• It's been one of the most active years in senior investment banking hires and exits since the financial crisis, according to top Wall Street headhunters.
• Business Insider reviewed executive search reports detailing nearly 300 investment banking moves at the managing director level or higher this year. 
• We spoke with top investment banking headhunters to determine the top 40 moves of the year. 

According to top Wall Street headhunters, 2018 has been the most active year of hires and departures by senior investment bankers in recent memory.

We reviewed reports and spoke with executives at several premier investment-banking search firms and found nearly 300 moves at the managing director level or higher in the US this year. 

Julie Choi, CEO of CBK Partners, formerly known as Choi & Burns, said 2018 has been the most robust year of hiring among the senior ranks — both in terms of quality and quantity — she's seen since the meltdown in 2008.

Albert Laverge, head of the corporate and investment banking practice for Egon Zehnder, told Business Insider the same.

What's changed in 2018? A few dynamics are at work.

• An unprecedented amount of shakeups at the highest ranks of bulge-bracket investment banks — Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and UBS have all seen their power structures revamped.
• It's not just boutiques and independents picking off talent from global investment banks anymore:  “In past years, bulge-bracket firms were filling roles as departures occurred, which created a musical chairs between one firm and another. That doesn’t really reflect growth," Choi said. "What’s really different this year is that every firm is looking to take the hill — both independent and bulge bracket.”
• The record level of dealmaking we've seen in 2018 is likely spurring moves as well — the hottest sectors for deals mirror the hottest sectors for investment banker moves (TMT and healthcare). Firms may not feel they can wait to hire when the market is as hot as it is. 

"What I do find notable is how active the landscape is. It's November and announcements are still coming," Laverge said.

Given the inordinate amount churn this year, Business Insider put together a list of the most notable moves of 2018. We worked with a handful of senior headhunters who live and breath this industry to winnow that list of nearly 300 moves down to the 40 biggest of 2018.

Some caveats: While seniority and title matter, it's not the only thing that matters. Well respected dealmakers at an MD level may earn a spot ahead of a group head that's past their prime. Also, this is a US focused list, so no European- or Asia-based bankers. Lastly, we only included people who oversee or work directly in investment banking.

Read on for Business Insider's list of the 40 most significant and noteworthy hires and departures in investment banking in 2018.

Have thoughts? Think we missed somebody obvious or important? Shoot us a message at amorrell@businessinsider.com. We'll revisit our ranking at year's end and expand it if necessary.

Gregory Berube: Goldman Sachs to Evercore

Old role: Head of Americas restructuring finance and advisory 

New role: Senior managing director, restructuring and debt advisory group

Month: May

After a 14-year run at Goldman, Berube left to help build out Evercore's restructuring business. Among his notable past mandates: Caesars Entertainment, Chesapeake Energy, GNC, Six Flags, and Toys "R" Us.

Chris Blake: Citigroup to Perella Weinberg

Old role: Co-Head of the global automotives

New role: Partner in industrials, focused on automotive

Month: July

Automotive specialist Blake decamps from Citigroup after 19 years, joining fellow top-40 mover Brennan Smith in the firm's burgeoning Chicago bureau, which it opened up earlier this year.  

Jordan Bliss: Credit Suisse to Guggenheim

Old role: Head of West Coast life sciences investment banking

New role: Senior managing director in healthcare investment banking

Month: July

A 12-year healthcare investment banking vet, Bliss started his career in M&A at Lehman Brothers and subsequently Barclays before his nearly three-year run at Credit Suisse. He'll continue to focus on life sciences deals — along with fellow Credit Suisse recruit Punit Mehta — in his new post with Guggenheim in San Francisco. 

• Tesla announced that Robyn Denholm is replacing Elon Musk as its chair after he was forced to step down by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Denholm is CFO at Australia's largest telecoms company Telstra. She has been on Tesla's board for the past four years.
• Here's what you need to know about the woman tasked with keeping Elon Musk in check.

Tesla announced it has a new chair on Thursday.

The electric car company has appointed Robyn Denholm, the CFO of Australia's largest telecoms firm Telstra, as the woman to oversee its board.

She replaces CEO Elon Musk, who had to step down as chairman for at least three years as part of a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission after his infamous "funding secured" tweet.

Here's what you need to know about Tesla's new chair, Robyn Denholm:

1. Robyn Denholm has been on the Tesla board since 2014

Denholm has been an independent director at Tesla for four years. She was the first woman to join the board of nine, which includes Musk and his brother, Kimbal.

Among her duties as a board member, she chaired Tesla's audit committee, which provides oversight of the company's accounting and financial reporting.

2. She's CFO at Australia's largest telecoms firm — but she's only been in the role for a month

Denholm is CFO at Telstra, Australia's biggest telecommunications company, and will be leaving the company after her six month notice period is up. She'll get to work as Tesla's chair immediately, however.

She only took up her role as CFO in October. Telstra's CEO Andy Penn told the Sydney Morning Herald:"We know that it has become increasingly difficult to balance her responsibilities as Telstra CFO with the increased activity of the Tesla board."

3. She was named in a lawsuit along with the rest of the board for failing to curb Musk's erratic behavior

The lawsuit was filed by a shareholder, who claims that Tesla's board "breached their fiduciary duties " by allowing Musk to lie about the company having obtained funding to go private.

"Despite being put on notice of [Musk's] propensity for erratic public communications that have harmed the Company and its stockholders, the Board consciously disregarded his actions and failed to do anything," the suit alleged.

4. Denholm was part of a special committee that looked at taking Tesla private

She formed part of a three-person committee along with fellow directors Brad Buss and Linda Johnson Rice in August. The committee was announced on August 14, seven days after Musk's "funding secured" tweet on August 7.

5. She'll get a $300,000 retainer fee plus stock options

A Tesla spokesperson told CNBC that in her new post, Denholm will receive 8,000 in stock options each year on top of a $300,000 retainer.

