MELBOURNE: Australian army whistleblower David McBride, who leaked allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan to the media, lost a court bid to have his prison sentence reduced on Wednesday.
The three Australian Capital Territory Court of Appeal judges unanimously rejected the 61-year-old former army lawyer’s appeal against the severity of a five years and eight months prison sentence imposed a year ago.
The judges also rejected McBride’s argument that as a military officer he had sworn an oath to Queen Elizabeth II and therefore had sworn duty to act in the “public interest.”
“To the contrary, the oath obligued the appellant (McBride) to discharge his duties ‘according to the law,’” the judges said in a written summary of their ruling.
McBride said through his lawyers that Australians would be outraged by the Court of Appeal decision.
“It is my own conscience and the people of Australia that I answer to. I have kept my oath to the Australian people,” McBride said in the lawyers’ statement.
McBride pleaded guilty last year to three charges, including theft and sharing with journalists documents classified as secret. He faced a potential life sentence.
Rights advocates complain that McBride remains the only person to be imprisoned over allegations of war crimes committed by elite Australian special forces troops in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.
A military report released in 2020 recommended 19 current and former soldiers face criminal investigations over 39 unlawful killings in Afghanistan.
Former Special Air Service Regiment soldier Oliver Schulz was charged in March 2023 with murdering an unarmed Afghan in 2012. Schulz pleaded not guilty to the war crime and has yet to stand trial.
Former SAS Cpl. Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living veteran, lost an appeal two weeks ago against a civil court ruling that he unlawfully killed four unarmed Afghans.
Roberts-Smith said he would appeal his loss in the High Court. He has not been criminally charged.
McBride’s lawyers also said they would take their appeal to the Hight Court.
“We believe that only the High Court can properly grapple with the immense public interest and constitutional issues at the heart of this case,” the lawyers’ statement said.
“It cannot be a crime to expose a crime. It cannot be illegal to tell the truth,” the statement added.
Whistleblower’s lawyers call for a government pardon
The lawyers also called on Attorney General Michelle Rowland, who was appointed after the Labour Party government was re-elected on May 3, to recommend McBride be pardoned.
“It is now time for the attorney general to show leadership. To show Australians that this Labor government will no longer jail whistleblowers,” the lawyers said.
Rowland did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The documents became the source of a series of Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports in 2017 called the “Afghan Files.” The reports detailed allegations against Australian soldiers including the unlawful killing of men and children.
The appeal court judges noted in their summary that McBride began taking home copies of hundreds of secret documents after becoming “dissatisfied with what he perceived to be vexatious over-investigation of alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers.”
McBride declined to have further dealings with a journalist after the reporter revealed he intended to use the classified information for a story exposing war crime allegations, the judges said.
McBride can be considered for parole after he has served two years and three months, meaning he must remain behind bars until at least August next year.
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Australia whistleblower who exposed war crime allegations loses bid to reduce prison sentence
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Australia whistleblower who exposed war crime allegations loses bid to reduce prison sentence
- The three Australian Capital Territory Court of Appeal judges unanimously rejected the 61-year-old former army lawyer’s appeal against the severity of a five years and eight months prison sentence
- The documents became the source of a series of Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports in 2017 called the “Afghan Files.”
US pledges $2 bn for UN aid, with ‘adapt, shrink or die’ warning
GENEVA:Washington on Monday pledged an initial $2 billion for United Nations humanitarian aid in 2026 — far less than it has provided in recent years — warning individual UN agencies to “adapt, shrink or die.”
With its pledge, announced at the US mission in Geneva alongside the United Nations’ aid chief Tom Fletcher, the United States is pursuing a dramatic overhaul of how it funds UN humanitarian work.
Instead of handing funds to individual agencies, the United States will funnel its contributions through the UN aid agency OCHA, headed by Fletcher, which earlier this year launched a so-called Humanitarian Reset to improve efficiency and accountability.
The US funds will then be distributed to more than a dozen selected countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Sudan.
“It is an initial anchor commitment,” Jeremy Lewin, the senior US official for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom, told reporters.
“There are other countries that we will add, as we continue to get more funding into this mechanism.”
He challenged other countries to match or beat US funding for UN aid.
“This new model will better share the burden of UN humanitarian work with other developed countries and will require the UN to cut bloat, remove duplication, and commit to powerful new impact, accountability and oversight mechanisms,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X.
