Morning Edition

Israel's military says its rocket defense system, known as Iron Dome, has kept the country safe from Hamas rockets. The missile shield system may have its critics, but Israelis are still proud.

David Greene talks to TV Guide magazine executive editor Michael Schneider about Thursday's announcement of the 66th Emmy Award nominations.

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Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Selling American whiskey is all about marketing. You can buy bottles with scenes of prohibition or that evoke the old West, and you may someday see a bottle featuring the image of John Wayne. The actor was known as the duke, and his heirs wants to call their product Duke Bourbon. The only problem is an objection from Duke University - no relation. The school has raised a legal challenge, contending the whiskey would tarnish the Duke name. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

The popular dating app Tinder has a new user: Edward Snowden. Actually, just the username Lonely Ed with the profile picture of the NSA leaker looking for love from Moscow. It was the brainchild of Ross Cohen, a writer and director in Los Angeles.

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In Hollywood this morning we find out who the nominees are for this year's Emmys. MORNING EDITION's David Greene talked to Kim Masters, editor-at-large at The Hollywood Reporter, about who in television might get that age-old honor of just being nominated.

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Kim, welcome back to the program. Always good to talk to you.

KIM MASTERS: Thank you.

GREENE: So let's talk about the drama category because, not to sound silly, but that really does seem to be where the drama is this year, right?

After years of stunning growth, China's go-go real estate market is now in retreat.

Prices fell last month in 79 out of 100 cities, according to the China Real Estate Index run by SouFun Holdings, a real estate website. Land sales dropped nearly 30 percent this spring from a year earlier.

Real estate has been one of the engines driving the world's second-largest economy, which is why economists in China and around the world are watching the market closely these days.

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And our last word in business today is Chocodile.

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The Chocodile is part of an American comeback story. Hostess, the snack food company that makes the legendary yellow spongy Twinkie, was saved from bankruptcy last year.

MONTAGNE: In June, the company got a new CEO, and this week, it announced the return of the Chocodile.

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And let's go from still life to real life. A plant that may be the ultimate late bloomer. An 80-year-old plant at the University of Michigan is blossoming for the first time.

MIKE PALMER: This plant is an American agave that was brought back from an expedition in 1934 from Mexico.

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That's Mike Palmer, of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum.

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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

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Harry Potter is attending the Quidditch World Cup with his family, as well as Ron and Hermione. He is in his 30s, with "a couple of threads of silver" in his hair and a mysterious cut on his cheek.

A Japanese worker found the phone and tracked down the American owner. Farmer Kevin Whitney recovered the phone, which had pictures of his daughter's wedding on it.

There is renewed fighting in Kandahar as the outcome of the Afghan presidential election remains uncertain. And a new U.N. report says civilian casualties are up significantly from a year ago.

Host country Brazil was eliminated from the World Cup in epic fashion: Germany defeated Brazil 7-1 during the semifinal match. Brazilians are wondering how their beloved team could be so pulverized.

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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

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And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning. We do not know which Republican will accept the nomination for president in 2016. We do know where.

MONTAGNE: Cleveland is celebrating that honor. Republicans chose it over Dallas.

INSKEEP: Maybe Cleveland just won because it's in the swing state of Ohio, but however it happened, the city takes it as a sign of a comeback. Nick Castele reports from member station WCPN.

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We're going to profile the musician Sia in a moment. But first we have a little music economics courtesy of Taylor Swift. The pop superstar wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal yesterday about the future of the music industry.

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She's optimistic, despite the industry's tumultuous business landscape. According to Swift, however, the value of an album is based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work.

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Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. A new study of traffic congestion finds, in the U.S., Honolulu has the worst, followed by Los Angeles. In Europe, Londoners spend more than 83 hours a year in traffic.

But one lucky person could cut that down dramatically. The London Netflix office is hiring a tagger - someone to watch Netflix titles and categorize them as drama or cult sports movies - a job involving a commute to the couch. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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In recent weeks we've been reporting on changes in Cuba. One is Cuba's small but growing private sector. The government is letting entrepreneurs open their own businesses, which leaves many trying to find the goods their customers want. The U.S. trade embargo means you can't just order from a distributor in Florida. But Cubans can still get U.S. goods. NPR's Greg Allen visited stores in the Miami suburb of Hialeah.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: On the map, it's right next to Miami. But culturally speaking, Hialeah is just as close to Havana.

Prisoners who are released invariably make it back to the areas where they came from. Does this have a positive or negative effect on crime? Research triggered by Hurricane Katrina offers insight.

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Brazil faces Germany today in the semi-finals of the World Cup.

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Deep into the tournament, Brazilian fans have developed a game day routine.

INSKEEP: So we present to you now, with NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro in Sao Paulo, Brazil's World Cup ritual in four acts.

MONTAGNE: Act one - getting to the game.

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Preliminary results are out for the run-off in Afghanistan's presidential elections. And the winner seems to be former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani. His opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, was considered the front-runner after winning 45 percent of the vote in the first round back in April. Now Ashraf Ghani appears to be winning with almost a million more votes than Abdullah. NPR's Sean Carberry joins us from Kabul. Good morning.

SEAN CARBERRY, BYLINE: Hi, Renee.

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Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Weddings are always a whirlwind - from the engagement to the wedding photos, which for a couple in Saskatchewan, Canada involved a real tornado. As the bride and groom posed for a close-up, down the road from their ceremony a funnel cloud swirled behind them. The tornado touched down far enough behind them that the wedding photographer was able to capture the moment - perhaps the best wedding photo-bomb ever. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Remember that old safety advice - if your fireworks don't go off, lean over the top and shake them. That's a joke but this is not. John Fletcher of Michigan celebrated Independence Day by setting off 10,500 firecrackers attached to his body. He's done this for years. In the past, he's fractured ribs and been knocked unconscious. This year, he only got a bloody nose. Though he admits, he says, he is a little nuts. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Let's take a moment to remember Edward Shevardnazde. He was the foreign minister for the Soviet Union in the 1980s. That means he was one of the faces of the Soviet Union during its final period of reform under Mikhail Gorbachev. When that union broke apart, Shervardnazde became the president of his home republic, Georgia. And he has died at the age of 86. We're going to talk about Shevardnazde with Pavel Palazhchenko. He was an interpreter for both Gorbachev and this Shervardnazde. He's on the line. Welcome to the program.

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And here's our last word in Business today.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A HARD DAY'S NIGHT")

THE BEATLES: (Singing) It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog. It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log.

INSKEEP: You hear the screaming in the background. "A Hard Day's Night" premiered at London's Pavilion Theater on July 6, 1964.

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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

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When investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson left CBS this year, she did not go quietly. She contends, the network refused to run stories that might damage President Obama. And her claims have become a flashpoint in arguments over ideological bias in the media. NPR's David Folkenflik has more.

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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

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