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Refugee Center Bombed in Libya; President Trump Defends CBP Facilities; Two Women Nominated for Top E.U. Jobs; No Charges for Woman in Unborn Baby's Death; 'Stranger Things' Season Three to Premiere Thursday. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired July 04, 2019 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): They were hoping for a new, better life in Europe and instead were detained, in atrocious conditions in Libya and now they are being killed. Refugees and migrants, victims of a civil war in a place they don't want to be.

For the first time, ever the European Union has nominated two women for the two most senior roles but will the perfect gender balance bring unity to disunity?

And nearly 1 million people are urged to evacuate as intense rain sweeps across southern Japan.

Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. Thanks for being with, us I'm John Vause, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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VAUSE: U.N. officials say the deadly attack on a migrant detention center in Libya could amount to a war crime. At least 40 people were killed in the airstrikes, dozens more wounded. Libya's internationally recognized government is blaming forces loyal to the renegade general Khalifa Haftar, who launched an offensive months ago to take the capital of Tripoli.

But Haftar accuses militias tied to the government to orchestrate the attack on the migrant center. The center is next to a military camp, which has been a target of airstrikes for weeks.

Becky Anderson has more now on the attacks and the dangers African migrants are facing in Libya which is a major hub for those trying to cross over to Italy.

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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: An attack on innocent civilians, in the dead of the night. Emergency workers struggling to identify victims and body parts in the rubble of an air strike. Parts of the Tajoura migrant detention center were brought to the ground, many inside had no chance. Those who did survive rushed to recover their few possessions.

The center held at least 600 men, women and children from other countries. Refugees and migrants who had fled other horrors, violence, persecution and economic repression in the search for a better life.

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OTHMAN MUSA, NIGERIAN MIGRANT: All that we know is, we want the U.N. to help people out of this place because this place is dangerous. There are some people that stranded here, they don't know what to do, they don't know where to go.

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ANDERSON: The U.N. says there needs to be more than just condemnation. A full independent investigation to determine how and why this happened. To bring those responsible to account.

No one has yet claimed responsibility but the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli is blaming Khalifa Haftar, a renegade general whose forces have been fighting for control of the capital for more than a year.

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EUGENIO AMBROSI, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION: It is simply not acceptable that civilians are targeted, that the target of military action in an area of the town where it's known that civilians are present and living and therefore, knowing very well that there will be high civilian casualty is very high.

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ANDERSON: But the victims here had no part to play in the battle. And, yet, they paid the ultimate price -- Becky Anderson, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

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VAUSE: Mansour El-Kikhia is professor of political science with the University of Texas but much more than that. He was forced into exile from Libya four decades ago and in the wake of the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi considered a run for the presidency, he has just returned from Libya and joins us now from San Antonio.

So Professor, good to have you with us.

MANSOUR EL-KIKHIA, PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AN LIBYAN EXILE: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: Many of the dead and injured had been held in this center for months, maybe longer and now they are victims of a civil war in a country where they don't want to be.

Is this a direct result of the E.U. working with the militia groups in Libya, stopping refugees and other migrants from crossing the Mediterranean?

KIKHIA: Thank you so much, thank you so much for saying that because the E.U., the Italians and their work with the militias, it's what's bringing about this calamity and catastrophe. The Italians are paying militias to try to stop immigrants coming in.

But there is no incentive for militias to stop bringing them in. They have charged $3,000 per head, now they have 1 million; count that, 3,000 million dollars.

Why would they want to stop?

So the Europeans are not taking a stance against this exodus of Africans from Africa into Europe; instead, they are going to close their borders.

Where are they going to stay?

They want to go back?

No, they want to stay in Libya, putting them in harm's way during a civil war.

VAUSE: You, know there is the usual blame and denial and denial and blame after an incident like this but there are multiple reports that Monday --

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VAUSE: -- Haftar's Libyan National Army warned aerial strikes on Tripoli would increase and they were traditional means of taking this city being exhausted. It's a compelling piece of evidence, that they are the ones responsible for this tragedy, either by miscalculation or design.

