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By Uditha Jayasinghe and Thilina Kaluthotage GALGAMUWA, Sri Lanka, Oct 15 (Reuters) – Clad in his khaki wildlife officer’s uniform, Dewagiri Mudiyanselage Thilakaratne Bandara rides his motorbike the short distance from his home to the electric fence that is the main line of defence against the dozens of wild elephants that live in the rapidly shrinking forest nearby. The fence stretches 14 km (9 miles) along the Siyambalangamuwa tank, a reservoir in the island’s northwest, to protect the more than 2,000 families who live in the nearby villages. Galgamuwa is on the front line of one of the world’s most serious human-elephant conflicts. An average of 138 people have been killed in encounters with the animals each year in Sri Lanka since 2019, the second-highest death toll in the world. The death toll for elephants, forced into villages for food as their habitat shrinks, climbed to an average of 402 a year during the same period, the world’s highest. “Twenty years ago, we didn’t have this situation because across from the tank there were large forests, but they were eventually cleared and then the elephants started moving closer and that’s how this village started being affected,” Bandara said, as he worked to repair the fence with his team.   “When we were little, we had to go to a corner of the tank to see elephants. Now, in the nights, the elephants come to see us.”      Sri Lankans have deep cultural ties with elephants. The animals feature in colourful temple pageants, and owning one is a status symbol. Elephants are also a mainstay of the island’s $4 billion tourism industry. But elephant deaths reached a record high of 488 in 2023, according to the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC). Data shows dozens were shot as they encroached on villages, while others died from poisoning, electrocution, in train accidents or after falling into wells. ‘HE WAS HUNGRY BECAUSE OF US’ Bandara, 48, has first-hand experience of how devastating the human-elephant conflict can be. Last December, an elephant wandered into Bandara’s backyard to snack on mangoes. He attacked Bandara and his wife, Rathnayake Mudiyanselage Shirani Rathnayake, after she rushed to help him. Bandara was left with a broken leg and dislocated shoulder. Rathnayake, also 48, was trampled and had to have her right leg amputated. She now uses a wheelchair. “Our lives are now completely different from before the elephant attack. My wife and I used to do everything together. We used to farm together. But 200% of those activities have been disrupted. Now we must look after her and the mental strain of that is something we both feel,” Bandara said, standing outside his home. Villagers have been forced to adapt their daily lives to reduce the risk of confrontations. The nearby school starts lessons 30 minutes after the nationally mandated time of 7:30 a.m. to avoid the early morning when elephants might be around. Villagers also finish work earlier so they can get home before dark, while funerals and weddings are scheduled to minimise the chance of an elephant encounter. Bandara and his neighbours have a WhatsApp group dedicated to tracking elephant movements. Neighbours often come together to try and chase away any elephants that attempt a raid, yelling and lighting firecrackers, and also take people to hospital in the event of an attack. Bandara supports ending forest clearing, usually done for farming, and wants to see a commitment to reforestation. Sri Lanka’s forest cover has plummeted from roughly 70% in the 1920s to about 34% today, World Bank data shows.  To complicate matters, as many as 70% of Sri Lanka’s estimated 7,451 wild elephants live outside protected areas. The elephant population is also growing, recording a 27% increase from a decade ago, according to the latest census data. All this has pushed elephants and people closer.  “I do not feel any hatred towards the animal or any animal. He was hungry because of the activities of us humans,” Bandara said. “I see this situation more as karma that my wife and I must endure. What will I get by hating that animal? He is innocent.”  Click on  to see the related photo essay (Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Editing by Kate Mayberry) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

