• Mark Zuckerberg had a 40th birthday party, which looked like a great time.
• But I noticed he had a slight outfit change in his photos. I was determined to find out why.
• Yes, I am aware there are better things I could do with my life.

The Instagram photos from Mark Zuckerberg's 40th birthday party left me with many questions. Questions that I am prepared to investigate using my skills not just as a journalist, but as someone who has attended a lot of parties.

Let's start with the basic facts. The family-friendly party was thrown by Zuck's wife, Priscilla Chan, and featured a bunch of miniature replicas of meaningful places in his life (his childhood bedroom, his dorm room, early Facebook offices, his first apartment, and his favorite pizza shop in Harvard Square). Cute!

When the Meta CEO posted photos of the party on his Instagram, people immediately noticed his outfit and how he was going all-in on his new swag style with his gold chain and shirt. Now, typically, I don't like to spend too many of my precious few brain cells thinking about Mark Zuckerberg's personal appearance; it feels a little too circus and no bread. But this was different.

Something in these Instagram photos was amiss.

In two of the photos, he's wearing a slightly different outfit: the gold chain is missing, and his T-shirt is plain black.

Let's start with the shirt, which says "Carthago delenda est," Latin for "Carthage must be destroyed." (My colleague Kieran has more info on the context of the phrase.)

Zuckerberg is known to be a Roman history fan (his daughters are named after Roman emperors). But is he such a fan of Roman history that he goes around wearing T-shirts with his favorite Latin slogans?

He's been really into fashion lately, so perhaps the shirt is some fancy designer shirt that's low-key $200?

Or, another option, which is my theory: He didn't choose the shirt; the shirt was gifted to him during the party.

Looking for clues in Zuck's party outfit

Let's examine the evidence.

The first notable thing is that one of the miniature room sets is of the Facebook office during the 2016 "lockdown" when they were working hard to compete with Google+ (lol). During that time, Zuckerberg tried to inspire his troops by using that phrase from the Roman senator Cato — "Carthage must be destroyed." According to a book by a former employee, there were posters with that phrase around the office during that time. So we know that this phrase is very connected to one of these miniature rooms, specifically.

Perhaps the shirt was given to him inside the miniature room that was a replica of Facebook's "lockdown" phase, as a nod specifically to that phase of his life.

This would explain why the shirt seems ill-fitting. Note here it seems billowy and wide. Zuckerberg typically wears a more fitted t-shirt.

And here, you can see that the sleeve of the shirt seems very crisp — as if it were a shirt worn for the first time with the fold lines on it.

We've all had the experience of showing up at some event — a fun run or company picnic or whatever — and being given a shirt with some screen-printed logo on it to wear over your regular shirt. This has all the trappings of that.

So one theory is that Zuck wore a plain black tee to his party — the one you can see in two of the photos — and then, at some point, was gifted the Carthage tee as a surprise and changed into it for the rest of the party.

Now a quick note about the chain necklace: I believe that the explanation for the necklace is that it was also gifted to him during the party along with the Carthage shirt. The chain necklace is something of a meme after digitally altered photos of Zuck in a chain with a beard went viral.

We get some more details about this party from Priscilla Chan's Instagram. Chan's caption says, "Mark doesn't usually let me go big for his birthday but for his 40th I was allowed to throw a bash as long as our friends and family also roasted him."

AHA! So we know that this was also a ROAST — more fodder for the theory that the shirt and chain were gifted during the party as a form of light roasting.

Prisicilla's outfit also gives us a clue. She's usually very stylish, but for this party, she's wearing jeans, white sneakers, a boxy white T-shirt, and two gold chains. My theory is that this wasn't just her regular casual party attire — she was dressing up in a typical Mark outfit as a joke, chain and all.

Other attendees also seemed to wear some version of a Zuck costume. For example, Bill Gates is wearing basketball shorts and a hoodie sweatshirt.

