News Wrap: Rebuilding collapsed I-95 overpass in Philadelphia could take several months

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• Geoff Bennett:

  In the day's other headlines: Thousands of drivers confronted long delays and detours in Philadelphia, after part of Interstate 95 collapsed.

  An overpass crumbled Sunday when a tanker truck wrecked and burned beneath it. Today, that section was closed in both directions indefinitely. Officials warned it could take several months to repair the main north-south highway on the East Coast.

• Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA):

  I-95 stretches from Maine to Miami. I dare you to find a more densely populated 40-or-50 mile area around 95 than right here where we're standing. So people are going to be impacted from New York City to well south of here.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Also today, the Pennsylvania State Police said authorities are working to identify a body recovered from the wreckage.

  In Ukraine, government forces reported more small gains as a counteroffensive ramps up in the country's southeast. The military said it has now recaptured the village of Storozhov in the Donetsk region. It said six other villages have also been retaken.

  Military video showed soldiers unfolding the Ukrainian flag amid abandoned Russian trucks. Their progress was being closely watched at the State Department in Washington.

  Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State: Ukraine's success in the counteroffensive would do two things. It would strengthen its position at any negotiating table that emerges, and it may have the effect as well of actually causing Putin to finally focus on negotiating an end to the war that he started.

• Geoff Bennett:

  There were also reports of heavy fighting today elsewhere along the front line in Southern Ukraine.

  President Biden had planned to talk about Ukraine with the head of NATO today, but a root canal intervened. The White House says the president had an initial procedure on Sunday and additional work today. Officials postpone the NATO meeting until tomorrow.

  Iran is leaving open the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the U.S. The Foreign Ministry said today that negotiations are ongoing. A day earlier, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there's — quote — "nothing wrong" with restoring a nuclear deal with the West if Iran keeps its nuclear infrastructure.

  The boastful Italian billionaire who became a populist political leader, Silvio Berlusconi, died today. He had battled leukemia.

  Stephanie Sy reports in a career that sharply divided a country.

• Stephanie Sy:

  On the TV network where he built his own empire, Italian newscasters fought to hold back tears as they delivered the news.

  Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving prime minister and a powerful media mogul, was dead. In his nearly three decades in politics, he polarized the country, but became one of Italy's most influential leaders.

• Giorgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister (through translator):

  Silvio Berlusconi was most of all a fighter. He was a man who never feared to defend his beliefs.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Berlusconi made his name as a business tycoon. He built a real estate and media empire in the 1970s and 1980s. And he used that wealth and influence to take power.

  With his Forza Italia center-right alliance, Berlusconi was first elected as prime minister in 1994, and then again in 2001 and 2008. But he was forced to resign in 2011 after losing a parliamentary majority, and as Italy's debt soared. In 2012, he was convicted of tax fraud and banned from public office for several years.

  Beyond politics, he made headlines for his private life, epitomized by his notorious bunga bunga parties, and several sex scandals, including claims of unlawful sex with a minor. Berlusconi denied wrongdoing, but crassly admitted his pursuit of young women.

• Silvio Berlusconi, Former Italian Prime Minister (through translator):

  I have always worked with no interruption. And if I sometimes see a beautiful girl, I say, better to like girls than to be gay.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Last year, he brought his party back to power by siding with far right Brothers of Italy, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

  He also cultivated relationships with other controversial leaders, including with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a friendship that put him at odds with Meloni, a political player until almost the end. He died in a Milan hospital this morning, where he was being treated for chronic leukemia.

  Silvio Berlusconi was 86 years old.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

• Geoff Bennett:

  A state funeral will be will be held Wednesday in Milan.

  Back in this country, a first-of-its-kind trial started in Montana, as 16 young plaintiffs pressed for stronger climate action. They range from ages 5 to 22, and their lawsuit contends Montana's ties to fossil fuel will endanger public health for generations to come. Dozens of similar lawsuits are pending across the country.

  The United States will rejoin the U.N. cultural and scientific agency UNESCO after a 12-year absence. The U.S. was once the agency's biggest funder, but withdrew in 2011 to protest admitting the Palestinians as, in effect, an independent state. American officials say rejoining will help counter China's growing influence.

  And on Wall Street, stocks rose on hopes that the economy can avoid a recession. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 189 points to close at 34066. The Nasdaq rose 202 points, 1.5 percent. The S&P 500 added 40, hitting its highest close in more than a year.

  And Broadway has bestowed this year's top honors with the 2023 Tony Awards. The musical comedy "Kimberly Akimbo" when five awards last night, including best musical. Tom Stoppard's semi-autobiographical work "Leopoldstadt" took the prize for best play. And nonbinary actors won Tonys for the first time. J. Harrison Ghee in "Some Like It Hot" and Alex Newell in "Shucked."

  Still to come on the "NewsHour": the head of NATO discusses the Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Russian invasion; increasingly severe weather causes major insurance providers to pull coverage in California; and playwright Michael R. Jackson gives a Brief But Spectacular take on writing from the inside out.