Everything You Need to Know about Cyber Monday Sales

Nowadays it’s difficult to tell when Black Friday ends and Cyber Monday begins. But it’s probably not that important to differentiate among them anyway. Regardless of when you’re shopping during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you won’t be able to swing a smartphone without hitting a sale—or, more likely, three dozen sales and special offers, inundating your in-box.

Here’s some essential information for finding the best discounts on Cyber Monday, and for understanding how this traditional day for online deals fits into the grand scheme of the holiday shopping season. (One last note: We’ll update this post through Monday morning as new trends and deals emerge.)

Many Cyber Monday deals launched before Monday. We live in a world when Black Friday deals begin on the Wednesdaybefore Thanksgiving, if not even earlier. It’s no surprise, then, that lots of sales marketed as “Cyber Monday” specials were available before Monday.

All 2,000 Cyber Monday deals at Walmart were available for purchase as of 8 p.m. the night before. Meanwhile, Toys R Usintroduced the first of many rounds of its Cyber Monday deals at 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, including 50% off a Thomas & Friends railway set ($80, normally $160) and buy-one, get-one-free WWE packs. Amazon’s Cyber Monday deals, on the other hand, basically blurred into the weeks of deals that came before it—and that will continue into Cyber Monday and beyond. L.L. Bean began a 10% off everything sale starting before Thanksgiving (use code THANKS10 at checkout) that’s valid through Tuesday, December 1, and customers get a $10 credit for every $50 spent on orders now through December 24 too.

But most sales went live Monday morning. Despite a few outliers jumping the gun on Cyber Monday sales, the vast majority of retailers waited until it’s Monday to make its online sales live. (Not to say that other online deals won’t be available sooner, but there will special e-retail sales arriving specifically for Monday.) Head to deal-tracking sites like dealnews, RetailMeNot.com, Offers.com, Bargainist, and Buxr.com for the latest on sales. Or just head to your preferred retailer’s website, where you’ll surely find deals galore.

Look for sitewide discounts.Like in the past, major retailers are offering sitewide discounts of 40% or 50% off on Cyber Monday. This goes especially for apparel retailers, seeing as the original prices on clothing is often subjected to absurd markups, so it’s easier for them to be dramatically marked down. If you have a preferred retailer—Land’s End, American Eagle, Ann Taylor, Barnes & Noble, and so on—now’s the opportunity to scoop up an item you’ve had your eye on but just hasn’t gone on sale yet. Even Target is doing the sitewide discount thing this year, with 15% off everything on Monday.

But don’t assume Cyber Monday always has the best deals. Gap got an early start on across-the-board discounts, offering 50% off everything in stores and online as of the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, via the promotional code EARLY. On Cyber Monday itself, however, Gap’s sitewide discount was “only” 40% (via code BESTCYBER). Sport Authority, meanwhile, is enticing shoppers to buy sooner by offering discounts that get smaller as the day progresses. The sports retailer’s site was offering 30% off everything from 10 p.m. Sunday night through 6 a.m. on Monday morning, then 25% off your entire purchase from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, and finally 20% off from 6 p.m. to midnight. 

Toys and clothes are particularly cheap. After reviewing the deals on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday over the past few years, the experts at dealnews have concluded that Thanksgiving generally sees the best discounts on TVs, tablets, laptops, and movies, while Black Friday is tops in terms of iPhones, video games, and headphones. Cyber Monday, on the other hand, tends to feature standout prices on clothing (see those sitewide discounts mentioned above) and toys. Bear in mind, however, that in previous years, toys have been even cheaper, on average, during the two weeks prior to Christmas.

Free shipping is a gimme.While some retailers will stick with a minimum purchase requirement in order for customers to get free shipping, most understand that consumers today demand free shipping before biting on Cyber Monday. For that matter, many shoppers demand free shipping throughout the entire holiday season. That’s what’s prompted Best Buy and Target, among others, to offer free shipping on all orders, no minimum purchase required, for the duration of the holidays.

Putin: Turkey shot down jet to protect ISIL oil supply

Turkish authorities claim the Russian jet crossed into Turkey's airspace prior to being shot down - a claim Russia denies [AP]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ankara of shooting down a Russian warplane to protect supplies of oil from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group to Turkey.

