The White House announced Monday that the Navy will name the two latest Ford-class aircraft carriers after former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

The future USS William J. Clinton and the future USS George W. Bush will become the fifth and sixth ships of the Ford class -- the class of ships that is slated to eventually replace the venerable Nimitz-class carriers that are in operation today.

"When I personally delivered the news to Bill and George, they were deeply humbled," Biden said in the statement released by the White House.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the Pentagon was "honored" by the choice of names.

"These two future carriers are named after historically significant commanders in chief who served our country with determination and dedication," Austin said in a statement released shortly after the White House made the announcement.

While the White House publicized the decision, the responsibility and authority to name ships lies squarely in the hands of the Navy secretary.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro has spent the last several weeks making a spate of ship naming announcements that ranged from a Navy destroyer honoring Bob Kerrey, a former Navy SEAL and U.S. senator, to an amphibious transport dock ship for Silver Star recipient Lt. Travis Manion.

On Monday, Del Toro also named three future Virginia-class submarines after the Potomac River; the city of Norfolk, Virginia; and the New York City borough of Brooklyn, as well as a Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine after the city of Groton, Connecticut.

Only the lead ship of the class of aircraft carriers, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has actually been built and is serving in the Navy.

As fires continue to rage across Southern California and the scope of catastrophic damage, loss of life, business disruptions and other economic impacts becomes clearer, AccuWeather has updated and increased its preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss to between $250 billion and $275 billion.

“These fast-moving, wind-driven infernos have created one of the costliest wildfire disasters in modern U.S. history,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said. “Hurricane-force winds sent flames ripping through neighborhoods filled with multi-million-dollar homes. The devastation left behind is heartbreaking, and the economic toll is staggering."

The worst of the fires are burning in an area from Santa Monica to Malibu, impacting some of the most expensive real estate in the country, with median home values over $2 million. Should a large number of additional structures be burned in the coming days, it may become the worst wildfire in modern California history based on the number of structures burned and economic loss,” Porter added.

To put the magnitude of loss into context, this latest damage and economic estimate for the fires burning in Southern California surpasses the damage and economic loss numbers for the entire 2020 wildfire season, which was a very active U.S. wildfire season, Porter noted. The damage and economic loss in Los Angeles is far higher than the deadly Maui wildfires in 2023, which were $13 billion to $16 billion and have also surpassed the $225 to $250 billion estimate for damages and economic loss after 2024's Hurricane Helene.

The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $173.8 billion in 2024) in economic recovery programs to Western European economies after the end of World War II. Replacing an earlier proposal for a Morgenthau Plan, it operated for four years beginning on April 3, 1948, though in 1951, the Marshall Plan was largely replaced by the Mutual Security Act. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, improve European prosperity and prevent the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan proposed the reduction of interstate barriers and the economic integration of the European Continent while also encouraging an increase in productivity as well as the adoption of modern business procedures.

The Marshall Plan aid was divided among the participant states roughly on a per capita basis. A larger amount was given to the major industrial powers, as the prevailing opinion was that their resuscitation was essential for the general European revival. Somewhat more aid per capita was also directed toward the Allied nations, with less for those that had been part of the Axis or remained neutral. The largest recipient of Marshall Plan money was the United Kingdom (receiving about 26% of the total). The next highest contributions went to France (18%) and West Germany (11%). Some eighteen European countries received Plan benefits. Although offered participation, the Soviet Union refused Plan benefits and also blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries, such as Romania and Poland. The United States provided similar aid programs in Asia, but they were not part of the Marshall Plan.