Russia strikes Kyiv; North Korea threatens South; Nobel Prize for economics

Russia attacked multiple Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, with strikes; North Korea explains its reasoning behind its recent missile launches; and a former Federal Reserve chairman won the Nobel Prize in economics. These stories highlight the Daily Rundown for Monday, Oct. 10, 2022.

Russia launches strikes on Ukraine – At least eights people were killed and dozens were injured in Kyiv, one of 10 reported targets of Russian strikes Monday.  The sustained barrage hit residential areas and critical infrastructure facilities alike, seen as a major surge in the war amid a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent weeks.

“Our country is now facing a certain external pressure,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with recently elected governors Monday. “This imposes a special, even higher degree of responsibility … it requires even greater concentration, consolidation of efforts in order to achieve our goals.”

President Putin said the strikes were retaliation for what he called Kyiv’s “terrorist” actions, including an attack last weekend on a key bridge between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula. No one has claimed responsibility for damaging the bridge.

North Korea explains recent missile launches – North Korean state media confirmed Monday that last weeks’ series of missile test launches were the simulated use of its tactical battlefield nuclear weapons to “hit and wipe out” potential South Korean and U.S. targets. Leader Kim Jong Un indicated more tests would be conducted.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency added the tests were in response to recent naval drills between the U.S. and South Korean forces. Viewing the drills as a military threat, North Korea decided to stage “the simulation of an actual war” to check and improve its war deterrence and send a warning to its enemies.

Ben Bernanke awarded Nobel Prize for economics – The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded on Monday to Ben Bernanke, the former Federal Reserve chair, and two other academics for their research into banks and financial crisis. Bernanke wrote a research paper in 1983 that broke ground in explaining that bank failures can propagate a financial crisis rather than simply being a result of the crisis. The research was based on analysis of the Great Depression.

The Nobel committee said Bernanke’s research served to be “invaluable” during the 2008 financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. Bernanke was chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. Douglas W. Diamond, an economist at the University of Chicago, and Philip H. Dybvig at Washington University in St. Louis won the prize alongside Bernanke.