KIKHIA: You know, John, something, he might have done it, I don't know, I would much prefer to wait until the report comes in, who actually did the whole thing.

But I don't think that Haftar's the type of the individual, he might be an ogre but he's not a bloodthirsty ogre. I don't think he sleeps and says, oh, tomorrow morning I'm going to bomb this refugee center, I don't think so.

I think something stupid happened, maybe he thought there were arms inside there, maybe militias came inside there, something happened. And I think we have to wait for the result to come out of the investigation.

If he has done it then he has to own it up and say, I did not mean to do it but it happened, now how can I make it better?

VAUSE: Haftar may have been responsible and his forces made been responsible, but the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli is not without blame, either.

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CHARLIE YAXLEY, UNHCR: This was a very preventable tragedy that happened just two months ago. We warned after a similar airstrike that in just two other refugees and migrants that was a pressing danger and that the people inside needed to be urgently evacuated.

No action was taken and today we have seen the tragic consequences of that, with some of the detainees paying the price with their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Ultimately, is it fair to say that neither side in this confrontation has a lot of regard for the lives of migrants and refugees?

KIKHIA: You're right. Basically they're saying, why are they here?

This is a country with a civil war, they should not be here. Europeans won't take them, they're stuck in Libya and Libya cannot deal with them. And that's the truth. Libya can't deal with them. It can't deal with 1 million more people come to it. Simple as that.

VAUSE: Here is part of a press release from the U.S. State Department.

"The tragic and needless loss of life which impacted one of the most vulnerable populations, underscores the urgent need for all Libyan parties to de-escalate fighting in Tripoli and return to the political process, which is the only viable path to lasting peace and stability in Libya."

Back in April, CNN reported that in a phone call between the U.S. president and Khalifa Haftar, "Trump praises Libyan general as his troops in march on U.S. backed government in Tripoli."

There is also this reporting from Bloomberg, "President Donald Trump indicated in a phone call with Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar that the U.S. supported an assault on the country's capital to depose its United Nations-backed government, according to American officials familiar with the call.

"An earlier call from White House national security adviser John Bolton also left Haftar with the impression of a U.S. green light for an offensive on Tripoli by his forces, known as the Libyan National Army, according to three diplomats."

It's pretty obvious the Trump administration is saying one thing publicly and something entirely different in private.

KIKHIA: Exactly.

VAUSE: So why would U.S. president be supporting a guy trying to overthrow a U.N. backed government?

KIKHIA: It's not only the U.S. president, John, let me tell you something, the Egyptians support him, the Algerians support him. The Moroccans support him, Chadians support him, Niger supports him, Tunisia supports him. They pay lip service to Siraj and this fabricated U.N. government but, in reality the, danger is very, very clear and apparent, you have Islamic militias, you have radical militias controlling the city of Tripoli.

And they, from the very beginning, had they had the chance, they would have used Libya's vast oil reserves to do exactly what ISIS did in Iraq and in Syria.

VAUSE: We also have other -- you have all those countries lined up, on the side of the Haftar, the Libyan rebel general if you like.

But on the other side you have Turkey, you have Qatar and other countries sending reinforcements to defend Tripoli.

So when you have all these foreign players getting involved with a weakened central government, it seems like all the ingredients are here for the making of yet another Syria.

KIKHIA: Yes. We saw that in Benghazi. Benghazi took three years to dislodge them. And in the process, they destroyed half of the city, they killed thousands of people and, why is Turkey supporting Siraj?

They're supporting the Islamists. It's an ideological battle, it really is. And it's between secularism and theology. And secularism now is winning, if it forgets to continue winning, then you have a theology in Libya. And --

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KIKHIA: -- you don't want the theology in Libya. You see the Europeans shaken there and they're under their beds. You don't want that. This is why you have to know you are bad. But quietly, they say, go, ahead they give him the weapons and the arms.

Where is he getting those weapons from?

You think the United States gave him weapons?

But certainly, he knows where those weapons came from and said nothing about it.

VAUSE: And all this is happening and the world is turning their backs and not paying a whole lot of attention to what is going on.

KIKHIA: Exactly, exactly.