Joel Kaplan, Meta's head of public policy, appears in one of Chan's photos holding a mic to potentially roast Zuck. Kaplan appears to be wearing some heinous form of athletic wear, presumably a tribute to his boss's interest in MMA.

All of this goes along with a clear theory:

Mark showed up to his party in a plain black shirt and no chain. During the course of the party, he was gifted a chain and a "Carthage must be destroyed" shirt as joking references to his past and present.

There are still some things this theory doesn't explain, like the fact that the T-shirt seems to have some sort of reversible blue-and-white striped lining.

The lining suggests the garment is a higher quality than a simple Gildan or Hanes tee — perhaps it is an expensive designer shirt after all. (A rep for Mark Zuckerberg did not respond to questions about the outfit.)

Between the lined shirt and Bill Gates' unholy basketball shorts (I'm pretty sure they're these Nike ones, by the way), there are some mysteries that I just can't solve. But I feel confident in my assessment that Zuckberg's outfit was gifted to him as a joke during his party.

I also am confident in my self-asseessment that I need to find much better things to fill the void in my life than thinking too hard about what Mark Zuckerberg is wearing.

• The Pentagon deployed two Navy warships to help safeguard a US-built pier to bring aid into Gaza.
• The safety of US forces positioned off the Gaza coast remains a concern amid the Israel-Hamas war.
• Route closures and screenings by Israeli officials hindered aid delivery to Gaza via land crossings.

Navy warships will help protect the US military's soon-to-be-completed pier to deliver aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at a briefing Tuesday that Navy ships will be part of the security plan for the operation. A Navy official told Military.com that the sea service is assigning two destroyers to the mission.

The two ships will join the thousands of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers — plus Israeli navy ships and Israeli air force planes — that are dedicated to protecting the effort to move food and supplies into Gaza via the sea as Israel's crushing offensive against Hamas grinds on.

News of the Navy security mission comes as officials in the Pentagon say that the operation to move aid is nearly ready to swing into action in the coming days. The safety of US forces positioned off the coast remains a concern amid the war in Gaza, which has killed large numbers of civilians, sparked regional violence, and led to international controversy.

Last Thursday, Ryder told reporters that the construction of the two portions of the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, system — the floating pier and the causeway being constructed by the Army — "have been completed."

"They are currently positioned offshore at the port of Ashdod, awaiting final movement," Ryder said.

Officials have said that sea conditions in the Mediterranean have prevented them from taking the nearly 550-yard causeway and driving it into the beach in Gaza.

Ryder has said that the soldiers and sailors running the operation have used the delay "to get ahead" and stage aid on the cargo ship USNS Roy P. Benavidez so that it's ready to go as soon as the floating causeway is in place.

A senior defense official said that the first shipload of aid aboard the Benavidez will be made up of 475 pallets, or 170 tons, of food — enough to feed 11,000 adults and children for one month.

A senior military official who spoke with reporters in late April said that they expect the initial throughput of the effort to begin at "about 90 trucks a day … and then quickly scale up to 150 trucks a day."

However, both military and civilian officials have repeatedly made clear that the JLOTS mission is meant only to be a supplement to the more traditional aid routes through land border crossings in Gaza. But aid has been slow to come in through those routes either due to closures or heavy screenings by Israeli officials.

At the beginning of April, Israeli forces conducted repeated airstrikes on a World Central Kitchen convoy of aid workers, killing seven.

After the outrage over the attack drew renewed attention to the situation in Gaza, the land crossing reopened, and the senior military official said that, in the last weeks of April, the average aid flowing in via land has been "about 220 trucks a day."

• Michael Burry published a first-quarter portfolio update on Wednesday.
• The Scion Asset Management chief pared down his stock positions from 25 to 16 but boosted other bets.
• Burry is known for his bet against the mid-2000s housing bubble, chronicled in "The Big Short."

Michael Burry ramped up his bets on a raft of stocks while slashing his holdings last quarter.

