The U.S. military is considering use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb if it resumes strikes inside Iran, CNN reported Thursday, citing U.S. officials.

The 21,600-pound airburst weapon is designed to affect surface targets over a wide area and has so far not been deployed by the U.S. in previous strikes on targets inside Iran. It was used in Afghanistan in 2017 during the previous Trump administration.

Trump said Oct. 8 that he would not resume U.S. strikes on Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, while attacks on shipping near the Strait of Hormuz and deadly Houthi strikes in Saudi Arabia have raised regional tensions.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tehran will combine military capabilities and negotiations to press its demands.

• Child marriage / UNICEF

In the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, a total of 358 so-called child marriages have been officially recorded since 2012.

Euro News reported that only eight of these forced marriages have so far been legally annulled.

According to authorities, the other 350 cases were brought to an end in other ways.

This alarming finding comes from a response by the Baden-Württemberg state government to a minor inquiry submitted by AfD state parliament members Nikolaos Boutakoglou and Emely Knorr.

The Tübingen regional authority is responsible for recording the data, the answer came from the Ministry of the Interior.

The eight final annulments took place between 2018 and 2024. Among the documented cases was the marriage of an 11-year-old girl from Iraq to a 17-year-old Iraqi, which was annulled in 2020.

As early as 2018, the marriage of a 14-year-old Afghan girl to a 30-year-old man had been ended.

In 2024 two further annulments were added: they concerned a 16-year-old German girl and a 25-year-old Pakistani man and a 16-year-old Syrian girl and a 27-year-old man from the same country.State parliament member Nikolaos Boutakoglou wrote on Facebook that the issue was “really awful” but was being treated as a taboo.

According to its own account, the ministry deals exclusively with such marriages entered into abroad.

Since summer 2017, the Act to Combat Child Marriages has been in force in Germany.

In 2024, the Bundestag adopted new rules to protect minors in marriages concluded abroad.

Hundreds of cases without state intervention

The significantly higher number of cases concluded in other ways raises questions about how these marriages continued.

For the period from 2015 to 2026, the regional authority lists a total of 350 proceedings under the heading “other disposals.”But what became of the other child marriages?

The state government cites, among other things, the death of a spouse, reaching adulthood, a decision not to seek annulment or a new marriage concluded abroad.

In these cases, there was therefore no legally binding annulment.

For 2023, the records include the case of a 12-year-old Afghan girl who was married to a 21-year-old Afghan man. Girls aged 13 and 14 also appear several times in the statistics.

The most recent entries in the overview relate to 2026. They include, among other things, marriages of 16- and 17-year-old girls to adult men.

The statistics record the age of the spouses at the time of marriage and their respective nationalities.

Pope Leo XIV has announced that he will undergo surgery in the coming days to remove a small, localized nodule found on his lung during a recent routine medical checkup.

The 71-year-old pontiff made the disclosure himself during his weekly Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square. “Doctors found a localized nodule in my lung,” he said. “It was detected at a very early stage and is well-contained.

The doctors believe it is advisable to intervene, so, following their advice, I have decided to undergo surgery to remove it.”

The Vatican confirmed the operation is scheduled for the first days of this week at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, which has a dedicated papal suite. Holy See spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Pope is expected to need about a week to recover. On Monday, the Vatican added that Leo will be admitted Tuesday morning.

The nodule’s nature—whether benign or malignant—has not been specified. Medical experts note that most lung nodules are non-cancerous, and early detection generally carries a favorable outlook.

This marks the first significant health issue of Leo’s papacy since his election in May 2025. The American-born pope, known for remaining physically active, has continued his full schedule of audiences and is still expected to proceed with a planned trip to Latin America next month.