'End of an era': Microsoft retires OG Internet Explorer after nearly ...

Some 27 years after the company first debuted the browser, tech giant Microsoft retired Internet Explorer on Wednesday.

Those who try to open the familiar blue and white “e,” application, are now directed to the company's more recent browser Microsoft Edge.

Last May, the company first announced the decision to retire the web browser for certain versions of Windows 10 on June 15, 2022.

Microsoft introduced Edge in 2015 and it has gradually phased out Internet Explorer.

“Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it is also able to address a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications," the company released in a statement.

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Internet Explorer had been the go-to browser on Windows PCs for years before rivals such as Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome snagged users away.

"Users will still see the Internet Explorer icon on their devices (such as on the taskbar or in the Start menu) but if they click to open Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge will open instead with easy access to IE mode," Microsoft Edge Enterprise General Manager Sean Lyndersay released in a statement to USA TODAY.

Eventually, Lyndersay said, IE will be disabled permanently as part of a future Windows Update, at which point the IE icons on their devices will be removed.

As part of the redirection process, he said, users will have their data like favorites, passwords, and settings imported from IE in an effort to "make the transition to Microsoft Edge both familiar and simple."

If a user wants to delete or manage their data after that, they can do so in Microsoft Edge from the Settings menu.

Bye-bye IE:Microsoft to say goodbye to IE, retiring its Internet Explorer web browser on Windows 10

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The browser retirement drew emotions across various social media platforms this week.

"End of an era," @CSureshVarma posted on Twitter Tuesday. "Our Dear old Friend from the Good old Days of Childhood... In the Loving Memory of Our First Window to the Internet... 1995 to 2022."

"It's time to tell your nan to stop using it now, like seriously," @Simulator_Radio posted.

In 2020, Microsoft announced it was dropping support for Internet Explorer on its Microsoft 365 apps and services. The change took effect Aug. 17, 2021.

As of December 2021, Microsoft's Edge browser had a United States market share of 5.92 percent, statista.com reported in January.

Contributing: Brett Molina. Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.

Internet Explorer is officially retired after 27 years - CNN

(CNN Business) After nearly 27 years, an iconic Microsoft product is finally being put to rest.

Microsoft MSFT Internet Explorer 11 is now incompatible withproducts, as announced by the company in a blog post Wednesday. The move comes over a year after Microsoft first announced its intention to phase out IE from products.

For the next several months, users who click the IE icon will be redirected to Microsoft Edge, the company's newer answer to web browsing, in "IE mode." IE mode allows users to access older, Internet Explorer-based websites and applications from Edge. Eventually, Microsoft plans on releasing a Windows Update that will remove all IE icons from devices.

"The web has evolved and so have browsers," Sean Lyndersay, General Manager of Microsoft Edge Enterprise, said in the blog post Wednesday. "Incremental improvements to Internet Explorer couldn't match the general improvements to the web at large, so we started fresh."

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Jennifer Korn
David Goldman
Cnn Business

Microsoft sends Internet Explorer to tech's scrapheap

Jessica Guynn

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — It's the end of the line for Internet Explorer.

The much maligned browser that battled Netscape to guide people around the World Wide Web was consigned to history this week by Microsoft, joining Palm Pilots, flip phones and Myspace as relics of a distant digital age.

A staple of the Internet for nearly two decades, the Explorer brand will be replaced by a flashier, speedier browser codenamed Project Spartan that will run on phones, tablets and personal computers but is expressly made for a new era of mobile devices.

Junking the Explorer brand is part of a new game plan at Microsoft. CEO Satya Nadella is determined to remake the aging technology giant as an innovator rather than a follower.

Even when it debuted, Explorer was a me-too product. Browser pioneer Netscape Navigator was the world's first commercial Web browser. It ignited the Internet boom and had already transformed how people roamed the Web. Even the Explorer name was derived from Navigator.

"Explorer was never a cool brand," Silicon Valley futurist Paul Saffo says. "It's like one step from AOL."

Nonetheless, bundled with its ubiquitous Windows operating system, Explorer crushed Netscape in the 1990s. The bundling triggered a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit and a settlement with Microsoft. Netscape sold itself to AOL in 1999. In 2007, AOL stopped supporting it.

Yet, despite Microsoft's considerable might, Explorer never managed to win the hearts and minds of consumers, who in recent years defected in droves to a new wave of sleeker browsers.

"In a way, the introduction of Explorer marked the beginning of the downfall of Windows and Microsoft. It was not an attempt to innovate. It was an attempt to stay relevant," Saffo says. "In that era, Microsoft was a fast follower: Let someone else pioneer and then come into the market with muscle and take over. But they didn't succeed with the Internet."

MICROSOFT'S WARNING SHOT

Never one to throw in the towel, Microsoft is now ready to rumble. Cue up the browser wars version 2.0. This time it's all about mobile devices that are populating people's lives and consuming their time and attention.

In retiring the Explorer brand, Microsoft is looking to get its mojo back with consumers, especially those frustrated office workers who loved to hate Microsoft's sluggish browser.

And, in distancing itself from a mainstay of desktop computers and laptops, Microsoft is also firing a warning shot that it plans to compete anew with Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari browsers.

"At one point Internet Explorer commanded north of 80% share of the browser market, but with the explosion in mobility, that market share has dwindled to 30%," said S&P Capital analyst Angelo Zino. "The platform isn't cutting it on mobile devices and that's where the focus is today."

Chris Capossela, Microsoft's head of marketing, says Microsoft is researching a new name for the Project Spartan browser, which will be released later this year with Windows 10.

Can Microsoft regain ground it has ceded?

It's possible, says Zino, "but it's going to be really difficult."

Yellowstone floods, Fed meeting: 5 things to know Wednesday

Editors

USA TODAY

Yellowstone to remain closed amid record flooding as landscape has 'dramatically changed'

Yellowstone National Park officials assessed damage Tuesday as the park remained closed amid dangerous floods, mudslides and rockslides that have eroded roads, ripped apart bridges and forced evacuations this week. The water started to slowly recede Tuesday, but the record-level floods left all five entrances to the park closed at least through Wednesday, and they could remain closed for as long as a week, said park Superintendent Cam Sholly. The park has seen multiple road and bridge failures and power outages, causing the evacuations of more than 10,000 visitors. In days, heavy rain and rapid snowmelt caused a flood that may forever alter the human footprint on the park's terrain and the communities around it. The historic floodwaters pushed a popular fishing river off course – possibly permanently – and may force roadways to be rebuilt in new places. "The landscape literally and figuratively has changed dramatically in the last 36 hours," said Bill Berg, a commissioner in nearby Park County.

Prefer to listen? Check out the 5 Things podcast:

Wall Street on edge as Fed mulls stiffer rate hike

Investors will be listening closely Wednesday to learn if the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates more sharply than previously expected. The Fed closes its two-day meeting Wednesday in the wake of a selloff in stocks triggered Friday when May's Consumer Price Index report revealed that inflation had not yet peaked. That news sparked fears that the Fed could raise interest rates by more than the widely expected 50 basis points (0.50%). Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said last month the Fed wasn't entertaining a 75-basis-point rate increase, but the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that one was now on the table. Interest rate hikes can have a domino effect on the economy, pushing up rates for credit cards, home equity lines of credit, adjustable-rate mortgages and other loans.

FDA meets to discuss vaccine for kids as young as 6 months

A federal advisory panel will meet Wednesday to discuss two COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months. According to a detailed review by Food and Drug Administration staff, trial data from both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna raised no new safety issues or concerns about the vaccines, which have been available for older children and adults. The panel will decide Wednesday whether to recommend Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccines for children as young as 6 months. Once authorized by the FDA and CDC, the Biden administration said it expects to have 5 million doses each of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines as soon as June 21 at pharmacies, pediatricians' offices, libraries, children's museums, health centers and other outlets.

