Fresh start

Lester Holt writes: It's apparently been in the works for a while, but it became official today that BP CEO Tony Hayward is being replaced as the public face of the Gulf oil spill. He's being sent back to England, and overseeing day to day operations relating to the disaster response will now fall to the company's Managing Director Bob Dudley. Hayward underwent a public flogging before a Congressional sub-committee yesterday, repeatedly refusing to bite on a series of baited questions posed to him. It's unclear whether his bosses were waiting all along to pull the rug from under Hayward until after his Capitol Hill appearance or if this was a reaction to it. We're covering that as well as a frightening and dangerous bi-product of this disaster rearing its head, and news about how close they now are to finishing those all-important relief wells.

By the way as the figures and estimates about the amount of oil flowing and collected fly back in forth, the question comes up, what exactly is a barrel of oil? The answer is, a U.S. Barrel of oil equals 42 U.S. gallons. We've been doing our best to refer to the spill and recovery amounts in gallons when possible, but on those occasions when you hear the term "barrel" its a handy fact to keep in mind.

Finally, productivity around here, at least in my office went to zero for about 90 minutes this morning during the US vs. Slovenia World Cup soccer match. The outcome, a 2-2 tie, has generated a lot of outrage around the sports world (not to mention my office) over an inexplicable call that cost the U.S. team the win. Even the British TV play by play announcer seemed taken aback by this one. NBC's Ian Williams was at the match for us, and he'll tell us all about the call and reaction on and off the field.

Brian will be back on Monday. In the meantime I hope you will join me tonight for NBC Nightly News.