Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova were the most successful women’s tennis champions of their generation. Both were 18-time Grand Slam tournament winners — and each other’s greatest rivals.

Evert, a Florida native, became a tennis star in her teens. Navratilova was born in communist Czechoslovakia, and emerged as a player after Evert was established. They first faced off during a match in Akron, Ohio, in 1973, when Evert was 18, and Navratilova was 16. Evert won, but Navratilova left an impression.

“I remember thinking to myself, holy cow, when this young girl gets into better shape, she is going to be a force to be reckoned with,” Evert says. “She had so much talent. Her hands were quick, she had a big first serve, she had a big forehand, and she just was so powerful.”

Two years later, on the day she lost a semifinals match to Evert at the U.S. Open, Navratilova defected to the U.S. In the years that followed, her tennis game improved. Though she and Evert had initially been friendly, the friendship cooled as their rivalry heated up.

“Playing Chris was difficult because how can you not like Chris? What’s not to admire?” Navratilova says. “She was like the epitome of cool.”

The new Netflix documentary Chris & Martina: The Final Set tells the story of how Evert and Navratilova re-established their friendship and how they both faced cancer in retirement. Evert was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021; Navratilova was diagnosed with throat and breast cancer in 2022.

“I can’t get away from her,” Evert jokes. “We had a 15-year career, and then we got cancer at the same time. It really is freaky, but I always say: If I want someone to be in the trenches with me, it’s Martina because she has been so supportive and so understanding.”

Navratilova agrees: “We have such a level of trust that we know whatever we say to each other, it stays there. We give each other the best advice we know how to. And there is no ulterior motive, no playing games.”

At the time that this interview was taped, Evert and Navratilova were both in remission from cancer. But late last week, Evert disclosed she’d recently been diagnosed with a recurrence of ovarian cancer.

“We know whatever we say to each other, it stays there,” Martina Navratilova says of her friendship with Chris Evert.

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Interview highlights

On supporting each other through cancer

Evert: There are a lot of phone calls between us. … I don’t cook, but Martina would bake bread for me, and her wife Julia would cook, make some chicken soup. … I got a lot of food from Martina. She got a necklace from me.

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Today’s top stories

This weekend, tensions flared between the U.S. and Iran as the two countries exchanged fire while under a ceasefire agreement. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed responsibility for launching drone and missile strikes on Bahrain and Kuwait yesterday, according to state-run Iranian media. These attempted strikes followed new U.S. military action against Iranian targets. This latest exchange jeopardizes ongoing negotiations for a lasting ceasefire and marks the most significant escalation since the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this month. During a tour of the Gulf Arab states last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. and Iran were planning to meet on Monday or Tuesday for technical talks.

• 🎧 A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, told NPR last night that “nothing has been canceled, and talks are on track for the coming days.” Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi, however, was quoted by Iranian media on Monday saying that while consultations continue with mediator Qatar, technical talks with the U.S. are not yet planned for this week and will be held only “when the conditions are met”. He did not elaborate. The conflict remains between the U.S. and Iran over who controls the Strait of Hormuz, NPR’s Carrie Kahn tells Up First. During Rubio’s recent visit to the region, he told Gulf allies that the major waterway will remain open. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the responsibility for these arrangements lies with Iran and no other country or entity.

The search for survivors continues nearly five days after two powerful earthquakes hit Venezuela. The official death toll is nearing 1,500, and thousands of people are still unaccounted for. Families and volunteers are tirelessly digging through collapsed buildings throughout the northern coast and in neighborhoods of Caracas, the country’s capital, in hopes of finding people alive.

• 🎧 Yesterday, NPR’s Eyder Peralta, who is in Caracas, visited the site of what used to be a 16-story building, which now lies in ruins. A rescue crew arrived but deemed it too dangerous to search through. Peralta witnessed a couple of dozen family members climbing through the rubble and picking random areas to dig. At times, the smell of death became stronger, causing them to dig even faster. This smell is one of the hardest parts of the rescue and recovery efforts, Peralta says. The rescuers say that the real opportunity to save people happens within the first three days, but everyone with a missing loved one is waiting for a miracle at this point. Help is incredibly limited here. As big trucks move through the streets, some people stand in front of them, saying, “No, you need to go to my building to find my loved ones.” Peralta says there is a lot of anger and resignation among the people in the region. It can be seen as people walk through damaged buildings, trying to salvage their belongings, fully aware that the structures could collapse at any moment, he adds. They believe that they won’t receive any assistance, so they are trying to get what they can.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s Cabinet unanimously approved a proposal on Sunday to designate violence against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide.