The investor of "The Big Short" fame pared down his portfolio from 25 positions to 16 in the three months ending in March, he revealed in a quarterly portfolio update on Wednesday. The total value of his holdings rose from about $95 million to about $103 million.

Eleven holdings survived the period, and the Scion Asset Management boss added to all of them. For example, he boosted his stake in Alibaba from 75,000 shares to 125,000, his JD.com bet from 200,000 to 360,000, and his Star Bulk Carriers wager from 250,000 to 400,000.

Burry also added five new holdings to his collection: Baidu, BP, First Solar, Sprott Physical Gold Trust, and Cigna. He also disposed of some stocks, including Amazon, Alphabet, MGM Resorts, Toast, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

The Scion chief is best known for his monster wager against the mid-2000s housing bubble, which was immortalized in the book and movie "The Big Short."

He also drew attention for investing in GameStop more than a year before it became a meme stock in early 2021. The frenzy around the video games retailer reignited this week after one of its biggest proponents, investor Keith "Roaring Kitty" Gill, returned to social media after a yearslong hiatus.

Burry's latest portfolio update didn't feature any put options. The investor has previously held the bearish options on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes, Apple stock, a microchip ETF containing Nvidia, Elon Musk's Tesla, and Cathie Wood's flagship Ark fund.

The value investor is well known for his grave warnings and grim predictions about market crashes and economic catastrophes. For instance, he sounded the alarm on the "greatest speculative bubble of all time in all things" in the summer of 2021, and cautioned that buyers of meme stocks and cryptocurrencies would be caught in the "mother of all crashes."

Tanks are the apex predator on Ukraine's battlefields, with modern Western tanks facing off against Soviet-designed relics. But which country has the power?

The role of chief marketing officer has never been more complex than it is today.

Digital transformation, economic upheaval, societal change, and a fragmented media landscape are just some of the intricacies marketing leaders are confronting.

CMO Insider presents profiles, case studies, research, and personal perspectives, to inspire and inform CMOs and their teams as they build and grow their brands.

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• I tried the Target Circle 360 membership, which gives me unlimited same-day delivery.
• As a fan of both Target and grocery-delivery services, I was excited to test out the $49 membership.
• However, I'd rather use my free Target Circle membership and Target Circle debit card to save money.

I'm a die-hard Target enthusiast who typically shops at the store twice a week, purchasing everything from home decor to beauty products and groceries. When I'm not shopping in-store, I like to use grocery-delivery services like Instacart at least once a week.

So when the new Target Circle 360 membership, which offers customers access to unlimited same-day delivery on orders over $35, launched in early April, I knew I had to try it out. The membership costs $99 a year, but I took advantage of a special launch offer and got the membership for $49.

As competition heats up among grocery-delivery services, I decided to try Target Circle 360 for a month to see if it was worth the price. However, I found the membership left much to be desired.

Target Circle 360 combines the benefits of the Circle membership and Circle card

For years, Target superfans like me have relied on Target's free membership offerings for savings and perks.

Target Circle is the store's foundational, free-to-join rewards program that automatically applies Circle-exclusive deals to your cart when you input your phone number and scan your Target Circle barcode at checkout.

Program members have access to Target Circle Bonuses, which include additional personalized offers separate from other Circle deals.

Target also offers the Circle card, which is a credit or debit card that offers 5% off in-store and online purchases. Target Circle card users get free two-day shipping for most online purchases and an extra 30 days for returns.

Target Circle 360 combines all the benefits of the Circle membership and a Circle card. So, if you already have both, the only notable additional benefit is free same-day delivery on orders of $35 or more through Shipt.

I thought the Target Circle 360 membership left much to be desired

Unfortunately, I haven't used the Target Circle 360 membership as often as I expected to. During my first month, I used the delivery service three times and still ended up shopping in the store twice.

My fiancé and I typically do grocery delivery at least once a week, so I was hoping Target Circle 360 would replace my regular Instacart orders. However, I realized there are still specific grocery items — like produce and meat — that I prefer to get from places like Sprouts.

