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U.S. consumer confidence rose in October. The Conference Board's index increased by seven point five points to ninety-one point seven, after September's low. Average regular gasoline fell to four dollars and twenty-seven cents a gallon from four dollars and forty-eight cents a month earlier, according to AAA. But fuel still cost far more than it did a year ago, and survey respondents continued to point to energy, goods and services costs. September consumer prices were up three point seven percent from a year earlier, so affordability pressure remains.

Republican groups had spent an estimated one hundred eighty-three million dollars on transgender-related television ads through October twenty-fifth, according to AdImpact data reviewed by AP. The ads aired about two hundred seventeen thousand times nationwide and were concentrated in several competitive states. An AP-NORC poll found about one in ten registered voters called transgender issues among the election's most important, while roughly eight in ten mentioned the economy or cost of living. Democrats spent about eleven million dollars on related ads, largely in response. Spending totals show ad activity, not how voters will decide.

Minions and Monsters begins streaming on Peacock today. It is the third Minions movie and the seventh film in the Despicable Me series. AP says the story sends the characters to nineteen-twenties Hollywood, where they become silent-film stars and make a monster movie. Other U.S. streaming picks this week include a Netflix documentary series about Matthew Perry, the return of The Gilded Age on HBO Max, and new shows on Hulu, Apple TV and Paramount Plus. The roundup also includes new music and the video game Phantom Blade Zero.