VAUSE: Professor, thank you for being with us.

KIKHIA: Thank you for having me. Thank you.

VAUSE: In the United States, Donald Trump is defending treatment of migrants at border detention centers. A government watchdog sounded an urgent alarm on overcrowding Tuesday, publishing photos of migrants crammed into cells, some of them standing room only. Congressional Democrats who toured the center described similar

conditions. The response from the U.S. president was dismissive, tweeting, "Our Border Patrol people are not hospitality workers, doctors or nurses. The Democrats' bad immigration laws, which could be easily fixed, are the problem. Great job by Border Patrol above and beyond. Many of these illegal aliens are living far better now than where they came from and in far safer conditions."

In Arizona, a truck driver has been arrested and charged with human smuggling. Border Patrol agents pulled over his semi and, inside the trailer, they found 33 people, from Mexico and El Salvador, including 12 children and a pregnant woman.

Customs and Border Protection said the trailer was equipped with refrigeration but it was not running and temperatures inside the truck were close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, about 38 degrees Celsius.

A busy day on Twitter for President Trump, sending the 2020 census back into chaos. A day earlier, the Commerce Secretary said the administration would abide by Supreme Court decision which ruled a citizenship question could not be included in the census. And the printing presses were running, turning out the multi-page questionnaires. Trump called the news fake and insisted the White House was moving forward with litigation so that the question could be included. The judge overseeing this case says he wants a final answer from the Justice Department on the issue by Friday.

President Trump tweeting tough on Iran, saying, be careful with the threats, Iran, they come back to bite you like no one has been bitten before. That came after Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said Iran will begin enriching uranium higher than the limit in the 2015 nuclear deal, about 4 percent.

In his words the enrichment rate is going to be as much as we want it to be.

In the past, Iran has enriched uranium for about 20 percent, but it is a long way from the 90 percent used in nuclear weapons. But it is notably a step forward.

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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It looks, if you take Iran at their word, like within days, they will begin increasing once again the volume of their enrichment.

By all accounts, it is not the highly enriched uranium; essentially, it is not weapons grade that would lead them to immediately be able to make a nuclear bomb. But it does add to their stockpile and it may force the U.S. intelligence community to rethink eventually its so- called Iranian breakout scenario.

In other words, in the timeframe Iran would need to happen enough fissile material to make a nuclear bomb.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Barbara Starr there from the Pentagon.

We should note, Iran wants other countries still part of the nuclear deal to help ease the pressure coming from U.S. economic sanctions.

For the first time, two women could be in for the top jobs at the European Union. International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde has been tapped to run the European Central Bank. It's a surprise choice after days of negotiations and back room dealings.

German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen was put forward to lead the European Commission. She is seen as a conservative who could calm hardliners and says it's time for a divided Europe to unite.

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): A lot rests on this. It's about the future of our Europe. We have a long and difficult election process behind us. But now it is absolutely vital to show unity, absolutely vital that we form our combined passion for our Europe that is so important in this world and that needs to be heard and seen.

These are our goals for the next 14 days. Thank you very much.

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VAUSE: For more now on what lies ahead for the E.U., Ann Berry is a partner and financial analyst at Cornell Capital, she is with us from New York.

Good to see you.

ANN BERRY, CORNELL CAPITAL: Thank you.

VAUSE: There is this element of uncertainty here, if there will be this final leadership team as it has been nominated for the E.U. There's no guarantee that Ursula von der Leyen who we just heard from -- and she is nominated for commission president --

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VAUSE: -- is going to need a majority when MPs vote two weeks from now.

How do you see it?

Is this set in stone or will it be a surprise in the works?

BERRY: It's definitely not set in stone and, even within the German government, she is a very controversial choice to put forward.

I think we will continue to see that spill over onto the E.U. front. But the, Europeans have to put the chaos that has been in the last couple of weeks and filling these key leadership positions behind them. I think they know that and see a global landscape becoming more unsettled as Trump is gearing up for battle. And I think they need to put someone in place pretty soon. One hopes common sense will win the day.