According to UN data, the United States remained the top humanitarian aid donor in the world in 2025, but that amount fell significantly to $2.7 billion, down from around $11 billion in 2023 and 2024, and from over $14 billion in 2022.
Other key donor countries have also been tightening their belts, triggering major upheaval in the global aid sector.
“Individual UN agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die,” a State Department statement said.
Hard priority choices
Fletcher, who is British, said the US pledge was an “extraordinary” commitment.
“The US has long been the world’s humanitarian superpower,” he said in a statement.
“Hundreds of millions of people are alive today because of American generosity — and many millions more will survive in 2026 because of this landmark investment in humanity.”
Fletcher said reform of the humanitarian system was in the pipeline, and US taxpayers would be able to see how their money was delivering life-saving impacts.
“The US is also placing a significant and encouraging vote of trust and confidence in the Humanitarian Reset, through which we are making humanitarian action faster, smarter and closer to the people on the front lines of emergencies,” he said.
“We’re cutting red tape, eliminating duplication and prioritising hard.”
When Fletcher launched the UN’s annual Global Humanitarian Appeal for 2026 earlier this month, he requested $23 billion to provide assistance to 87 million of the world’s neediest people, with a heavy focus on dire conflicts like those in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti and Myanmar.
The amount and number of people covered by the appeal has been dramatically reduced over recent years, as the UN strives to adapt to a new reality after President Donald Trump slashed US foreign aid spending.
The United Nations has stressed that the smaller appeal does not mean needs have shrunk.
It estimates that some 240 million people — in conflict zones, suffering from epidemics, or victims of natural disasters and climate change — are in need of emergency aid.
In 2025, the UN’s appeal for more than $45 billion was only funded to the $12 billion mark, the lowest in a decade.
That only allowed it to help 98 million people, 25 million fewer than the year before.
With its pledge, announced at the US mission in Geneva alongside the United Nations’ aid chief Tom Fletcher, the United States is pursuing a dramatic overhaul of how it funds UN humanitarian work.
Instead of handing funds to individual agencies, the United States will funnel its contributions through the UN aid agency OCHA, headed by Fletcher, which earlier this year launched a so-called Humanitarian Reset to improve efficiency and accountability.
The US funds will then be distributed to more than a dozen selected countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Sudan.
“It is an initial anchor commitment,” Jeremy Lewin, the senior US official for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom, told reporters.
“There are other countries that we will add, as we continue to get more funding into this mechanism.”
He challenged other countries to match or beat US funding for UN aid.
“This new model will better share the burden of UN humanitarian work with other developed countries and will require the UN to cut bloat, remove duplication, and commit to powerful new impact, accountability and oversight mechanisms,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X.
According to UN data, the United States remained the top humanitarian aid donor in the world in 2025, but that amount fell significantly to $2.7 billion, down from around $11 billion in 2023 and 2024, and from over $14 billion in 2022.
Other key donor countries have also been tightening their belts, triggering major upheaval in the global aid sector.
“Individual UN agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die,” a State Department statement said.
Hard priority choices
Fletcher, who is British, said the US pledge was an “extraordinary” commitment.
“The US has long been the world’s humanitarian superpower,” he said in a statement.
“Hundreds of millions of people are alive today because of American generosity — and many millions more will survive in 2026 because of this landmark investment in humanity.”
Fletcher said reform of the humanitarian system was in the pipeline, and US taxpayers would be able to see how their money was delivering life-saving impacts.
“The US is also placing a significant and encouraging vote of trust and confidence in the Humanitarian Reset, through which we are making humanitarian action faster, smarter and closer to the people on the front lines of emergencies,” he said.
“We’re cutting red tape, eliminating duplication and prioritising hard.”
When Fletcher launched the UN’s annual Global Humanitarian Appeal for 2026 earlier this month, he requested $23 billion to provide assistance to 87 million of the world’s neediest people, with a heavy focus on dire conflicts like those in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti and Myanmar.
The amount and number of people covered by the appeal has been dramatically reduced over recent years, as the UN strives to adapt to a new reality after President Donald Trump slashed US foreign aid spending.
The United Nations has stressed that the smaller appeal does not mean needs have shrunk.
It estimates that some 240 million people — in conflict zones, suffering from epidemics, or victims of natural disasters and climate change — are in need of emergency aid.
In 2025, the UN’s appeal for more than $45 billion was only funded to the $12 billion mark, the lowest in a decade.
That only allowed it to help 98 million people, 25 million fewer than the year before.
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