The step, which still needs approval in Parliament, reflects deteriorating ties between Israel and Turkey. Turkey has fiercely lobbied to prevent countries from officially recognizing the mass deaths of Armenians around 1915 as a genocide, even as Armenians have pushed for it.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

For years, Israel never officially broached the subject for fear of angering Turkey, but that relationship has soured over the past two decades, especially as the most recent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran have dragged on.

“Despite the extensive and unambiguous historical documentation, the Armenian Genocide remains to this day the subject of an institutionalized campaign of denial and minimization, including a manipulative rewriting of history, mainly by the Turkish government,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who brought the decision to the government.

He noted that Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have previously described the violence against Armenians as a genocide. But it has never been formally recognized in a vote by Israel’s Knesset.

“It is never too late to do the right thing,” Saar said Sunday, calling it a “moral and historical duty.”

He noted that 32 countries, including the United States, Syria and Lebanon, have also classified the violence as a genocide. It was not immediately known when Sunday’s decision, approved unanimously by Israel’s Cabinet, would go to the parliament for approval.

Turkey called Israel’s move a “politically motivated” step meant to distract from the country’s own actions against Palestinians.

“The Israeli government, which systematically persecutes the Palestinian people in full view of the world and is being tried at the International Court of Justice for genocide against the people of Gaza, aims to cover up its own crimes,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“This malicious attempt, which disregards legal and historical facts, reveals the predicament of Netanyahu and his accomplices, who have arrest warrants against them in connection with the investigation into crimes committed against Palestinians at the International Criminal Court,” the statement added.

Extreme heat this week will blanket a majority of American states through the July 4 weekend, according to forecasters.

The National Weather Service on Sunday said “dangerous to record setting heat will expand across the eastern two-thirds” of the country.

In areas including Ohio, parts of North Carolina and Washington, D.C., the extreme temperatures and humidity will be especially threatening for people with respiratory issues and the elderly.

“With the combination of high humidity, heat indices may reach 100-110 Degrees,” said the NWS. “Much of the central and eastern U.S. is under a Moderate to Major HeatRisk, which can pose health impacts on those without hydration or cooling.”

Parts of Iowa, Missouri and Kansas are under extreme heat warnings.

A heat dome is driving the heatwave. It occurs when a very hot air mass parks itself over a region and gets trapped under a “lid” above the Earth’s surface.

But the high temperatures are not the only concern, said NWS forecaster Bryan Putnam.

“You get temperatures in the 90s to low 100s, that’s obviously pretty hot. But you combine that with the humidity, those heat indices will go well into the 100s and that’s the temperature that it’s going to feel like,” Putnam told NPR on Sunday.

Risks for extreme heat are also expected to continue after July 4 and in the West. Daytime temperatures could feel like 100 to 105 degrees and the heat could limit overnight relief, the NWS said.

Putnam said people gathering outdoors for the July 4 weekend, including at night to see fireworks, should be vigilant.

“Your temperatures might stay in the 80s and the 90s in the heat in the evening, as well as the fact is with the humidity, that’s going to keep those heat indices high as well,” he said. “Just because the sun goes down doesn’t mean it still isn’t going to be hot.”

Millions of trucks carrying billions of dollars worth of car parts, machinery and a long list of other commodities pass checkpoints along one small stretch of the U.S.-Canada border each year.

It’s known as North America’s busiest land crossing, and it sits between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

NPR’s Don Gonyea recently visited this crossing to take a look at a brand new bridge that sits completed and unopened.

Construction on the Gordie Howe International Bridge, named for the Hall of Fame Canadian-born hockey legend who played for the Detroit Red Wings, began in 2018. It was set to open early this year. That was before President Trump intervened in a social media post.

Trump demanded that Canada share ownership with the United States before he would allow the bridge to open. Months passed. In June, the bridge authority actually scheduled a grand opening. But at the last minute, it was canceled.

Stephen Laskowski is president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance and head of the Ontario Trucking Association. He was about to make his way to the grand opening when he got the news.

“I was heading out. My wife said, ‘Your phone’s ringing’ … it said, don’t bother going,” Laskowski told NPR.

The Canadian government and Michigan jointly own the bridge. Canada agreed to front the cost of construction and to split the toll fees with the state once the cost has been recouped.