'End of an era': Microsoft to shut down Internet Explorer

Some 27 years after Microsoft first debuted Internet Explorer, the tech giant will retire the browser Wednesday. Those who try to open the application will be directed to the company's more recent browser Microsoft Edge. Last May, the company first announced the decision to retire the web browser for certain versions of Windows 10 on June 15, 2022. Microsoft introduced Edge in 2015 and it has gradually phased out Internet Explorer. In a statement on its website, Microsoft notes that Microsoft Edge has "Internet Explorer mode ('IE mode') built in, so you can access those legacy Internet Explorer-based websites and applications straight from Microsoft Edge." Previously, Internet Explorer was the go-to browser on Windows PCs for years before rivals such as Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome snagged users away.

Stanley Cup Final gets underway in Denver

The Stanley Cup Final begins Wednesday, when the Tampa Bay Lightning travel to Ball Arena in Denver to take on the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 (8 p.m. ET, ABC).The Lightning, who are pursuing their third consecutive Stanley Cup, are coming off a 4-2 series win over the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals, punctuated by four victories in a row. The Avalanche will be playing for a title after sweeping the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Finals. One of the major obstacles standing in the way of Colorado's championship hopes is the Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy, who will likely be the toughest goalie the Avalanche have faced this postseason. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay will likely shift a significant amount of focus toward Colorado stars defenseman Cale Makar, a Norris Trophy finalist, and center Nathan MacKinnon.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Windows 10 to arrive July 29

Edward C. Baig

USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Windows 10 is coming July 29.

The new operating system is not only a big deal for Microsoft, but the entire PC industry whose momentum has long since been snatched by mobile. The software is coming to 190 countries. Windows is currently used by 1.5 billion people globally.

The company will encourage consumers to "reserve" their copy of the new operating system starting Monday to ensure they'll be able to install the software ahead of the folks who don't. The software is free during the first year if you're upgrading a new or existing Windows 7, or Windows 8.1 device; Microsoft hasn't specified pricing beyond that.

"I think Windows 10 represents us listening and understanding what real people need better than we have before ," says Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's corporate vice president for the operating systems group.

Owners of PCs with Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will receive pop-up notifications alerting them of Windows 10's impending arrival. Windows XP and older systems are not compatible with Windows 10.

Belfiore says that if you don't reserve Windows 10 in advance, "it'll depend how long the line is" before determining when you'll get the software. It could take up to three weeks.

"One of things that we can do for people who reserve is pre-download some of the bits to their PC so that those people aren't blocked on the Internet pipe trying to deliver lots and lots of Windows bits starting on (July 29)," Belfiore says.

In the past, upgrading a Windows computer to a newly-minted version of the operating system has been too often a messy experience.

Belfiore is confident that the path to Windows 10 "is going to be way, way, way better."

Over the past six to nine months, Microsoft has been updating the installed base of Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs — hundreds of millions of machines.

And Microsoft has essentially been rehearsing for the upgrade with the more than 4 million people testing builds of Windows 10 as part of the Windows Insider program.

"I think people are ready," says Jeff Barney, the executive in charge of Toshiba's PC business in the Americas. "They're sitting on hardware maybe three to four years plus (old). They're going to hear very good things about Windows 10 and how it is familiar and improved and incorporating things like voice, which they're used to in a smartphone. We think we'll get a good percentage of Windows 7 users to go out and buy new hardware."

Is Windows 10 worth getting, either on an old or new computer? The promise is that PCs will boot up and run apps faster, be more secure, and, in the case of laptops, boast longer battery life.

On its 20th anniversary, the Start menu for launching apps has been dramatically improved. It gains "live tiles" and is fully customizable, yet it should feel more familiar.

Windows 10 also unveils a snappy new Edge browser that pushes Internet Explorer into retirement. And Microsoft's virtual voice assistant Cortana is at your beck and call.

On newer hardware you'll also be able to exploit a Continuum feature to seamlessly transform from a mouse/keyboard-driven PC to a touch-oriented tablet or vice versa. On some systems, you'll be able to log in with your face, iris or fingerprint.

There's also a fresh version of Office, improved support for gamers and new built-in Photos, Maps, Music and other apps. Universal apps are meant to run across the entire Windows 10 ecosystem: PCs, tablets, phones, Xbox One.

Maybe the biggest thing is Windows 10 should feel a lot less jarring and radical than Windows 8 did when it first appeared, a major reason why many consumers and businesses stuck with Windows 7.

"We know we need a more gentle entry curve," Belfiore says.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow @edbaig on Twitter

The Short List: Rep. Schock resigns; NFL wake-up call; another ...

Compiled by Alia E. Dastagir

USA TODAY

Rep. Schock is leaving his 'Downton'-inspired office amid scandal

Pardon the pun, but really, we're not totally Schocked. For weeks, there have been reports that Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., made some questionable decisions about spending — on everything from airplane flights to his Downton Abbey-inspired office decor. After weeks of embarrassing revelation after embarrassing revelation, Schock said today he's resigning. (Some of those revelations, if you missed them: The Washington Post reported on his bold Downton decor in February; USA TODAY then raised questions about a prior remodel and his use of private aircraft for official travel. Politico, which first reported his resignation today, wrote on lavish campaign expenses and questionable reimbursements. The Chicago Sun-Times tracked improper payments for campaign events, including a Bears game). The next obvious question: Does this mean he's off the list of most eligible bachelors in politics?

What else in #TheShortList:

• Rookie NFL player retires over safety issues

• Geomagnetic storm puts on a show

• Another fraternity in trouble

• Microsoft tries to beat Apple at its own game

A promising rookie retires out of concern for head injuries. Is this a wake-up call for the NFL?

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland is 24 and walking away from his dream job. After finishing an outstanding rookie season, Borland said he's retiring because he decided the risks of playing football outweigh the benefits. Concerned about the long-term effects of potential concussions and head injuries, Borland said, "I just honestly want to do what's best for my health." The surprising move could be a tipping point for the NFL as it deals with the long-term impact of player health in a violent sport. The league is still negotiating the settlement of a lawsuit worth hundreds of millions of dollars brought by thousands of former players over concussion injuries. USA TODAY's Mark Whicker writes that "an enlightened league would wonder if it should start listening to its players more and its broadcast 'partners' less." But USA TODAY's Chris Chase thinks Borland will be the exception, not the rule. "As long as football exists," he writes, "there will always be people willing to play. It's a monumental moment for Borland, but barely a blip for a league that has 1,000 Chris Borlands who would love a chance to don an NFL jersey."

A severe solar storm is hitting the Earth right now

A solar storm so severe it could light up skies as far south as the Mid-Atlantic states tonight already put on quite a show early this morning. The geomagnetic storm is producing gorgeous auroras over Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana and other northern-tier states. It's the strongest storm so far in this solar cycle, which occurs about every 11 years, Spaceweather.com says. The electric power grid, and the power to homes and businesses, can be disrupted by solar storms like this, NOAA said, though there have been no reports yet today. This storm ranks as a G4 on the five-point scale. Share your pictures with us here or tweet @USATODAYWeather.

