Happy Monday! You can check our ears all you want, today’s Morning Dispatch was produced without the aid of any performance-enhancing substances. (Unless you count Dr. Pepper.)

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that U.S. employers added about 263,000 jobs in September, dropping the unemployment rate to 3.5 percent from 3.7 percent in August. The labor force participation rate fell 0.1 percentage points—from 62.4 percent to 62.3 percent—but about half a million more Americans are working now than were in February 2020, before the pandemic.

• An explosion on Saturday inflicted significant damage to the Kerch Bridge connecting Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, endangering a crucial resupply route for the Russian military and dealing Russian President Vladimir Putin a considerable symbolic blow. Russia said the explosion was caused by a truck detonating next to a train carrying fuel, but several independent analysts believe it came from under the bridge, either from a boat passing underneath or a series of charges placed in advance. No entity has taken credit for the attack, but several top Ukrainian officials have gleefully shared videos of the incident—which took place on Putin’s 70th birthday—and Putin labeled the explosion an “act of terrorism” carried out by Ukraine’s special services. The bridge is currently operating in a limited capacity, and Russia retaliated with a series of rocket attacks on residential buildings in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. Kyiv was also hit with missiles early this morning, the first such shelling of Ukraine’s capital in months.