But the president has said that isn’t good enough. Some Canadian politicians have suggested the owners of a rival bridge linking Detroit and Windsor are responsible for Trump’s interest in delaying the opening. The Moroun family, which owns the Ambassador Bridge, has given millions to Republicans in recent years, including a $1 million donation to a Trump-aligned super PAC.

Gonyea spoke with WDET reporter Alex McLenon, Canadian residents and others to understand how the bridge’s closure is rippling across the continent.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil—The Trump administration’s tariffs may have done what decades of diplomacy couldn’t: convince Europe and South America they needed each other.

For Brazil’s cachaça makers, that diplomatic shift is already becoming a business opportunity.

“I think growth will be immense,” distiller Assja Schymura of Pindorama, said. “If we can only get over these initial barriers.”

Cachaça, Brazil’s sugarcane-based liquor and the key ingredient in the country’s famed cocktail, the caipirinha, has won awards in European competitions but has long struggled to break into the market. Import taxes and lack of familiarity kept it mostly a niche export. Producers now see a chance to change that.

In May, the European Union and Mercosur— a South American trade bloc known as the “Southern Common Market” that includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay — finally advanced a long-delayed trade agreement, cutting tariffs on hundreds of goods from airplane parts to cachaça. Bolivia, which became a Mercosur member after most of the deal was already negotiated, is expected to join it in the next few years.

The countries moved past decades of stalling to sign the deal after both sides were hit with U.S. tariffs last year. Unpredictable relations with the United States “tends to lead to seeking additional partners to make up for that,” former Brazilian trade official and diplomat Roberto Jaguaribe said.

The EU-Mercosur agreement goes beyond just trade. It also commits members to uphold democratic institutions and remain in the Paris climate agreement—commitments European and South American officials say matter more as Washington steps back from global climate and democracy initiatives under the Trump administration.

That shift in relations has given a new momentum to other talks. At a conference in Brazil this month on strengthening ties between Europe and Latin America, Finnish diplomat Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen argued that countries committed to the rules-based international order “need to get our act together.”

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Some issues, like immigration or student loans, are too divisive to unite Trinity Moravian Church.

“We’ve got quite a spread of political beliefs,” says the Rev. John Jackman, who leads this 114-year-old red-brick church near Winston-Salem’s old textile mills. Conservative Republicans sit with liberal Democrats. Supporters of President Trump mix with his fierce critics. “It’s definitely a purple congregation,” Jackman says.

But four years ago, when Jackman suggested a new church mission to alleviate medical debt for residents of the wider Winston-Salem area, there was no dissent. “This is the easiest money I’ve ever raised,” he says. “All I do is tell people what we’re doing, and they write me a check.”

A matter of fairness

Few issues have been more politically explosive in recent years than healthcare, pitting Democrats and Republicans in bitter debates over the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and other flash points.

Yet moved by the sense that the medical debts their neighbors faced were deeply unfair, members of Trinity Moravian, no matter their politics, rushed to write $25 or $50 checks to pay off the bills. They helped advance a movement by churches across the state and the country, and they inspired North Carolina government officials to tackle medical debt. The effort drew plaudits from conservative radio host Glenn Beck.

The little church’s success also highlights a patch of common ground in American healthcare — the widespread frustration shared across the political spectrum that so many patients are ending up in debt.

Earlier this year, Trinity wrapped up its eighth medical debt campaign, part of what the church calls its Debt Jubilee Project. This one raised more than $17,000. That helped retire more than $2.2 million in debt. Medical debt can be bought for pennies on the dollar because creditors believe most debts won’t be paid.

Nationwide, an estimated 100 million adults have some form of healthcare debt. More than half of U.S. adults have had such debt at some point in their lives.

Soccer fans visiting the U.S. for World Cup matches seem to be delighted by American friendliness and dazzled by the way our highways roll from skyscrapers into wide-open spaces, abounding with monster trucks, big-box stores, “Big Gulp” drinks, central air conditioning, and ranch dressing.

Elsa Thora, a visitor from Sweden, wrote in what’s become a widely quoted post on X, “EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP.” Hidden Valley had already hired six “Ranchbassadors” this summer to spread the “sauce-pel” on the other side of the Atlantic.

Then World Cup soccer brought more than a million international fans to the heart of ranch country. The TSA cautioned on Instagram, “If you’re visiting for a very large sporting event & you happen to discover RANCH while you’re here… please pack it in your CHECKED BAG on the way home.”

I am not a fan of ranch dressing. I think it tastes like creamy, curdled pillow stuffing. But I am outnumbered. In 2024, ranch eclipsed ketchup to become the nation’s top-selling condiment.