Short on time? Listen to today's top stories in the audio player below:

Penn State suspends frat for secret Facebook pages of naked women

Another scandal for another fraternity. Last week, it was Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the University of Oklahoma, which was booted off campus for a racist chant. This week, a Penn State frat has been suspended as police investigate allegations members used secret Facebook pages to post nude photos of sleeping, passed-out women. A former member of the university's chapter of Kappa Delta Rho tipped off the police, according to the State College Police Department's affidavit of probable cause. According to the affidavit, the pages included evidence of hazing, photos of unsuspecting women who were "passed out and nude or in other sexual or embarrassing positions" and drug sales that included marijuana, edibles, concentrates, ADD medication and some cocaine. Joseph Rosenberg, the fraternity's national executive director, said the organization will cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies. Once the investigation is complete, it will make a decision on the future of its Penn State chapter.

Microsoft outsmarts Apple Watch

It's March. The Apple Watch doesn't arrive until April. Microsoft saw an opportunity, so now it's ramping up production and distribution of its Band smartwatch, capitalizing on the popularity of the device before Apple has shipped a single watch. You can buy the Microsoft Band, a $200 fitness wearable that also functions as a streamlined smartwatch, at Best Buy, Amazon.com and Target. In other Microsoft news, the company officially announced today the end of Internet Explorer. The browser is being scrapped as Microsoft places its bets on its new and speedier flagship browser code-named Project Spartan. Are those angels we hear singing?

Stories you're clicking on today:

Televangelist asks his congregation for $65M to buy a jet

Prince Harry to leave military service

'Violent' passenger forces flight to return to Dulles

Ashley Judd slams Twitter users for misinterpreting kiss with Dick Vitale

'Dancing with the Stars' starts with surprise

Extra Bites

Don't worry, he's not actually throwing a sheep. He's just playing a traditional game of Buzkashi in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Riders score points by throwing a stuffed sheepskin into a well. More photos from today in our Day in Pictures gallery.

Have you seen it? Great Danes predict March Madness wins.

Did AP mistake accused murderer Robert Durst for Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst? Yup.

2,000 snow geese fell out of the sky after dropping dead in Idaho. The cause of death was likely avian cholera.

For a daily bit of fluff on your phone, add DISTRACTME on the YO app. We promise you'll have fun.

What else is on our reading list:

Latest on the Israeli election

The 10 hottest teams entering the NCAA tournament

Uber gives outside vendors ability to request rides

Want The Short List in your inbox each day? Sign up here.

This is a compilation of stories from across USA TODAY.

Contributing: Paul Singer, Catalina Camia, Doyle Rice, Jessica Guynn, Matt Krantz, Cara Richardson, Emily Brown, USA TODAY; Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz, Mark Whicker, Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports; Lauren Blum, Penn State University; Associated Press

Windows 7 still a safe alternative to Windows 8

Rob Pegoraro

Special for USA TODAY

Q. My Windows 7 desktop died; is it wise to buy a new model with Win 7 if I can find one? I'd rather not have to relearn software after switching to Windows 8.

A. Some two and a half years after Windows 8's arrival, Microsoft's earlier desktop operating system remains easy to find on new computers if you're flexible in your hardware choices.

HP's site, for example, lists eight desktop configurations available with Windows 7 vs. 35 with Windows 8; among laptops, 68 versions come with Win 8 against 31 with its predecessor. Those numbers obscure how the top computer vendor in the USA offers at least one model in most of its product lines — Envy, Pavilion, EliteBook and so on — with either Microsoft release.

At Dell, ranked second in market-research firm IDC's latest data, a similar pattern prevails with laptops. Although you have far more choices with Windows 8 than 7 — 101 choices on the menu compared with 29 — choosing the older software still gives you choices among Dell's major product lines.

With Dell desktops, opting for Windows 7 will exclude that manufacturer's all-in-one designs.

At Lenovo, fourth in IDC's ranking after Apple, specifying Windows 7 on a laptop also requires compromises. Not only does its site list only 19 laptops with Win 7 vs. 100 with Win 8, you have to forgo more advanced models such as its Yoga and Flex series.

This selection does not represent a huge shift from what I found in late 2012, not long after Windows 8's debut.

Microsoft's support of Windows 7 has changed since then, but it's not as big of a deal as it might seem. Although that 2009-vintage operating system exited "mainstream support" Jan. 13, all that means in practice is that Microsoft's updates to Windows 7 will consist only of security fixes, not new features. Those security patches will keep coming until Jan. 14, 2020, the scheduled end of "extended support" for Win 7.

That leaves potential Windows 7 shoppers few reasons to worry, Directions on Microsoft analyst Wes Miller wrote in an email.

"They can buy a Windows 7 Professional PC today and receive security fixes for almost four and a half years," he said. "I also don't expect vendors to drop support for Windows 7 anytime soon — it's extremely popular with consumers and business."

Microsoft's Internet Explorer will get left behind — the Redmond, Wash., firm is retiring that browser in favor of a new app called Microsoft Edge that will ship with the upcoming Windows 10. Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox can easily take IE's place. Since both still support Windows XP, you can expect Windows 7 to remain welcome at both browsers for years to come.

Don't rule out upgrading to Windows 10 from 7 when that ships this year. It should look much more like Windows as you've known it, including a streamlined version of the traditional Start menu. It will be a free upgrade from Win 7 as well as Win 8.

Tip: 'Bubbles' can speed Bing image searches on your phone

Last month, Microsoft made the image-search function of its Bing site a little more interesting on phone browsers. That search engine presents its suggestions on how to focus a query not as plain text links but as easy-to-tap "bubbles" that feature thumbnail previews of what results await.

For example, a search for "Boeing 787" yielded bubble suggestions for "Cockpit," "Interior," "Engines" and so on that each spotlighted the first image to be shown under each category.

This bubble concept lets you refine your own search terms. Each word in the search box appears in a bubble of a different color you can tap to see related search terms, or tap the "x" at its right to remove that word from your search.

Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington. To submit a tech question, email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/robpegoraro.

Can the cease-fire in Gaza hold? Plus, is remote work here to stay ...

Taylor Wilson

USA TODAY

On today's episode of 5 Things: White House correspondent Courtney Subramanian looks at what happens next in Gaza. Plus, journalists cry foul after the Trump Justice Department secretly collected phone records, we look at how the return to the office might go, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot faces controversy after she announced she will only grant one-on-one interviews to journalists of color and the Asian American community bands together for a TV special.

Hit play on the podcast player above and read along with the transcript below.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and this is Five Things you need to know, Friday the 21st of May, 2021. Today a ceasefire to violence in Israel and Gaza, plus the future of work from home and more.

Taylor Wilson:

Here are some of the top headlines:

A video has gone viral of an 11-year-old Florida girl who fought off a would-be kidnapper at her bus stop this week. According to her mom Alyssa Bonel, also put slime on the attacker, and blue dye from the slime was part of the evidence that led police to 30-year-old Jarred Paulstanga, who was charged in the case this week. When law enforcement found the suspect, he had blue dye on his arms. The world's largest iceberg has broken off from Antarctica according to the European Space Agency. The block of ice is more than three times larger than Los Angeles. It's natural for icebergs to break off from the edge of glaciers, and will not lead to a rise in sea levels, because this iceberg was already part of a floating ice shelf. But scientists worry the rate it's happening might not be natural and could be influenced by humans. And it'll soon be time to say goodbye to Internet Explorer. Microsoft will retire the web browser from some versions of Windows 10 beginning in June of next year. It will also no longer provide support for the browser.

Taylor Wilson:

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire. The move brokered by Egyptian negotiators, brings an end to 11 days of deadly violence. Israel killed at least 230 Palestinians, including 65 children. Hamas militants killed 12 people in Israel, including two children. Fighting broke out on May 10th, when Hamas militants fired long range rockets at Jerusalem in response to aggressive Israeli police tactics at Al Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan, and the threatened removal of dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem. Hamas and other militant groups fired some 4,000 rockets into Israel during recent fighting, and Israel fired hundreds of air strikes mostly on Gaza. Israel said it targeted the Hamas military structure but many of the attacks killed innocent children and others inside private family homes.