6. She's no stranger to the tech and auto industry

Previous to working at Telstra, Denholm held positions at Juniper Networks, Sun Microsystems, and Toyota Australia. She loves Tesla because it mixes her passions for tech and the auto industry.

"I am a car enthusiast and am passionate about innovation, so Tesla is the perfect board role for me," she told executive search firm Odgers Berndtson earlier this year.

7. She's not James Murdoch

Tesla board member James Murdoch, son of billionaire Rupert Murdoch, was touted by the Financial Times as the frontrunner to replace Musk. However, Musk himself quashed the Times's report, tweeting "This is incorrect."

Although he was reported as the favourite, Murdoch's wasn't the only name to be floated as Musk's potential successor. Former Vice President Al Gore was also mooted as a potential successor.

8. Her parents owned a gas station

Denholm is taking the helm at the world's most famous electric car company, but as a child, she reportedly tinkered with cars at her parents' gas station in Milperra, New South Wales.

9. She had a Tesla on order before joining the firm

While her childhood may have been filled with petrol cars, she was fascinated by Tesla before even joining the company's board. Denholm said she had a Model S on order before she was approached by Tesla. She is now on to her third Tesla vehicle.

10. She has the Elon Musk Twitter seal of approval

Musk's Twitter activity has been a thorn in the side of Tesla's board, but on Thursday he welcomed her appointment on his platform of choice.

SEE ALSO: Tesla's new in-house clinic may have helped the company avoid reporting some injuries: Report

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NOW WATCH: A cybersecurity expert showed us how hackers can tap into an office phone and listen to everything you're saying

• Breaking up is hard. Breaking up with someone who has abused you is even harder.
• You will feel confused and traumatised for some time.
• It's not all terrible though — distance will make you realise you're stronger.
  
• Trauma doesn't stay with you forever, and there are actually several positives from what you went through — even if you're still hurting.

A common misconception about moving on from an abusive relationship is that the trauma stays with you for life. Even if you end up in a great relationship, you may still be lost in your old one, unable to fully let go.

In reality, this is usually simply a sign you haven't moved on yet. Breaking up with an abusive person is hard, and it can take people months, or even years, to fully recover. But that doesn't mean it's impossible.

Perpetua Neo, a doctor of psychology and expert who works with women who are healing from damaging, toxic relationships, said if you sort through your pain, work out what demons you have that resulted in you being attracted to a bad person in the first place, then the magic begins.

"The narcissist didn't want you to gain anything from being with them, but actually you ended up taking everything and becoming stronger," she told Business Insider. "One thing people I've worked with find is that they gain a fuller, more whole version of themselves after leaving the narcissistic ex."

You will probably be in agony for a while, because your body has essentially been addicted to the intermittent love the abuser gave you. But in time, you will realise that you are so much stronger, resilient, and capable of finding someone who isn't going to discard you for being you.

Here are seven lessons you can take away from the traumatic experience of loving a toxic person — and the strengths you gain from moving on:

SEE ALSO: People often stay in abusive relationships because of something called 'trauma bonding' — here are the signs it's happening to you

1. Using empathy as a superpower

Empathy can be both a gift and your kryptonite. Neo said if you have too much empathy for others, it can mean you start to honour someone else's story over your own. If you do this all the time, it can lead to an "empathy burnout," meaning you give and give, but begin to lose any care for yourself.

"We forget that we need to nourish ourselves first and foremost before we can nourish somebody else," Neo said. "So in this sense, after the break-up, people start to use empathy as a superpower, and think of empathy as this burden, like: 'Why do I go for people who tell me their sob stories?' Then after that you realise you don't need to take on everybody else's energy."

2. Boundaries are healthy

The more time that passes, the more you will realise how troubling the way you were treated was. Becoming very clear about your boundaries means you have a better idea of the kind of person you really are. You also know what you are willing to tolerate, and you will be better at realising who will and won't respect you.

"Boundaries are the 'hell nos' in our life, and sometimes we don't feel like we have permission to say 'hell no,'" Neo said. "Once we are really clear about what our boundaries are, and we stop seeing them as bad things, we actually get very clear about what is unacceptable. From then I can trust myself to have as much fun as possible, because I've communicated my line already."

3. Gain a new perspective

In life, we are all subjected to ideas of how we are supposed to act. Some people will be more influenced by them than others. For example, films often clearly convey some of the power dynamics we are exposed to.

In "The Little Mermaid," Ariel falls in love with a prince and, in order to be with him, she grows legs and gives up her voice. In "Star Wars," Han Solo grabs Princess Leia inappropriately. In James Bond films, notorious for their misogyny, Bond forces himself on female characters such as Pussy Galore.

"What does that say to girls watching films like that?" Neo said. "When we keep watching this stuff about inappropriate behaviour, we stop understanding what acceptable behaviour is."

Coming out of an abusive relationship can give you a new perspective about what you might have looked over in the past while you thought you'd met the love of your life. If you run into a person in the future who you think might hurt you, or acts in a way that makes you uncomfortable, you'll find you're more able to take a stand, Neo said.

• A survivor of a mass shooting at a college bar in Thousand Oaks, California displayed intense pangs of "survivor's guilt" after escaping the scene with his stepson.
• Thirteen people are dead: 11 victims, a sergeant, and the suspect.
• The video of his interview provoked a strong response from people on Twitter empathizing with the man. 
• In the video, the man regrets not stopping the shooter and is pained by the young age of the victims, but experts say survivor's guilt is misplaced. 

At 11:20 p.m. local time, a mass shooter approached the Borderline Bar and Grill, about 45 miles north-west of Los Angeles, and opened fire on staff and guests.

Police say the attack left 13 dead, including a deputy sheriff and the shooter as shots rang out during the bar's popular college night. 

According to reports, about 200 people were inside the bar enjoying country music when the attack happened.

One tearful eyewitness who was inside the bar with his stepson at the time spoke to KABC-TV shortly after. On Twitter, people have been responding to the interview, saying the man is clearly suffering from "survivor's guilt."