For me, $49 is a significant amount of money to spend on something I don't need — especially since my fiancé and I are nondisabled, childfree adults who have the time and ability to do our own shopping — or at the very least pick up our items curbside for free.

After all, Target doesn't allow for tips on curbside orders, and there's no minimum pick-up order cost. So, in addition to saving money on the membership fee, I can save a lot by not adding the recommended 20% tip or adding unnecessary items to hit a $35 delivery minimum.

That being said, I'm fortunate that my local Target is less than two miles from my home, so curbside pickup feels almost as easy as delivery for me.

When I did use the Target Circle 360 delivery, however, I had a great experience. I got to know my regular shopper, Paul, fairly well over text, and he was much more communicative and helpful than personal shoppers from other services I've used.

Plus, if I requested immediate delivery, most orders were delivered to my door early or within two hours.

Overall, the Target Circle 360 membership wasn't for me

At the end of the day, I didn't think the Target Circle 360 membership was worth the money. I was also disappointed that there was no monthly-membership option, and Target only provided a 14-day trial. That meant I had to commit to the entire year without much time to test the membership's usefulness.

However, I'm a firm believer that the free Target Circle membership is a must, even for casual Target shoppers. It gives me instant deals and cash back and has been one of my favorite store-rewards programs since it launched. So far this year, I've saved over $55 through the program by shopping sales and deals.

I feel similarly about the Circle card, which offers plenty of ways to save money, including a reloadable-card option to help minimize overspending. This year, I've saved over $25 by using the debit card as my go-to payment method.

While Target Circle 360 isn't a must-have for me, I do see the delivery service being nice for extra-busy or sick days. I could absolutely see its value for new parents, those who can't or don't want to drive, or those who live farther away from a Target store.

Additionally, if you don't have a Target payment card, it's a nice way to get some of those perks — like no-rush returns and free two-day shipping.

• The Education Department extended the deadline for student-loan borrowers to benefit from account adjustments.
• Borrowers now have until June 30 to consolidate their loans, giving them an extra 60 days.
• The department expects adjustments to be fully implemented in September. 

President Joe Biden's Education Department is giving student-loan borrowers more time to get closer to debt cancellation.

On Wednesday, the Education Department announced that it's extending the deadline for borrowers to benefit from the one-time account adjustments. These adjustments are intended to bring payment progress up to date for those on income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

To receive the account adjustment automatically, borrowers must be in the federal direct loan program or have federally held loans in the Federal Family Education Loan program. Borrowers without those types of loans previously had until April 30 to consolidate into one of those programs to benefit, but now, the department is extending that deadline to June 30.

"The Department is working swiftly to ensure borrowers get credit for every month they've rightfully earned toward forgiveness," Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said in a statement. "FFEL borrowers should consolidate as soon as possible in order to receive this benefit that has already provided forgiveness to nearly 1 million borrowers."

The department wrote in prior guidance that it could take at least 60 days to process consolidation applications, which is why it recommends borrowers do so as early as possible to benefit from the adjustment. Borrowers can apply for consolidation on the Federal Student Aid website here.

According to the department, adjustments will be fully implemented in September 2024, after which borrowers should see "a full and accurate count of their progress toward loan forgiveness."

Borrowers in PSLF can also get credit toward the program for any months covered by the account adjustments as long as they continue to certify that they work for a qualifying nonprofit or government employer.

The adjustments began in August 2023 following evidence that servicers were not accurately tracking borrowers' payment progress, causing some of them to miss out on loan forgiveness despite completing their qualifying payments. Since the adjustments began, according to the department, 996,000 borrowers have received $49.2 billion in debt relief.

Along with the account adjustments, the Education Department is also implementing relief through the SAVE income-driven repayment plan using a provision that cancels remaining balances for borrowers with an original balance of $12,000 or less and makes as few as 10 years of qualifying payments.