The attacks also damaged at least 18 hospitals in Gaza, and the territories only COVID-19 testing facility, as the virus continues to spread in the area. Medical supplies, fuel, water, and other resources are running dangerously low in the territory, that's already been living with a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. And schools have also been destroyed. Celebrations marking the ceasefire rang out in Gaza City early Friday.

Taylor Wilson:

President Joe Biden had hesitated to nudge Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, toward a ceasefire until this week, when he pushed for de-escalation. Biden called the cease-fire Thursday, an opportunity.

Joe Biden:

The United States fully supports Israel's right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks from Hamas, and other Gaza-based terrorist groups that have taken the lives of innocent civilians in Israel. These hostilities have resulted in the tragic deaths of so many civilians, including children, and I send my sincere condolences to all the families, Israeli and Palestinian, who have lost loved ones, and my hope for a full recovery for the wounded. The United States is committed to working with the United Nations, and we remain committed to working with the United Nations and other international stakeholders to provide rapid humanitarian assistance, and to marshal international support for the people of Gaza and the Gazan reconstruction efforts.

Joe Biden:

We will do this in full partnership of the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, the authority, in a manner that does not permit Hamas to simply restock its military arsenal. I believe the Palestinians and Israelis, equally deserve to live safely and securely, and to enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and democracy. My administration will continue our quiet relentless diplomacy toward that end. I believe we have a genuine opportunity to make progress, and I've committed to working for it. I want to thank you all, and may God bless you all and pray that this continues.

Taylor Wilson:

White House correspondent Courtney Subramanian has more on the ceasefire, and the Biden administration's role in the conflict going forward.

Courtney Subramanian:

The whole region is basically a tinderbox at this point. Hostilities remain very high between Israel and Hamas. Even as the ceasefire was confirmed, Israel's defense forces sent sirens alerting Israel residents of Hamas rocket fire, were sounding in the south of the country. So I think it's important to keep in mind, this is considered the deadliest clashes since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, and it comes at a point when the Palestinian authorities standing has been severely weakened. Some experts I spoke to see this as a power vacuum and Hamas trying to sort of seize this as a power grab. It's also not limited to Gaza, and I think that's an important point to remember here, the violence is really multidimensional.

Courtney Subramanian:

We've seen communal violence unfold within Israel, which really raised alarm within the Arab world. So there's a lot of complexity here on just how turbulent the situation is, and how hostile the situation is. So I would describe these cease-fires as very fragile at this point.

Courtney Subramanian:

President Biden has gone out of his way to avoid publicly commenting too much on the issue, despite facing a lot of pressure from Democrats to speak out on the matter, as the death toll continued to rise this week. Earlier this week we saw that sort of boil to the surface, when he went to Michigan and Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who is a Palestinian American, confronted him on the tarmac and urged him to speak out against the Israeli air strikes. So there's been a lot of pressure on him to step into the Middle East conflict, the President is known for his support for Israel, but is a skeptic of Netanyahu. And he's gone out of his way to get tangled up in the Middle East conflict, especially as he looks to refocus his foreign policy on combating China.

Courtney Subramanian:

So there was a little bit of an element that time was running out and Israel needed to wind down. I spoke to sources earlier this week who said they were hopeful that this was going to be the case, and they were looking sort of to the end of the week as the possibility of when they could do this. As for what he said, he did not veer from the U.S. line that, the United States supports Israel and its right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other militants in the Gaza Strip. But he did offer condolences for Palestinian lives lost, and vowed to send humanitarian aid to the region, saying he would work with the Palestinian authority and not Hamas.

Courtney Subramanian:

The question I have is, it's very unclear on how he plans to get that aid into Gaza, which remains under control of Hamas and not the Palestinian authority. He also said he sees this as a genuine opportunity to build lasting peace between Israelis and the Palestinians, and that his administration would continue what they've described as quiet relentless diplomacy toward that goal. But the latest spate of violence really dims any hope of peace talks in the near future. From my own reporting, I've spoken to sources who really emphasize that there is a lot of rebuilding here to do. The Trump Administration really issued full-throated support of Israel, and severed all diplomatic channels with the Palestinians, and the Biden administration has a lot of rebuilding there to do with the Palestinian Authority, and of course has to walk this diplomatic tightrope and strike the right balance, while also continuing to pursue Biden's agenda of combating China.

So this idea that they're going to tackle peace talks, is less clear of how that's going to take shape, and I think there are still a lot of questions on the table of what the path forward looks like.

Taylor Wilson:

For all the latest from Gaza and Israel, stay with the world section on usatoday.com.

Taylor Wilson:

The Justice Department under former President Donald Trump secretly obtained 2017 phone and email records for a CNN reporter. CNN said Thursday that Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr was informed last week that prosecutors had obtained two months of the records. It's the latest example of the administration's attempt to use journalist communications to pursue government leak investigations. Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that the Justice Department obtained 2017 phone records for three of its journalists, who covered the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election.

Taylor Wilson:

CNN said that Justice did not say why it went after Barbara Starr's communications, though the network said the correspondent was involved in reporting on North Korea and stories involving Syria and Afghanistan. CNN President Jeff Zucker condemned the Justice's actions. He added that the organization wants an immediate meeting with the Justice Department for an explanation. Justice spokesperson Anthony Coley said that Attorney General Merrick Garland, who was appointed under President Joe Biden, is strongly committed to a free and independent press. But those who fight for press freedoms are concerned. Bruce Brown, Executive Director of the Reporter's Committee For Freedom Of The Press, said, "That a journalist from another news organization had communications records seized by the Trump Justice Department, suggests that the last administration's efforts to intrude into reporter's source relationships and chill news gathering, is more sweeping than we originally thought."

Taylor Wilson:

Almost half the country is vaccinated. The CDC says vaccinated people can largely ditch their masks, and case and death numbers continue to fall. The COVID-19 pandemic is slowing down in the United States, so what does that mean for the future of work? Many Americans went from office commutes to working from home over the past 15 months, now companies are trying to decide how and when to bring workers back to the office, if at all. Senior video editor, Robert Lindemann, has more in this clip from Just The Faqs.

Robert Lindemann:

In the 1980s less than 1% of Americans primarily worked from home. In 2017, 3% did. Today that number is closer to 62%, and by many predictions, it's here to stay. Studies show people in some ways are actually working better at home. In a recent survey of about 3,000 global workers, respondents said that they were distracted 78 minutes a day at the office, but just 43 minutes at home. Working from home is cheaper too. Full-time remote workers typically save around $4,000 a year on everything from commuting, to lunch, to dry cleaning. Businesses can save an estimated $11,000 a year per employee. That comes from savings in areas such as real estate, electricity and productivity. But there's a big cost, loneliness, which has shown links to poor job performance.

Robert Lindemann:

Working from home dates as far back as the Medieval times, when workers set up craft and trade shops in their homes. It wasn't until the industrial revolution of the late 1700s, that workers moved into factories. Eventually, the first commercial workspaces came to be thanks to the advent of items like the telephone, telegraph, electricity and public transportation. Today's work-from-home models bring up new questions like, does the talent pool need to be local, and is business travel necessary anymore?

Taylor Wilson:

For more Just The Faqs videos, head to USA Today's YouTube channel, or you can search Just The Faqs on usatoday.com.

