US judge narrows Macrons' defamation lawsuit against American podcaster

A judge in the United States has ruled that French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte ​could continue their defamation lawsuit against the companies of the American podcaster Candace Owens, but not against Owens herself.


Issued on:  30/10/2026 - RFI

French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte filed a lawsuit in July 2025 against the American podcaster Candace Owens and two companies, accusing her of helping fan online rumours about whether Brigitte is a transgender woman.

 © REUTERS - Abdul Saboor


Editor’s note: This story was updated at 13:25 on 30 October 2026 to include a statement from lawyers for Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, sent to us by Ketan Sengupta, who works with the Macron's legal team. It responds to the court’s ruling on Candace Owens’ motion to dismiss the case against her.

In the statement, lawyers for the Macrons said: “We are pleased that the Court rejected Mrs. Owens’ attempt to remove the case from Delaware, where her companies continue to publish and monetize her defamatory falsehoods. As for Mrs. Owens personally, we are keeping all options open to ensure that, in addition to the liability she still faces through her companies, she is held accountable personally.”

***

The Macrons had filed a lawsuit in July 2025 against Owens and two companies, accusing her of helping fan online rumours about whether Brigitte is a transgender woman.




Owens, 37, an influencer with a large following on social media platforms, has claimed that Brigitte was a man.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Sheldon Rennie said in a ruling on Tuesday that Owens could not be held personally liable in the case.

But Rennie allowed the suit against two companies associated with her – Candace Owens LLC and GeorgeTom Inc – to continue.
Question of jurisdiction

Rennie said the Delaware court did not hold jurisdiction over Owens because her residence was in another state, Tennessee.

The ruling means that if the French first couple were to eventually win the case, Owens' personal assets would be shielded.

In their lawsuit, the Macrons said Owens ⁠touted ​false claims and conspiracy theories ​against them "to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money".

Rennie deferred judgment on Owens' motion to dismiss ‌the ⁠Macrons' litigation until he was briefed on how French defamation law and statutes of limitation intersect with US law.

"I am in the absolute best mood over this Macron dismissal," Owens said on X on Wednesday.

'Centuries of patriarchal history': why trans rumours are wielded against women
Damages to Brigitte Macron

Brigitte Macron, 73, has taken to the courts in France to combat claims she was born a man.

Two French YouTubers, Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy, were convicted in September 2024 of spreading false claims after they posted a video in December 2021 alleging that Brigitte Macron had once been a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux – who is actually her brother.

Rey and Roy were ordered to pay €8,000 in damages to Brigitte Macron and €5,000 to Jean-Michel Trogneux.

The defendants were also given a suspended fine of €500.

Did French media silence enable Brigitte Macron fake news story to go viral?

Brigitte Macron had filed a libel complaint against the two women after their claim went viral, triggering conspiracy theories notably among the far right.

Roy, an online fortune-teller, interviewed Rey, a self-described independent journalist, for four hours on her YouTube channel in December 2021.

The women discussed the unsubstantiated rumour that Brigitte Macron had undergone gender reassignment, with Rey claiming to have uncovered a “state lie” and “scam”.

The claim went viral just weeks before France's 2022 presidential election, spreading even to the US where Owen derided the first lady in a now deleted YouTube video.

THE EPSTEIN CLASS

Scottish police probe Andrew, Epstein stay at royal castle: UK media

London (AFP) – Scottish police are in the "very early stage" of probing the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's reported stay at the royal Balmoral estate at the invitation of ex-prince Andrew, UK media reported Friday.


Issued on: 30/10/2026 - RFI

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell are thought to have stayed at Balmoral following an invitation from Andrew © Andrew Milligan / POOL/AFP/File

Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking, is believed to have visited the British monarch's estate in northeast Scotland in 1999 along with his jailed ex-girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

The pair are thought to have stayed following an invite from Andrew, who has previously acknowledged his friendships with both but has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

"We have received information and active inquiries are ongoing but these are at a very early stage," Police Scotland said in a brief statement to some UK media, without elaborating on the probe.

The Daily Express newspaper reported the inquiries were related to alleged trafficking of women to the Scottish Highlands castle -- now the property of King Charles III, but at the time belonging to his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

AFP has contacted Police Scotland for comment.

At least ten UK police forces are probing Andrew and Epstein's links to Britain.

