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(WASHINGTON) — U.S. military suicides increased by 30 in 2023, according to a Defense Department report released Thursday, continuing an upward trend the Pentagon has struggled to combat.

“The findings urgently demonstrate the need for the Department to redouble its work in the complex fields of suicide prevention and postvention,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Thursday.

There were 523 service members who took their own lives last year, and the total force rate of suicide deaths per 100,000 service members was 9% higher than in 2022, the report said.

“Numerically, that was somewhat higher than the 493 that we lost in 2022, although that increase in terms of the rate and the count for the active component was not a statistically significant increase,” said Dr. Timothy Hoyt, deputy director of force resiliency for the DOD.

But while there was a slight dip in the military suicide rate in 2022, and a relatively modest increase in 2023, officials described a concerning overall upward trend since 2011 for active-duty forces.

“For the longer term, we continue to see a gradual, statistically significant increase in the active component suicide rates from 2011 to 2023,” said Dr. Liz Clark, director of the Pentagon’s Suicide Prevention Office. “There is a low likelihood that this change is due to natural variation or chance.”

Though concerning, military suicide rates have been comparable to those of the wider U.S. population over that time period.

While active-duty and reserve suicide rates increased in 2023, rates for the National Guard dipped slightly, according to the report.

The Pentagon is pursuing several lines of effort to reduce instances of suicide in the ranks, including by working to foster a supportive environment, improve mental health care, reduce stigma for seeking help and better suicide prevention training.

“Since his first day in office, the health, safety and well-being of our military community has been one of Secretary Austin’s top priorities,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said during the Thursday Pentagon briefing. “As you’ve heard him say many times before, we owe it to our service members and our military families to provide the best possible care, to identify risk factors and spot warning signs and to eliminate stigmas around seeking help, and when it comes to suicide, one loss to suicide is one too many. The department remains focused on long-term, sustained initiatives to prevent suicide.”

If you or one of your loved ones are struggling or needs extra support, you are not alone. Please call the suicide and crisis lifeline at 9-8-8.

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National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that President Joe Biden is looking to make as much progress as possible on foreign policy before he leaves office next month.

In an interview with “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, Sullivan said that Biden is hoping to surge aid to Ukraine and move forward with ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas with his time left in office. Both conflicts have dogged the administration, with Ukraine struggling to retake territory it lost to Russia and little progress in Gaza despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“We are going to do everything in our power for these 50 days to get Ukraine all the tools we possibly can to strengthen their position on the battlefield so that they’ll be stronger at the negotiating table. And President Biden directed me to oversee a massive surge in the military equipment that we are delivering to Ukraine so that we have spent every dollar that Congress has appropriated to us by the time that President Biden leaves office,” Sullivan said.

When pressed on clinching a deal in Gaza and possibly broader diplomatic breakthroughs between Israel and Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Sullivan said, “The first step is getting the ceasefire and hostage deal. If we can get that into effect, then the possibilities for a broader diplomatic initiative in the region along the lines that you just described really open up, and we will use every day we have in office to try to generate as much progress towards that end as possible.”

Making progress on both fronts remains a tall order for multiple reasons. The U.S. has vowed to not make any decisions about Ukraine without Kyiv’s input and the Israeli government has appeared reluctant to wind down fighting in Gaza.

And with President-elect Donald Trump entering office, foreign policy priorities will undoubtedly be shaken up. Trump is believed to be unlikely to pressure Israel to scale back its military operations in Gaza, and he has appeared skeptical of sending aid to Ukraine at the same pace the Biden administration has.

“I’ve encouraged the Ukrainian team to engage the incoming team as well as to engage all of our allies and partners, because, again, on Jan. 21, the war in Ukraine doesn’t just go away. Obviously, the new team will have its own policy, its own approach, and I can’t speak to that, but what I can do is make sure that we put Ukraine in the best possible position when we hand off the baton,” Sullivan said, referencing the day after Trump takes office.

Still, Sullivan debunked a report suggesting that the administration is open to returning nuclear weapons to Ukraine.

“That is not under consideration. No. What we are doing is surging various conventional capacities to Ukraine so that they can effectively defend themselves and take the fight to the Russians, not nuclear capability,” he told Karl.

Sullivan did say, however, that the transition is going smoothly.

“We got a lot of work to do, and frankly, we’re going to try to do that also in a way where we have a smooth transition with the incoming Trump team. And I have to say that I’ve been gratified so far by the coordination I’ve been able to have with the incoming Trump team. They seem focused also on a smooth transition, because they want to be able to hit the ground running,” he told Karl.