Taylor Wilson:

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot announced this week that she will only grant one-on-one interviews to journalists of color. Lightfoot, who is Black, tweeted on Wednesday, "I ran to break up the status quo that was failing so many. That isn't just in City Hall. It's a shame that in 2021 the City Hall Press Corp is overwhelmingly white in a city where more than half of the city identifies as Black, Latino, AAPI, or Native American." The move is not completely unprecedented, but it's facing strong backlash from the city's press corp and members of the media nationwide. Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt is Latino and had a recent interview request granted. But Pratt said he asked the Mayor's Office to lift its condition on others, and they said no, leading to the Tribune canceling the interview.

Taylor Wilson:

Pratt tweeted, "Politicians don't get to choose who covers them." But others, including The Tribe, a Chicago based digital Black-oriented media platform, found anger over the Mayor's decision offensive. Tribe tweeted Wednesday, "With this outrage, you all are implying that Black and brown journalists aren't capable of asking the hard questions." Lightfoot's time in office since taking over in 2019, has been marked by racial inequality issues, including city violence, a teacher strike, the pandemic and policing.

Taylor Wilson:

In her letter announcing the press decision, Lightfoot recalled being on the campaign trail and being stuck by what she called overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, and specifically the City Hall Press Corp. Journalism has long struggled with a lack of racial diversity. More than 75% of newsroom employees are white, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center analysis. To counter that, some public officials have been more intentional about giving interviews to journalists of color. That includes Vice President Kamala Harris, who gave her first sit-down interview to the 19th, an outlet aimed at elevating women's voices, including those of color.

Taylor Wilson:

The Asian American community is banding together for a TV special Friday night. The special aims to show unity with ongoing violence and racism against people of Asian descent around the country, and it comes during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Actor Ken Jeong will host, and journalist Lisa Ling along with actor Daniel Dae Kim will make appearances. Plus performers of Asian descent, including R&B Singer Jhene Aiko, and Rapper Saweetie will take the stage. See Us Unite For Change, the Asian American foundation in service of the AAPI community, airs at 8:00 PM Eastern and Pacific on several channels, that includes Comedy Central and Facebook Watch.

Taylor Wilson:

And, you can find Five Things wherever you get your podcasts, including on Apple. There you can drop us five stars if you have a second. Thanks as always to Shannon Green and Claire Thornton for their work on the show. Five Things is part of the USA TODAY Network.

Amazon files its appeal of historic union vote at New York City ...

(CNN Business) One week after Amazon workers at a New York City warehouse made history by voting to form a union, the tech giant is calling for a do-over election in filing Friday that lays out 25 objections that form the basis of its appeal.

Amazon AMZN In its filing to the National Labor Relations Board,alleges how the independent federal agency's regional office which oversaw the election at its Staten Island facility, known as JFK8, "unfairly and inappropriately facilitated the [Amazon Labor Union's] victory."

It claims the agency used an "artificially reduced number" of employees in the voting unit to calculate whether ALU had garnered enough support to even hold an election. It also claims the agency delayed investigating what it calls "frivolous" unfair labor practice charges that it says were "exploited" by the union. And it alleges that the agency failed to properly staff the polls during the election, which ultimately "produced chaos and hours-long lines to vote on the first polling day, discouraging other employees from voting."

Amazon also outlines alleged misconduct on the part of ALU, the grassroots labor organization started by current and former employees of the facility. Among its claims about the ALU, it says the union unlawfully intimidated employees and "threatened violence against its detractors."

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement Friday: "Based on the evidence we've seen so far, as set out in our objections, we believe that the actions of the NLRB and the ALU improperly suppressed and influenced the vote, and we think the election should be conducted again so that a fair and broadly representative vote can be had."

3G networks are shutting down soon. A scramble to get users to ...

(CNN Business) Aaron Hommell bought his 3G iPhone 5 in 2014 and kept it for more than seven years, holding onto it even after the screen cracked and a long list of faster models hit the market. Then a year ago, AT&T began sending him emails that the company would be shutting down its 3G network and moving its subscribers to its higher-speed 4G and 5G networks.

"I kept putting off [upgrading] since it was not my primary phone," said Hommell, who used the iPhone as a work device for his Gulfport, Mississippi, law firm. "Eventually, a letter came saying they would be sending me a phone in a few weeks. I just waited and boom, there it is on my doorstep."

Hommell, who was sent a new iPhone XR fromin October, is among the small segment of 3G holdouts who've received a free 4G phone from AT&T, which owns CNN's parent company, ahead of its 3G network shutting down later this month.

"For nearly two years, we have been communicating with consumers via direct mail, emails and text messages and we will continue to do so as we help them navigate this transition," AT&T told CNN Business in a statement. "This includes providing free replacement phones to a substantial majority of customers." AT&T said the replacement devices tend to be 4G versions of smartphones that run on the same operating system the users had previously been using.

The 3G network launched in 2002 and became the driving force behind the early App Store boom around the end of that decade that followed the release of the first iPhone. Then the wireless companies moved on to 4G and more recently 5G networks. Now the three major carriers are moving to shutter 3G technology, with AT&T taking the step on February 22,doing so in the third quarter, andby the end of the year. As the technology officially becomes obsolete, a scramble is underway to help consumers avoid a disruption.

The shift will impact people still using 3G Kindles, 3G flip phones, the iPhone 5 and older models, various Android phones and some wearable devices. It will also affect home alarm systems and medical devices such as fall detectors. Some in-car crash notification and roadside assistance systems like OnStar will also need to be updated or replaced.

General Motors, for example, which owns OnStar, started pushing over-the-air updates in October to vehicles released as far back as 2015, including models from Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac, that may be impacted by the transition. Some alarm companies are also urging customers to schedule appointments for technicians to fully replace their systems.

Even with these efforts, there's a chance some customers (and devices) get left behind.

"There is always a risk of people losing service or devices being disconnected from the network," said Dimitris Mavrakis, senior director at market research firm ABI Research. "Mobile operators make significant attempts to minimize this, but there will always be devices that are left out."

Who's at risk of losing service?

Only a small portion of wireless customers are still using 3G networks. Verizon said in a blog post that 99% of its customers have already upgraded to 4G LTE or 5G, and AT&T said less than 1% of its mobile data traffic runs on 3G networks. T-Mobile did not respond to a request for comment about its 3G userbase.

According to Roger Entner, analyst and founder of Recon Analytics, these combined estimates equate to about 3 million people. He suspects the holdouts "almost never use [their 3G device] and hence don't get caught by the alerts when they make or receive a call."

Those using a 3G phone have likely gotten texts, emails and physical mail from their wireless carriers over the past year urging them to upgrade. (If you're not sure which network your phone is on, open Settings, tap Network and Internet, and then select Mobile Network on Android devices. On iOS, choose Settings, Cellular and then pick Cellular Data Options.)

Determining whether other household devices run on 3G may be a bit more complicated, however.

"These connected devices are at a greater risk of being disconnected from the network but individual vendors do spend time to alert their users that their 3G systems will be decommissioned shortly," Mavrakis said.

Some companies, such as My Alarm Center, a home security systems business, are warning customers certain systems will need to be replaced by a technician to avoid potential disruptions. "Even if your alarm appears to function, it will no longer communicate with our central service station to notify us that emergency services are needed," the company states on its website.

For mobile devices, however, there are some workarounds for people who don't want to get rid of their 3G devices all together. In theory, it will be possible to access a web browser via Wi-Fi or make calls over wireless on a 3G phone if the user has an app enabling voice-over-internet protocol, such as Facebook Messenger. Similarly, people with a 3G e-reader will still be able to download new books on the device via Wi-Fi.

Mobile carriers are mostly not upcharging their customers to switch from 3G to 4G plans, likely to keep them from wandering off their data plans.