More broadly, the department is working to implement its broader version of student-debt relief after the Supreme Court struck its first plan down. The public comment period for the new plan — expected to benefit over 30 million borrowers — ends on Friday, after which the department will move toward final implementation as early as this fall.

• Evidence suggests that our galaxy is inside a cosmic void, a vast expanse of relatively empty space.
• According to our laws of cosmology, however, this void should not exist.
• New research says that such a void may explain unusual behavior in nearby galaxies.  

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is just one of billions in our universe. So, in the grand scheme of things, we're not so special. But zoom in to our local cosmic neighborhood, and that story begins to change.

According to a growing list of evidence, we live in the crosshairs of a giant cosmic void — the largest ever observed. Astronomers first suggested such a void in 2013 and the evidence for its existence has been stacking up ever since.

But the kicker is that this giant void shouldn't exist in the first place. If it does exist, that means something is probably amiss with our understanding of the cosmos.

We live in a void that shouldn't exist

According to a fundamental theory of cosmology called the cosmological principle, matter in the universe should be uniformly distributed on very large scales.

The reason this matters is that by assuming uniformity, scientists can apply the same laws of physics to nearby objects as objects at the fringes of the early universe. In other words, everything operates under the same universal laws.

It's a simple, straightforward approach to studying and understanding our universe, and it suggests that voids — like the one we may live in — shouldn't exist.

However, multiple observations over the last decade suggest that matter in the universe may clump into regions of high- and low densities, meaning it's not so uniform, after all.

"By now it's pretty clear that we are in a significant underdensity," Indranil Banik, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of St. Andrews, told Business Insider.

"There's a few people that are still opposed to it to a limited extent. For example, some people have correctly argued that such a void shouldn't exist in the standard model, which is true. That unfortunately doesn't prove it's not there," he added.

Banik co-authored a paper published late last year in the peer-reviewed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that suggests we may live near the center of this void — called the KBC void — about 2 billion light-years across. Wide enough to fit 20,000 Milky Way Galaxies in a row stretching from one end to the other.

The KBC void defies the laws of cosmology

The KBC void isn't totally empty. It can't be, because we live in it. But, if Banik and his colleagues' calculations are correct, the void would be about 20% emptier than space outside its border.

That may not seem like a big deficit, but it's enough to cause some confusing behavior in our local cosmic neighborhood, according to the recent study.

In particular, nearby stars and galaxies are moving away from us faster than they should be. Cosmologists have a value, called the Hubble constant, which they use to help describe how fast the universe's expansion is accelerating.

The Hubble constant should be the same value wherever you look, whether it's close by or very far away. The problem is that the galaxies and stars in our local neighborhood appear to be moving away from us faster than the Hubble constant predicts, essentially defying our law of cosmology that describes how the universe grows and evolves.

Astronomers can't agree on what's causing this discrepancy in the Hubble constant, and the contention has become known as the Hubble tension.

Banik and his colleagues suggest that the void could be a solution because high-density regions with stronger gravity outside the void could be pulling galaxies and stars toward them.

Banik argues that these outflows could explain why cosmologists have calculated a higher value for the Hubble constant when looking at nearby objects. Stuff moves faster in the void, flying out of our empty region towards crowded outer space.

Mystery solved? Not yet.

If the void does exist, as evidence suggests, that may mean we need to revise some of the physical laws we use to describe the cosmos. After all, Banik's theory would explain why the Hubble constant is higher in our local cosmic region.

"The hypothesis that a local void could explain the Hubble tension by inducing significant outflows seems sound in principle, especially given the supporting observational data cited in the study," Brian Keating, cosmologist and physics professor at UC San Diego who studies the Hubble constant, told BI in an email.

But there are still questions that need to be answered. For one, how far does the influence of the void extend? Keating asks.

"If the local void isn't representative of the wider cosmos, this may only provide a local solution, not a global one — that wouldn't 'solve' the Hubble tension," he wrote.