"We have every reason to think that the decision to shoot down our plane was dictated by the desire to protect the oil supply lines to Turkish territory," Putin said during a news conference on Monday on the fringes of UN climate talks near Paris.

"We have received additional information which unfortunately confirms that this oil, produced in areas controlled by [ISIL] and other terrorist organisations, is transported on an industrial scale to Turkey."

Putin's strongly worded statement came hours after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu again refused to apologise for the downing of the plane near the Syrian border last Tuesday.

Moscow and Ankara have been at loggerheads over last Tuesday's incident when Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border.

Turkish authorities claim the Russian jet crossed into Turkey's airspace prior to being shot down, while Russian authorities vehemently denying those claims.

Turkey has released a number of recordings which it claims prove that the warplane was warned repeatedly prior to being shot down.

Turkey has been backed by its allies NATO and the United States, with the US state department reiterating on Monday that its data "corroborated" Turkey's version of events.

But Russia has hit back hard, slapping Turkey with a series of sanctions over the weekend - including bans on Turks' labour contract extensions, chartered flights from Russia to Turkey and tourism packages to Turkey.

Despite the sanctions, however, Davutoglu said on Monday that Turkey would not apologise for "protecting its borders".

"No country should ask us to apologise," Davutoglu told reporters following a meeting with NATO's secretary-general at alliance headquarters in Brussels.

"The protection of our land borders, our airspace, is not only a right, it is a duty," he said. "We apologise for committing mistakes, not for doing our duty."

Monday was not the first time that Putin has claimed that Turkey buys oil from ISIL. 

Last Thursday, the Russian leader said ere was "no doubt" oil from "terrorist-controlled" territory in Syria was making its way across the border into Turkey - a claim immediately denied by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Moscow's surprise intervention in the nearly five-year-old Syrian civil war in September wrong-footed the West and put Turkey, which shares a long border with Syria, directly at odds with Russian support for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The downing of the Russian warplane has wrecked both Turkish-Russian relations and the French-led diplomatic effort to bring Moscow closer into the fold of nations seeking to destroy ISIL through military action in Syria.

While Russia says it is targeting ISIL, many of its air strikes have been against other Assad opponents, including groups actively supported by Turkey.

Should new calls for Biafra worry Nigerians?

The last few weeks have seen thousands of young people trooping to the streets of southern Nigeria to protest about the continued detention of a leading Biafra activist, Nnamdi Kanu.

Both new and old media are full of views and reports on the renewed agitation for the short-lived Biafran republic.

If it is not the report of the latest city to host the noisy protest by the mainly ethnic Igbo young men under the banner of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), it may be some hot exchanges on social media about the different interpretation of the event.

The Nigerian military's warning of dire consequences for anyone who tries to carry out what they refer to as treasonable acts, has also been getting attention.

Many Nigerians, with the deadly Boko Haram insurgency in their minds, are trying to understand what is going on, asking why now and what does it all mean?

The latest protests were triggered by the detention of Mr Kanu, the UK-based leader of the IPOB. 

He came to Nigeria last month and was arrested by the authorities, accused of treason.

Security sources say he was arrested for broadcasting hate speech both on the internet and through a banned London-based radio station called Radio Biafra, which he has been using to promote his call for the creation of a Biafran nation.

He has already appeared in court but is still under detention as his trial is yet to get off the ground. 

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Biafra at a glance:

• First republic of Biafra was declared by a Nigerian military officer Odumegwu-Ojukwu in 1967
• He led his mainly ethnic Igbos into a deadly three-year civil war that ended in 1970
• More than one million people lost their lives, mostly because of hunger
• Decades after Biafra uprising was quelled by the military, secessionist groups have attracted the support of many young people
• They feel Nigeria's central government is not investing in the region 
• But the government says their complaints are not particular to the south-east

Still dreaming of Biafra

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One of the most viewed items recently by people trying to understand what is going on is a video uploaded to YouTube showing Mr Kanu soliciting arms at a meeting of the World Igbo Congress in the US city of Los Angeles in September.

He said to his audience:

"We need guns and bullets from you people in America...

"In 1967, before the war started, there was a blood moon... and there is blood moon this year because we are going to be free - no matter what happens."

Now with raucous protesters calling for Mr Kanu's release, the security services are getting even more concerned.