"There was just young people, like young, 18, 19, 20, just having a great time," he said. "And this maniac came in and started shooting people for no reason at all.

"These people have never hurt anybody in their lives. They're just kids, they're just kids, I'm so sorry."

He apologized again, saying he was sorry he wasn't there when the shooter reloaded. "I'm 56, I've lived a life," the man later said.

"I waited for my son, he didn't follow me like I asked him to. So I was running back to get him and he came out... She [his stepson's mother] would have never forgiven me if he had gotten hurt or died."

Clearly distressed and in shock, the man recounted how he made sure his stepson was okay, then called 911.

"We had to get out of there and I apologize for leaving you," he said.

The reporter in the video replied: "You don't need to. Police got there within moments."

But the man said: "It still feels like I didn't do what I should've done."

On Twitter, people commended the man's bravery. "Hearing him apologize and feeling guilty for running for his life is heartbreaking," one user said. Another responded saying "This man has nothing to apologize for."

In a blog post for Psychology Today, Diana Raab said survivor's guilt happens when people experience a life-threatening situation. It is common among war veterans, transplant victims, airplane crash survivors, and people who have lived through natural disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes.

Some of the symptoms include flashbacks, feeling immobilized and numb or disconnected, feeling helpless, difficulty sleeping, fear, and even suicidal feelings.

A post on What's Your Grief says the duration and intensity of survivor's guilt can vary from person to person.

"But the underlying feelings are similar: feeling guilty that you survived when someone else died and that you do not deserve to live when another person did not," the post reads. "In some cases, this includes feeling you could have done more to save another person, in other cases it is feeling guilty that another person died saving you."

Raab laid out some ways to help you cope with survivor's guilt. They include giving yourself time to grieve, thinking about who was really responsible, taking care of your self physically and psychologically, remind yourself to feel good about the gift of survival, and about the fact you're not alone.

"Guilt has a place in our emotional repertoire — it motivates us to make amends — but with survivor guilt, it's misplaced," said Ellen Hendriksen in another post. "So grieve your losses, but remember that it wasn't your fault, others are glad you're still here, and that you can use your survival to pay it forward."

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NOW WATCH: There's so much CO2 in the atmosphere that planting trees can no longer save us

• H&M's latest designer collaboration is with luxury Italian fashion house Moschino.
• The collection features bold prints, dazzling sequins, and Disney characters.
• Fans are so desperate to get their hands on items from the collection that some lined up outside stores overnight.

H&M has just dropped its latest desginer collaboration: Moschino x H&M.

The high street stalwart has teamed up with the Italian luxury fashion house to create a bold and dazzling collection which has sent fans into a frenzy.

The range went on sale at 9 a.m. in the UK and will launch in the US at 8 a.m. EST today.

Here are the coolest pieces you can buy from the collection.

Anticipation for the collection had been building for weeks after the brands teased fans by sharing pictures in October.

The collection was unveiled on the runway last month, with models such as Bella Hadid showcasing the looks.

Moschino creative director Jeremy Scott has designed the collection, which is bold, bright, and maximalist.

• Ford is buying Spin, a 24-person scooter startup based in San Francisco. 
• Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Axios reported the price tag was $40 million. 
• Ford sees the agreements Spin makes with cities as a possible precursor to rolling out self-driving vehicles. 

Ford is buying scooter startup Spin as doubles down on its investments in the future of transportation.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Axios' Dan Primack reported Wednesday a price tag of $40 million.

Spin CEO and founder Euwyn Poon said Ford's acquisition gives the 24-person startup a "more than healthy" budget to keep growing.

Unlike many other scooter operators like Lime or Jump that have garnered a less-than-stellar reputation for their rogue operations, Spin prides itself on working with municipalities to establish policies before it launches.

"Spin shares our values," Marcy Klevorn, Ford's executive vice president and head of its Mobility unit, told Business Insider. "They only work in cities that they have a partnership with, where they have a permit and are licensed to work."

Spin originated about two years ago as a dockless bike-share company, inspired by Poon's travels in Beijing where the services were flourishing. The company raised $8 million in funding from five investors.

But after realizing their bikes were only doing about one ride per day, the company shifted to scooters — and now sees each vehicle make upwards of eight trips per day. This has allowed it to break even on a per-unit basis, Poon said, calling the revenue of $20-30 per day per scooter "a far cry" from what the company saw with bikes.

"Cities are really starting to recognize the benefit of micro-mobility solutions," Poon said in an interview. "Ultimately our product solves a real problem for users and provides an equitable mode of transport, provided the proper policy framework is in place."

Spin currently operates in nine cities and on five college campuses, and has eager ambitions to reach 100 markets in the next 18 months. Ford sees the initial contact with cities on scooters as a way to form relationships with cities that could eventually turn into self-driving car agreements.

"You can't just show up in a city and say 'Hi, I have an autonomous vehicle and we'd like to participate now'," said Ford's Klevorn. "We think its important to have the relationships with a city, build trust, and learn about their challenges and issues."

SEE ALSO: Scooter startup Bird is suing Beverly Hills after racking up more than $100,000 in fines from the city's ban

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NOW WATCH: The science behind the viral videos of mounting tires with a controlled explosion

• Samsung unveiled its highly anticipated foldable smartphone on Wednesday.
• The phone's display technology has been dubbed "Infinity Flex."
• Senior vice president Justin Denison played a promotional video before busting out the device itself.

Samsung unveiled its long-awaited folding smartphone on Wednesday, when Samsung's senior vice president Justin Denison brought it out on stage for a very quick demo.

Samsung has played its cards close to its chest, not releasing many details about the book-like multi-display, which it unveiled at its annual developer conference in San Francisco.

We know that when fully open, the phone's display is 7.3 inches, and that Google has built a special version of the Android operating system for it.

