Alina Seljuk

Between July and September, the report shows the U.S.

economy growing at a robust pace, accelerating from the growth seen in the previous quarter.

Earlier in the year, the economy had actually shrunk as companies rushed to ship foreign goods ahead of President Trump's global tariffs.

Consumers remain the key engine driving the growth with higher spending, especially on health care.

The report calls out spending on hospital and nursing home services and on prescription drugs.

People also spent more on, quote, information processing equipment.

That could be computer hardware, presumably as part of the AI boom.

At the same time, business and residential investment declined in the third quarter.

Spending by state and local governments increased.

Alina Seljuk, NPR News, Washington.

iRobot was founded in 1990 by researchers from MIT, and its devices have been used by the military and scientists tracking oil spills.

But its claim to fame is the Roomba, the smart floor vacuum.

In recent years, the home robot market got very competitive with lots of foreign rivals, often at cheaper prices.

Last year, regulatory scrutiny killed iRobot's merger with Amazon.

Now it faces new tariffs for products.

They tend to come from Vietnam.

And iRobot has been losing money.

It owes nearly $100 million to its main supplier based in Shenzhen.

And that firm has agreed to take over iRobot, assuring that devices will keep operating as normal.

Alina Seljuk, NPR News.