Police Scotland had previously appealed for information about Epstein's alleged chartering of private jets to transport women through Edinburgh Airport.

The king last year stripped his brother, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, of royal titles and ousted him from his residence in Windsor amid continued fallout from his ties to Epstein.

The former prince was briefly arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to Epstein, as police searched his properties.

He has denied wrongdoing, and won a legal challenge over the searches this month after police agreed the warrants they obtained were "unlawful" -- although the investigation remains ongoing.

The latest line of inquiry, according to the Daily Express which broke the story, was linked to Epstein and Maxwell's reported 1999 visit to Balmoral, with the US probe into Epstein including pictures of him and Maxwell in Balmoral.

Scandal has engulfed the king's younger brother since one of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Giuffre, claimed that she had been trafficked three times to have sex with Andrew when she was a teenager.

The ex-prince has repeatedly denied the claims. He settled a US civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre while not admitting liability.

The UK police probes followed new revelations from documents relating to the American financier released by the United States this year, including emails in which Andrew appeared to share potentially confidential information with him.

© 2026 AFP

 

Ghana think tank launches year-long review of nuclear power investment readiness

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By bne IntelliNews October 30, 2026

Ghana’s Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), an independent public policy think tank, has launched a one-year assessment of the institutional, regulatory, workforce and financing requirements needed to advance the country’s nuclear power programme.

The Ghana Nuclear Phase II Completion and Investment Readiness Support Programme was launched at an inception workshop in Accra, the Ghana News Agency reported on October 30. It will support priority activities under the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) framework for countries developing nuclear electricity generation.

Ghana is implementing Phase Two of the IAEA’s three-stage Milestones Approach, working towards readiness to invite bids or negotiate a contract for its first nuclear power plant. Then-president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo formally approved the inclusion of nuclear power in the country’s energy mix in 2022, with Nuclear Power Ghana designated as owner-operator and the Nuclear Regulatory Authority as regulator. The IEA said its initiative would complement, rather than replace, the statutory responsibilities of the country’s nuclear institutions.

The work will be carried out by the IEA’s Nuclear Energy Centre of Excellence, which will assess institutional coordination, workforce capacity, regulatory preparedness and investment frameworks. Expected outputs include a prioritised Phase Two implementation and tracking framework, a nuclear workforce development blueprint, a regulatory and institutional readiness roadmap and a framework to inform future investment decisions. The institute did not disclose the programme’s budget or funding arrangements.

Stephen Yamoah, executive director of Nuclear Power Ghana, warned in March that the lack of funding for detailed site characterisation and an environmental impact assessment meant the project could not progress beyond Phase Two. In September, Environment, Science and Technology Minister Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings told the IAEA General Conference that meteorological monitoring systems had been installed at the preferred and alternative sites and that site characterisation was progressing, but gave no details of funding for the outstanding studies.

Robert Sogbadji, a deputy director responsible for nuclear energy at the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, told the workshop that the government had acquired a site in the Central Region for consideration for the plant, according to the Ghana News Agency. Ghana previously identified Nsuban in the Western Region as its preferred location and Obotan in the Central Region as an alternative. Sogbadji did not name the site, and no revised site-selection decision was announced.

The IEA announcement disclosed no construction contract, financing commitment or final investment decision. Separately, President John Dramani Mahama said on October 29 that Ghana had opened negotiations with Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom to build the country’s first nuclear power plant, without giving a timetable, size or cost. The talks build on a memorandum of understanding between the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission and Rosatom, which Russia’s ambassador to Accra, Andrei Ordash, cited in July as a major step towards the plant.

Nuclear power remains a long-term option. For nearer-term supply, Energy and Green Transition Minister John Abdulai Jinapor said in August that the government planned to procure 1,200MW of state-owned combined-cycle thermal capacity by 2029. The IEA assessment is expected to continue into 2027.

See IntelliNews: Ghana opens talks with Rosatom on first nuclear power plant
See IntelliNews: Russia eyes Ghana as West Africa gateway after trade tops $800mn
See IntelliNews: Ghana plans 1,200MW state-owned thermal power expansion by 2029
See IntelliNews: Ghana’s president approves nuclear power as part of country’s energy mix

 

Albania unveils tax cuts as violent protests pile pressure on government

Prime Minister Edi Rama's 2027 fiscal package shifts the tax burden towards big business and high earners, but industry groups say they were promised stability. / IntelliNews

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By Clare Nuttall in Glasgow October 30, 2026

Albania will cut VAT on 54 basic foods to 6% from 20% and nearly double the tax on dividends, Prime Minister Edi Rama said, as violent student-led protests shake Tirana.