After Trump takes office, however, things become less clear.

Trump on Saturday tapped Kash Patel, a loyalist and vocal critic of the Justice Department, as his pick to lead the FBI. Patel has railed against the so-called “Deep State,” naming Sullivan as a member.

When pressed on if that pick concerns him, Sullivan dodged.

“I’m not going to speak to President-elect Trump’s nominees. I’ll let him and his transition team speak to that,” Sullivan said.

“We inherited an FBI director who actually had been appointed by President Trump, Director Chris Wray, who has continued to serve in that role through the four years of the Biden administration, and served with distinction, served entirely insulated from politics where the partisan preferences of the current sitting president of the United States. This is a good, deep, bipartisan tradition that President Biden adhered to.”

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Americans broadly pick Kamala Harris as the winner of last week’s widely watched presidential debate – yet neither she nor Donald Trump moved the needle in terms of trust on the issues, ratings of the candidates’ personal attributes or vote preferences in the 2024 election.

Even Taylor Swift shows little impact: Just 6% in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll say the pop star singer-songwriter’s endorsement of Harris makes them more likely to vote for her; 13%, instead, say it makes them less likely to support her, with 81% saying it makes no difference. Those responding negatively are overwhelmingly Trump supporters, according to the poll.

Americans by 58-36% say Harris won the debate – a reversal from the Biden-Trump match in June, which Trump was seen as winning by 66-28%. Biden’s performance intensified questions about his cognitive health, precipitating his departure from the race.

The poll of 3,276 adults, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates with fieldwork by Ipsos, finds that Harris did firm up some of her personal appeal: Thirty-seven percent say the debate made them feel more favorably toward her, vs. 23% less favorably. There was no such benefit for Trump: People by nearly 2-1 say the debate made them see him less favorably.

The benefit for Harris occurred almost exclusively in her base, potentially helping her turnout efforts. Sixty-nine percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents say the debate made them see her more favorably. Only half as many Republicans and GOP-leaning Independents, 34%, say the debate made them see Trump more favorably. One factor may be that Harris, a walk-on candidate, has had less public exposure until now.

The poll also finds a slight dip in the share of Trump supporters who back him strongly – 56%, vs. 60% at the end of August. Sixty-two percent of Harris’ supporters now are strongly behind her, the first meaningful difference in strong support between the two.

That said, Trump shows an advantage in another gauge: while 42% call him too conservative, 47% call Harris too liberal, one of his debate themes.

Preferences

Vote preferences haven’t moved meaningfully. This poll finds the race at 51-46%, Harris-Trump, among all adults; 51-47% among registered voters; and 52-46% among likely voters. Each is within a percentage point of its pre-debate level in ABC/Ipsos polling.

Results are essentially identical when including third-party or Independent candidates Chase Oliver, Jill Stein and Cornel West; they get at most 1% support apiece. State-to-state ballot access for these candidates is a work in progress; ABC News estimates that as of now Oliver likely is on the ballot in about 36 states, Stein in about 27 and West in about 15.

It’s important to note that this poll measures preferences nationally, an effort to better understand how all Americans are coming to their choices in the presidential election. It doesn’t assess the contest at the state level, which determines the winner of the Electoral College.

The absence of movement in vote preferences, despite a 22-point tilt to Harris as having won the debate, marks the sharply polarized nature of the electorate. Almost everyone has a preference between Harris or Trump, and among those who do, few say they’d even consider the other. This is especially true among likely voters, with just 3% potentially persuadable to switch.

Another result also shows the entrenched divisions in attitudes. Seventy-three percent of Trump’s supporters say they’ve backed him all year. Of the rest, 17% were undecided at some point but settled on Trump; just 9% moved to Trump from another candidate – mostly, other Republicans or the former Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Barely 2% of Trump’s supporters came to him after previously preferring Harris or Biden.

It’s similar on Harris’ side of the ledger. Two-thirds of her supporters say they’ve been with her since she got into the race. A quarter were undecided at some point. Just 2% of Harris supporters have moved to her from Trump.

Movable voters can matter – as everyone matters – in a tight race. But these results suggest that the biggest pickings for Trump and Harris alike are in motivating turnout among their existing support groups.

Groups

Harris leads Trump by nine points among women while running virtually even with him among men, and by a slight nine points among 18- to 29-year-olds, entirely due to her support from women that age. She improves among young adults who are more likely to vote.

