The blackest of Fridays is nearly upon us and companies have already begun rolling out the deals to separate consumers from their bank accounts. Here’s one for a well-regarded and budget-friendly robovac. The iRobot Roomba Essential Vac is on sale for just $140, which is a discount of 44 percent. The regular price is $250.

The Essential Vac features a similar design to the iRobot Roomba 694, which topped our list of the best budget robot vacuums. This one includes a three-stage cleaning system that works on both carpet and hard floors. It features the same smart navigation system as other iRoomba vacuums, so it’ll avoid stairs and work its way around items of furniture.

Despite being a budget-friendly robovac, there are some modern flourishes. The vacuum will automatically return to the charging station when the battery runs low, which is always nice. It also integrates with the Roomba app for setting cleaning schedules and for building a custom map of the home.

The battery life sits at around two hours, which is a decent metric for the price. That should be more than enough time to thoroughly clean a medium-sized home. The major caveat here is that this is a budget robovac, so it doesn’t mop and it doesn’t ship with a large debris canister. Still, the price is right for those curious about eliminating sweeping from that to-do list.

Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.

Apple has a history of eye-popping price tags, but the company is reaching new heights with a product that isn't even a gadget. After Apple Music unveiled a list of the 100 best albums of all time earlier this year, the streaming service is releasing a companion coffee table book. You can grab one of the 1,500 copies for a cool $450.

I find these endeavors to rank and quantify art hilarious, because music is subjective and personal by nature. But people do love to debate their own artistic opinions, so if that's your jam there's plenty to dig into with Apple Music's assessment. (And before you ask, the top spot was claimed by The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.) This particular countdown was assembled by "Apple Music’s team of experts alongside an exclusive group of artists including Maren Morris, Pharrell Williams, J Balvin, Charli XCX, Mark Hoppus, Honey Dijon and Nia Archives, as well as songwriters, producers and industry professionals," according to the book listing.

I'm sure this limited-run hardcover will be very beautiful, and maybe the liner notes analyzing each entry are deeply insightful. But I also wonder who would bother to buy it. If you are one of those 1,500 people who wants one, the book is due to start shipping in January.

More than 200 employees of 23andMe are being laid off as part of the company’s ongoing cost-cutting measures. The layoffs will impact 40 percent of the genetic testing company’s workforce.

23andMe CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki said in a statement released on Monday that the staff reduction would save the beleaguered company more than $35 million. She called the layoffs “difficult but necessary actions as we restructure 23andMe and focus on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships.”

The company also announced it will start to shut down its therapeutics clinical programs that used its genetic database to research and develop new drugs. The therapeutics division housed two “immuno-oncology programs” that investigated therapeutic antibodies “designed to restore the ability of the body’s immune cells to kill cancer cells,” according to the division’s website.

The San Francisco-based company has not had an easy year. Hackers hit the genetics giant in April of last year and leaked information of 6.9 million customers. The data breach went unnoticed for a year and a half, leading to a $30 million settlement of a class action lawsuit and resignations from the company’s entire board.

Apple is rumored to be working on a new smart home product. Mark Gurman at Bloomberg reported that the company is developing a wall-mounted display for controlling appliances, interacting with Siri and videoconferencing. The tablet is said to look "like a square iPad" with "a roughly 6-inch screen." It would have a camera at the top as well as internal speakers and a built-in rechargeable battery. His sources said this smart home display could be officially announced as soon as March following three years in development.

This description sounds a lot like the Google Home Hub, which came out in 2018, or the Echo Show, which is already up to its eighth iteration. If Apple wants to be a serious competitor in this smart home space, it'll have to prove to customers that it has something to offer that these more established brands and products don't.

Right now, the only distinguishing feature is likely Apple Intelligence, which finally began rolling out to users in late October, and the upcoming App Intents system for controlling software programs with AI. But Apple may be looking farther ahead toward something more extravagant than just a smart device control panel. Gurman reported that Apple is already working on a version with a robotic arm that could move the tablet around. It should be interesting to see exactly what Apple does formally launch and when.

Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira received a 15-year sentence in federal prison for leaking classified military documents on Discord in a Boston federal court, according to The Washington Post.

Teixeira appeared before the court earlier today and asked the judge for leniency. He also issued a statement apologizing for “all of the harm that I’ve caused, to my friends, family and those overseas.”

