Ashley Judd and Aloe Blacc help the White House unveil its national suicide prevention strategy

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Ashley Judd and Aloe Blacc help the White House unveil its national suicide prevention strategy

2024-04-26 02:58 Last Updated At：03:01

WASHINGTON (AP) — Actor Ashley Judd and singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, who both lost loved ones to suicide, on Tuesday helped the Biden administration promote its new national strategy to prevent suicide.

Judd's mother, country star Naomi Judd, died nearly two years ago. Blacc's frequent collaborator, Tim Bergling, died in 2018.

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Ashley Judd, right, sitting with Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, left, speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Actor Ashley Judd and singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, who both lost loved ones to suicide, on Tuesday helped the Biden administration promote its new national strategy to prevent suicide.

Ashley Judd heads to her seat before the start of an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, left, sitting next to Ashley Judd, right, speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, right, sings during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. He is joined by, from left, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, Ashley Judd, and Shelby Rowe, Executive Director of the Suicide Prevention Research Center. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc speaks, right, speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. He is joined by, from left, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, Ashley Judd, and Shelby Rowe, Executive Director of the Suicide Prevention Research Center. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Ashley Judd, left, listens to Shelby Rowe, right, Executive Director of the Suicide Prevention Research Center, during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Shelby Rowe, center, Executive Director of the Suicide Prevention Research Center, flanked by Ashley Judd, left, and singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, right, finishes speaking during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Actor Ashley Judd and singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, who both lost loved ones to suicide, on Tuesday helped the Biden administration promote its new national strategy to prevent suicide.

Ashley Judd heads to her seat before the start of an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, left, sitting next to Ashley Judd, right, speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, right, sings during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. He is joined by, from left, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, Ashley Judd, and Shelby Rowe, Executive Director of the Suicide Prevention Research Center. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc speaks, right, speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. He is joined by, from left, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, Ashley Judd, and Shelby Rowe, Executive Director of the Suicide Prevention Research Center. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff speaks during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Ashley Judd, left, listens to Shelby Rowe, right, Executive Director of the Suicide Prevention Research Center, during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Shelby Rowe, center, Executive Director of the Suicide Prevention Research Center, flanked by Ashley Judd, left, and singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, right, finishes speaking during an event on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with notable suicide prevention advocates. The White House held the event on the day they released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to highlight efforts to tackle the mental health crisis and beat the overdose crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Both were on hand as Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, helped unveil the Democratic administration's blueprint for reducing suicides in the United States. Some 132 people a day kill themselves, he said.

“We’re here today because we know that we can and will change this,” Emhoff said. “Suicide is preventable.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

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Judd's mother had lived most of her 76 years with an untreated sickness and, on the day she died, “the disease of mental illness was lying to her," Ashley Judd said during a discussion moderated by Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy with Blacc and Shelby Rowe, executive director of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center.

“She deserved better,” Judd said about her mother. Judd said she also has suffered from depression and has had a different outcome because of treatment.

“I carry a message of hope,” she said.

Asked what people can do to help someone in crisis, Rowe said people shouldn't worry about “if you're saying the right thing. Just say something and show up.”

Blacc suggested that people offer a “moment of joy” when they do reach out, such as a memory that sparks laughter or a song. He also encouraged people to remember that they are “the light.”

“There's no such thing as too much love. Let's give as much as we can," he said, before he led the audience in singing the chorus from “This Little Light of Mine.”

Defense chiefs from US, Australia, Japan and Philippines vow to deepen cooperation

2024-05-03 17:08 Last Updated At：17:10

HONOLULU (AP) — Defense chiefs from the U.S., Australia, Japan and the Philippines vowed to deepen their cooperation as they gathered Thursday in Hawaii for their second-ever joint meeting amid concerns about China's operations in the South China Sea.

The meeting came after the four countries last month held their first joint naval exercises in the South China Sea, a major shipping route where Beijing has long-simmering territorial disputes with a number of Southeast Asian nations and has caused alarm with its recent assertiveness in the waters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at a news conference after their discussion that the drills strengthened the ability of the nations to work together, build bonds among their forces and underscore their shared commitment to international law in the waterway.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said the defense chiefs talked about increasing the tempo of their defense exercises.

“Today, the meetings that we have held represent a very significant message to the region and to the world about four democracies which are committed to the global rules-based order,” Marles said at the joint news conference with his counterparts.

Austin hosted the defense chiefs at the U.S. military’s regional headquarters, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, at Camp H.M. Smith in the hills above Pearl Harbor. Earlier in the day, Austin had separate bilateral meetings with Australia and Japan followed by a trilateral meeting with Australia and Japan.

Defense chiefs from the four nations held their first meeting in Singapore last year.

The U.S. has decades-old defense treaties with all three nations.

The U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, but has deployed Navy ships and fighter jets in what it calls freedom of navigation operations that have challenged China’s claims to virtually the entire waterway. The U.S. says freedom of navigation and overflight in the waters is in America’s national interest.

Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the resource-rich sea. Beijing has refused to recognize a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated its expansive claims on historical grounds.

Skirmishes between Beijing and Manila in particular have flared since last year. Earlier this week, Chinese coast guard ships fired water cannons at two Philippine patrol vessels off off Scarborough Shoal, damaging both.

The repeated high-seas confrontations have sparked fears of a larger conflict that could put China and the United States on a collision course.. The U.S. has warned repeatedly that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines — its oldest treaty ally in Asia — if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

President Joe Biden's administration has said it aims to build what it calls a “latticework” of alliances in the Indo-Pacific even as the U.S. grapples with the Israel-Hamas war and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing says the strengthening of U.S. alliances in Asia is aimed at containing China and threatens regional stability.

Ashley Judd and Aloe Blacc help the White House unveil its national suicide prevention strategy

ENT

Ashley Judd and Aloe Blacc help the White House unveil its national suicide prevention strategy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Actor Ashley Judd and singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, who both lost loved ones to suicide, on Tuesday helped the Biden administration promote its new national strategy to prevent suicide.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Actor Ashley Judd and singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, who both lost loved ones to suicide, on Tuesday helped the Biden administration promote its new national strategy to prevent suicide.

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