May, 2008

At a meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged oil industry leaders to find ways of increasing output as Britain's North Sea oil reserves decline. With the government struggling to combat rising fuel costs, Business Secretary John Hutton announced two new licenses for North Sea production, together with plans for further exploitation of existing oilfields.

The British and some other European media reported a pledge by Barack Obama to strengthen U.S. links with Britain in a telephone address to a group of influential American expatriates gathered at the London home of Elisabeth Murdoch (daughter of Rupert Murdoch) for a supposedly private fundraising event.

On May 8, the EU Observer published an article about EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson's (UK) remarks during a BBC interview describing the "protectionist" trade policies of U.S. Democratic Presidential candidates as "mirages."

Europeans are watching the U.S. presidential campaign more closely than ever before, and Obama is stealing the spotlight. The New York Times details Obama Fever in Europe.

Methods of covering presidential elections have changed dramatically in recent years, and many believe that the 2008 campaign is the first in which the new media have come fully into their own.

On May 11, the British Sunday newspaper, The Observer, published this hopeful article by Will Hutton about European perceptions of the United States. The view of America in the European media is often more critical and more negative.