VAUSE: For many of these nominations, represent the death of what they call a spitzenkandidat, essentially where parties announce their lead candidates for the top jobs before the elections. That gives voters a much better say in who the leadership will be.

The current nominees actually don't represent that. They represent a victory for the backroom deal, the backroom deal lives on.

BERRY: It does and I think particularly right now, when you are seeing the rise and rise of minority parties across Europe, the backroom deal is becoming a lot more commonplace. What's so interesting about this nomination is that you are seeing that dynamic on a domestic level, a national level, really percolating to the pan- European scale.

So I, think it's a good chance that she gets in. It has been very tough for a consensus candidate to be found, so my bet would be on her making that hurdle.

VAUSE: Amid all the criticism, there's the nomination of two women alongside two men for the top jobs and that is being seen as a very bright moment for the E.U. Listen.

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DONALD TUSK, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COUNCIL: We have chosen two women and two men for the four key positions. A perfect gender balance. I'm really happy about it; after all Europe is a woman. I think it was worth waiting for such an outcome.

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VAUSE: A beautiful moment, exciting. But here is part of an opinion piece from "Politico," which is fairly typical of the criticism we are hearing of von der Leyen.

"A largely unknown quantity in Brussels, who, has been dogged by misspending and mismanagement allegations in Berlin, she was nominated not because of her leadership skills she will bring to the E.U.'s top job as commission president but because she filled more banal criteria.

"Compensating Germany and the conservative European People's Party for being denied their first choice, their conservative lead candidate, Manfred Weber."

Assuming she has the support among the MPs, what sort of president will she be?

And when it comes to Brexit, there seems to be no change there, which is bringing a sigh of relief from London that it could have been a lot worse.

BERRY: It's interesting, the coverage out of the British press is very much a sigh of relief and I think that portending like participation that she may not be particularly controversial. She has been dogged by criticism in Germany but with this platform I think there is some anticipation that she will be a fairly uncontroversial leader once she is actually at the helm.

VAUSE: Christine Lagarde, head of the ECB, and she comes into the position, assuming she has the support, is facing an exploding Eurozone; there is a tariff trigger-happy U.S. president.

How will she succeed in dealing with Trump, where others have failed?

Can she do that?

BERRY: I think this is going to be a little bit of a function of what hand she is dealt as she is coming in. Draghi's not actually exiting until October, there's a chance that he does do a rate cut before then, which is bound to infuriate the president.

You know, she's going to be coming in at that window, where the six- month hiatus on auto tariffs may well come back into play if Trump isn't feeling trigger-happy, particularly if he settle something with China.

So I think Lagarde, who has been a very steady hand at the IMF, could be inheriting a challenge situation. I think the question will be whether she is able to garner widespread public support across the E.U. so that whatever stance she takes, she really does have the consensus behind her.

VAUSE: And this list of nominees, it's seen as a clean sweep of pro European centrists. It's also known as a good day for the French president Emmanuel Macron.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): This agreement is also the fruit of deep Franco-German entente, we never cease to coordinate, to work together with Chancellor Merkel and the ability to work together with all European partners of all political families.

Since the day after the elections, I had numerous meetings with these families and groups, seeking precisely to exclude no one and to help build this consensus. This decision is also one that allows not to divide Europe, neither political nor geographically.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Yes, we are all one big --

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VAUSE: -- happy family now.

Is he essentially the E.U. kingmaker or queenmaker? BERRY: I think at this moment in time, Merkel has historically played that role and I think he's very visibly trying to step up into that position right now. And I think at the moment in time where, finally enough, external forces may push that power behind him.

I think the more anti-European traditional allies like Trump are perceived to be, I think the stronger and stronger platform someone like Macron has in being a unifying voice, people I think will unite around the idea of trying to show some commonality right now.

VAUSE: Yes, absolutely. A lot of pushback coming here from Macron, I guess as you would expect from the French president. But thank you so much, I appreciate your insights.

BERRY: Thanks.

VAUSE: The Netherlands booked their ticket to the Women's World Cup final, beating Sweden 1-0. The goal by Jackie Groenen in stoppage time. The Dutch women's team is playing in only its second World Cup tournament. They have never reach the finals before but they will have their hands full on Sunday, when they take on the defending champions, the United States, who will have all the highlights from the Netherlands-Sweden match in "WORLD SPORT" in less than 30 minutes.

