When Cameron meets Obama...

Prime Minister David Cameron is to meet with President Obama today in Washington. Difficult items on the agenda - Afghanistan, BP and the economy. What have previous relationships between prime ministers and presidents been like and what is the nature of the special relationship? These will be the questions being asked by the media over the next few days and the BBC have created a short clip of video on the history of some of those relationships. The Telegraph also discussed the likelihood of Obama and Cameron getting on last year. However, the trip, and the history of the relationship, is due to be overshadowed by the ongoing concern over the release of Lockerbie bomber Al-Megrahi to Libya and what that had to do with BP. Cameron has now bowed to pressure to meet with four US senators to answer questions about the controversy. The Guardian discusses the issue.

Obama's oil problem

Obama is increasingly under fire to stop oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. He can only really put pressure on BP as the federal government has no equipment to deal with this disaster itself, but the President and his administration are worried that this could turn out to be a Hurricane Katrina moment for his presidency. Mark Mardell has been following the story and writing some excellent analysis of what it means. Here is some footage of how BP's latest attempt to plug the leak is going. Obama is to head down to Louisiana for the second time today to see the real damage that it is already causing. How much longer can the administration wait before intervening or can they intervene? What does this mean for the administration's energy policy and the administration itself?