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• A Ukrainian unit is using century-old US guns to target Russian drones and planes.
• Ukraine is running low on missiles, which are far more expensive than drones and ammo.
• One unit is using cheaper M2 Brownings, which were developed in 1918, the last year of World War I.

Ukrainians are putting machine guns first designed in the US at the end of World War I on the back of pickup trucks to try to shoot down Russian drones and spy planes.

Soldiers in Ukraine's 117th Territorial Defense Brigade are using guns, including the M2 Browning, to try to take down Russia's Shahed drones, the Kyiv Independent reported.

The M2 was used by American forces in World War II, and is still used by some today, but it was initially developed in 1918, the last year of World War I.

The Kyiv Independent, which visited one Ukrainian unit, reported that they are often the first to confront drones that Russia fires north, toward the cities of Sumy and Kyiv.

Its members monitor the sky, watch their tracking equipment, and drive where needed, eager to shoot down whatever they can.

Russia has been firing drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities and infrastructure since it launched its full-scale invasion, often targeting places far from the front lines.

These attacks have killed civilians, destroyed residential buildings, and damaged Ukraine's energy network.

Ukraine faces a dilemma when it comes to shooting them down.

Shahed drones are estimated to cost around $20,000 each, but some of the air-defense missiles that Ukraine has in its arsenal have a price tag in the millions.

Ukraine's supply of air-defense missiles has also been running low after Republicans stalled billions in further aid for six months.

Soldiers often had to make difficult choices about when to use their precious stockpile.

That's where weapons like the M2 Browning come in.

Its predecessor, the M1917, was designed by American John Browning and first used in 1917, with the M2 coming the following year.

Both Russia and Ukraine have used decades-old equipment and weaponry in the war, sometimes because it is proven to be reliable and sometimes due to shortages of more modern supplies.

The unit's leader, call sign Dias, described the Browning to the Kyiv Independent as "reliable, user-friendly" and with a higher fire rate.

But he and other soldiers still said they desired more modern weapons: "We're eager to take down Shaheds. We could cut them with such weapons," he said.

Dias' unit is made up of 16 soldiers, who were all civilians before Russia's invasion, the outlet reported.

Dias, who had combat experience, said he "taught them to shoot and survive" and that they have downed six Shaheds and 12 reconnaissance aircraft.

He described the unit as protecting the city of Sumy, which is close to the border with Russia, and said that his unit works within range of Russian artillery, guided bombs, and first-person-view drones.

Another soldier described the wider region to the Kyiv Independent as "Ukraine's northern shield."

He called their group "the last defensive line" for the area.

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• Stocks are in a "late secular bull market," BofA's Michael Hartnett said in a Friday research note.
• That'll end in either a bubble or a recession, he warned.
• Equities have sputtered recently, with investors fretting about stubborn inflation and slow growth.

The bull market that's pushed stock prices higher for the past year and a half will probably end in tears, Bank of America's Michael Hartnett warned.

Equities are in a "late secular bull market" that likely "ends with [a] bubble and/or recession," the bank's chief investment strategist wrote in a Friday research note seen by Business Insider.

Hartnett's been warning for months that stocks are nearing bubble territory. Since October 2022, the S&P 500 has soared by more than 40%, powered higher by the AI investing craze and a better-than-expected economy.

That rally has stalled in recent months, though, with investors starting to fret about stubborn inflation and slowing growth.

The Federal Reserve has also signaled that it's likely to delay cutting interest rates until the second half of 2024, which has further weighed on valuations.

Hartnett also said the economy could be headed for a period of stagflation, pointing to Friday's April jobs report as a key data point.

Spring's GDP and consumer price index figures looked "stagflationary," he wrote, adding that the market would likely see a lower-than-expected monthly non-farm payrolls number as "a risk-off print." The 175,000 jobs added was considerably lower than the 238,000 forecast by economists.

JPMorgan also flagged stagflation — a combination of high inflation and sluggish growth — as a potential threat to the economy this week.

"While the worry for risk markets is overheating that jeopardizes rate cutting, in contrast to the overheating story, the recent GDP print heads in a stagflationary direction relative to market expectations," a team led by equity strategist Marko Kolanovic said in a research note.

Hartnett's bearish stance clashes with the view held by BofA's head of US equity and quantitative strategy, Savita Subramanian, who has predicted that stocks' bull market will last.

While chatter about the threat posed by stagflation is intensifying, the economy looks resilient enough to carry on powering equities higher, she said in a Thursday research note.