Still ahead on NEWSROOM, southern Japan inundated by record-setting rain and 1 million people now at risk for dangerous floods and mudslides.

Also ahead, one of the most active volcanoes in the world claimed the life of a hiker and sets off wildfires on a popular tourist island in Italy.

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VAUSE: A popular tourist spot in Italy has been rattled by one of the world's most active volcanoes. One hiker was killed in a series of eruptions on the island of Stromboli. Much of the island was engulfed in smoke and ash. Local reports say some tourists jump into the sea, trying to escape the lava flows.

Firefighters have targeted hotspots with aerial water drops.

Southern Japan remains on the watch for landslides, which have already claimed one life. Heavy rains have drenched the island of Kyushu, home to more than 13 million people and almost 1 million have been told to leave because of the threat of flooding and mudslides.

To put this in perspective, for more parts of Kyushu, more rain on Wednesday then they usually receive for the entire month of July.

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VAUSE: Two fishing boats mysteriously capsized off the coast of Honduras, killing at least 26 people on this lobster fishing boat when it suddenly flipped, 47 others were rescued. No casualties when another fishing boat capsized in the same area earlier in the day. We still don't know what caused both ships to roll.

She was shot during a fight with another woman, forcing her into a miscarriage, so who is responsible for the death of the unborn child?

Prosecutors have made their decision and we will tell you what is next on CNN NEWSROOM.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody you're watching CNN NEWSROOM thanks for staying with us. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

Pro- and anti-government forces in Libya are now blaming each other for an airstrike on a migrant detention center near the capital of Tripoli. At least 40 people have died. The government points the finger at a renegade general, Khalifa Haftar, whose forces are trying to take the capital. Haftar accuses militias loyal to the government for orchestrating the attack. The U.N. says it could amount to a war crime.

[00:30:20] President Trump tells Iran, be careful with the threats after Iran's president said his country will enrich uranium to any level it wants. That would violate the 2015 nuclear deal that Donald Trump pulled out of last year.

Iran wants other countries in the pact to now ease the impact from tough economic sanctions imposed by the United States.

And we're getting new images from inside Hong Kong's Legislative Council after protestors stormed the building on Monday, leaving behind debris and graffiti spray-painted on walls. Demonstrators were protesting a now-suspended bill that would allow Hong Kong residents to be extradited to mainland China.

In the U.S. state of Alabama, a 27-year-old woman will not face manslaughter charges for the shooting death of her unborn child. This has been a controversial story, drawing national intention, because the shooter was another woman who walked free.

A week ago, a grand jury indicted Marshae Jones, holding her liable for the miscarriage, because she started the fight with the other woman.

Here's CNN's affiliate WBMA reporting on the indictment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-seven-year-old Marshae Jones was indicted

for manslaughter. Jones didn't fired the shots that killed her child. Authorities say she initiated a dispute that led to the shooting. Jones was five months pregnant at the time. She was shot in the stomach.

The original suspect, Ebony Jemison, was charged with manslaughter, but those charges have been dropped.

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VAUSE: As have the charges Jones was facing. But just to be clear, Marshae Jones was charged with manslaughter, because she was shot while pregnant during an argument with someone armed with a gun. And the actual shooter walks.

CNN's legal analyst and civil rights attorney Areva Martin joins us now from Los Angeles.

It's incredible. Armed -- It's good to see you, first up, Areva. It's been a while.

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hi, John. This is tragic.

VAUSE: Yes. There's this unique sort of mix of laws in Alabama, which kind of led to this. Prosecutors charging Jones under a manslaughter law which applies when someone recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person other than him or herself.

They argued that by starting the fight, not walking away, Jones was guilty, and the only victim here is the unborn child, which is considered a person on the law itself, what are the chances Marshae Jones would have been found guilty?

MARTIN: Well, I don't think there was any chance that Marshae Jones would have been found guilty, which is why the prosecutor in this case did the right thing, stepped up, used her prosecutorial discretion and her power to dismiss the charges against Marshae.

