Many U.S. adults are skeptical about President-elect Donald Trump's ability to bring down costs. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows only about 2 in 10 Americans are "extremely" or "very" confident the Republican will be able to make progress on lowering the cost of groceries, housing or health care this year. The poll shows about 2 in 10 Americans are "moderately" confident. Faith in Trump's ability to create jobs is a little higher: About 3 in 10 Americans are "extremely" or "very" confident he'll make progress on this in 2025.

Donald Trump has made his opposition to transgender rights central to his closing argument before Election Day. He has used demeaning language and misrepresentations to paint a tiny slice of the U.S. population as a threat to national identity. The Republican nominee's campaign and aligned political action committees have spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising that attacks Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for previous statements supporting transgender rights. Harris is pushing back, noting that she has supported federal policies that were in place when Trump was president. LGBTQ advocates argue that Trump's rhetoric encourages hostility toward transgender people and fosters misunderstandings about who they are.

From Iranian hacking to Russian influence campaigns, the 2024 presidential campaign is encountering a spate of efforts by foreign adversaries to weaken faith in the outcome and potentially alter the results. The Biden administration has moved aggressively in recent weeks to call out the operations in hopes of alerting Americans to remain vigilant to wide-ranging, often hidden, foreign efforts to influence their positions on hot-button positions and the candidates. The latest development came Wednesday when U.S. officials disclosed Iran's unsuccessful attempt to shop information stolen from the Trump campaign to his political adversary.

The Democratic National Convention is kicking off just four weeks after President Joe Biden shuttered his campaign and made way Vice President Kamala Harris to ascend to the top of Democrats' ticket. Biden is expected to take the stage Monday night. Harris is expected to be on hand to watch Biden's remarks, although she doesn't take the stage until Thursday. Tens of thousands of protesters are also expected in Chicago to show their angst over the Israel-Hamas war and other issues. Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, opens a tour of the country in his own counterprogramming to Democrats' big week.

A key question is looming for Vice President Kamala Harris as she edges closer to gaining the Democratic presidential nomination: Can she turn the Biden-Harris economic record into a political advantage in a way that President Joe Biden failed to do? In some ways, her task would seem straightforward: The administration oversaw a vigorous rebound from the pandemic recession, one that shrank the U.S. unemployment rate to a half-century low of 3.4% in early 2023. Yet the cumulative jump in average prices over the past three years — roughly 20%, only partly offset by higher paychecks — has contributed to a general unease about the country's direction.