Defense attorney Michael Bachrach also claimed that Teixeira was subjected to bullying in high school and his military unit as an adjudicating factor for his actions. Judge Indira Talwani didn’t buy the defense’s bullying claims stating that the Air Force has already disciplined 15 other members connected to Teixeira for not taking more actions “that might have stopped him from doing this.”

Teixeira shared classified military documents as far back as late 2022 on a Discord server dedicated to the pixelated sandbox game Minecraft. The leak included information about the Ukrainian and Russian troop movements and military equipment used in the war in Ukraine and Russia's attempts to obtain more weapons from Egypt and Turkey. The documents eventually found their way to other Discord servers as well as 4chan and Telegram.

FBI officials arrested Teixeira at his home in April of last year. Teixeira originally agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors in March that included a 16-year prison sentence for pleading guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information and violating the Espionage Act. If he stuck with his not guilty plea and received a guilty verdict, Teixeira faced a much steeper maximum prison term of 60 years.

President-elect Donald Trump has named Elon Musk as the leader of a new “Department of Government Efficiency," that will “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” The Tesla CEO and owner of X will spearhead the effort along with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump announced in a statement on Truth Social.

The scope of the role isn’t exactly clear. Trump’s press release said that “the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” It also stated that “their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026.”

Musk shared the news on X, but didn’t indicate how the role might impact his obligations at his various other companies. Musk, who poured millions of dollars into Super Pac boosting Trump’s campaign, has previously talked about his desire to work with Trump to cut government spending. He did, however, joke about potential "merch" for the operation. "Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of 'DOGE' for a very long time," Trump's statement said. 

Amoureux du sport, Sylvain Croteau a décidé de consacrer sa carrière, depuis 10 ans, à prévenir et à contrer la violence et les abus dans ce monde.

Les Islanders ont une lourde tâche qui les attend ce soir.

Carey Price aura vraisemblablement la faveur du comité qui est appelé à décider qui sera intronisé chaque année.

Jeremy Roenick nous a offert le moment le plus touchant de l’intronisation des membres de la cuvée 2024 du Temple de la renommée du hockey.

Traverser une séquence de revers, ça n’a rien de plaisant. Surtout quand elle vous refoule jusqu’au dernier rang de la LNH.

Un défenseur bélarusse au potentiel incalculable réalise bien malgré lui les défis quotidiens qui accompagnent son physique hors-norme.

FIRST came the smash, now comes the grab. It’s the crime wave that will send terror into the heart of every cafe owner worried that their stock standard breakfast basic is under threat of extinction.

THE soap opera continues for SurfStitch as the surfwear brand sheds 40 jobs in a bid to return to profit.

AUSTRALIANS have reacted with mirth to a Liberal ad featuring a builder exhibiting several telltale signs that he’s never been on a worksite in his life.

COMMENT: I am a father-of-three and a small-business owner in Oakey. Several days ago, The Courier-Mail conducted water tests on the irrigation bore on my property. I was extremely distressed by the results.

THE reasons behind a decision to release a secret expletive-laden recording of former Chief Justice Tim Carmody are almost as juicy as the tape is expected to be.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 05, 2024
Imagining a vast ice sheet sprawling over Canada and extending down into what is now the northern United States, reaching as far south as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, helps us grasp the scope of ancient glacial coverage between 19,000 and 26,000 years ago. Yet, while picturing this immense ice mass is fascinating, the present-day implications of its retreat - parti

New Delhi (AFP) Nov 7, 2024
Sweeping aside thick toxic scum, thousands of Hindu devotees ignored court warnings Thursday against bathing in the sacred but sewage-filled Yamuna river, a grim display of environmental degradation in India's capital. Thousands celebrated the festival of Chhath Puja for the Hindu sun god Surya, entering the stinking waters to pray as the evening rays set in the sky. A parliamentary repo

Barsana, India (AFP) Nov 8, 2024
Venerated as incarnations of Hindu deities, India's sacred cows are also being touted as agents of energy transition by a government determined to promote biogas production to cut its dependence on coal. It is an understatement to say that Nakul Kumar Sardana is proud of his new plant at Barsana, in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state. Firstly, says the vice-president of a biomass joint

Lahore, Pakistan (AFP) Nov 13, 2024
On the streets of Pakistan's second biggest city, smog stings eyes and burns throats. Inside homes, few people can afford air purifiers to limit the damage of toxic particles that seep through doors and windows. Lahore - a city of 14 million people stuffed with factories on the border with India - regularly ranks among the world's most polluted cities, but it has hit record levels this mon

Mamoudzou (AFP) Nov 12, 2024
Around half the people in the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte were without potable water Tuesday after a "technical incident" at a treatment plant, a local authority said in a statement. The "event of electrical origin" at the Ouroveni plant overnight from Monday to Tuesday "is leading to water cuts mostly located in the centre and south" of Mayotte's main island Grande Terre, the p

Canadians are watching the U.S. election results with trepidation, knowing they have no control over the outcome that will still affect them. Polling shows Vice-President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are neck-and-neck. 