Read more:Google confirmed that Samsung is unveiling its foldable smartphone — before Samsung had the chance to unveil it

The phone itself remains unnamed, but the display is called "Infinity Flex." Samsung played a promotional video before showcasing the phone itself. It was brief, but it has produced plenty of buzz.

You can see the folding phone in action in this video from the developer conference:

SEE ALSO: Samsung finally unveiled details about its foldable smartphone — here's how it works

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NOW WATCH: A running coach explains how to get through the NYC marathon this weekend

• Two senior Republicans have joined Democrats, legal experts, and lawmakers in expressing concern about the future of the Mueller probe after Trump asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign.
• Matthew Whitaker, who has criticized the investigation and is seen as a Trump loyalist, will oversee the probe as he serves as acting attorney general.
• Mitt Romney and Susan Collins sounded the alarm and said the investigation must be allowed to continue without interference.
  
• Hundreds of protests are scheduled across the US on Thursday to demand that Whitaker recuse himself from overseeing the investigation. 
  

Bipartisan, national dread has set in over the fate of the Mueller probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election after President Donald Trump announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would be replaced by a Trump loyalist.

Matthew Whitaker will serve as acting attorney general and will assume oversight over the Russia investigation and Special Counsel Robert Mueller from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Sessions, who would have been in charge, had recused himself due to his involvement in Trump's 2016 campaign, much to Trump's disappointment.

Members of both parties, as well as lawmakers and legal experts, expressed concerned as Whitaker is widely seen as a Trump loyalist who has previously criticized Mueller's investigation. 

Senior members of Trump's own party have sounded the alarm, saying that the investigation must be allowed to continue after Trump requested that Sessions stand down and repeatedly criticized Sessions' handling of the probe.

Read more: Jeff Sessions resigns as attorney general at Trump's request

Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential candidate who was elected as a Utah Senator on Tuesday, tweeted: "It is imperative that the important work of the Justice Department continues, and that the Mueller investigation proceeds to its conclusion unimpeded."

Maine Senator Susan Collins, also a Republican, said she was "concerned" that Rosenstein would no longer be overseeing the probe.

"It is imperative that the Administration not impede the Mueller investigation … Special Counsel Mueller must be allowed to complete his work without interference."

Whitakter wrote for CNN last year that the special counsel was "going too far" and needed to be brought under control.

He said that Trump was "absolutely correct" that the investigation should not look at the president's finances. "Mueller has come up to a red line in the Russia 2016 election-meddling investigation that he is dangerously close to crossing."

Congressional Republicans had warned Trump in March against trying to interfere with the probe or fire Mueller.

Read more: Richard Nixon's White House counsel says Jeff Sessions' ousting 'like a planned murder'

A Justice Department trial attorney told The Daily Beast that Whitaker "is on record as being more interested in propping up Trump than in upholding the rule of law.

"It’s hard to have confidence that he’ll do anything other than what the president had said in his tweets."

Democrats have raised concerns over the future of the investigation, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying that Session's departure puts the investigation in "new and immediate peril."

Read More: A former federal prosecutor thinks Mueller's quiet period before the midterms may not have been so quiet after all

Legal experts and lawmakers have also sounded the alarm.

Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School and an expert in criminal law, told Business Insider that it was a "disturbing development." 

"The nation's eyes are on Mr. Whitaker and how he discharges his responsibility to oversee the Mueller investigation." 

Hundreds of protests are scheduled across the US on Thursday to demand that Whitaker recuse himself immediately from overseeing the investigation. 

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NOW WATCH: This top economist has a radical plan to change the way Americans vote

• Two former senior Facebook employees are launching a new calendar app called Woven.
• It wants to improve how people schedule meetings and make users more efficient.
• Tim Campos, the CEO, was the chief information officer at Facebook until November 2016.

Facebook's old chief information officer wants to reinvent your calendar.

Tim Campos, Facebook's CIO until 2016, and Burc Arpat, a former senior engineer at the Silicon Valley tech firm, are launching a new company that is setting out to improve people's schedules, and has snagged $4.8 million in funding to do so.

Woven is an app that syncs with users' email and calendar accounts, and helps plan events and organize schedules. It can be used to automatically find times for a meeting that don't clash with attendees' schedules while taking into account travel times, or let users collaboratively edit events at the same time, or display a user's daily itinerary graphically on a map so they can understand where they need to be and when.

"It's kinda like a mashup of what of what would happen if Google Docs, Google Maps, and Google Calendar all got married," Campos told Business Insider in an interview.

The idea for Woven was born out of Campos' and Arpat's time at Facebook, Campos said, as he saw the difficulties users had with scheduling events and managing their time effectively. "My job at Facebook was productivity of the workforce," Campos said. The pair resolved to start their own business to tackle the issue and left in November 2016, and have been working quietly on Woven since.

It's currently a small team — just a dozen people, around half of them former Facebook employees — and they're based in Mountain View, California. The startup has raised $4.8 million in seed funding from venture capital investors Battery Ventures and others to fund its development. (Campos declined to disclose Woven's valuation.) Campos is CEO, while Arpat is CTO.

Woven is starting with a free calendar app called Woven, which launches on Thursday — but it has aspirations beyond this. 

"The calendar product is actually just the beginning of this," Campos said. "The technology is the graph engine. There's a ton of different things you can build on top of this graph engine. We basically built the same technology at Facebook, so you've seen a bit of this movie before."

One of these additional applications the company is exploring is analytics. Long-term, Woven hopes to target enterprise clients as a way to make money (the initial app is free-to-download), and offer companies useful insights on their workforces to make them more efficient — how long are people spending traveling between meetings? What kind of meetings are best-attended? And so on.

Woven also builds additional functionality onto calendar events. It lets users tag meetings with their own categories (which could then feed into analytics), or keep private notes for each event — and in the future, the startup plans to let users add documents to meetings and even rate them: "For people to say yeah, this was a good use of my time, this was a bad use of my time."