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• China has developed a large network of military satellites. 
• A Pentagon official warned they could be used to target US troops. 
• China is expanding its military presence in space. 

China has developed a network of hundreds of military satellites that could be used to target US troops, a Pentagon official warned.

Maj. Gen. Greg Gagnon, deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, told a conference on Thursday that China had developed a sophisticated military satellite program.

He said it could be used to track and target US troops moving to defend Taiwan, Defense One reported.

"It's to provide indications and warnings of sailors, marines, airmen, trying to move west, if directed, to defend freedom," Gagnon said.

"They will now—in a way that we're not comfortable talking about in America—they will be inside a rapidly expanding weapons engagement zone."

He went on to explain that means they can track their targets from a long-distance, even if those targets are mobile.

"Few countries have that advantage," he said.

The US has long deployed a network of satellites to monitor potential threats, but Gagnon said that China had ended the US monopoly on using satellite data to strike targets at very long distances.

He described it as an "architecture that's designed to go to war and sustain in war. And the purpose of reconnaissance and surveillance, from the ultimate high ground, is, of course, to inform decisions about fire control for militaries."

China has, in recent years, intensified its bid to establish itself as a major military force in space.

Military experts believe that if a war were to break out between major powers, the opening shots would likely be fired in space in a bid to disable the satellite systems militaries rely on for communications.

China has developed weapons capable of taking out US satellites, systems for monitoring US troops, and hypersonic weapons capable of evading air defense systems — and some are warning could be preparing to use the moon as a platform for attacks.

The number of Chinese crafts in orbit has risen by around 500% since its space military division was formed in 2015, said Gagnon, and of the 400 launched in the last two years around half are used to monitor Earth.

US military leaders are warning that the US must step up if it wants to avoid being beaten in the race for space dominance.

"We are at a pivotal moment in history," Troy Meink, principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, which builds and operates the US fleet of spy satellites, said at a recent event in Colorado, as quoted by Space.com.

"For the first time in decades, US leadership in space and space technology is being challenged," Meink added. "Our competitors are actively seeking ways to threaten our capabilities, and we see this every day."

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• David Kirsch, 64, worries he won't have enough money to retire comfortably in a few years.
• He's one of 30 million Americans known as "peak boomers," a group born between 1959 and 1964.
• Many of these boomers are worried about having enough to stop working and cover their expenses. 

David Kirsch is hoping he can retire at 70.

He's 64 years old, and his dream is to buy a gently used sailboat, sell most of his belongings, and spend his golden years traveling around the Caribbean and South America.

But Kirsch — a resident of Hill, New Hampshire — feels like his sailboat is drifting further and further away. He has an IT job and earns $64,805 a year, according to documents viewed by Business Insider. He said he maintains IRA accounts and puts money into his 401(k), but he still isn't confident he's saved enough to retire.

Kirsch is hoping to start collecting Social Security checks in a couple of years, just before his 67th birthday. That additional money would allow him to put more of his professional income into his retirement accounts during the last years of his career, he said.

"My biggest fear is finding myself at 75 standing at the door at Walmart greeting people as they come in," he told BI.

Kirsch isn't alone. He's one of 30 million Americans known as "peak boomers," a group of baby boomers born between 1959 and 1964 who will start turning 65 this year and are heading toward retirement. However, many of these boomers are worried about having enough money to fully stop working and cover their living expenses.

The Census Bureau's Current Population Survey found that more than half of Americans over 65 have an annual income of $30,000 or less. And, per an April report from the retirement research firm Alliance Lifetime Income's Retirement Income Institute, 52.5% of boomers have $250,000 or less in assets.

For many, Social Security won't be enough to fill the gaps. As of March 2024, the Social Security Administration said that its average monthly check sent to recipients is $1,774.83. And, if lawmakers don't intervene, the US Social Security fund is set to dry out by the late 2030s.

This group of boomers is feeling the consequences of the US' switch from an employer-funded pension to the employee-funded 401(k) system in the 1980s.

Even with aggressive saving, he's not sure about the future

Kirsch's anxiety about retirement has fluctuated throughout his career. He has experienced a few periods of unemployment that made saving money difficult, and his past employers didn't always offer retirement benefits. He has been in his current job for the past 12 years and is now using "highly aggressive" retirement contributions to reach his goals, he said.

He said his top expenses right now are his car payment, gas money, and the cost of housing and utilities. Kirsch is in good health, but worries about affording medical care if that changes.

He also said he isn't sure he would be able to return to work after retirement because of hiring discrimination for older adults.

"If I'm by myself, out-competed, in need for money, in my seventies, and having health problems — life's going suck, that's my fear," Kirsch said.