This was a travesty of justice to begin with. That the grand jury would indict Marshae for manslaughter is not only astonishing but, in some ways, criminalizing this woman who was pregnant.

The other aspect of this case that was so tragic to me was the way the law enforcement officials treated Marshae. They recognize her unborn fetus as a victim but never would call her or recognize that she was a victim, that she was a five-month -- a woman who was five months pregnant who was shot in the stomach. And we need to note -- we should note, she was unarmed. She had a verbal altercation with another young woman, and she was shot. She had no weapons. She had no gun. She fired no shot.

And yet, she was criminalized and actually, first arrested, placed into jail, and then indicted for manslaughter. And those charges in Alabama carried up to 20 years in prison. So these are very serious charges that were, you know, filed against her, or at least, you know, handed off by this grand jury.

VAUSE: And the thing is, this isn't just a one-off moment in the bizarro world. In fact, you know, one pregnancy group says, "Alabama leads the country in mothers charged with crimes related to pregnancy, namely the 'chemical endangerment of a child statute'."

So, where does this all and? If a pregnant woman has a drink or smokes a cigarette? What if she can't afford adequate prenatal care, can't afford to eat a healthy diet? You know, you can almost hear it now. You listen to the people in Alabama. Listen to this.

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VAUSE: "Lock her up." I mean, this is what some people have called the decriminalization of pregnancy. And it seems aimed at a specific demographic.

MARTIN: Not only that, John, this is a state that enacted one of the -- you know, the toughest anti-abortion laws in the country, basically, making it illegal to have an abortion after six weeks and making the fine for a doctor engaging in any kind of reproductive medical care -- you know, imprisoning that doctor for 99 years.

So Alabama has a history of making it a crime for women to make choices about that reproductive health rights. And you can't help but think about the same legislature that enacted that very strict anti- abortion law and the same legislature that has this law.

[00:35:19] And Alabama is one of 38 states, I should say, that makes it such that a fetus can be a potential victim. So you have this convergence of this law that makes the fetus a victims, and then you have the stand-your-ground law in Alabama, which apparently, you know, the grand jury said the woman with that shot Marshae, they dropped the charges against her, that she had the right to, as they defined it, defend herself against this altercation that she was involved in with Marshae.

VAUSE: So, you also have a situation where a great number of women are being charged for either accidentally inducing or, you know, deliberately inducing a miscarriage, either you know, with drug use or accident or whatever, and these women are facing charges.

Those tough anti-abortion laws, or the abortion ban, is yet to take effect in Alabama. You know, when it does take effect, if it does take effect or anything similar to it, you'd have to expect those numbers or those cases of women being charged for accidental miscarriage or deliberate miscarriage will be on the rise.

MARTIN: Yes, absolutely. We will probably see those cases skyrocket, and those cases disproportionately impact poor women of color.

Imagine if this case had not gotten national attention, if you didn't have civil rights groups stepping up to defend Marshae, lawyers stepping up to provide her with a defense. She wouldn't have the resources, the finances, as many poor women don't have, to fight these kinds of charges in the legal system.

So not only are we criminalizing a pregnancy in states like Alabama, but we're also disproportionately impacting poor women and particularly poor women of color.

I can't, you know, thank, again, enough the prosecutor that had the courage in this case, you know, at a time when we're talking about lighter sentences and changing the criminal justice system. To think that a woman who gets shot because she has a verbal altercation with someone would end up serving 20 years in jail is just really unthinkable and would set such a bad precedent.

VAUSE: We're out of time, but just very quickly, do you think that the prosecutor would have made that same decision if it hadn't been the amount of publicity?

MARTIN: I'd like to think that any lawyer of good conscience would have made that decision. But we know that media attention and advocacy matters.

VAUSE: Yes.

MARTIN: So kudos to all those advocates that stood up for Marshae and women like Marshae all over this country, because their voices do matter.

VAUSE: Yes, and they matter a lot, especially in cases like this. So Aretha, thank you. Good to see you.

MARTIN: Absolutely. Thanks, John.