Campos even suggested it could one day sync with sleep tracking data — letting users quantify almost every aspect of their life with analytics, and see how work schedules might affect users' rest.

The calendar "hasn't changed in twenty years," Campos said.

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NOW WATCH: How to train the last days before a marathon

• An elite group of "patriotic" students in China have been selected to begin training for a new artificial-intelligence weapons development program. 
• Some 31 kids — all under 18 — have been recruited to participate in the "Experimental Program for Intelligent Weapons Systems" at the Beijing Institute of Technology, which will groom them to become AI weapons experts, the South China Morning Post reported, citing an announcement from the Beijing Institute of Technology. 
• China has largely kept the development of its AI-weapons technology opaque, but experts say China's army will likely leverage AI "to enhance its future capabilities, including in intelligent and autonomous unmanned systems."

An elite group of "patriotic" students in China have been selected to begin training for new artificial intelligence weapons development program. 

31 kids — all under 18 — have been recruited to participate in the "Experimental Program for Intelligent Weapons Systems" at the Beijing Institute of Technology, South China Morning Post reported Thursday, citing an announcement from the Beijing Institute of Technology. The program selected 27 boys and four girls from more than 5,000 applicants, the school's website said, according to the Post. 

"These kids are all exceptionally bright, but being bright is not enough," a BIT professor who asked not to be identified told the Post. 

"We are looking for other qualities such as creative thinking, willingness to fight, a persistence when facing challenges," he said. "A passion for developing new weapons is a must … and they must also be patriots."

According to the program's brochure, each student will be mentored by two weapons scientists with both academic and defense backgrounds. The kids will later be tasked with choosing a specialization within the weapons sector and will be assigned to the relevant defense laboratory to hone their skills under the guidance of experts. 

The institute expects students will go on to complete doctorate degrees and become leaders in the field of AI weapons technology, the Post said. 

China has been outspoken about its interest in developing AI technology 

China has touted its AI development across sectors, including a trillion-dollar autonomous-driving revolution and a massive expansion of its facial-recognition software. 

In his keynote speech to the ruling Communist Party last year, President Xi Jinping called for the embedding of artificial intelligence technologies into the economy to create growth and expand its capabilities across industries.

Read more: China is preparing for a trillion-dollar autonomous-driving revolution

In July, China released its own AI development plan, which proposed building up its domestic AI industry to $150 billion over the next few years to establish the country as an "innovation center for AI" by 2030.

And while China has largely kept the development of its AI-weapons technology opaque, Elsa B. Kania an adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security, predicts that China's army will "likely leverage AI to enhance its future capabilities, including in intelligent and autonomous unmanned systems."

China is reportedly working on a fleet of drone submarinesin order to give China’s navy an advantage at sea. And in April, the Chinese air force released details about an upcoming drill using fully autonomous swarms of drones. 

But experts have repeatedly warned about the dangers of AI 

Experts have repeatedly warned about the dangers AI, arguing that advanced systems which can make thousands of complex decisions every second could have "dual-use" to help or harm, depending on its design.

In February, AI experts across industries outlined in a 100-page report the dangers of AI technology and how the technology could be weaponized for malicious use. Aside from using AI technology for attacks in the digital realm, the technology could be used in the physical realm to turn technology, like drones, into weapons and attack targets at the push of a button or the click of a mouse. 

In April, China submitted its proposal to the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems announcing its desire to create a new protocol for restricting the use of AI weapons. In its proposal, China highlighted the dangers of AI weaponry but also stressed the need to continue developing AI technology. 

SEE ALSO: China is preparing for a trillion-dollar autonomous-driving revolution

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NOW WATCH: Navy SEALs explain the dangers of overplanning in both the military and business

• Ezra Miller's show-stopping red carpet look easily stole the show at the "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" premiere.
• The unique look comes from the Moncler Pierpaolo Piccioli collection and will keep even the darkest witches and wizards toasty warm with its down filling.
• Miller's character was a key part of the first movie— and "The Crimes of Grindelwald" will likely delve more deeply into his past.

If your character survived certain death at the end of the first movie in your franchise, you might come out looking something like Ezra Miller did for his recent red-carpet appearance. 

On Thursday, Miller, along with his co-stars including Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Zoe Kravitz, and Jude Law graced the red carpet in Paris to promote "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald."

Miller opted for a stunning albeit puffy all-black look

Rocking the red carpet in a Moncler Pierpaolo Piccioli ensemble, you can almost feel the confidence rolling off of Miller in big, puffy waves that clearly differentiate Miller from his character in the first film.

Of course, that could also have to do with the very real possibility of Credence Barebone secretly being one of the Lestranges from way back— but fans will just have to wait and see if that particular theory is accurate.

The rest of the cast of "Fantastic Beasts" donned simpler attire

You can catch the film in theaters on November 16.

Ezra Miller recently opened up about Hollywood and his #MeToo moment

In a recent spread for The Hollywood Reporter, Miller said he was harassed by an unnamed director and producer when he was underage. 

"They [the producer and director] gave me wine and I was underaged," Miller recalled. "They were like, 'Hey, want to be in our movie about gay revolution?' And I was like, 'No, you guys are monsters.'"

Miller continued to reflect on the significance of the #MeToo movement in Hollywood. 

"It's a great f---ing age of being like, 'You know what? That s---'s unacceptable,' And it's amazing for a lot of us to watch. 'Cause, like, we all knew it was unacceptable when we f---ing survived it," he continued.

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• The trial of accused Mexican kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman started this week in New York City.
• A jury has been selected, and Guzman's lawyers want the court to let him hug his wife before opening statements next week.
• The court said no, citing ongoing concerns that the elusive cartel chief could be plotting something else.

Jury selection for the trial of accused Mexican cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is over, but the purported Sinaloa cartel leader will face the court alone when the trial gets underway next week.

In a November 6 letter, Guzman's defense team asked Judge Brian Cogan to allow Guzman to give his wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, "a brief momentary greeting to include perhaps an embrace" after entering the courtroom on November 13, before opening statements.

