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• California Gov. Gavin Newsom is already looking ahead to an "LA 2.0" post-wildfire.
• He said he is "organizing a Marshall Plan" to hasten the city's recovery efforts.
• The fires, which started last week, burned through more than 40,300 acres of land and resulted in at least 24 deaths.

As the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles continue to rage, Gov. Gavin Newsom is looking toward rebuilding an "LA 2.0" post-fire.

Newsom was asked in an NBC "Meet the Press" interview on Saturday if California would be ready to host the World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Olympics over the next couple of years in the aftermath of the wildfires.

Speaking against the backdrop of a fire-ravaged neighborhood, Newsom said that he's already "organizing a Marshall Plan" and already has a team "looking and reimagining LA 2.0."

The Marshall Plan harkens back to the post-World War 2 period when President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. The act saw more than $13 billion invested in rebuilding Western Europe's economies, bringing investments into the region, and stimulating the US economy by building a market for American goods.

When asked for details of the new "Marshall Plan," Newsom said he was talking to city, civic, business, nonprofit, and labor leaders about recovery efforts and working to "galvanize the community."

"We have got to be thinking three weeks, three months, three years ahead; at the same time, we're focusing on the immediacy, which is life safety and property," he told NBC.

Representatives for Newsom did not provide further comments in response to queries from Business Insider.

Newsom said in the interview that the wildfires will likely be one of the worst natural disasters in the country's history, in terms of the costs associated with it and its scale and scope.

AccuWeather, a weather forecasting service, estimated the total economic damage to land between $52 and $57 billion. JPMorgan analysts estimated that insured losses could reach $20 billion.

The wildfires have ravaged over 40,300 acres of land across Los Angeles. At press time, at least 24 people have died, and according to CalFire statistics, more than 12,300 structures have been damaged.

As the fire passed through the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood, the homes of several Hollywood A-listers, like Paris Hilton, Milo Ventimiglia, and Billy Crystal, burned down.

The two largest fires, the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, are only 11% and 27% contained, per CalFire.

The governor said he had also ordered an investigation into why fire hydrants ran dry and lost water pressure in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, hindering firefighting efforts.

Newsom's latest statements come as he faces criticism from President-elect Donald Trump for his handling of the wildfires.

In a Truth Social post, Trump called Newsom "incompetent" and said he was to blame for the wildfires.

Newsom said in the NBC interview that Trump's comment was "inaccurate."

He then invited Trump to "come out" to California and "take a look for himself." Newsom's team has also launched a fact-checking website to combat misinformation about the fires.

Groww, India’s largest retail stockbroker, is positioning itself to file for an IPO in 10-12 months and is seeking a valuation between $6 billion to $8 billion, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, in what would be a landmark listing for the country’s fintech sector. The Bengaluru-headquartered’s listing would be the first IPO by […]

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Max George is reflecting on his recent hospitalization for issues with his heart.

“That first night I wrote a will, I thought I was going to die,” George, 36, said in a Saturday, January 11, interview with The Sun.

The Wanted frontman recalled waking up with freezing blue hands on December 11, 2024, while he was staying with his mom.

“I hadn’t been feeling myself for a few days, I started feeling a bit rough,” George said. “I couldn’t put my finger on it. I was quite lethargic and stuff, struggling to get out of bed. But I didn’t think it was anything serious.”

The Wanted’s Max George Is in the Hospital Due to Heart ‘Issues’

He continued, “Luckily I’d gone around to my mum’s to stay and I woke up and I remember looking at my hands and they were blue, and my arms were a grey colour and I was freezing cold. I struggled to even sit up in bed.”

When George’s mom saw him, she gasped and called a doctor. While George had a check-up and was sent home, his mom continued asking around for help.

“At this point I had a panicky feeling, but was also just absolutely knackered,” he said. “I couldn’t move my arms and the worst feeling was I felt like my throat was closing up. It felt like someone had their hands around my neck. Thank God I stayed at Mum’s house — she saved my life.”

Doctors informed George that something was “not right with the bottom part” of his heart and he would need a pacemaker.

Celebrity Health Scares Through the Years

“For some reason the rhythm is way off and the signal doesn’t seem to be getting from the top chamber of your heart to the bottom part, the bit that pumps the blood around your body,” he recalled the doctors telling him. “I was in complete shock.”

George called the experience “really scary” noting that it was “certainly not a place I thought I’d be in at 36.”

“I was awake all night, feeling a closing in my throat, I was really struggling to move and had really deep, slow breaths,” he said. “There was nothing that they could do to stop that. I could have lived maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months, but it could have been a few hours. We didn’t know.”

Two days after being admitted to the hospital, George’s heart rate dropped to 26 beats per minute.

“Friday, December 13, was the worst day that I had there,” he said. “My heart rate and my blood pressure dropped at the same time, and that was the biggest worry.”

Sean Hayes Recently Went to ER Twice in 1 Night for a ‘Heart Issue'

He continued, “The consultants weren’t there on hand to do the operation in an emergency. It was quite close that night, it really felt like my neck was closing up and that’s when the sort of panic really kicked in. I felt like I was dying. It was the worst, I felt emotional.”

George was taken by an ambulance to a hospital on December 15, where he had a CT scan. He received a pacemaker three days later, with his partner Maisie Smith by his side as he became aware of his surroundings.

“I had a proper heartbeat by then as well. My heart rate started just shooting up. So I remember feeling my feet going tingly, because I think obviously the blood started to properly pump around,” he said.

He continued, “I was like, ‘Holy s—, I feel alive again,’ like it was a really nice feeling. It’d been so hard being away from Maisie, but she climbed on the bed, obviously she lay on the other side of my chest to my op, and put her head on me. We just had a cuddle for a couple of hours while I talked about football and we treated it like normal. I could feel butterflies again next to her.”