A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz are on the auction block nearly two decades after a thief stole the iconic shoes, convinced they were adorned with real jewels.

Bill MacDonnell's paintings are on display at the Military Museums in Calgary through Remembrance Day and into 2025.

The prolific British author discussed his latest book on Bookends with Mattea Roach.

While buzzy social media moments, massive celebrity endorsements and viral memes were everywhere during the U.S. election campaign, those who study social media and pop culture say it's likely that smaller social media interactions had a larger impact on the outcome.

Three people have been charged in relation to One Direction singer Liam Payne's death  in a fall from his Buenos Aires hotel balcony last month, Argentine authorities said on Thursday.

Speaking with CBC News’s Eli Glasner, Cillian Murphy discusses ‘imploding emotionally’ in his role in Small Things Like These, his partnership with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and how his experience on Oppenheimer influenced this film. CORRECTION: A previous version of this video interview includes reference to communities in Canada 'still finding bodies of Indigenous children in the ground' at 1:24. We have removed this portion of the interview. Searches at the sites of former residential schools using ground-penetrating radar have found evidence of possible unmarked graves.

Beyoncé leads the 2025 Grammy Award nominations with 11, bringing her career total to 99 nominations. That makes her the most-nominated artist in Grammy history.

Actor Tony Todd, known for his haunting portrayal of a killer in the horror film Candyman and roles in many other films and television shows, has died, says his longtime manager.

The sound of silence, no more: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who as folk duo Simon & Garfunkel were one of the most popular American musical acts of the 20th century, recently reunited after years without speaking.

Toy giant Mattel says it "deeply" regrets an error on the packaging of its Wicked movie-themed dolls, which mistakenly links toy buyers to a pornographic website.

As Toronto readies for Taylor Swift's arrival this week, some crowd management and planning experts say additional safety precautions should be taken when tens of thousands of fans fill the city's downtown core on show nights.

Un avocat de Laval épinglé pour son compteur d’Hydro-Québec trafiqué qui lui a fait économiser près de 27 000$ d’électricité devra payer une amende.

On prévoit des retombées économiques de 282 millions de dollars pour la ville.

Le corps ligoté en état de décomposition retrouvé le 30 octobre dans l’un des parcs les plus achalandés de Montréal est celui de Kevin Mirshahi.

Amoury Lapointe a résisté à son arrestation lors d’une intervention de routine à laquelle il refusait de se soumettre dans son «véhicule diplomatique»

Le jury au procès du père accusé d’avoir décimé sa famille a eu droit à une véritable incursion dans la scène de crime.

Florence et Marianne seront finalement au concert de leur idole, vendredi, à Toronto, mais elles ont eu toute une frousse.

Découvrez ci-dessous comment notre caricaturiste Ygreck a imagé son dessin.

Des Swifties ont dépensé des centaines de dollars à la boutique de souvenirs de la vedette, à son ouverture, mardi.

Canadian political leaders are congratulating Donald Trump on winning back the U.S. presidency — a victory that raises questions about what Canada-U.S. relations will look like over the next four years.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall for several brands of bread and buns due to pieces of metal in the products.

Cineplex Inc. says it will continue adding a fee to some online ticket purchases after being penalized earlier this fall for alleged deceptive marketing, but it will adjust how the charge is communicated to moviegoers.

Via Rail's service standards have eroded substantially over the last decade, with many more trains arriving late.

Donald Trump is returning to the White House with big plans to remake the global trade landscape. That could be a disaster for Canada's economy. But key players of the last trade war believe they can mitigate the damage.

Total greenhouse gas emissions from Alberta's oilsands have remained relatively flat for the last few years but could climb yet again in 2024 as the industry ratchets up oil production, according to a new report released Thursday.

Canadian rental prices fell 1.2 per cent in October compared to the same time last year. It's the first time that annual rents have declined since July 2021, according to a new report.

The federal government ordered an end to TikTok's Canadian operations on Wednesday, citing national security concerns. But its decision to keep the app itself available has privacy experts puzzled.