"It can be a brief embrace in open court with the courtroom railing between them," the letter, written by one of Guzman's lawyers, continued. "This entire process should not take more than a few seconds."

The letter justifies the "humanitarian gesture" by citing the conditions Guzman has faced since he was extradited to the US from Mexico in January 2017, hours before President Donald Trump took office.

He has been held under tight security in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.

He has been held in a windowless cell with the lights on at all times for 23 hours a day during the week and 24 hours a day during the weekend. He has had limited contact with outsiders and none with his wife, which has been "to prevent [Guzman] from committing, soliciting, or conspiring to commit additional criminal activity," the defense's letter states, quoting the prosecution.

Guzman's legal team has made numerous complaints about his treatment.

Read also:The Coast Guard is catching more drug-running subs, but most 'very stealthy' narco subs are probably going undetected

In March 2017, after seven weeks in US custody, lawyers said the conditions, which were "far more extreme" than those in Mexico, had already caused him to have hallucinations. Later that spring, his lawyers said the repetition of a "nature program about a rhinoceros" on a TV he had access to, and other limits on his confinement, were furthering his "sense of frustration and isolation."

Amnesty International said the conditions appeared "unnecessarily harsh and to breach international standards for humane treatment."

The court was sympathetic to the November 6 request, but even though the defense team said the embrace would be supervised and "would not pose a threat to security," Cogan was unwilling to grant it.

Guzman's behavior during the proceedings has been "exemplary," Cogan said in his response on Thursday. And Guzman has "displayed considerable grace under pressure."

"Nevertheless, having conferred extensively with the U.S. Marshals Service about defendant's request, the Court is constrained to deny it," Cogan adds. "The Marshals have stressed that acceding to the request would be contrary to all the security procedures that have been put in place ... and would treat defendant differently than any other person in the Marshals' custody who is subject to such measures."

US officials have taken special efforts to secure Guzman while in their custody, called Special Administrative Measures, or SAMs, largely in response to the reputation Guzman has earned as a powerful criminal figure who has bribed and threatened authorities throughout Mexico and Latin America.

Guzman has also mounted sophisticated escapes while held in Mexico. In early 2001, he broke out of Puente Grande prison in southwest Mexico. (It was rumored he snuck out in a laundry cart, though he is believed to have simply walked out.)

He was captured 13 years later, but after a year in another prison closer to Mexico City, he broke out again, riding a modified motorcycle on rails through a mile-long, ventilated, lighted tunnel that went from a partially completed house under the prison, emerging in the shower of his cell, where grinding sounds were picked up by prison security systems on the night of his escape.

The court upheld the SAMs imposed on Guzman in May 2017, Cogan noted, "including the restriction that prohibits defendant from communicating with or having any physical contact with his wife."

Now read: Mexican troops are in the streets to fight the drug war, and the country's defense chief says legalization may be 'a way out'

At that time, the court recognized the measures were "tailored to the Government's legitimate objectives of preventing defendant from coordinating any escape from prison or directing any attack on individuals who might be cooperating with the Government."

The factors that justified those measures at that time are still present, Cogan said, especially "on the eve of trial, when the reality of the potential liability defendant faces if convicted may be setting in."

SEE ALSO: 33 years ago, rebels allegedly backed by Pablo Escobar stormed Colombia's Palace of Justice — here's how the terrifying siege went down

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NOW WATCH: The wives of El Chapo's henchmen reveal how they hid and spent $2 billion

It's a common misconception that the date printed on packaged food is a firm deadline for when you should toss it. In reality, one of the only items in the US with a federally-regulated expiration date is infant formula― which is why "sell by" dates and "best if used by (or before)" dates are more of a guideline than a rule.

As Paul VanLandingham, a senior faculty member at the Center for Food and Beverage Management of Johnson & Wales University explained in an interview with WebMD, these numbers refer to food quality rather than food safety. While the former dictates how long a store should display a product to ensure its highest level of quality, the latter refers to long consumers should keep a product before it loses flavor or declines in quality.

When it comes to these 15 food items, you can disregard the date on the package.

You can keep dry, boxed pasta for one to two years past its printed date.

Dry pasta can be kept for one to two years past its printed date, according to Eat By Date. FoodSafety.gov, a food resource from the US Department of Health & Human Services, offers the same estimate.

Fresh (uncooked) pasta ― the kind you'll find in the refrigerated section of the supermarket next to Italian cheese ― is only good for four to five days beyond the date printed on the packaging. When frozen, it will keep for six to eight months.

Cooked pasta, whether dry or fresh, can be kept for seven days in the fridge. In the freezer, it will stay fresh for six to eight months.

Breakfast cereal lasts six to eight months beyond the date on the box when it's unopened.

When unopened, breakfast cereal can last for six to eight months past the date on the box. If opened, your favorite cereal will stay fresh for between four and six months. In contrast, cooked cereals such as oatmeal will only keep for four to five days in the fridge once prepared.

"Cereals don't really go bad. There is not that much of a quality issue. If you leave your cereal box open, it can get stale, but you are still not going to get sick from it," Emily Broad Leib, the director of Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic, told TIME magazine.

No matter what date is on the carton, you can use eggs within three to five weeks of purchasing them.

You've probably heard that an egg is spoiled if it floats when immersed in water. All eggs, however, become more buoyant over time as their air cells increase in size, as the University of Nebraska ― Lincoln's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources explained in the article Cracking the Date Code on Egg Cartons.

No matter what date is printed on the carton, eggs are safe to use within three to five weeks of when you purchase them. Hard-boiled eggs keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.

Read more: 5 simple tricks for making the perfect hard boiled egg

• Vine founder Dom Hofmann revealed Thursday he would be releasing a new looping video app next spring.
• The app will be called Byte.
• Vine was a massively popular video service that Twitter acquired in 2012 and shut down four years later.