Rama set out the measures in a televised address on October 28, the day the government submitted the 2027 state budget to parliament. The food VAT cut covers meat, fish, dairy, eggs, flour, oils, sugar, pasta, fruit, vegetables and basic baby foods, and will leave about €150mn a year with households, he said.

To pay for it, the standard VAT rate rises by one percentage point to 21%, the dividend tax goes to 15% from 8% and the VAT rate for hotels climbs to 10% from 6%, with agritourism exempt. Rama said the corporate profit tax would remain at 15%, which he described as "the highest rate in the Western Balkans"; Confindustria said the draft it was opposing would raise the rate to 17%.

The package is an attempt to answer the cost-of-living anger behind weeks of street protests with a redistribution budget, while drawing more revenue from big business, the wealthy and the informal economy. Business groups, which had already warned of the cost of the draft measures, say the government is breaking a promise not to raise their taxes during its mandate.

"We want more businesses, more companies, more private investments, small and large, domestic and foreign. We also want as many rich people in Albania as possible, because the problem is never the rich, but the gap between those who have a lot and those who have very little," Rama said.

Who pays more

The salary tax changes cut in both directions. The upper threshold of the income tax band rises to ALL300,000 (€3,300) a month from ALL200,000, a move Rama said would benefit 32,000 middle-class taxpayers. A new top band of 30% applies to monthly salaries above ALL700,000, which he presented as a way to stop high earners paying themselves in dividends to avoid tax.

The threshold for compulsory VAT registration halves to ALL5mn in annual turnover from ALL10mn from January 1, 2027. The finance ministry's report on the draft decision estimates the change will bring about 17,516 businesses into the VAT system and raise VAT revenue by about ALL4.5bn, Monitor reported.

"We cannot allow many small businesses to continue to be abused by serving as a shell for large businesses to hide in," Rama said, adding that the government's pledge of zero profit tax for all small businesses by 2029 "remains intact".

The package also includes a super tax on luxury cars, while separate legislation will bring higher property taxes on empty apartments and coastal villas. The circulation tax will be taken out of the fuel price, cutting the pump price by ALL32 (€0.35) a litre, and charged on vehicles instead, with a new levy on foreign cars entering the country. A new revenue control bureau at the finance ministry will check the income declarations of high earners.

Rama pitched the measures as a dividend of growth. The 2027 budget is the first to exceed €10bn, he said, and pension increases will be doubled from January.

Business pushes back

Confindustria Albania said the government had publicly committed to keeping the 15% corporate income tax rate for large companies unchanged for its whole mandate. Its statement, published on October 28, opposed the draft package's proposals to raise that rate to 17%, the dividend tax to 15% and standard VAT to 21%, and called for them to be withdrawn.

"The government must explain why it is reneging on its promise. What has changed since it made this commitment? What new needs make this choice essential?" the association said.

For a company that distributes all its after-tax profit, the combined burden of profit and dividend tax would rise to 29.45% from 21.8% under the draft rates, Confindustria calculated. "For every 100 lek of pre-tax profit, the state would collect 7.65 lek more: an increase of approximately 35% in the combined tax burden," it said.

The association also pointed to finance ministry data showing budget revenue exceeded spending by about ALL70.3bn (€774mn) in January-September, while public investment reached only 75.2% of plan. "Before requesting more resources, the State must account for how it manages and uses the resources it already collects," it said.

"Businesses that declare and pay regularly cannot continue to be the automatic solution to every new budget requirement," it added.

The Union of Albanian Producers said the package puts extra pressure on domestic production and leaves it at a disadvantage against imports. Its secretary general, Arben Shkodra, called the package "absurd and paradoxical" in an interview with Top News, and criticised the speed of its approval, according to a summary on the union's website.

Shkodra welcomed the VAT cut on basic foods but questioned whether it would bring lower prices, and how stocks already bought with 20% VAT would be treated. Input costs, rising energy and fuel costs, competition from imports and informality were the producers' main concerns. "The voice of entrepreneurship must be heard before any decision-making of an economic nature," the union said in an earlier response to the draft.