A military chief said: "The Nigerian army would like to send an unequivocal warning to all and sundry, more specifically to all those threatening and agitating for the dismemberment of the country, committing treasonable felony and arson as well as wanton destruction of lives and property."

It is not only the security services who are concerned about the resurgence of sentiment for Biafra.

Many Nigerians cannot understand its logic because, as one commentator put it: The Igbo community, more than any other in Nigeria, has settled and is doing business in all parts of the country. 

'Misunderstanding history'

Even at the conference where Mr Kanu made his incendiary call for arms, there were sceptics who pointed to recent events in South Sudan to show why secession may not be the answer to problems of disaffection and neglect.

A columnist with the Vanguard newspaper, who has made a career out of defending Igbo causes, Ochereome Nnanna, said in a recent article: "I see the agitators as people who do not understand the history of the defunct Biafra.

"I see them as people who misapprehend the Biafra they are asking for... Kanu and his multitude of blind followers must be told that they are playing into the hands of their enemies and dragging millions of other unwilling Igbos along."

This appears to be the position of most educated middle-class Igbos and other Nigerians who are hoping that common sense will prevail.

Community leaders in the Niger Delta where protests have also been taking place, have already disassociated themselves from the agitation, warning the protesters to stay clear of the oil-producing region.

Within Igboland, state governors met for the second time last weekend to agree a common approach to the matter. 

But their effort was hampered by the refusal of some members of the pan-Igbo group Ohanaeze Ndigbo to attend the meeting.

However, they did set up a committee of elders to meet the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue. 

They said they would ask the federal government to find ways of addressing the region's lack of infrastructure and development.

Mr Buhari, a former military ruler who fought in the civil war, will be watching the Igbo leaders' response to the issue with concern.

He has less than a month to go to meet his own deadline to end the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency that has devastated the north-east.

Many would argue that that conflict was not born out of religion, but by those disaffected by lack of opportunities and unemployment - precisely the issues that commentators believe are driving the young pro-Biafra protesters. 

Members of the Igbo establishment now face the tricky task of trying to rein in the youthful protesters, none of whom experienced the trauma of the original Biafra, but who are so convinced that it represents their best hope of a better future.

Syria: 75% Of Labour Members Against Airstrikes

The results of the survey ordered by party leader Jeremy Corbyn come as he prepares to meet his shadow cabinet to try and agree a collective position on military action.

One of Mr Corbyn's closest allies has urged him to "show leadership" and order Labour MPs to vote against launching a bombing campaign in light of the results.

Diane Abbott said "the party as a whole" is opposed and "looking to Jeremy to show leadership".

But Graham Jones, the party's MP for Hyndburn in Lancashire, dismissed the poll, saying it "can't be a basis for decision making".

According to Labour, there were 107,875 responses, of which 64,771 were from full individual party members.

An initial analysis of 1,900 responses showed 75% were against military action, 13% in favour and 11% undecided.

Mr Corbyn has faced calls from some of his MPs for there to be a free vote - allowing them to decide according to their conscience.

But in a defiant interview at the weekend he stressed he alone would take the final decision, and Mr Corbyn said MPs must listen to the party membership, who overwhelmingly elected him in September.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who has urged a free vote, said he was sure the shadow cabinet would "arrive at a common position and hold together" after the meeting.

Mr McDonnell said: "He (Mr Corbyn) hasn't given any indication of the decision on the process but his decision is not to bomb and I think that is the position of it looks like the majority of our party members and quite a few Conservative MPs now."

A meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, a large proportion of which is believed to be considering backing military action, will follow the shadow cabinet gathering.

David Cameron has always maintained that he will only put military action to a vote if he is sure of a victory.

A spokesman for the PM said discussions were under way on the wording of a draft motion, but stressed there was not yet a timetable for it to be put before MPs.

He said any motion put to a vote would be based around four key areas: counter-terrorism, the diplomatic and political process, military action against IS and ongoing humanitarian support.

Privy councillors from Labour and other parties are being briefed, but the spokesman declined to say whether these discussions would include further details of the composition of the 70,000 "moderate" Syrian fighters who the PM has suggested are on the ground - something Mr Corbyn has doubts about.