Good news, long-suffering Vine fans: A successor to the popular video service is finally on the way.

Dom Hofmann, one of the cofounders of Vine, plans to launch a similar app called Byte next spring. Like Vine, Byte will feature looping videos, Hofmann announced Thursday on Twitter.  

Vine was an app that allowed users to create and share six-second-long videos that it looped infinitely. Twitter acquired the app in 2012, and by 2015, it had attracted some 200 million active users. 

But Twitter struggled to find a way to make money off the app and shut down its core features in 2016, much to the disappointment of millions of Vine fans.

After the shutdown, another looping video service has caught on with consumers — TikTok. In September, TikTok was the most downloaded social app in the US. 

Read more:A viral video app you've probably never heard of had more downloads in September than Facebook, YouTube, or Snapchat

Despite that, Vine loyalists have been calling for a return of their beloved app ever since Twitter shuttered it. 

Hofmann has been listening. He announced last November that he was building a Vine successor. Since then snippets of information about it have trickled out through a forum site, Hofmann's Twitter account, and a TechCrunch report. 

SEE ALSO: Eric Schmidt takes the blame for Google's social networking failures: 'I suspect we didn’t fully understand how to do it'

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The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

Furnishing your first apartment can be a long, stressful process. As a homemaking novice, you'll likely remember the big things like a couch and mattress, but might forget about the more obscure items like a bath mat — at least until your first slip on your puddle-laden bathroom floor. Making the perfect checklist of apartment essentials is only half the battle — then you have to scour different sites to decide which shaggy throw you actually want to buy. 

Luckily, there are some places you can rely on to make this process a little bit easier — places where you can shop for your bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom all within the same URL, where you won't blow your budget on luxury housewares (well actually, we can't promise that), where you can put a luxury mattress and a lifetime supply of Clorox wipes all in the same shopping cart. These stores don't take all of the stress out of apartment shopping, but they sure do make it easier. As someone who's in the process of making her first apartment feel like home, that place for me is Target.

Read on to see our picks of 26 things you should get for your first apartment or home at Target:

A basic dinnerware set

12 piece Avesta Stoneware Dinnerware Set, $19.99

This set has a minimalist style that fits any apartment aesthetic and looks a lot nicer than the $20 price tag would suggest. It's everything you need for your first apartment — and it'll save you the inevitable freak out that would occur after your roommate chipped your first set of Williams Sonoma bowls. 

A frame to help you personalize your space

Made By Design Thin Single Image Frame, $3

Frames filled with pictures of family, friends, and important life memories will make your space really feel like home. It's what's on the inside of the frame that counts, but having a nice way to display your photos adds to the appeal.

A bathroom rug

Threshold Spacedye Striped Bath Rug, $24.99

This bath rug is a practical buy that also has the power to spruce up a plain bathroom. Pick a fun color or pattern, but whatever you pick be sure to get one that' machine washable. After living on the bathroom floor, these things need to be cleaned frequently.

The US Army is moving forward on next-generation concealment technology to ensure that American soldiers can hide in plain sight.

Fibrotex has built an Ultra-Light Camouflage Netting System that can be used to conceal soldier's positions, vehicles, tanks and aircraft. The new "camouflage system will mask soldiers, vehicles and installations from state-of-the-art electro-optical sensors and radars," the company said Thursday in a press release sent to Business Insider.

Fibrotex has been awarded a contract to supply this advanced camouflage to conceal troops from night vision, thermal imaging, radar, and more. 

Soldiers, vehicles, and other relevant systems can just about disappear in snowy, desert, urban, and woodland environments, according to the camouflage-maker.

The new program aims to replace outdated camouflage that protects soldiers in the visible spectrum but not against more advanced, high-end sensors. ULCANS "provides more persistent [infrared], thermal & counter-radar performance," Fibrotex explained.

The Army has awarded Fibrotex a 10-year indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract valued at $480 million. Full-scale production will begin next year at a manufacturing facility in McCreary County, Kentucky, where the company expects to create and secure hundreds of new jobs in the coming years.

"Today, more than ever, military forces and opposition groups are using night vision sensors and thermal devices against our troops," Eyal Malleron, the CEO of Fibrotex USA, said in a statement.

"But, by using Fibrotex’s camouflage, concealment and deception solutions, we make them undetectable again, allowing them to continue keeping us safe."

Enemies can't see in, but US soldiers can see out

The result came from roughly two years of testing at the Army’s Natick Soldier Systems Center, where new technology was tested against the Army's most advanced sensors.

Fibrotex noted that the netting is reversible, creating the possibility for two distinctly different prints for varied environments. And while outsiders can't see through the netting, those on the inside have an excellent view of their surroundings, as can be seen in the picture above.

See how the camouflage netting avoids detection:

The new camouflage for troops and vehicles has reportedly been tested against the best sensors in the Army, and it beat them all.

The Mobile Camouflage Solution (MCS) takes concealment to another level, as "the MCS provides concealment while the platform is moving," the company revealed. Business Insider inquired about the secret sauce to blend in moving vehicles with changing scenery, but Fibrotex would only say that their "technology combines special materials, a unique fabric structure and a dedicated manufacturing process."

ULCANS and its relevant variants are based on "combat-proven technologies" designed by the Israel-based Fibrotex Technologies Ltd., the parent company for Fibrotex USA, over the past two decades. The company's products have been specifically modified to meet the needs of the Department of Defense.

"We have more than 50 years of experience, with thousands of hours in the field and a deep understanding of conventional and asymmetric warfare. The U.S. Army tested our best camouflage solutions and the camouflage repeatedly demonstrated the ability to defeat all sensors known to be operating in the battlefield and throughout the electromagnetic spectrum," Malleron explained.

• Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell is reportedly planning to run for president in 2020. 
• Swalwell told The Hill he has nothing to announce in that regard "yet" after a source told Politico he's "definitely running."
• At 37-years-old, Swalwell is roughly half President Donald Trump's age. 
• Democrats like Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Chris Murphy, and Sen. Cory Booker have been floated as top contenders, though none have made any official announcements.