I'll take a break. When we come back, a blast from the past and the upside-down. Netflix takes us back to 1985 for season three of "Stranger Things."

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VAUSE: You may recognize the theme. "Stranger Things," season three, almost upon us. Viewers around the world have been counting down to Thursday's premier.

Well, last week cast members hit the red carpet to promote the upcoming season.

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GATEN MATARAZZO, ACTOR: I think everything is intensified. I think it's a really great season and people are really going to enjoy it. It's emotional. It's funny. It's really scary. It's actually probably the scariest season yet.

FINN WOLFHARD, ACTOR: Well, Mike, he -- he's just trying to be as normal, like, a teenager as he can and try to forget about everything that happened, like. But obviously, you can't. And he's just trying to, like, test this boundaries as a teenager and try to see what he can get away with, what he can't. And he's just kind of being a romantic and having fun with that.

NOAH SCHNAPP, ACTOR: It's very different. I mean, this season is a lot more fun. It's a lot more scary. It's very sad at the end, so be prepared. It's a good season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Get your binge on. All eight episodes will hit Netflix at 3:01 a.m. Eastern Time, a little more than two hours from right now.

Netflix is taking us back to the Eighties with its promotion for "Stranger Things," from New Coke to shopping malls. We're living in the retro upside-down.

CNN's Clare Sebastian now with the stranger things the show is helping to sell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Start with a cherry and some pecans. Add whipped cream, caramel and finally, a scoop of chocolate ice cream. The result? A sweet marketing opportunity.

Baskin-Robbins's Upside-Down Sundae is named after the creepy parallel universe in the Netflix hit series "Stranger Things."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Upside-Down Sundae. "Stranger Things" are happening at Baskin-Robbins.

SEBASTIAN: It's one of a new line of treats the ice cream store is rolling out to cash in on the show's third season, which features a fictional ice cream parlor called Scoops Ahoy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ahoy, eh?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ahoy.

SEBASTIAN: Season three sees the teenagers from Hawkins, Indiana, take their fight against evil to the quintessential Eighties hang out, the shopping mall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you think? We're just going to sit in my basement all day, play games for the rest of your lives?

SEBASTIAN: The real setting, though, has been happening off camera. Netflix says they're partnering with about 75 brands for the "Stranger Things" launch, an all-out international marketing blitz featuring everything from Nike to Burger King to the Chicago Cubs.

PETER SHANKMAN, BRANDING AND SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTANT: Every network, every website, everyone is looking for those two hours that you have between the timing at home, put the kid to bed, finish dinner, watch something. So anything that Netflix can do to grow that brand recognition and make you remember, "Hey, I should finish the season of 'Stranger Things'" is a benefit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you love the TV show "Stranger Things," then boy, have we got a LEGO set for you.

SEBASTIAN: Many of the brand tie-ins play on the 1980s nostalgia the show is known for.

Netflix even convinced Coke to re-release New Coke, a product which flopped back in 1985 after "Stranger Things" decided to incorporate it into its plot.

Netflix says no money changed hands in the Coke deal or in many of the show's other branding deals. Instead, Netflix is allowing companies to use the "Stranger Things" brand in return for a commitment to spend marketing dollars and dish up buzz for the show.

SHANKMAN: They don't necessarily care so much about revenue from these deals. They do care about brand awareness, and they do care about acknowledgment.

SEBASTIAN (on camera): Now, it's one thing to incorporate brands seamlessly into a show's narrative for the sense of authenticity and nostalgia. That was actually part of the vision for "Stranger Things" from the start.

Now, of course, the risk is that all of this ends up going too far and the marketing starts to overwhelm the show itself.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Ah, 1984.

There was a scary thing for a family spending the day at the beach, Dan Watson flying a drone above his children who were in the waters off Florida's Atlantic coast. Just meters away, though, the unmistakable outline of a shark.

After some frantic yelling, the kids raced to shore. Watson says he would have not seen the shark without the drone. Just a day earlier, a surfer had been bitten on the foot in that very same area. Close call.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Up next is WORLD SPORT. You're watching CNN.

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