The Slatest

Imagine trying to escape from a fire only to find that most of the exits are locked or blocked. That was the nightmarish situation for panicked workers at a poultry slaughterhouse in China's northeastern Jilin province on Monday. At least 119 people were killed by the fire that quickly engulfed the plant, according to reports from the ground.

Roughly 100 workers managed to escape from the blaze, but the exact number of those trapped inside is still unknown. The details, meanwhile, are downright horrifying: The plant's complicated interior structure and narrow exits made it difficult to escape, something that according to state news agency Xinhua will likely make rescue work quite difficult as well. It's not clear why some of the exits, including the front gate of the plant, were locked in the first place—but multiple sources are saying that it's not all that surprising, given the strict conditions that Chinese workers often endure. Reuters has more on this:

Hong Kong's Phoenix Television cited family members as saying that the doors were always kept locked during working hours during which workers were forbidden to leave and that the slaughterhouse never carried out fire drills. China's record is poor. Fire exits in factories are often locked or blocked and regulations can be easily skirted by bribing corrupt officials.

The cause of the blaze hasn't yet been officially determined, but authorities have suggested that an ammonia gas leak—ammonia is used in the poultry industry as a coolant—may have caused the initial explosions that fueled the disaster.

Sad news out of New Jersey this morning, via the Bergen Reporter:

Sen. Frank Lautenberg died this morning of viral pneumonia at age 89, his office said. The oldest member of the Senate, Lautenberg had struggled with health problems since late last year, when he missed several weeks of votes because of what he said was flu and bronchitis.

Lautenberg, facing a likely primary challenge from Newark Mayor Cory Booker, announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election in 2014 and planned to retire at the end of his fifth term in the Senate. With his passing, Gov. Chris Christie will get the chance to appoint a temporary replacement until a special election can be held later this year. The winner of that election, however, will only serve out the remainder of Lautenberg's current term, and the regular 2014 election for the next six-year term will go on as scheduled, according to the Washington Post. That will leave Booker and other candidates to decide whether to spend money to compete in this year's election, or save their resources for 2014.

Tens of thousands of protesters took part in street demonstrations in Turkey’s four biggest cities on Sunday and clashed with police for a third straight day. Despite some isolated clashes in what is widely being described as the largest anti-government protests in years, the atmosphere was “calmer and largely peaceful,” at least in Istanbul, reports the BBC. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan didn’t seem too concerned with inciting protesters further, accusing the opposition of orchestrating the demonstrations, and calling the crowds that have descended on Turkey’s streets as nothing more than “a few looters,” reports Reuters.

The huge protest in Taksim Square, where the unrest broke out Friday, largely broke up overnight Saturday, but it came back to life Sunday when some 10,000 people went into the area Sunday.  “Anyone not following events across Turkey might assume there was a big festival [in Taksim Square]: Live concerts, people singing and dancing,” writes the BBC’s Selin Girit.

Eager to show he was unfazed by the protests that have called for his resignation, Erdogan delivered two speeches and gave one television interview Sunday, reports the Associated Press. "There is now a menace which is called Twitter," Erdogan said. "The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society." Turks have largely been forced to rely on social media for coverage of the protests that have been largely ignored by local media.

Meanwhile, Syrian officials once again didn’t hide their delight at the situation in Turkey as authorities advised citizens of the country where approximately 80,000 have been killed in the ongoing civil war not to travel to neighboring Turkey because it’s too dangerous, reports Reuters. Syria’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement advising Syrians “against travel to Turkey for the time being for their own safety, because of the deteriorating security situation in several Turkish cities...and the violence of Erdogan's government against peaceful protesters.”

It was bash-Attorney-General-Eric-Holder day in the Sunday talk shows this week as several Republican lawmakers questioned whether he should remain in his post and warned that he will be facing investigations over statements he gave while under oath. Sen. John McCain went as far as to call on Holder to ask himself whether he should resign. “The Attorney General has to ask himself the question, ‘Is he really able to effectively serve the president of the United States and the American people under the present circumstances?’ That’s a decision he’d have to make,” McCain said on CBS, according to the Washington Post’s transcript. When McCain was asked directly whether Holder should resign, the senator insisted that was up to Holder to decide. “I think it would be tough for him to answer the question whether he can still effectively serve the president of the United States,” McCain said.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, confirmed on Sunday that his panel was investigating inconsistencies in statements that Holder gave while under oath. "Yes, it is fair to say we are investigating the conflict in his remarks," Goodlatte said when he was asked on Fox News whether his committee was investigating Holder. For his part, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa suggested Holder may have perjured himself, noting on CNN that his comments before lawmakers amounted to “a lie, by most people’s standards.”

Holder had told lawmakers last month that he had never been involved with the “potential prosecution of the press,” even though he had approved a 2010 warrant to search the e-mail records of a Fox News reporter. "Perjury is a criminal charge that has to be proven," Issa said. "But certainly it's hard to have confidence in what this attorney general says or his people say when so often it turns out not to be true."

Meanwhile though, Sen. Chuck Schumer told NBC that President Obama has full confidence in Holder. It doesn’t seem like everyone in the White House agrees. The New York Times hears word that some staffers “privately tell associates” they wish Holder would step down, saying he has now turned into an easy target. NBC’s Tom Brokaw calls the article part of “the familiar Washington two-step,” adding that it’s “tough to see” how Holder can stay in office. 