AT&T said "an extremely small segment" might have to change to a plan that results in a change in their rate. Sprint said anyone with a 3G device will be able to pay the same or less for 4G or 5G service from T-Mobile and can upgrade to a new device, including some 5G phones, at no cost. Verizon said customers are "strongly encouraged" to upgrade now and that it is "offering aggressive promotions." (Verizon hasn't said if it will be mailing users replacement devices as part of a last-ditch effort before its shutoff date.)

Will 4G be the next to go?

This is not the first time a network has been phased out nor will it be the last. The effort to shut down 3G is primarily to re-use the spectrum for 4G and 5G, which are newer standards, better technologies and more efficient than 3G. The same thing happened with 2G, which AT&T and Verizon shut down around the end of 2017; T-Mobile plans to shut its 2G network in December.

Last month, AT&T and Verizon turned on C-band 5G networks , an important set of higher radio frequencies that will supercharge the internet. The change will allow users to, for example, stream a Netflix movie in 4K resolution or download a movie in seconds. (Verizon said its C-band speeds reach nearly 1 gigabyte per second, about 10 times as fast as 4G LTE.

As 5G gains traction, and possibly 6G after that, 4G may be the next to get phased out.

Uber UBER Netflix NFLX Phones have arguably maxed out what's possible with 4G at this point. The technology paved the way for on-demand apps such as, mobile video consumption onand FaceTime, real-time rerouting via Google Maps, and social sharing on Instagram and Snapchat. But 5G could offer a doorway into what's next — such as powering autonomous vehicles or enabling robotic surgeries — thanks to the ability to handle an uptick in traffic and bandwidth with no lag times.

As for whether another new smartphone might one day magically appear on his doorstep to replace the 4G iPhone he just received, Hommell said, "We can all hope for that."


Kim Kardashian accused of damaging historic Marilyn Monroe dress ...

Kim Kardashian appears to have permanently damaged a historic Marilyn Monroe dress after wearing it to the 2022 Met Gala, an expert closely familiar with the dress tells USA TODAY.

ChadMichael Morrisette, a visual artist who curates museum and costume exhibits, says he observed irreparable damage to the dress when he saw it on display Sunday at Ripley's Believe It or Not! on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Morrissette says he previously handled the dress in 2016 when he displayed it for Julien’s Auctions, where Ripley's purchased it for $4.8 million.

As a result of Kardashian wearing the dress up the Met Gala steps, Morrisette says the garment now has a damaged zipper, shredded fabric by its hooks, stress on its shoulder straps and is missing beads and sequins.

Morrisette took photos of the dress Sunday, which he shared with Monroe memorabilia collector Scott Fortner, who reposted them on Instagram to compare how the dress looked before Kardashian wore it.

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Kardashian and Ripley's for comment.

The skin-tight, sparkling nude dress became part of American history after Monroe wore it while singing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

"Marilyn wore it one night, and it was fit to her body. It was like skin on her body," says Morrisette.

Update:Kim Kardashian left historic Marilyn Monroe dress in 'same condition it started in,' Ripley's says

Sixty years later, Kardashian worked with Ripley's to wear it to the Met Gala. According to Vogue, she only wore the dress for a matter of minutes before changing into a replica so as not to damage the original.

“I’m extremely respectful to the dress and what it means to American history. I would never want to sit in it or eat in it or have any risk of any damage to it, and I won’t be wearing the kind of body makeup I usually do,” Kardashian told Vogue at the time. “Everything had to be specifically timed, and I had to practice walking up the stairs.”

In May, Ripley's shared on Instagram that "great care was taken to preserve this piece of pop culture history," adding the "garment's condition was top priority."

Kim Kardashian stunned in Marilyn Monroe's dress at the Met Gala. But at what cost?

But Morrisette says it's clear to any textile expert the dress should not have been worn at all.

"When you're dealing with 60-year-old material and fabric and thread and sequins... everything you do damages it. Every time you display it damages it," he says. "When someone has the audacity to put it on and walk in it up the stairs, you're so ignorant to the history of that piece of fabric that it makes me so angry."

A devoted fan of Monroe who has displayed multiple of her iconic dresses, Morrisette says he became emotional upon seeing the "Happy Birthday" dress in its current state.

"My heart is broken. I literally left Ripley's trying not to cry at what I saw," he says. "I can't believe Marilyn's dress is destroyed."

"This is the dress we have to look at now for the rest of our history," he adds. "You literally ruined the most expensive dress in the world, Kim."

Marilyn Monroe dresses, Captain America shield, Thor's hammer, more memorabilia going to auction

Kim Kardashian did not damage Marilyn Monroe dress, Ripley's says

After lending Kim Kardashian a dress from Marilyn Monroe for this year’s Met Gala, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is responding to claims that the reality TV star allegedly damaged the iconic garment.

The entertainment franchise, known for its archive of pop culture memorabilia, said in a press release Thursday that Kardashian “did not, in any way, damage the garment in the short amount of time it was worn at the Met Gala.”

“From the bottom of the Met steps, where Kim got into the dress, to the top where it was returned, the dress was in the same condition it started in,” said Amanda Joiner, Ripley’s VP of Publishing and Online Marketing. Joiner was “continuously with the dress the day of the Gala and during transport from Orlando to New York.”

The skin-tight, sparkling nude dress became a part of American history after Monroe wore it while singing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

'Literally ruined':Kim Kardashian accused of damaging historic Marilyn Monroe dress at Met Gala

Allegations that Kardashian "literally ruined" the dress surfaced when ChadMichael Morrisette, a visual artist who curates museum and costume exhibits, said he observed irreparable damage to the dress firsthand.

"This is the dress we have to look at now for the rest of our history," Morrisette told USA TODAY Wednesday after he saw it on display Sunday at Ripley's Believe It or Not! on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Morrisette said he previously handled the dress in 2016 when he displayed it for Julien’s Auctions, where Ripley's purchased it for $4.8 million.

Clapping back:Kim Kardashian defends Met Gala weight loss after critics talk her 'concerning' technique

Morrisette took photos of the dress Sunday, which he shared with Monroe memorabilia collector Scott Fortner, who reposted them on Instagram to compare how the dress looked before Kardashian wore it.

"When you're dealing with 60-year-old material and fabric and thread and sequins... everything you do damages it. Every time you display it damages it," Morrisette said. "When someone has the audacity to put it on and walk in it up the stairs, you're so ignorant to the history of that piece of fabric that it makes me so angry."

Morrisette's photos, alongside pre-Met Gala images of the dress, lit up social media amid criticism at the time of the gala that Kardashian should not have been allowed to don the delicate and historically notable dress. It was made of a flammable fabric that is no longer on the market.

Ripley’s said while it is not “the first owner of this dress,” a 2017 report on the condition of Monroe’s dress indicated the garment already had damage, including “pulled and worn” seams and “puckering at the back by the hooks and eyes.”

The dress adorned with more than 2,500 crystals was custom made for Monroe. It was based on a sketch by the famed designer Bob Mackie, working for the costumer Jean Louis at the time.

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According to Vogue, Kardashian only wore the dress for a matter of minutes before changing into a replica so as not to damage the original.

“I’m extremely respectful to the dress and what it means to American history. I would never want to sit in it or eat in it or have any risk of any damage to it, and I won’t be wearing the kind of body makeup I usually do,” Kardashian told Vogue at the time. “Everything had to be specifically timed, and I had to practice walking up the stairs.”

Ripley’s said Thursday it will continue to display the dress in its current state at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Hollywood through the fall.

