaigns against, among other things, the eating of horse meat and the hunting of turtle doves in France.

In her later years, Bardot gravitated to far-right politics and was fined repeatedly for inciting racial hatred against Muslim immigrants to France, according to news reports.

In her 1996 memoir, Bardot outraged many fans by declaring her support for far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Her fourth husband, businessman Bernard d’Ormale, had been an adviser to Le Pen.

The Nazis were occupying Paris when Bardot was growing up in a luxurious seven-bedroom apartment and dreaming of becoming a ballerina.

Raised by conservative Catholic parents, Bardot chafed against her upbringing. But she was allowed to take dance classes. And in 1950 she landed, at age 15, on the cover of Elle magazine after the editor spotted her at a train station.

That led to a movie audition the next year, where Bardot met Vadim, who was 24 at the time.

Despite the age difference, they fell in love. And over her parents’ objections, Bardot and Vadim married on Dec. 21, 1952, three months after her 18th birthday.

Bardot embarked on a movie career that, early on, included a small part in the 1953 Hollywood production “Act of Love,” starring Kirk Douglas.

Three years later, while shooting an Italian movie called “Mio figlio Nerone,” Bardot at the urging of the director dyed her hair blonde and turbocharged her career.

Bardot was box office gold and even won critical acclaim for her turns in internationally-produced movies like “The Truth” (1960) and “Viva Maria!” (1965). But she mostly steered clear of Hollywood, although she did play herself in the 1965 comedy “Dear Brigitte.”

Bardot did not think much of her own acting.

“I started out as a lousy actress and have remained one,” she reportedly said, according to The Guardian.

Bardot also recorded some 60 pop songs in the 1960s and 1970s, many of them in collaboration with French singer Serge Gainsbourg, with whom she had an affair while married to her third husband, German millionaire Gunter Sachs.

One of Bardot’s best-known musical forays was a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” with French singer Sacha Distel.

By her own admission, Bardot’s personal life was tempestuous.

Her marriage to Vadim began falling apart on the set of “And God Created Woman” when she embarked on an affair with her co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant.

It was one of many infidelities that Bardot has admitted to over the years.

Two years later, Bardot married actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she had her only child — a son named Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, who was born in January 1960.

Bardot, in her memoir, wrote that she was “not made to be a mother.” She wrote that her unborn child was like a “cancerous tumor” that she tried to remove by punching herself in the stomach.

When that marriage broke up after three years, Charrier got custody of their son.

Father and son later sued Bardot for the “hurtful remarks” in the memoir and were awarded $36,200 in damages.

Bardot and her son, who lives in Norway, later reconciled. And she met her grandchildren and great-granddaughter.

Her three-year marriage to Sachs in 1966 was also marked by multiple infidelities, but it ended in an amicable divorce.

“A year with Bardot was worth 10 with anyone else,” Sachs reportedly said after the marriage was over.

Bardot, in public statements, rarely revisited her acting career once it was over. In a 2007 interview, she appeared to be at a loss when asked how she came to be an icon of French cinema.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I think that I arrived and left at the right time. My wild and free side unsettled some, and unwedged others.”

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