WASHINGTON — The number of reported sexual assaults across the military decreased last year, and a confidential survey found a 19% drop in the number of service members who said they had experienced some type of unwanted sexual contact, according to new figures obtained by The Associated Press. Both are dramatic reversals of what has been a growing problem in recent years.

More than 29,000 active-duty service members said in the survey that they had unwanted sexual contact during the previous year, compared with nearly 36,000 in the 2021 survey, according to several defense officials. The decrease is the first in eight years.

At the same time, 8,515 sexual assaults were reported last year involving members of the U.S. military, a decrease from 8,942 in 2022. And officials said the U.S. military academies also saw fewer reported sexual assaults in the school year that ended last spring versus the previous year.

President Joe Biden hailed the improved numbers as he spoke Wednesday to his military commanders, who were gathered at the White House.

“I’m proud that for the first time in nearly a decade, rates of sexual assault and harassment are, within the active-duty forces, are down. They’re down. That’s because of your leadership,” Biden said.

Senior defense officials said the assault numbers are still far too high and there is much more work to do, but they expressed cautious optimism that the military could be turning a corner, with help from an array of new programs and increased personnel. Sexual assault reports in the military have gone up for much of the past decade, except for a tiny decrease in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been publicly released.

US drug overdoses: The number of U.S. fatal overdoses fell last year, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data posted Wednesday.

Agency officials noted the data is provisional and could change after more analysis, but that they still expect a drop when the final counts are in. It would be only the second annual decline since the current national drug death epidemic began more than three decades ago.

Experts reacted cautiously. One described the decline as relatively small, and said it should be thought of more as part of a leveling off than a decrease. Another noted that the last time a decline occurred — in 2018 — drug deaths shot up in the years that followed.

CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deb Houry called the dip “heartening news” and praised efforts to reduce the tally, but she noted “there are still families and friends losing their loved ones to drug overdoses at staggering numbers.”

About 107,500 people died of overdoses in the U.S. last year, including both American citizens and non-citizens who were in the country at the time they died, the CDC estimated. That’s down 3% from 2022, when there were an estimated 111,000 such deaths, the agency said.

The drug overdose epidemic, which has killed more than 1 million people since 1999, has had many ripple effects. For example, a study published last week in JAMA Psychiatry estimated that more than 321,000 U.S. children lost a parent to a fatal drug overdose from 2011 to 2021.

Prescription painkillers once drove the nation’s overdose epidemic, but they were supplanted years ago by heroin and more recently by illegal fentanyl.

China-Philippines dispute: Chinese coast guard ships shadowed a group of Filipino activists and fishermen sailing on wooden boats toward a disputed shoal in the South China Sea that Beijing has fiercely guarded from what it regards as intruders.

The Philippine coast guard deployed three patrol ships and a light plane to keep watch from a distance on the group of about 100 people who set off from western Zambales province to assert Manila’s sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal and surrounding waters. Dozens of journalists joined the three-day voyage.

The navy also dispatched a ship to help keep an eye on the participants.

The convoy was expected to reach the area of the shoal Thursday morning, the organizers said.

Tree suspects: Two men accused of cutting down the majestic Sycamore Gap tree concealed their faces from cameras as they arrived at court Wednesday but inside the courtroom they couldn’t hide from the cost of the damage they allegedly caused.

A prosecutor said the value of the roughly 150-year-old beloved tree that was toppled onto Hadrian’s Wall in northern England last year exceeded $785,000.

Daniel Graham, 38, and Adam Carruthers, 31, were each charged with two counts of criminal damage. One count is for allegedly cutting down the tree and the second is for damage to the adjacent wall, built by Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 122 to protect the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire.

The nighttime felling Sept. 28 caused widespread outrage as police tried to find the culprits behind what they called a deliberate act of vandalism.

Graham pleaded not guilty; Carruthers did not enter a plea.

The two wore suits and black masks when they arrived and left court in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. Both men were released on bail.

Manhunt in France: A massive search was underway Wednesday in France for armed assailants who ambushed a prison convoy, killing two prison officers, seriously injuring three others and freeing the inmate they were escorting.

The convoy was ambushed at a tollbooth Tuesday.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal vowed the gang would be caught, saying, “They will pay.”

The escaped convict, Mohamed Amra, 30, has a long criminal record, with at least 13 convictions for robbery and other crimes, the first when he was 15, prosecutors said.

International policing agency Interpol issued a Red Notice to find Amra. The notice flags people deemed fugitives to law enforcement worldwide and is one of Interpol’s most important tools.

Michigan protest: Pro- Palestinian protesters wearing masks pitched tents and placed fake bloody corpses outside the home of a University of Michigan board member Wednesday morning, raising tension with the school.

Sarah Hubbard, chair of the university’s governing board, said the demonstration at her home in Okemos involved 30 people. She and her husband stayed inside.

Okemos is 60 miles from the Ann Arbor campus.

The protesters left when Meridian Township police arrived. No arrests were made.