william brangham talked with her recently in brooklyn, new york. >> reporter: deanna fei was just 25 weeks pregnant, hard at work on her second novel and months away from her delivery date. she'd been researching translations for a plot twist where one of her main characters would have a miscarriage. that night, her own contractions came out of nowhere. rushing to the hospital with shooting pains in her womb, the translation of the word 'calamity' was still on her computer screen. >> the pain just got worse and worse and worse, worse. i found myself desperately thinking, "could this be braxton hicks contractions? false labor?" but it felt nothing like that. by the time i got to the hospital, i was fully dilated. the doctors had to perform an emergency c-section. >> reporter: nothing in fei's own history predicted a calamity like this. she and her husband, peter goodman, had always been the lucky types-- traveling the world together, pursuing careers in writing and journalism. during a trip to india in 2010, they made an offhand prayer to the hindu gods to bless them with their first

william brangham starts us off. >> reporter: police and emergency responders quickly descended on the movie theater after gunfire erupted during a showing last night of the comedy "trainwreck". >> we were buying popcorn at the concession stand when a whole group of people, teenagers mainly, running out, telling everyone to run for their life. and then we saw a lady with blood all over her leg. i just grabbed my child, i mean we just all ran. >> reporter: the gunman-- identified as 59-year-old john russel houser-- opened fire on the crowd just 20 minutes into the film. investigators this morning characterized houser as a drifter. >> it is apparent that he was intent on shooting and then escaping. what happened is that the quick law enforcement response forced him back into the theater, at which time he shot himself. >> reporter: court papers from 2008 revealed that houser's family had filed a temporary restraining order against him, saying he was violent and mentally ill. the court filing also stated houser's wife kellie-- who filed for divorce in march-- had removed all the weapons fr

our william brangham unravels the debate. >> reporter: the firestorm started when-- in his announcementrunning for president-- donald trump turned to the topic of immigration. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. they're not sending you. they're not sending you. they're sending people who have lots of problems. and they're bringing those problems with them. they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. they're rapists. and some, i assume, are good people. >> reporter: in the weeks following, major businesses connected to trump backed away from partnerships and projects with him. they included nbc, univision, macy's, espn, and the professional golf association. for his part, trump stood by his comments. but then a tragedy in san francisco added fuel to the fire-- 32-year-old kathryn steinle was shot and killed at the end of last month. undocumented immigrant juan lopez-sanchez confessed to a reporter that he shot her, but said it was an accident. all this has just inflamed the debate about immigration in the u.s.: whether immigrants are a positive force in t

william brangham reports. a warning: the story contains some graphic images. >> reporter: it's easy to overlook just how dependent our lives and the entire global economy have become on shipping and the seas. today, several million ships carry roughly 90% of the world's goods. but a "new york times" series shows how little we know about "the lawless seas." migrants, stowaways and fishermen disappear-- often killed in accidents, or worse-- there's evidence of murders taking place offshore. and tens of thousands of workers are essentially enslaved each year. all the while, international maritime law seems wholly inadequate and few authorities ever step in. ian urbina reported this series and he joins me now. in the first part of your series you talk about a particular ship, "the dona laberta," and you document a whole manner of crimes, treatment of crew, stowaways overboard, dumping oily residue into the water, you can name the owner of the ship, but nothing is done, why is that? >> number one: a lot of these co

here's william brangham with a look at one author's defense of the power of televsion. we get our various media, news books tv has undergone changes. facebook to twitter, netflix, to name a few these entities will only speed the client of our only dusty media. not so fast for columnist and critic michael regan. mile michael wolff, he has written "television is the new television: the unexpected triumph of old media in the digital age." michael wolff, thanks for being here. >> thank you for having me. television is the new television. explain. how is that true? >> what do you do all day? what are we doing now? what does everybody -- i think i can fairly say everybody watching now how do they spend most of their -- a good part of their day? certainly more time than they do on the internet. they watch television. i think you can go further. what are the most cultural moments in this day and age? it's watching television whether mad men game of thrones, or whatever. television is this centerpiece of our lives. now, the interesting thing is that we have been told for rather

william brangham has the story. >> brangham: rio's polluted waters are the result of decades of neglectedor nonexistent sewage infrastructure, so in the coming weeks, as trials and test runs begin for the 2016 olympics, some athletes will be competing in waters that contain over a million times more contamination than levels allowed in u.s. waters. bradley brooks is the bureau chief for the a.p. in brazil. he co-wrote this new investigation and he joins me now from rio. so bradley brooks, how did these waters get so poll poluted? >> william, these waters have been polluted for decade and basically what happens is that rio grew so fast since the 1960s that the infrastructure of the sewage system could not keep up with the growth. so what you have are poor communities, slums, that cling to these steep hillside and have sewage, so the sewage runs downhill and drains into the basin bole that is rio de janeiro and flows into the streams and lakes and oceans. >> people in the u.s. are familiar when the bacteria levels get to a certain level they close beach also. how do the levels you found in

correspondent william brangham has our report. >> brangham: it was a moment that many, on both sides of the issue, thought would never come: the governor of south carolina signing a bill to remove the confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds. we are a state that believes in tradition. we're a state that believes in history. we're a state that believes in respect. so we will bring it down with dignity, and we will make sure that it is put in its rightful place. >> brangham: governor nicki haley's action means the flag will be lowered tomorrow and taken to a museum for display. all this follows 13 hours of debate in the state house that went into the early hours of this morning. lawmakers from both sides gave impassioned pleas, many of them like representative jenny anderson horn, in favor of bringing down the flag. >> i cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful, such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on friday. >> brangham: others, including representative eric bedingfield, objected to its removal. >> i understand there

william brangham has the latest. >> reporter: this abandoned house is where mexican authorities say drugin joaquin guzman-- known as "el chapo"-- escaped to freedom. guzman was being held in this maximum security prison, but on saturday night, he reportedly walked into a shower stall, and never came out. officials discovered a long, narrow, tunnel had been dug under the prison that ran nearly a mile away to the empty house. guzman is the most notorious drug lord in mexico, and possibly the world. he runs the sinaloa cartel -- a global network that trafficks marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines. they're also responsible for thousands of killings in mexico's brutal, near-decade-old drug war. this was guzman's second escape from a mexican prison-- he escaped in 2001, but was re-captured in 2014. that arrest was held up as proof by mexican president enrique pena nieto that his nation was finally cracking down on the cartels and reining in the violence. but this second escape was seen as particularly damaging for the president, who was on a state visit to france when the news brok

correspondent william brangham has our story. >> we have chosen this spot because very clearly to us,is a crime scene! >> reporter: religious leaders and community activists spoke today outside the waller county jail-- the same texas jail where 28-year-old sandra bland died under mysterious circumstances a week ago. the incident began on july 10th. in this video filmed on a bystander's cellphone, bland is seen being pinned to the ground by two state troopers. the troopers say bland had just assaulted an officer after they'd pulled her over for a traffic violation. bland was arrested, and taken to the county jail. three days later she was found dead in her cell. the sheriff's office says bland committed suicide by hanging herself with a plastic bag. officials also pointed to a facebook video ms. bland posted several months ago saying she was depressed. >> i am suffering from something that many of you may be dealing with right now. it's a little bit of depression as well as p.t.s.d. >> reporter: but bland's family and others don't believe it. they say that video was made when bland was