Kirsch wishes more people understood that some older adults aren't able to adequately prepare for retirement because of life circumstances. He also wishes government safety net programs for affordable housing and healthcare didn't wait for people to reach "critical status" and be "destitute" before they provide assistance.

Although he hasn't given up on his sailboat dream, Kirsch said he's anxious about having enough to live comfortably a decade from now. He often tells his young adult son to think about retirement early.

"Start saving and do it as aggressively as you can," he said. "And, when you can't be aggressive, still save something."

Are you worried about being financially ready for retirement? How are you preparing? Share your story with this reporter at allisonkelly@insider.com.

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• Shake Shack doesn't currently plan to increase prices again this year, CFO Katie Fogertey said.
• Overall, menu prices went up in the mid-single digits in the quarter, she said.
• Californian prices rose by 7%, driven by the state's new $20-an-hour wage for fast-food workers.

Shake Shack says it could freeze prices for the remainder of the year.

Some diners have said that rising prices at fast-food and fast-casual chains are putting them off. At earnings calls this week, executives from chains including McDonald's and Starbucks said that customers were increasingly focused on value.

Shake Shack raised menu prices by about 3% in mid-March, CFO Katie Fogertey told investors on Thursday.

The burger and frozen custard chain had already also raised menu prices for delivery through its app and website by 5% in January, she said. This had pushed up prices on third-party delivery orders, where Shake Shack charges a 15% premium compared to ordering through the company directly, she said.

Overall, menu prices went up in the mid-single digits in the quarter, Fogertey said.

"We have no current plans to further increase price this year," she said.

Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti said that some of its lower-income customers were "probably trading down from time-to-time," though he didn't say whether they were switching to cheaper chains or cooking at home instead.

The price increases this year were introduced to address food and wage inflation, Fogertey said. She said that the March rises came from a roughly 7% price increase in California, with prices elsewhere going up by between 2% and 2.5%, which she said was "very consistent with historical pricing practices" at the chain.

California boosted the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20 an hour on April 1, up from the state's general minimum wage of $16. The new legislation applies to limited-service chains with at least 60 locations across the US.

Many restaurants have pushed some of their higher payrolls onto diners by raising menu prices, like at Shake Shack. Some have also tried to cut their costs by stopping hiring, turning to automation and technology like digital order kiosks, or delaying renovations.

Shack Shack's same-restaurant sales were up 1.6% year-over-year in the quarter, a huge slump compared to the 10.3% jump in same-restaurant sales from 2022 to 2023. It attributed the drop in the rate of growth of comparable sales to a 2.1% fall in traffic, believed to have been mainly caused by poor weather.

The company estimated that it missed out on about $3 million in sales due to weather as customers dined out less and its restaurants cut their hours or even temporarily closed.

Is fast food too expensive? Email this reporter at gdean@insider.com.

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• Janet Yellen told Congress that buying a starter home has become "prohibitively expensive."
• Soaring prices and mortgage rates have made it "almost impossible" for first-time buyers, she said.
• The Treasury chief flagged two proposed tax credits that could boost buying power and raise supply.

Owning a home is a key element of the American dream, yet it's become an unattainable fantasy for many people, Janet Yellen said.

"With house prices having gone up, and now with much higher interest and mortgage rates, it's almost impossible for first-time buyers," the Treasury boss said during testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.

Yellen was nodding to the fact that the median house price has jumped 40% in the past four years to a near-record high of over $420,000, per Redfin data.

At the same time, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate has surged from around 3% at the end of 2021 to around 7%.

Put differently, homes are pricier than ever, and borrowing the money required to purchase them has become far more costly. As a result, Yellen said that buying a first home is "almost prohibitively expensive."

Mortgage rates have soared since early 2022 because the Federal Reserve has hiked its benchmark interest rate from nearly zero to north of 5% in an effort to curb historic inflation.

That has created a "lock-in effect," Yellen said. Prospective sellers are holding off on listing their properties because they're unwilling to give up the dirt-cheap mortgage rate they secured years ago.

The resulting inventory shortage has pushed up home values and fueled an affordability crisis. Potential buyers are balking at paying much higher prices and taking on far larger monthly mortgage payments than they expected, meaning the housing market is essentially frozen.

"We know that affordable housing, and especially starter homes, is an area where we really need to do a lot to increase availability," Yellen said.

The veteran economist and former Fed chair highlighted two proposals from the Biden administration that might alleviate the problem.

The first is the mortgage relief credit, which would give first-time buyers a $10,000 tax credit spread over two years to help them purchase their first property.