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell is reportedly planning on running for president in 2020. 

A source described as close to the California congressman told Politico, "He's definitely running."

But Swalwell told The Hill he has nothing to announce in that regard "yet."

"I've asked my mom to stop talking to Politico. Just kidding. No news to report. Yet,"he said. 

At 37-years-old, Swalwell is roughly half President Donald Trump's age. He would be among the youngest candidates for president in recent history, and just a few years over the age requirement to seek the highest office in the land. The Constitution states a person must be at least 35 to run for president. 

Adding to the speculation of his potential presidential ambitions is the fact Swalwell is traveling to Iowa later this week for the Asian & Latino Coalition in Des Moines and Iowa Democratic Party chairs in Dubuque.

With the 2018 midterm elections mostly wrapped up and the Democrats seizing a majority in the House, there's already a great deal of speculation surrounding who will challenge Trump in 2020.

Read more: Amy Klobuchar is being talked up as a 2020 contender who could 'bury' Trump after she won re-election in Minnesota

Democrats like Sen. Kamala Harris, of California, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey have been floated as top contenders, though none have made any official announcements.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has also flirted with running. And many have suggested Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who ran as a Democrat in 2016, should give it another go as well. Neither Biden nor Sanders have said they're definitely running. 

Despite losing to Sen. Ted Cruz in the US Senate race in Texas, Rep. Beto O'Rourke has also been suggested as a potential 2020 candidate due to the impressive campaign he ran in a deeply red state. O'Rourke told several news outlets this week he is not planning a White House run in 2020.

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• Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is exploring a job opportunity with Fox News as a contributor, sources familiar with the situation told Politico.
• One source told Politico that Fox News was unlikely to hire Zinke unless President Donald Trump asks Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Fox's holding company.
• An Interior Department official told Business Insider that the report was "completely fabricated" and a Fox News spokesperson denied that talks with Zinke had taken place.
• Zinke, who came under fire for a series of scandals, reportedly plans on resigning from the Interior Department by the end of the year.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is exploring a job opportunity with Fox News as a contributor, sources familiar with the situation said in a Politico report published on Thursday.

Zinke, who came under fire for a series of scandals, plans on resigning from the Interior Department by the end of the year, sources said. The former House Republican and Navy SEAL is currently under an ethics investigation for possibly using his position for personal gain.

In addition to potential opportunities with the conservative-leaning news organization, Zinke is interested in working for energy companies and private equity firms, two sources told Politico.

Both Fox News and the Interior Department denied that talks had taken place. One Interior Department official told Business Insider that the report as "completely fabricated," while a Fox News spokesperson said that "no one at Fox News has spoken to Zinke about a contributor role."

The exact details of the inspector general's investigation remain unclear, but Zinke has been scrutinized for a number of incidents — including reportedly spending thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds for a government helicopter ride to arrive on time for a horseback ride with Vice President Mike Pence; and a lucrative real-estate deal in his Montana hometown that involves oil giant Halliburton, a company the Interior Department regulates.

Zinke has previously had similar issues related to his use of government funds. While on official military orders in the late 1990s, he made some restoration work on a childhood home and was eventually forced to repay some unauthorized expenses to the Navy, Outside magazine previously reported.

SEE ALSO: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reportedly spent $6,250 on a government helicopter ride so he could go horseback riding with Mike Pence

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• Google hired Geisinger Health CEO David Feinberg to lead its healthcare efforts.
• Feinberg's role will be to coordinate all of the healthcare-related initiatives Google already has underway, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Google has been hiring healthcare executives as it seeks to expand its presence in the industry.

Google hired Geisinger Health CEO David Feinberg to a new role leading the company's healthcare efforts. 

Feinberg will leave Geisinger on January 3, the Pennsylvania hospital system said in a statement. Jaewon Ryu, Geisinger's current chief medical officer, will serve as interim president and CEO at Geisinger.

Feinberg's role will be to coordinate the health initiatives Google has underway, including the work happening in artificial intelligence and devices, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Feinberg has been at Geisinger, a health system in Pennsylvania that provides health insurance as well as care through its medical centers, since 2015. Prior to that, he served as CEO of UCLA's health system. Ryu is an emergency medicine physician who previously worked as an executive at the health insurer Humana. He joined Geisinger in 2016.

A representative from Google didn't return a request for comment.

At Google, Feinberg will join former Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove, who recently joined the company as an adviser to Google Cloud. A unit of Google's parent company also hired former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf last year.

Alphabet, Google's parent company, has a number of bets in healthcare ranging from Verily, its life sciences arm that's developing everything from glucose-monitoring contact lenses to surgical robots, to Calico, its life-extension spinoff. Google AI has some projects in the healthcare space as well as through DeepMind.

The company has also made a number of investments in healthcare through its venture funds GV and Capital G as well as through Alphabet itself. 

This isn't the first time Feinberg has had a brush with tech. In June, CNBC reported that he was in talks to lead the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan healthcare joint venture. That role ultimately went to Dr. Atul Gawande. 

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Oprah Winfrey has unveiled the annual list of her favorite things.

As usual, her picks span almost every category you can think of from kitchen utensils and smart gadgets to travel pillows and pet DNA kits, making it a useful gift guide ahead of the holiday season.

All of her recommended products are available on Amazon so you can shop from the comfort of your home.

Take a closer look at Oprah's 104 favorite things of 2018 below.

Oprah is a fan of this dog DNA test kit by Embark Veterinary.

Cost: $159

Find out more about the dog DNA test kit by Embark Veterinary here >

She also recommends getting Amazon's Echo Spot.

Cost: $99.99 

Find out more about the Echo Spot by Amazon here >

Try Truff's truffle-infused hot sauce.

Cost: $17.98

Find out more about the truffle-infused hot sauce by Truff here >