Keating also notes that Banik's theory has certain limitations. The study's results are dependent on the type of void model used, he wrote. Different models yield different predictions about void effects and the "bulk flow," or the average speed of galaxies as they move through the cosmos. Plus, models can only offer a simplified view of what the void really is.

All of this means that the void could offer a solution, but "it is not a definitive 'proof' yet of the resolution of the tension," Keating wrote.

There are other solutions to consider too, such as early dark energy. This theory proposes a new form of energy that affects the universe's expansion rate in its early stages, ultimately leading to the Hubble tension we observe today, Keating wrote.

But Banik notes that the early dark energy theory conflicts with certain truths about the universe. For example, we'd have to amend the ages of ancient stars to make it work. Otherwise, these stars would have to be older than the universe itself, Banik said.

So, he's sticking to his void theory. His next research project will analyze supernovae data to figure out whether the Hubble constant returns to the value predicted by our standard model of cosmology outside of the void. If his theory is correct, there shouldn't be any Hubble tension outside the void's borders.

"This is the main thing which sometimes keeps me up a little bit — worrying about if the supernovae really show that we're in a universe that's actually expanding faster, and there's no sign of the void edge," Banik said.

Until then, the Hubble tension remains a mystery waiting to be solved.

• China has secretly built what could be the world's first drone carrier, an analyst said.
• The report pointed to the vessel's size to guess at its primary mission. 
• Having a drone carrier would allow China to use different types of drones to attack, an analyst told BI.

China's navy has secretly built what could be the world's first dedicated drone carrier ship, according to Naval News, a squat ship that looks like a mini-aircraft carrier.

The outlet used satellite imagery dated May 6, along with input from J. Michael Dahm, a senior resident fellow for aerospace and China studies at the Mitchell Institute.

"We are confident that this ship is the world's first dedicated fixed-wing drone carrier," it said. Other experts, however, cautioned that only time would tell its purpose.

The report cited the vessel's flight deck length, which it said is about one-third the length and half the width of a Chinese or US Navy aircraft carrier. It's also roughly half the length of China's amphibious assault ships that launch manned helicopters, suggesting that the new ship's flight deck is designed for fewer helicopters or smaller aircraft like drones.

Warships' flight decks have been bases for drones like the US's MQ-8B Fire Scout helicopter and the lightweight Scan Eagle drone. What appears new is that the Chinese ship's entire function may be to launch and land drones, although its purpose will only be confirmed by future observations of its testing and operations.

The report estimated that the flight deck was wide enough to allow aircraft or drones with a wingspan of roughly 65 feet, like the Chinese equivalents of the Reaper drone, to operate from it.

Citing satellite imagery, the report also said that the flight deck appears to be "very" low, suggesting there's no hangar below for aircraft storage and maintenance like those of assault ships and carriers. As seen, the ship appears to be well under the length of a Chinese frigate.

Alessio Patalano, a professor of war and strategy in East Asia at the Department of War Studies at King's College London, backed up the assessment.

He told BI that the platform's flattop and compact deck, together with the reportedly catamaran-like hull, suggest that it will be used for drones; the US has also experimented with launching drones from catamaran-style ferries, but the ship's flight deck is much smaller.

Patalano also said it would make sense for the Chinese navy to keep its trials largely hidden from international scrutiny.

But Lyle Goldstein, Director of Asia Engagement at the DC-based think tank Defense Priorities, said he would hesitate to call it a drone carrier based on just one satellite image.

Strategically, however, he said it would make a lot of sense.

Drones have a relatively small range, limiting their deployment away from the coastline, Goldstein told BI, so having a carrier would give the Chinese navy a "robust" network and allow drones of different types to attack.

"I spend a lot of time looking at Taiwan scenarios, and I think China would be looking to really deploy huge amounts of these exploding drones as its main weapon," he said.

The possible drone mothership was spotted only weeks after China's third carrier started sea trials.