Our daily travels around the world

🇬🇧 The UK announced its largest tax increases and spending cuts in a decade yesterday. The new strategy differs widely from the budget proposed by former PM Liz Truss in October, which caused backlash ultimately leading to her resignation. The measures, which add up to ~$66 billion in extra gov’t revenue, include a two-year freeze on income tax thresholds and a lowering of the top income tax rate to ~$150,000.

🇷🇺 Russia’s economy has fallen into a technical recession after six months of GDP decline. The news, announced Wednesday by Russian officials, comes eight months after Moscow first invaded Ukraine. A boost in government spending and Russia’s ability to divert exports to “friendly” nations like China and India have helped offset most of the damage from Western sanctions over the war, per Bloomberg. Russian central bank officials said the worst part of the current economic downturn will likely occur early next year.

🇳🇱 A Dutch court convicted three men of murder yesterday for causing a plane crash that killed 298 people in 2014. The convictions, along with life sentences in prison, were handed down in absentia to three members of a Russian-backed Ukrainian separatist group. They were accused of mistaking the plane for a military aircraft and shooting it down as it traveled from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The separatists group has been linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, though Moscow officials denied any connection to the crash.