Three stars of the former reality show Storm Chasers were among the nine people who were killed in the powerful storms that struck Oklahoma on Friday night, reports CNN. Tim Samaras, one of the world’s best known storm chasers, was among those killed highlights  National Geographic. Samaras’ son, 24-year-old Paul Samaras, was also killed, along with Carl Young. The three were best known for starring in the former Discovery Channel reality show Storm Chasers. "They all unfortunately passed away but doing what they LOVED," Jim Samaras, Tim's brother, wrote on Facebook.

Samaras once told the Weather Channel that his fascination with storms “started with the Wizard of Oz” because he was “mesmerized” by the tornado that opens the film. Samaras spent 20 years chasing tornadoes and designed probes that were designed to measure data from inside the twisters. But, of course, for them to work the chasers had to place them right in the path of a tornado. Samaras founded TWISTEX, the Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornadoes Experiment, to learn more about tornadoes.

Storm chasers have grown into a staple of weather coverage in cable networks and the deaths of the three men Friday “have cast into stark relief the hazards for those who choose to place themselves near lethal tornadoes,” notes USA Today. The three men who died were not the only storm chasers affected by Oklahoma’s storms. Three members of the Weather Channel team were in an SUV that was hurled 200 yards Friday, leaving one of them hospitalized. Some in the industry believe Friday’s deaths could lead to a change in how storms are covered.

“Storms now initiating south of Watonga along triple point,” Samaras wrote in his last tweet. “Dangerous day ahead for OK--stay weather savvy!”

Jean Stapleton, who played Edith Bunker in the 1970s groundbreaking All in the Family died Friday at her New York home, her children announced Saturday, reports the Associated Press. Stapleton had built a full resume in the theater world early in her career, but gained widespread recognition due to her portrayal of Edith Bunker, whom her husband often referred to as “Dingbat.”  Stapleton got eight Emmy nominations, and won three times, for her portrayal of the naïve Edith.

Although she went on to play other roles, including Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1982 film Eleanor, First Lady of the World and starred in two Nora Ephron films – You’ve Got Mail and Michael – she was tied to the character of Edith Bunker until her death. Although viewers loved Edith, Stapleton wasn’t that big of a fan, often saying she hoped her character wasn’t a representation of reality.

"What Edith represents is the housewife who is still in bondage to the male figure, very submissive and restricted to the home. She is very naive, and she kind of thinks through a mist, and she lacks the education to expand her world. I would hope that most housewives are not like that,” Stapleton told the New York Times in a 1972 interview.

Thousands of people flooded into a central square in Istanbul after police began withdrawing Saturday following a brutal crackdown on demonstrations that have now become huge protests against the ruling regime. The police removed barriers at Taksim Square Saturday in what seemed like an evident effort to ease tensions following two-days of anti-government protests, reports Turkey’s Today’s Zaman. Yet there was violence until the very end, as police fired tear gas into the crowds as some protesters threw objects at the withdrawing forces.

The Associated Press states what many in the West are probably thinking: This looks a lot like another chapter in the Arab Spring. (Yes, we know the term is far from perfect.) And indeed, it has lots of the hallmarks, mainly in that what was a small protest about a narrow issue grew into huge anti-government demonstrations as a response to the government’s reaction. So, what exactly happened here? The Guardian has a good, basic explanation:

The original protest was aimed at saving a city centre park in Istanbul from shopping centre developers who had been backed by the government. But it rapidly snowballed into a national display of anger at the perceived arrogance of the country's rulers.

In a bid to calm tensions, the government ordered forces to withdraw from the square after they had spent most of the morning firing tear gas and water cannons to try to push back protesters that say development plans would destroy one of the few remaining green spaces in the city, reports the Hurriyet Daily News. The interior minister said that 939 people were arrested across the country, according to Reuters. Hundreds were injured, and four people permanently lost their eyesight in the protests, according to the AP.

Tensions are likely to continue as protesters have reportedly built barricades to prevent police from returning. And while the government did offer some concessions to the demonstrators it has made it clear it won’t back down. Even as he acknowledged that police used excessive force, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he would push ahead with the development plans that sparked the protests in the first place, notes Today’s Zaman.

“To call this a ‘Turkish Spring’ would be over-dramatizing it,” concludes Murat Yetkin in the Hurriyet Daily News. “It could be, if there were opposition forces in Turkey that could move in to stop the one man show of a mighty power holder. But it can easily be said that the Taksim brinkmanship marked a turning point in the almighty image of Erdogan.”

It sounds like a bad joke out of the Twilight Zone but it’s all too real. Syria’s minister of information told official media that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan “should resign” if he “is unable to pursue non-violent means” to end growing protests.  Syria’s Minister of Information Omran al-Zoubi “added that Erdogan leads his country in a terrorist way and is destroying the civil character of the Turkish people, reiterating that the Turkish people's demands do not deserve all this violence,” notes the report by SANA.

Erdogan was once an ally of President Bashar al-Assad, but turned against him after the Syrian regime violently suppressed protests, a move that led to a violent civil war that has killed at least 80,000 people, reports Reuters. As tone deaf as the comments by Assad’s regime may be, what is going on in Turkey right now is no laughing matter. Thousands of protesters gathered to reoccupy a central park in Istanbul after police violently attacked peaceful protesters who wanted to prevent the construction of a shopping mall at Taksim Gezi Park, reports Bloomberg. The protests were about the park, which has long been a site of political protest, but now have become “the fiercest anti-government demonstrations in years,” according to Reuters, and protesters are calling for Erdogan to resign.