The food industry research firm Datassential says 75% of Americans like or love ranch dressing. These days, it’s hard to imagine 75% of Americans agreeing they like puppies.

As it happens, ranch dressing has a distinctly American creation story. In 1949, a Nebraska plumbing contractor named Steve Henson was working in Anchorage, Alaska and concocted a salad dressing out of buttermilk, mayonnaise, and herbs to help feed his crew on remote job sites.

A few years later, Henson and his wife bought a California dude ranch, which they called the Hidden Valley Ranch, and served the dressing at their restaurant. Guests loved it. Then Henson started selling packets of his seasoning mix by mail. The dude ranch went under. But ranch flavor was just getting started.

Today, hundreds of companies produce “ranch-style” dressings and dips, and “ranch” flavor has been infused into popcorn, taco shells, ice cream, and even a lip balm that sold out in hours. You can have a ranch fountain at your wedding or bat mitzvah! Glub-glub-glub.

Maybe World Cup visitors’ passion for America’s favorite condiment has reawakened some national pride here. Steve Henson didn’t need to be a Michelin-starred chef or culinary scientist to change people’s tastes. He was a journeyman plumbing contractor, giving a treat to friends. And now, much of the world.

President Trump says he’s nominating Lance Schroyer, who served as an Oklahoma state trooper and with the U.S. Marines, as the next director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The nomination follows months of scrutiny over the agency’s aggressive immigration tactics and after Todd Lyons resigned as acting ICE director at the end of May. David Venturella, a longtime ICE official and former executive of a private prison corporation, has been leading the agency in an acting capacity since June.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump described Schroyer as a “PATRIOT with real operational experience, and proven leader with DECADES of experience locking up the worst of the worst.”

“He LOVES the men and women of ICE,” Trump added.

If confirmed, Schroyer would partner with a fellow Oklahoman to implement the Trump administration’s controversial immigration crackdown. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, is led by Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former congressman for Oklahoma.

Mullin praised Schroyer’s nomination on the social media platform X.

“With over 29 years of law enforcement experience, Lance will play a vital role in helping deliver on the President’s mandate from the American people to target, arrest, and deport illegal aliens,” he wrote.

Schroyer currently serves as the senior adviser to Mullin and oversees coordination of immigration enforcement, according to a DHS statement.

Echoing Trump, Mullin called for a quick Senate confirmation for Schroyer. ICE hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed director since the Obama administration.

Firefighters and residents in the Great Basin and Southwest are bracing for extreme wildfire conditions through the weekend.

The National Weather Service in Salt Lake City issued a rare “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning in parts of Utah, Friday, for the first time in the office’s history, due to a volatile combination of high winds, temperatures and low humidities.

Critical fire weather conditions are expected to persist into Sunday, complicating efforts to contain the largest wildfire currently burning in the U.S., the Cottonwood Fire, which is burning in a sparsely populated part of southern Utah.

“Our biggest challenge right now is that we have single digit humidities and the wind gusts are around 45 miles per hour,” said Alyssa Mason, a spokesperson assigned to the fire. “That’s on top of fuel moistures between 2 and 8 percent.”

Much of Utah, Nevada, Colorado and other states in the Intermountain West are experiencing widespread drought conditions after an abnormally dry winter. Surveyors documented their lowest snow levels on record in parts of the Rocky Mountains this winter. Utah’s snowpack, which provides the state with much of its water as it melts, peaked three weeks earlier than normal and was also the lowest on record, according to the state’s division of water resources.

On Friday afternoon, the combustible conditions combined with high winds forced the incident managers on the Cottonwood Fire to temporarily “pull guys off the line,” Mason said. Helicopters and other firefighting aircraft were also grounded due to high winds.

The fire, which has burned an area larger than the size of Salt Lake City, remains completely uncontained.

Firefighters could receive a small reprieve next week when cooler temperatures and higher humidities hit the region, according to the National Weather Service

But the ongoing drought conditions and strain on resources due to multiple large fires compelled Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to issue an emergency order last week temporarily restricting firework displays through the Fourth of July holiday.

“When people who’ve dedicated their lives to protecting Utah tell us this year is different, we desperately need to listen,” he said at a press conference announcing the restrictions.

The vast majority of wildfires in the U.S. are started by humans every year, according to the U.S. Forest Service. And the wildfires that do start are getting bigger and more destructive as a result of human activities that are warming the global climate.

A study, published earlier this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that forest fires now burn ten times more acreage annually than in 1985.