That would reduce the effective mortgage rate on the median home by over 1.5 percentage points for two years, potentially helping more than 3.5 million middle-class families, the White House said.

Biden has also proposed a one-year tax credit of up to $10,000 for middle-class families that sell their starter home to someone who'll live in it. The White House estimated the credit would help nearly 3 million families.

Moreover, the president has called on Congress to expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and other legislation with the goal of building and renovating more than two million homes to help address the wider housing shortage.

However, real estate experts have previously told Business Insider that Biden's measures could stoke more demand and push up home prices, and warned it would take years to close the supply gap.

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• The US unemployment rate remained low in April, but it ticked up.
• Nonfarm payrolls increased by 175,000 in April, per a news release on Friday.
• Data out Wednesday showed quits dropped in March, but over 3 million people quit.

In the US, the unemployment rate increased from March to April. Plus, job growth in April slowed down a lot, a new labor market report on Friday showed.

The economy added 175,000 jobs in April, per the news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. This job growth for the US was way below the forecast of 238,000.

The release said March's job growth was revised from 303,000 to 315,000. February's job growth was revised again, from 270,000 in the previous revision to 236,000.

Additionally, the unemployment rate is still below 4%. April's rate was expected to be 3.8%, but the unemployment rate increased from 3.8% in March to 3.9% in April.

Friday's news release about the labor market comes after the Federal Open Market Committee meeting earlier this week. The Fed held interest rates steady, Business Insider's Ayelet Sheffey reported.

"Inflation has eased substantially over the past year while the labor market has remained strong and that's very good news," Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, said at a press conference on Wednesday. "But inflation is still too high, further progress in bringing it down is not assured, and the path forward is uncertain."

Inflation, as seen by the personal consumption expenditures price index, has been above the Fed's 2% target. This index climbed 2.7% in March from a year prior. The consumer price index also shows inflation is too high, rising 3.5% in March from a year prior.

Nick Bunker, the economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told Business Insider days before the Federal Open Market Committee meeting and the release of new labor market data that signs indicate the labor market has cooled.

"It's still robust but in a very non-inflationary way," Bunker said.

A news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics from Wednesday also highlighted Bunker's point. There were 8.5 million job openings in March, and while that wasn't a major dip from the 8.8 million in February, it does add to the point of a moderating but robust labor market. The number of people quitting also fell from 3.5 million in February to 3.3 million in March.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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• Tim Cook has said major AI announcements are coming.
• Analysts are hoping Apple's AI strategy can boost slumping iPhone sales.
• Wedbush's Dan Ives said Apple's AI efforts are set to drive a "supercycle" starting with the iPhone 16.

Tim Cook is still keeping his cards close to his chest when it comes to AI.

Analysts pushed the Apple CEO to talk about its upcoming generative AI announcements on Thursday's earnings call — with very little success.

Cook continued to keep a tight lid on all things AI, merely teasing big AI announcements in the "coming weeks." It's a standard play from the CEO, who has been hesitant to publicly discuss Apple's AI development.

Cook reiterated that the iPhone maker was "well positioned," saying there were "big opportunities" across Apple products for generative AI.

The remarks — and slightly better-than-expected numbers — appeared to reassure investors, with the stock climbing 6% premarket. A $110 billion share buyback also helped.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives described the earnings call as a "drumroll moment," adding Apple looked set to unveil its long-awaited AI strategy at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Cook has previously promised to share details of the company's AI work later this year.

Ives said Apple's AI efforts were set to drive a "supercycle starting with iPhone 16 this fall."

iPhone issues

Apple needs to ride the generative AI wave.

It's had a rough year, struggling in China, been slapped with a massive fine, and is facing a lawsuit.

Now, despite beating Wall Street's pessimistic estimates, sales of its flagship product are declining. iPhone sales slumped by 10% in the past three months, with the company facing increasingly tough competition in key markets like China.

Investors are hoping that new generative AI features for its products can boost Apple's slumping smartphone sales.

Analysts have been scrambling for updates on Apple's AI progress for months, with some concerned that it's moved more slowly and fallen behind its Big Tech rivals.

In March, Brian Mulberry, a portfolio manager at Apple shareholder Zacks Investment Management, told The Wall Street Journal the company hadn't really made a "big splash in the AI space yet."

A month later, Apple's reported dismantling of two projects and teams only served to fuel concerns that the company had lost focus and was slipping behind rivals in critical areas.