Exporters want the package to go further on labour costs. ProEksport Albania asked the finance and economy ministries to raise the non-taxable salary threshold to ALL60,000 a month for all employees from January 1, 2027, Ekofin reported on October 21. The association, which represents clothing and footwear makers among others, said the lek's continued strengthening against the euro and rising production costs had weakened the competitiveness of Albanian exports, and asked for grants, tax incentives and simpler access to finance.

Stones on the boulevard

The tax package lands in the middle of the most serious unrest of Rama's 13 years in office. Student protests over university conditions, the cost of education and job prospects turned violent on October 13, when demonstrators threw bricks and concrete blocks at the Education Ministry and police responded with tear gas and water cannon.

The police chief said 71 officers were injured in the first three days, while the EU called for an investigation into police violence. The students have rejected Rama's offers of dialogue and are demanding his resignation, and opposition leader Sali Berisha has called a national rally for October 31.

The student movement has merged with the wider Flamingo Revolution, which began in late May as a campaign against a luxury resort linked to Jared Kushner on the protected Zvernec lagoon and grew into a broader protest over corruption and the government's accountability. The government has responded with tougher protest laws, including fines for unauthorised demonstrations and compensation for damaged businesses.

Rama used the same address to attack the protesters as "a crowd of urban bullies and online stalkers" who had broken the windows of the Education Ministry and nearby shops.

"These weeks of bum-booms have no chance of removing the government, but they have hit the economy and Albania itself, which for two weeks has been exporting views that do not invite tourists, but are driving them away; that do not invite investors, but are driving money away from the country," he said.

He also offered students a ALL15,000 monthly increase in scholarships for those from poorer families, bringing them to ALL25,000, about half the minimum wage, and extended them to master's level.

Growth slows

The government can afford the giveaways because revenue is running ahead of plan. Public revenue rose 11.3% y/y to ALL626.6bn in the first nine months of 2026, with net VAT receipts up 29%, while capital spending lagged at 75.2% of target.

Growth is cooling, however. The IMF expects GDP growth of 3.5% in 2026 and 3.2% in 2027, after 3.7% in 2025, with inflation accelerating to 3.2% in both years from 2.2%. The World Bank forecasts growth easing to 3.4% this year.

Rating agencies have looked more kindly on the public finances. Moody's raised Albania's outlook to positive in September on stronger fiscal and external positions, and Rama said public debt had fallen to a historic low.

 

Lithuania weighs €200mn Palantir AI system to modernise military operations

Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas says Lithuania is considering acquiring artificial intelligence-powered battlefield management software. / Lithuania defence ministry

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By bne IntelliNews October 29, 2026

Lithuania is considering acquiring artificial intelligence-powered battlefield management software from US technology company Palantir, with the system potentially costing nearly €200mn over its first seven years of operation, according to Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas, independent Lithuanian news agency BNS and public broadcaster LRT.lt reported on October 29.

Lithuania's is modernising its armed forces as Nato members increasingly turn to artificial intelligence and advanced data processing to improve military planning, intelligence analysis and operational coordination.

Kaunas said the proposed technology would consolidate information from multiple military sources into a single platform, enabling commanders to process intelligence more efficiently and make faster operational decisions.

"The purchase is being considered, and there will be further discussions, because we need a technological solution that would bring together all the data, of which we have a great deal," Kaunas told TV3 News on October 28.

"By using artificial intelligence, it would be possible to analyse data and manage certain aspects of the battlefield. Lithuania, like other Nato countries, needs this kind of software," he added, BNS and LRT.lt reported.

Palantir, a US-based software company specialising in data integration and analytics, develops platforms used by government agencies, intelligence organisations and military institutions.

Its technology is designed to combine information from different systems, identify patterns and support complex decision-making, including in defence operations.

According to TV3 News, the proposed Lithuanian contract could approach €200mn during the initial seven-year period, although the final cost has not been established.

Kaunas acknowledged that purchasing the software might require changes to the Defence Ministry's existing expenditure plans.

The potential investment would represent another step in Lithuania's broader military modernisation programme, which includes strengthening conventional capabilities alongside digital and intelligence infrastructure, BNS and LRT.lt reported.