“Our mission is to both entertain and educate visitors and fans, and sparking conversations like the discourse around Marilyn Monroe’s dress does just that,” the release states. “No matter which side of the debate you are on, the historical importance of the dress has not been negated, but rather highlighted. (An) entirely new group of young people have now been introduced to the legacy of Marilyn Monroe.”

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Met Gala 2022 best dressed:See Kim Kardashian as Marilyn Monroe, Blake Lively's NYC nod, more stars

Contributing: Charles Trepany, USA TODAY; Leanne Italie, The Associated Press

'Blonde': Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in first movie teaser

Natural brunette Ana de Armas is stepping into the shoes of one of Hollywood's most infamous blondes: Marilyn Monroe.

On Thursday, Netflix released the first photos and a teaser of the 34-year-old actress as Monroe in the upcoming movie "Blonde."

The teaser begins with an upset Monroe crying in a dressing room before she gathers herself and flashes the movie star's iconic smile.

It also shows de Armas recreating the late actress's pose holding down her white dress in the famous subway scene in 1955's "The Seven Year Itch," Monroe getting crowded by paparazzi and other recognizable moments from her career.

'Literally ruined':Kim Kardashian accused of damaging historic Marilyn Monroe dress at Met Gala

"Blonde," an NC-17 film coming to Netflix on Sept. 23, is based on Joyce Carol Oates' bestselling novel.

Netflix writes in the synopsis: "Blonde boldly reimagines the complicated life of icon Marilyn Monroe. Blurring the lines of fact and fiction, the film artfully explores the tension between her public and private life."

The film will also explore Monroe's life before fame as Norma Jeane, her rise to becoming one of Hollywood's biggest stars and romantic relationships along the way.

In an interview with Netflix Queue on Wednesday, de Armas said director Andrew Dominik planned to tell Monroe's story "through her lens."

Kim Kardashian stunned:in Marilyn Monroe's dress at the Met Gala. But at what cost?

"He wanted the world to experience what it actually felt like to not only be Marilyn, but also Norma Jeane," she explained. "I found that to be the most daring, unapologetic, and feminist take on her story that I had ever seen.”

In preparation, the actress says she "read Joyce’s novel, studied hundreds of photographs, videos, audio recordings, films — anything I could get my hands on."

Andy Warhol portrait goes for auction:Iconic Marilyn Monroe portrait sold for $195 million

"Every scene is inspired by an existing photograph. We’d pore over every detail in the photo and debate what was happening in it," de Armas shared. "The first question was always, ‘What was Norma Jeane feeling here?’ We wanted to tell the human side of her story. Fame is what made Marilyn the most visible person in the world, but it also made Norma the most invisible."

Dominik added that because of Monroe's trauma, she created a "split between a public self and a private self" which made matters worse when she was in the public eye.

"The film’s very much concerned with the relationship with herself and with this other persona, Marilyn, which is both her armor and the thing that is threatening to consume her," he said.

Met Gala 2022 best dressed:See Kim Kardashian as Marilyn Monroe, Blake Lively's NYC nod, more stars

Monroe's life and legacy has gained renewed interest after Kim Kardashian wore a historic Monroe dress to the 2022 Met Gala in May.

An expert closely familiar with the dress told USA TODAY Wednesday, Kardashian appeared to permanently damage the skin-tight, sparkling nude dress Monroe wore while singing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy in 1962, designed by Bob Mackie.

ChadMichael Morrissette, a visual artist who curates museum and costume exhibits, says he observed irreparable damage to the dress when he saw it on display Sunday at Ripley's Believe It or Not! on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Morrissette says he previously handled the dress in 2016 when he displayed it for Julien’s Auctions, where Ripley's purchased it for $4.8 million.

As a result of Kardashian wearing the dress up the Met Gala steps, Morrissette says the garment now has a damaged zipper, shredded fabric by its hooks, stress on its shoulder straps and is missing beads and sequins.

Memorabilia going to auction:Marilyn Monroe dresses, Captain America shield, Thor's hammer, more up to buy

Morrissette took photos of the dress Sunday, which he shared with Monroe memorabilia collector Scott Fortner, who reposted them on Instagram to compare how the dress looked before Kardashian wore it.

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Kardashian and Ripley's for comment.

"Marilyn wore it one night, and it was fit to her body. It was like skin on her body," says Morrissette.

Sixty years later, Kardashian worked with Ripley's to wear it to the Met Gala. According to Vogue, she only wore the dress for a matter of minutes before changing into a replica so as not to damage the original.

Kim Kardashian defends Met Gala weight loss:Critics describe her technique as 'concerning'

“I’m extremely respectful to the dress and what it means to American history. I would never want to sit in it or eat in it or have any risk of any damage to it, and I won’t be wearing the kind of body makeup I usually do,” Kardashian told Vogue at the time. “Everything had to be specifically timed, and I had to practice walking up the stairs.”

However, Morrissette says it's clear to any textile expert the dress should not have been worn at all.

"When you're dealing with 60-year-old material and fabric and thread and sequins… everything you do damages it. Every time you display it damages it," he says. "When someone has the audacity to put it on and walk in it up the stairs, you're so ignorant to the history of that piece of fabric that it makes me so angry."

Contributing: Charles Trepany

Opinion: Kim Kardashian gives us a glimpse of how hard it was to be ...

Racquel Gates ( @RacquelGates ) is an associate professor of film and media studies at Columbia University. She is the author of " Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture ." The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.

(CNN) "Do you want to see me become her?"

I can imagine Kim Kardashian uttering this as she slipped on Marilyn Monroe's custom-made flesh-toned Jean Louis and Bob Mackie gown, the one that Monroe wore in 1962 when she breathily sang "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden.

Indeed, the details of Kardashian's efforts to transform her body into one that fit the dress -- the 16-pound weight loss in under a month and the 14-hour bleaching process to approximate Monroe's white blonde hair -- suggests Kardashian's desire to embody, rather than pay homage to, Monroe.

Of course, the line "do you want to see me become her?" belongs not to Kardashian but to Monroe herself. As Amy Greene -- wife of Monroe photographer and business partner, Milton Greene -- explained , while walking down a New York City street one day, Monroe asked Greene if she'd like to witness the transformation from Marilyn Monroe the person to Monroe the movie star.

As Greene observed, "I don't know how to explain what she did because it was so very subtle, but she turned something on within herself that was almost like magic. And suddenly cars were slowing and people were turning their heads to stare. They were recognizing that this was Marilyn Monroe as if she pulled off a mask or something, even though a second ago nobody noticed her."

Marilyn Monroe in an airport waiting room during a press conference in Los Angeles in February 1956.

This story has become part of the mythos of one of the greatest stars of the classic Hollywood era. It captures an indelible aspect of Monroe's legendary appeal: the idea that the real her was somehow distinct from her celebrity persona. And within that notion is also the tantalizing prospect that one might be able to access that authentic Marilyn -- if one only continued to investigate the details of her films, her life and her death, a crusade that shows no sign of slowing as new biographies, documentaries, online speculation and more continue to emerge year after year.

Unsurprisingly, Kardashian's decision to wear the dress at the Met Gala on May 2 -- and the suggestion that, in doing so, she was attempting to "become" Monroe -- prompted quick and in some cases virulent backlash. Kardashian's desire to essentially wear Monroe's identity like a second skin fits into a larger charge about the former (and some of her sisters): that they are shameless appropriators of culture and style as part of their personal and professional branding.

Whereas Kardashian has made a career blurring the line of what's real, Monroe excelled at masking it. Monroe's public image was so flawlessly executed, performed and presented that decades later, we are still eagerly searching for the woman underneath it all.

Yet what Kardashian does offer -- and what might actually be in service of Monroe's legacy -- is to make visible the labor of image creation, something that would have destroyed the mysterious allure of the Monroe persona in the star's own time.

