Microsoft's carbon plan is sure to push up the cost of its products to consumers. I have a computer on Win 7 Pro which I chose to use over Win 10. I was astonished to discover that they wanted to charge £220 to upgrade to Win 10. I am plotting to move to some flavour of Linux instead. I already avoid other Microsoft software, using Libre Office and Thunderbird in place of Office and Outlook. The only software I am having difficulty finding Linux versions for is photo editing. A Mac is an alternative for that. But that is another expensive ecosystem, especially when you need lots of storage and 16GB of RAM to handle things like making panoramas. I think Microsoft will find that competition will erode their revenues.

"Germany confirms US car tariff threat over Iran deal"

https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-confirms-us-car-tariff-threat-over-iran-deal/

"Berlin has confirmed that the U.S. last week issued a fresh threat to slap tariffs on European cars if Germany, France and the U.K. didn't trigger a dispute-resolution mechanism under the Iran nuclear accord.

But the German government insists the renewed pressure had no influence on Tuesday’s decision by the three European countries to launch the mediation mechanism, which is aimed at forcing Iran to return to compliance with limits placed on its nuclear program.

A foreign ministry official told the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee in a confidential briefing on Friday that Washington had made the auto tariff threat on January 8, but that the European countries had already decided to launch the dispute resolution a day earlier, according to three people present at the briefing.

The threat was raised by a U.S. State Department official during a video call with counterparts from Berlin, Paris and London, the foreign ministry official told lawmakers. News of the briefing was first reported by German media Spiegel.

“There was no American influence on the decision [to trigger the dispute resolution mechanism],” a spokesperson for the foreign ministry said, without commenting on the confidential briefing to lawmakers."

Forgive me for being more than a little sceptical about those denials. I hope our negotiators, when dealing with the EU, remember the importance to Germany (and hence to the EU, since the EU is Germany's poodle) of those German car sales.

"Is Scotland leading the way on climate change?"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-51088089

"Davos 2020: What is the World Economic Forum and is it elitist?"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51134164

[A science & environment story, apparently. I suppose they do jet in to lecture us plebs on our "carbon" footprint].

"Extinction Rebellion: Police defend adding groups to extremism guide"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51157718

"Plane wrong: how your bosses should cut back on flights"

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/jan/18/plane-wrong-how-your-bosses-should-cut-back-on-flights

"Greenpeace included with neo-Nazis on UK counter-terror list
Exclusive: Extinction Rebellion and Peta also named in anti-extremism briefing alongside Combat 18 and National Action"

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/17/greenpeace-included-with-neo-nazis-on-uk-counter-terror-list

"Youth activists lose appeal in landmark lawsuit against US over climate crisis
Court confirms government’s contribution to the issue, but judges find they lack power to enforce climate policy decisions"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/17/climate-change-lawsuit-activists-lose-appeal-sue-us-

"and bills had skyrocketed" stewgreen

I'm not surprised. I had electric heating in my first house. OK, I'm sure that storage heaters have improved but they used to be rubbish. They'd run out of heat very quickly and then I'd have to use other forms of heating. I had a gas fire and only used the electric heaters in the bathroom or if the gas fire struggled to keep the cold at bay. I put in gas central heating and it was much cheaper and more effective.