Erstellt am: 19. 9. 2012 - 15:31 Uhr

Syria: Looking over the Border

Tony Cheng reports from the Turkish/Syrian frontier; Romney’s political clangers; U-Ausschuss uncertainty

EPA/STR

Syrian rebels in Aleppo, just 100km from where Tony Cheng is reporting.

Syria's continuing struggle

It’s a year and a half since the beginning of what was then called the Syrian uprising. It’s also been referred to as the Syrian crisis or conflict, but we now seem to have passed the point at which we are still debating whether it can be described as a civil war. Over the months on Reality Check we have regularly talked about what’s going on in Syria, trying to make sense of latest developments and understand the forces at play, inside the country and in the region, as well as in the wider, international context. We have recorded many interviews with the experts who regularly contribute to Reality Check. It has been a much more difficult challenge to organise reporting from the region.

In the early days, it wasn’t possible to report from inside Syria, and many correspondents were based in neighbouring countries. Today, Syria is known as the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. According to the Reporters Without Borders, 10 journalists have been killed in Syria and 14 imprisoned. Reality Check has tried on a number of occasions to arrange an interview with a journalist in Syria, but that has proven to be quite a tall order. So there was a fair amount of excitement when we learned that our correspondent Tony Cheng was travelling to Turkey to report from the Syrian border.
He gave me the lowdown on where he is, what he’s hearing, and what the latest developments mean:

Romney's foreign faux pas

Foreign policy is often something of an Achilles' heel for the Republicans. Remember Sarah Palin's numerous gaffes, including making a key claim to her international credentials being having a view of Russia from her front door?

If there is one area in which Barack Obama has done really well, it's in foreign policy. He's well likes and highly respected, and has done a great deal to heal the rifts that opened up with allies in Europe and around the world over the war in Iraq. He can also claim to be the one who "got" Osama Bin Laden, and while he has not been able to solve the Middle East crisis, he certainly hasn't made it any worse.

So why, you may wonder, did Mitt Romney take it into his head to start making divisive comments that alienated him not only from nearly half the US population, who he wrote off as being freeloaders on the state, but also from the Palestinians, and by implication the rest of the region as well.

Romney's strength is in domestics economic policy. He should stick to it, if he wants to have a chance of unseating Obama in November, according to analyst Steven Hill.

Uncertain future for the parliamentary committee

This morning, FPÖ's Walter Rosenkranz was set to take over the Chair of the parliamentary inquiry into corruption. By lunchtime, it was unclear whether there will be a committee to chair. Annelise Rohrer looks at the chaotic situation and the damage it is likely to do.

Abortion debate in Poland

Abortion is a hot political topic in Poland's conservative government, but the realities on the ground bear little relation to the political rhetoric, according to Agata Chelstowska, an activist for reproductive rights.

Notorious Colombian drug baron captured

Daniel "Crazy" Barrera, whose criminal organisation distributed cocaine around the world, has been arrested in Venezuela. Riem Higazi profiles the man who had a higher price on his head than Osama Bin Laden.

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