 

Myanmar gives ASEAN the cold shoulder then bombs a Buddhist ceremony

The Philippine foreign secretary (right) departed Naypyitaw without seeing Aung San Suu Kyi, while junta air strikes and a stray shell across the Thai border told their own story. / Presidential Communications Office - PDFacebook

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By IntelliNews - Kolkata Bureau October 31, 2026

Myanmar's generals sent ASEAN's envoy home without a glimpse of Aung San Suu Kyi, as their aircraft hit a Buddhist ceremony and a stray shell wounded a Thai villager.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro, the bloc's envoy while Manila holds the ASEAN chair, ended a two-day visit on October 29 that took in aid deliveries in Shan State and talks in Naypyitaw with Foreign Minister Tin Maung Swe. Myanmar's foreign ministry said the two "held substantive discussions on ways to restore Myanmar's original role and rights within ASEAN". Its statement did not mention the 81-year-old former leader, who the authorities say is held under house arrest in the capital.

Lazaro told the Philippine outlet Bilyonaryo, which travelled with her, that the response she got on Suu Kyi's situation was "quite positive" and that she was doing well.

In reality, the trip lays bare how little sway the bloc holds over a government it still keeps out of its summits. Since taking the presidency in April after a vote critics said was built to entrench military rule, Min Aung Hlaing has worked through his neighbours one by one, and Malaysia this month became his fifth ASEAN host.

Manila's own president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, has said the bloc needs "a new approach on Myanmar". Naypyitaw wants its seat back and is paying in gestures rather than concessions.

Suu Kyi has been allowed a meeting with the Red Cross in August, a package from King Charles on October 26 and, on October 22, a 20-minute consular phone call with her son Kim Aris, their first conversation in more than five years. Aris told AFP she sounded "fairly healthy", but said he feared she was being used to polish the image of the men holding her.

Lazaro left an earlier visit in January without seeing Suu Kyi, and a fresh request was turned down at a June 30 press conference by government spokesperson Khaing Khaing Soe, according to The Straits Times.

"Aung San Suu Kyi has been prosecuted under the law and is serving sentences. Therefore she is not allowed to meet with international representatives," the spokesperson said. In August the government said it no longer needed an ASEAN special envoy at all.

The same day Lazaro was dismissed, an airstrike in Sagaing Region in the centre of the country wounded a monk and forced the cancellation of a recitation of the Patthana, a Buddhist scripture, in what local people described as a deliberate attack, Myanmar Now reported on October 30. The outlet also reported that the military had killed its own prisoners of war in Chin State in the Northwest. No casualty figure for either attack has been independently confirmed.

A strike near a market in Rakhine State killed at least 33 people on September 28, and the conflict monitor ACLED counted more than 100,000 conflict deaths by mid-year. The army is also regaining control of highways leading towards the Chinese, Indian and Thai borders, cutting links between resistance-held areas, Myanmar Now reported a day earlier.

A stray shell from clashes between junta and rebel forces also damaged a house in Ban Huay Mahawong, in Tak province's Mae Sot district, and injured one villager, Thai PBS World reported on October 30.

The Thai army's Naresuan Task Force responded by halting goods traffic through unofficial crossings for seven days and closing crossings in Mae Sot and Phob Phra districts to cargo, to keep supplies from reaching either side. The air force sent a surveillance aircraft to the border. The task force nonetheless called the fighting Myanmar's internal affair, a line consistent with Bangkok's close military ties with the Myanmar army.

ASEAN's foreign ministers reaffirmed the bloc's five-point peace plan in July, though Myanmar's parliament has rejected it. Singapore takes the chair on January 1 and has said it wants a "permanent cessation of violence" and the release of all political detainees before Myanmar comes back in from the cold. This week offered neither.

 

Comeback of Kazakhstan's saiga shows what ecosystem restoration can achieve

Central Asia's steppes and Poland's wetlands rank among the largest restoration efforts in a new UN tally, but the world must triple its pace to meet its 2030 goals. / Kemal Berkay Dogan via Pexels

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By Clare Nuttall in Glasgow October 30, 2026

Kazakhstan reports the third-largest area of land under restoration worldwide and Poland the second-largest freshwater area, a UN report finds, as global restoration reaches 252mn hectares.

The report, "Nature's comeback - scaling ecosystem restoration for people and planet", was published on October 29 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the UN biodiversity conference, COP17, which opened in Yerevan on October 19. It counts restoration under way in 149 countries, linked to more than 1mn green jobs, and calls it the largest documented global restoration effort to date.