While younger women are important to Harris, the Swift endorsement doesn’t show a positive impact even in this group. Eight percent of women younger than 30 say the endorsement makes them more likely to support Harris, while 13% say it makes them less likely to do so. Most, 78%, say it makes no difference.

Her position among suburban women, an often-watched group, is similar to her support among women overall. More tellingly, she’s +12 points among independents, often a swing voter group in presidential elections.

Trump, for his part, leads by a vast 79-18% among white evangelical Protestants, with this core GOP group seemingly unfazed by his layered position on abortion. He’s roughly on par with past performance, having won white evangelical Protestants by 74-25% in 2020 and 81-16% in 2016.

In other groups, Trump leads by 12 points among white people, growing to 28 points among those who don’t have a four-year college degree, a mainstay of his support. Despite suggestions that he’s denigrated the military, he leads by 29 points among veterans, 63-34%.

Voters

Many of these results – but not all – hold steady when moving from the general public (relevant because there’s still time to register) to registered voters and then to likely voters. But there are a few notable exceptions.

Harris advances from +9 points among all adults aged 18-29 to +19 points among those identified as likely voters. This is fueled by young women, a cornerstone group in her campaign: Harris goes from +23 points among all women under 30 to +38 points among those likely to vote.

There’s a stark contrast with men aged 18-29 who are likely to vote: Just 51% in this group back Harris, with virtually as many, 48%, for Trump.

Trump, for his part, remains closer than usual to Harris among Hispanic people, now trailing her by 17 points among those who are likely voters. That’s better than usual for Trump compared with past elections: Biden won Hispanic people by 33 points in 2020; Hillary Clinton won them by 40 points in 2016, per ABC News exit polls.

Issues and attributes

While overall vote preferences are stable, so are views on issues and attributes. The economy and inflation continue to dominate as the top issues in the election, and Trump leads by 7 points in trust to handle each of them.

In the next most important issues, Harris responds with a 7-point lead on “protecting American democracy” and a 9-point lead on handling health care. The two remain evenly matched on crime and safety.

It’s clear, too, why Trump keeps doubling down on immigration as an issue: He leads Harris by 10 points in trust to handle it. She leads him by 14 points on abortion and by 16 points on handling race relations, although both rate lower in importance.

There are differences among groups in issue importance. In notable gender gaps, women are 14 points more apt than men to cite abortion as a top issue in their vote, 68% vs. 54% – a difference that holds regardless of age. Women also are 11 points more likely than men to cite health care as a top issue, 82 vs. 71%. Still, the economy and inflation top the issues list among women and men alike.

Harris’ best results vs. Trump continue to be on personal attributes, explaining her effort to lean in on this domain. She leads him by 32 points in having the physical health it takes to serve effectively, 17 points in honesty and trustworthiness, 10 points in mental sharpness, 10 points in understanding the problems of people like you and 7 points in better representing your personal values. All, again, are essentially the same as they were before the debate.

Overall favorability also is essentially unchanged: Forty-seven percent have a favorable impression of Harris, vs. 35% for Trump. Still, they’re close in being seen as qualified for office – Harris by 53%, Trump by 49%. The difference widens, however, among independents; 56% see Harris as qualified vs. 48% who say the same of Trump.

Debate

Lastly, on the debate, it’s notable that 95% of Democrats say Harris won, while fewer Republicans, 75%, say Trump won. (Among independents, 61% pick Harris.) Similarly, among Trump’s own supporters, 78% say he won the debate, while among people backing Harris, 97% give her the win. (These results include people who initially called the debate a tie, then leaned toward Harris or Trump as the winner.)

While 58% overall say Harris won, this rises to 64% of those who watched all or some of the debate. That reflects the fact that Harris supporters are 8 points more likely than Trump supporters to have watched. Harris supporters are even more apt to have read, watched or listened to follow-up news coverage or commentary about the debate – 75% have done so, vs. 59% of those who support Trump.

Methodology

This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted online via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel® Sept. 11-13, 2024, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 3,276 adults. Partisan divisions are 29-29-30%, Democrats-Republicans-independents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 2 percentage points, including the design effect, for the full sample. Sample sizes are 2,772 for registered voters and 2,196 for likely voters, with a 2-point error margin for each. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.

The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, with sampling and data collection by Ipsos. See details on the ABC News survey methodology here.

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