Chancellor George Osborne has meanwhile accused opponents of the bombing campaign of "handing over" responsibility for national security.

He said: "This is not about the internal politics of the Labour Party, this is about the internal security of our country.

"We want to take the fight to this terrorist organisation.

"We have got the capabilities, we've got our allies like the French and the Americans saying 'join us in this endeavour', and we know as a country we have never ever handed our security over to anyone else."

Mugabe hits out at developed nations

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has strongly criticised developed nations at the UN climate summit in Paris, accusing them of trying to shift the burden for curbing carbon emissions onto poor countries, the AFP news agency reports.

Mr Mugabe said developed nations were historically responsible for the "precarious climate environment we currently live in."

"It is unconscionable that not only are developed countries miserly in providing the means" for developing countries, "but also want inordinately to burden us with cleaning up the mess they themselves have created," he told the gathering, AFP reports.

UN confirms DR Congo attack

A UN general has said that heavily armed insurgents attacked UN and army bases in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last night,

A local non-governmental organisation says at least 38 people were killed, including 15 civilians and one UN peacekeeper. 

General Jean Baillaud told the BBC that the ADF-NALU, a Ugandan Islamist group, was suspected to have been behind the attack - the most serious in the area in months.

COP21: Obama Urges Leaders To 'Rise To Moment'

More than 150 leaders, including Prime Minister David Cameron, have arrived for the first day of the 12-day summit, known as COP21.

Mr Obama said the US, as the world's number two greenhouse gas emitter, "recognises our role in creating this problem" and "we embrace our responsibility to do something about it".

And he called on world leaders to show they share a sense of responsibility too.

"2015 is on pace to be the warmest year of all. No nation - large or small, wealthy or poor - is immune to what this means," Mr Obama said.

The "future is one that we have the power to change right here right now, but only if we rise to this moment," he said.

"If we act here, if we act now, if we place our own short-term interests behind the air that our young people will breathe and the food that they will eat and the water they will drink and the hopes and dreams that sustain their lives, then we won't be too late for them," he told the summit.

Prince Charles used his keynote speech to warn humanity faces many threats "but none is greater than climate change".

"In damaging our climate, we've become the architects of our own destruction," he said.

Charles urged the leaders and negotiators to "think of your grandchildren, as I think of mine".

As the summit opened, leaders held a minute's silence for the 130 people killed at the Paris terror attacks on 13 November.

French President Francois Hollande told the summit that climate change and terrorism were "two major global challenges that we must overcome".

"We must leave our children more than a world free of terror - we owe them a planet protected from disasters," he said.

He said there must be an agreement in Paris as "we are at breaking point".

"Never have the stakes of an international meeting been so high, because we are talking about the future of the planet, the future of life," he said.

The talks take place amid unprecedented security in the French capital, where protesters clashed with riot police after a climate march was banned following the attacks.

But more than 600,000 people in 175 countries marched at the weekend to demand a strong deal to curb greenhouse gases. 

last major climate conference five years ago in Copenhagen failed to secure sign-up to a universal target for reducing emissions.

In advance of the Paris talks, 183 nations have submitted individual commitments, large or small, to slow global warming.

The EU has pledged to cut greenhouse gases by at least 40% by 2030, while China has vowed that its emissions will peak by 2030.

These "differentiated responsibilities" allow the world to share an overall goal of limiting emissions by 40-70% by 2050 and 100% by 2100, according to the UN.

Lead negotiator for the UN, Christiana Figueres, said the pledges covered 95% of carbon emissions and would limit the rise in global temperature this century.

"We are no longer (heading for) 4,5 or 6C," she said.

"We are now in the bandwidth of 2.7 to 3.5C. Is that enough? No, because we have to stay under 2C."

The 2C threshold is seen as the safe limit for temperature rise, beyond which the climate becomes dangerously unstable.

But there are still major issues that need to be resolved.

The EU wants any deal to be legally enforceable, but that is being resisted by the US.

And poorer countries that are most vulnerable to climate change want richer nations to pay into a fund to help them adapt to a warmer world.

Mr Cameron will call for "global action to deal with a global problem."

"We must include a five-yearly review mechanism to increase ambition in the future," he said.

"Whilst emissions reductions should always be pledged country by country, we must review our ambition regularly if we are to hit our final two degree goal."