Other Big Tech companies, including Google, Meta, and Microsoft, put AI front and center during recent earnings calls. For Google and Microsoft, investors cheered AI progress despite high spending on infrastructure.

The news of an upcoming announcement on Apple's progress is likely to bolster investor confidence.

Last month, a Bloomberg report that Apple was working on revamping its Mac lineup with new processors that forefront AI gave the stock a boost.

Representatives for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

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• Forbes has determined who the wealthiest resident in every US state is.  
• Despite all the big stars that flock to Hawaii, the elusive founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar takes the state's crown.
• Omidyar has given away $1.5 billion of his fortune since 2014.

America's elite have long turned to Hawaii as the ideal tropical paradise for their vacation homes.

Notable island neighbors include billionaires like Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

But despite the big names and showy personalities of Hawaii's ultra-rich residents, it's the media-shy founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, who is the island state's richest permanent inhabitant, according to Forbes's list of the richest billionaire in every state for 2024.

In total, Forbes calculated that 47 out of 50 US states play home to 54 billionaires. Together they're worth a combined $1.6 trillion.

Omidyar contributes just $6.5 billion to that total.

The French-born Iranian-American founded eBay in 1995. Within three years he had made his first billion from the online auction house.

In 2002, eBay acquired the online payment company PayPal for $1.5 billion. It was spun off in 2015 to allow eBay to develop its own payments system.

In 2020, Omidyar stepped from eBay's board as part of a broader overhaul of the company. The departure was not related to any disagreement with the company, the Wall Street Journal reported.

He remains active in the company and retains the role of director emeritus.

Omidyar has also become involved in investigative reporting, creating First Look Media which subsequently launched the online news site The Intercept.

He also develops real estate in Mexico while residing in Hawaii's state capital, Honolulu, with his wife Pamela.

According to Forbes, the 56-year-old is the world's 444th richest person. Since 2004, he's given away over $1.5 billion of his fortune through impact investments and philanthropy.

He is a long-term Democratic party donor and a well-known critic of Big Tech. In 2020, the Omidyar group donated $150,000 to Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit that was representing Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

Omidyar has taken the top spot in Hawaii from Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle.

Though Ellison still owns 98% of an entire island in Hawaii, records now indicate that California is his primary home, according to Forbes.

The same is true for Mark Zuckerburg and Jeff Bezos, who won top spots in their main residencies in California and Florida, respectively.

In 2021, Bezos and his now-fiancée Lauren Sanchez broke records for purchasing the most expensive property ever sold on the Hawaiian island, according to Architectural Digest. The couple paid $78 million for a 14-acre property on the island of Maui.

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• French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Ukraine war with The Economist. 
• He said France could send troops if requested by Ukraine in response to a Russian breakthrough.
• His remarks about French soldiers defending Ukraine are among the most hawkish by a Western leader.

France's President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that he would consider sending French troops to Ukraine, and spelled out the conditions in which this could place.

Speaking to The Economist, Macron described the urgent threat Russia's President Vladimir Putin poses to Europe in the wake of the 2022 Ukraine invasion.

"I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," Macron said, when asked about his earlier comments that NATO troops could be deployed to help defend Ukraine.

"We have undoubtedly been too hesitant by defining the limits of our action to someone who no longer has any and who is the aggressor!"

He said he would consider sending French troops to Ukraine "if the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there were a Ukrainian request, which is not the case today."

He added that if Russia defeats Ukraine it would then likely seek to attack another European country.

In recent months, political and military leaders have been issuing increasingly stark warnings about the possible consequences of a Russian victory in Ukraine.

Macron's remarks about sending French troops to defend Ukraine were among the most hawkish by a Western leader.

They came as Ukraine struggled to prevent Russia from breaking through its defensive lines amid a US aid block. And though the $61 billion aid bill recently passed, Ukraine is still fighting to hold back intensifying Russian attacks.

While NATO countries have sent money and weapons to help Ukraine, they have avoided a direct confrontation amid fears it could escalate the conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia.

Under Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty, members are pledged to defend each other if attacked.

The Kremlin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, in response to Macron's earlier remarks, said that deploying NATO troops to Ukraine would lead to war between Russia and the alliance.

"We would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability," Peskov said, as quoted by RFE/RL.

Analysts recently discussed the likelihood of Russia attacking NATO with Business Insider, with Russian military expert Ruth Deyermond saying that Putin's regime is too weak militarily to risk a direct confrontation with NATO.

In the interview with The Economist, Macron said he was determined to prevent a Russian victory.

"We mustn't rule anything out because our objective is that Russia must never be able to win in Ukraine," he said.

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