For Central Asia, where deserts, steppe and the dried-out Aral Sea bed make land degradation a daily economic problem, the UN's first global stocktake shows a region with some of the world's biggest programmes on paper. Europe looks thinner: it accounts for just 3.6% of the land under restoration worldwide, its pledges cover a smaller share of its territory than in any other region except North and Central America, and the share of its land classed as degraded is rising.

"Five years into the UN Decade, the message is clear: restoration works," said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu.

"Today, we are witnessing the makings of one of the largest movements for nature in recorded history," said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen. "Yet, at the halfway point of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, we are still not restoring nature at the scale or speed required."

A quarter of the way there

The 252mn hectares under restoration amount to about a quarter of the roughly 1bn hectares that countries have pledged to restore. "Restoration is underway at an unprecedented scale," the report said, but "implementation needs to triple to meet Target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework", which calls for 30% of degraded land, freshwater, marine and coastal areas to be under effective restoration by 2030.

Land is closest to the goal, with restoration of terrestrial areas at nearly half the global target. Rivers, lakes, wetlands and seas lag far behind: only 11mn hectares of freshwater habitat in 62 countries and 5.7mn hectares of marine and coastal habitat in 46 countries are documented as under restoration.

"Reported restoration lags far behind ambition in both freshwater (inland water) and marine and coastal ecosystems, yet these ecosystems are degrading at the highest rates," the report said. The share of countries reporting wetland restoration or rehabilitation programmes has risen from 8% to 54% since 2022, and the authors caution that thin reporting on aquatic restoration may understate progress.

Asia accounts for 192.2mn hectares of the global total, followed by Africa with 36.3mn hectares, Europe with 9.1mn hectares, North and Central America with 5.8mn hectares, South America with 5.4mn hectares and Oceania with 3.2mn hectares. China alone reports 127.4mn hectares of land under restoration, about 13.5% of its territory.

Money is the main constraint. Annual restoration finance needs to rise more than fourfold, from $64bn to $296bn by 2030, led by agroforestry ($87bn a year), restorative reforestation ($52bn), peatland restoration ($44bn) and seagrass restoration ($28bn). That investment could create up to 32mn jobs worldwide by 2030, the agencies estimate.

"We cannot expect to fix nature with one hand while we destroy it with the other one," said CBD Executive Secretary Astrid Schomaker. "Governments must address the drivers of ecosystem degradation and invest in monitoring mechanisms to ensure the durability of the restoration movement to date."

Steppe giants

Kazakhstan reports 8.13mn hectares of land under restoration, equivalent to 3% of its territory and the third-largest area after China and Mongolia, which reports 12.18mn hectares, or 7.8% of its land. Kazakhstan also features among the 10 countries with the largest freshwater areas under restoration, at 0.33mn hectares. The report stresses that its country charts "should not be interpreted as a ranking of country restoration performance", since the figures also depend on land area and how well countries monitor and report.

Kazakhstan's Altyn Dala, or Golden Steppe, initiative is one of the UN World Restoration Flagships, and the report lists the return of saiga antelope and wild horses there among the species recoveries the flagships have delivered. The saiga population has grown from 21,000 in 2003 to an estimated 4.7mn this spring, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told the COP17 leaders' summit in Yerevan in mid-October.

Conservationists say the herds do more than recover numbers. Bringing back large grazers to the steppe thins out the dry grass that has fed a surge in wildfires across grasslands covering more than 40% of Kazakhstan. Astana has also proposed a regional Green Shield of Central Asia, a network of protective forest belts against desertification and dust storms, building on the forest belt around the capital that has grown to 102,000 hectares since 1997.

Snow leopards and mountains

Snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan appear alongside mountain gorillas in East Africa, jaguars in Brazil and Ganges river dolphins in India on the list of species the flagships have helped. Kyrgyzstan is part of a multi-country mountain flagship with Rwanda, Serbia and Uganda, recognised in 2022, which works to reduce conflict between herders and wildlife through better grazing practices and community wildlife monitoring. Four adult snow leopards were recorded and two cubs born in each of 2020 and 2021 in the Kyrgyz project area, according to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. In Serbia the same flagship is restoring forest and pasture in the Kucaj-Beljanica and Stara Planina nature parks.

Bishkek has since gone further, creating a 792,000-hectare ecological corridor in Issyk-Kul region in 2025 to link snow leopard habitats, and opening the Ak Ilbirs research and rehabilitation centre on October 23.