What criticism of Kim Kardashian is really about

Kardashian's identity as ethnically White and her adoption of Black cultural styles and aesthetics echoes historical critiques of Jewish and Irish minstrel performers adopting blackface in the early 20th century, most famously in the 1927 film "The Jazz Singer."

As Michael Rogin and others have shown, that mode of performance was a way to both appropriate Blackness and simultaneously assert their Whiteness -- at a time when their racial identities were very much in flux. Questions have been raised about whether Kardashian, who has been accused of " blackfishing ," darkened her skin for a photo shoot.

But her attempt to embody Monroe's persona is a new threshold in Kardashian's often-problematic efforts to play with her racial self-presentation.

Kardashian has often adopted Black cultural signifiers as part of her personal aesthetic, invoking Black style for a white mainstream audience. Her jewel-encrusted grill, Fulani braids that she credited to Bo Derek, and her imitation of a famous Grace Jones photograph for the cover of Paper magazine are three of the most-discussed examples.

Even her famed curvy body -- emblematized by her posterior -- is the type of "thick" body most readily associated with the Black "video vixens" made famous in music videos starring rappers like Kardashian's ex-husband, Kanye West. Though Kardashian has acknowledged the criticisms , this history no doubt informs the perception that Kardashian was consciously attempting to poach Monroe's stardom -- and Whiteness -- when she donned her famous dress.

Kim Kardashian attends the Los Angeles premiere of Hulu's new show "The Kardashians" on April 7, 2022.

Indeed, Kardashian's seeming pivot from someone associated -- even problematically -- with Blackness, to her momentary transformation into the blonde-haired Hollywood icon reinforced the idea for some that Blackness was a temporary stop in her sojourn to unambiguous Whiteness and respectability.

On the other hand, preservationists registered their horror at the handling and exposure of the historic garment at the gala. While Kardashian certainly wasn't the first celebrity (or even noncelebrity) to wear a vintage or archival garment, this particular line of criticism quickly became the focus of the ire directed at Kardashian.

Ripley's Believe it or Not!, which purchased the gown at a 2016 auction for nearly $5 million, loaned it to Kardashian for the occasion, though she only wore the actual dress for a few minutes on the carpet before changing into a replica.

No matter that, as costume historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell noted on Twitter and in the Los Angeles Times, there is precedent for both celebrities and models wearing vintage or archival pieces and museums or private collectors exhibiting their pieces in creative but potentially risky ways. Rather, critics laid the responsibility squarely on Kardashian's shoulders, accusing Kardashian of marring this symbol of classic Hollywood glamor with both her body and her persona.

It's worth noting that this conversation is the one that has dominated public discussion raised by Kardashian's adoption of Marilyn's persona. Preservationists' very real concerns about the dress itself, however, provide a convenient cover for a more ideological criticism -- that Kardashian disgraces the legacy of Monroe by daring to "become her" for a night.

Video circulating of one of the dress fitting appointments quickly prompted derisive remarks about Kim's "fat ass" or the disconnect between her skin tone and Marilyn's, comments undergirded by racial connotations. Such an argument depends on assumptions about Kardashian's racial performance, as well as on critiques grounded in taste, respectability, celebrity and authenticity.

This line of critique effectively contrasts Monroe's classic Hollywood film icon status -- established in films like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," "The Seven Year Itch" and "Some Like It Hot" -- positively against the negative of Kardashian's "being famous for nothing" status, earned in the reviled world of reality television.

Marilyn Monroe, proto-reality star

But those formulations -- valid though they are -- miss the deeper resonance of what Kardashian's public display of the dress signifies about Monroe and how her history has been deliberately revised.

Start with the fact that the dress that Kardashian chose to wore is not one associated with Monroe's film roles or even the one most readily associated with Monroe as icon: that would most likely be the white/ivory halter dress designed by William Travilla for Monroe's appearance in the Billy Wilder film "The Seven Year Itch."

Rather, Kardashian wore the gown from one of Monroe's appearances in what we might understand as a predecessor to modern reality television: JFK's televised/recorded birthday party at Madison Square Garden.

The pleasures that make the moment iconic -- the context of Monroe's and Kennedy's relationship as Monroe seems to flirt with her lover in front of both a live and televisual audience with the knowledge that his wife Jackie is at home watching -- is perhaps closer to the melodramatic appeal of contemporary reality television than classic Hollywood cinephiles would like to admit.

Actress Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, for his upcoming 45th birthday.

Indeed, the gown Kardashian wore represents a particular aspect of Monroe's celebrity -- infamy rather than fame -- and Monroe's unique ability to take something scandalous and embrace it rather than allow herself to be shamed by it.

Within that light, the dress fits Kardashian quite well -- figuratively, if not literally -- because of what it symbolizes about Monroe and what the subsequent whitewashing of Monroe's image in subsequent eras has erased: a woman who constantly tried to reinvent and exert some type of agency over her public image, refusing to be shamed by scandal, and often using television as the means to do so

One need only try to sort through the real-life difficulties that Monroe faced and the myriad unfounded rumors that today are often taken as gospel to see the residue of her complicated celebrity persona. Publications tried to create controversy around her early modeling for men's calendars, Hugh Hefner purchased and published her nude photos without her consent, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper wrote an open letter to Monroe blaming the star for her own miscarriages.

Monroe's associations with Black people -- both platonically and romantically -- garnered additional consternation from those in charge of managing her image. And, always at the ready were accusations that she was sleeping with everyone, from allegedly prostituting herself to studio execs to having an affair with both John Kennedy as well as his brother Robert, regardless of how farfetched some of these claims might be.

All of this must surely resonate with Kardashian, whose name is still mentioned in connection with a sex tape now some 20 years old . Indeed, in the messy intersection of celebrity and reality, Monroe and Kardashian have more in common than one might think.

Our never-ending desire for the "real" woman

One of the most enduring elements of Monroe's fandom is the desire to uncover the "real" story of Marilyn Monroe. By contrast, Kardashian offers a highly curated version of the aspects of her life both big and small: her romantic relationships, sibling conflict, professional endeavors and more make up the content of both her two television shows as well as her social media presence.

There is not an aspect of Kardashian's life that has not been mediated and offered up to the public, at Kardashian's own hands. Crucially, whereas Monroe struggled to obtain professional agency throughout her career, Kardashian effectively owns her own image.

As executive producer of "Keeping up with the Kardashians" (E!, 2007-2021) and "The Kardashians" (Hulu, 2022-- ), as executive producer of her life and image, we might argue, Kardashian's version of the "real" is the one that she chooses to share with the public rather than one that the public can take pleasure -- and ownership -- in uncovering.

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Monroe, and the studio system and its attendant publicity machine, presented the star as the guileless bombshell: a sexpot whose crucial appeal was that she didn't seem to be trying to be sexy -- she just was -- effortlessly.

Of course, the reality is that the Monroe persona was the product of her own and the studio's very real and measurable efforts to craft her image into one that fans would adore: from her plastic surgery and dyed blonde hair to her constant dieting and -- most obviously -- in her name change from Norma Jeane Baker to Marilyn Monroe

Kardashian's intense diet and workout plan to fit into Monroe's gown, modifications that the public has witnessed over time, even her transition from a Black-adjacent aesthetic to the presumptive Whiteness enabled by her performance of Monroe -- the most iconic blonde of all time -- makes exceedingly obvious the work that goes into creating an image, the labor that maintains the illusion that there is even a "real" to access.

Kardashian could never put on a dress and be Monroe, but perhaps that's because there is no "real" Monroe to become.