Mountains are also the theme Armenia has pushed as COP17 host. On October 28 it launched with UNEP a Yerevan Platform on Mountains and Related Freshwater Ecosystems; mountains supply 55-60% of the world's annual freshwater flows, but only 19% of mountain areas are protected.

"The reality is what happens in mountains does not stay in the mountains," Andersen said at the launch.

The Aral Sea's long shadow

Further south, the report has no country figures for Uzbekistan, Tajikistan or Turkmenistan, but the region's restoration challenge is defined by the Aral Sea, which has lost around 90% of its surface area in 50 years. Uzbekistan says it has established more than 2mn hectares of forest plantations on the former seabed and plans to create or restore forests on 1.27mn hectares in 2026-2030. Kazakhstan has committed to restoring 1.1mn hectares of the seabed on its side, half of which has already been planted.

Dust and salt from the Aralkum desert that formed on the dry bed can reach Tajikistan's glaciers and speed their melting, experts warn. Drought already affects more than 26mn people in Central Asia, where over 80% of territory is desert and steppe, part of a wider global disaster season of heat, fire and water shortage. Uzbekistan has cut its water stress from 169% in 2017 to 122% in 2021, but still withdraws more freshwater than it renews.

Research in Rwanda and the drylands of Central Asia cited in the report found that "pursuing each Convention's goals independently requires far more money than most developing countries have available". The biggest single efficiency gain came from setting up one national monitoring system for restoration.

Data collection is still fragmented in most countries, and "harmonizing these into one national system for restoration is where the biggest gains lie", the report said. The Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (ECCA30) is one of the regional programmes it names alongside Africa's Great Green Wall.

Europe's wetlands

Europe's 9.1mn hectares are skewed towards water. About 4.1mn hectares, 72% of all marine and coastal restoration documented worldwide, are in European seas, mostly off Ireland. Another 1.8mn hectares are freshwater sites, against only 3.2mn hectares of land.

Poland reports 0.97mn hectares of freshwater habitat under restoration, equivalent to 3.2% of its land area, second only to Indonesia's 5.99mn hectares of peatland restoration. Poland and Estonia each report 0.03mn hectares of marine and coastal restoration. Warsaw voted against the EU's Nature Restoration Law in 2024 but failed to block it; the regulation requires restoration measures on at least 30% of habitats not in good condition by 2030 and the return of at least 25,000 km of rivers to a free-flowing state.

Ukraine dominates Europe's freshwater pledges. Of 4.1mn hectares of freshwater restoration commitments identified through the Convention on Wetlands, most are in Europe, and "This pattern is strongly influenced by a commitment of approximately 3 Mha reported by Ukraine", the report said. The scale of the task there grew with the war: the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in 2023 flooded 80,000 hectares of protected areas, according to Ukraine's environment ministry at the time.

Hungary is named among countries with wetland and peatland commitments in their national plans. Peatlands cover only 3-4% of the world's land but store up to a third of its soil carbon, and degraded peatlands produce about 4% of global man-made emissions, yet they "remain among the most under-represented ecosystems in national restoration commitments and reports", the report said. Around the Baltic, Estonia and its neighbours have discussed rewetting bogs as a natural barrier against Russian forces.

On land, Europe's pledges total 60.45mn hectares, or 2.7% of its land area, against 11.3% in Africa and 10% in Asia. UN data cited in the report show the degraded share of Europe's land rising from 11.3% in 2015 to 14.7% in 2019, though the authors warn that changes in methodology may account for part of the increase. Of the 63 countries that gave the CBD no restoration figures in their latest national reports, 17 are European.

Who pays

Traceable restoration finance reached $64bn in 2022, but 88% of public money went through domestic spending on agriculture, forestry and fishing, and five countries, China, the US, Canada, Japan and Turkey, accounted for 76% of it. Turkey also reports 3.39mn hectares of land under restoration, the seventh-largest area. Development finance aimed at restoration totalled only $1.2bn.

Asia needs the largest increase, about $102bn a year by 2030, while the Near East and reforming economies, which include the former Soviet states, need $39bn, the report said, citing UNEP estimates.

"Building restoration economies can help shift the balance from an economy that depletes nature to one that values and invests in its recovery," the report said. "Thirty percent by 2030 is a milestone, not the end of the restoration journey."