TAIPEI, Oct 15 (Reuters) – TSMC, the world’s largest manufacturer of advanced AI chips, will likely report a sixth consecutive quarter of record earnings on Thursday, driven by booming infrastructure spending in the tech sector.  Analysts say demand for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) AI chipmaking capacity, as well as its advanced chip packaging technology, CoWoS, remains strong. That has catapulted Asia’s most valuable company, a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, to new heights. Its market capitalisation is almost double that of South Korean rival Samsung Electronics at around $2 trillion. On its Thursday earnings call, TSMC is expected to report a 65% surge in third-quarter net profit to T$746.3 billion ($23.4 billion), according to an LSEG SmartEstimate compiled from 16 analysts. SmartEstimates place greater weight on forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate. The call at which it will provide fourth-quarter and updated full-year guidance is scheduled for 0600 GMT. Any result above T$706.56 billion would mark the company’s highest-ever quarterly net income, as well as its 11th consecutive quarter of profit growth. Last week, it reported a 50% year-on-year rise in third-quarter revenue, beating market forecasts and hitting a new record. TSMC is investing $265 billion to build chip factories in the US state of Arizona, including an additional $100 billion that was unveiled in July. In September, Reuters reported that TSMC was evaluating a potential investment in Texas. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also said last week that his companies would build and operate the Terafab AI chip complex, with TSMC potentially subleasing a part of it. On its July earnings call, the company raised its capex forecast for this year to between $60 billion and $64 billion from a previous prediction at the high end of $52 billion to $56 billion. TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares have gained 63% so far this year, broadly in line with a 69% rise for the broader Taiwanese market.  (Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Field Level Media Oct 14 (Field Level Media) – LOS ANGELES — For the first time as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani will be in the No. 6 slot in the batting order on Wednesday when the Dodgers face the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. The slugging Ohtani has not hit sixth since 2020, when he was a member of the Los Angeles Angels. In that COVID-shortened season, Ohtani played in 44 of 60 games and hit only .190 with seven home runs, while dealing with an elbow strain. The Japanese superstar has three singles in 20 at-bats during the 2026 post- season. Milwaukee leads the series, 2-0. Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts revealed on Tuesday that he had discussed the possibility of resting Ohtani against Milwaukee left-hander Robert Gasser in Game 3, but the slugger was “adamant” that he is healthy enough to serve as the designated hitter. Ohtani has been plagued by right biceps and left knee injuries since June. Kyle Tucker moves up five slots from Monday’s Game 2 lineup. He’s in the cleanup spot. Roberts also moved catcher Will Smith down two spots to seventh and inserted third baseman Miguel Rojas to replace Max Muncy in a righty-for- lefty exchange. Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell will oppose Gasser. The Brewers will again sit Christian Yelich against the southpaw, opting for right-handed hitter Andrew Vaughn, who will serve as the designated hitter. (–Field Level Media) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Milana Vinn NEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Anthropic’s third-quarter revenue rose 45% to $16.8 billion from the previous quarter, according to an investor who attended a pre-IPO meeting with Anthropic leadership in San Francisco on Wednesday. Revenue in the first quarter was $4.7 billion, and $11.6 billion in the second quarter, according to the person who attended the investor day meant to familiarize prospective Anthropic investors before its highly anticipated IPO. The company was profitable on an adjusted basis in the third quarter, Anthropic told the group, the source said. Anthropic did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The IPO is expected to precede a public listing by rival OpenAI, making Anthropic an early test of investor appetite for heavily unprofitable AI developers pursuing massive scale. Its public-market debut is likely to be pushed until after the November US midterm elections, Reuters has reported.   Scrutiny of AI companies’ finances has intensified as they pour money into chips, data centers and computing power needed to develop and operate increasingly powerful models. Targeting a valuation of over $2 trillion, Anthropic is seeking to convince investors that its breakneck revenue growth can eventually outrun the enormous costs of building and running AI systems. Last year, Anthropic’s revenue increased twelvefold to nearly $4.6 billion, even as the company lost more than $8 billion on an operating basis, excluding writedowns of various liabilities mostly tied to previous fundraising, Reuters reported exclusively last month.  The company has committed at least $518 billion over a decade for cloud services, computing and infrastructure. Founded by former OpenAI executives, Anthropic has emerged as one of the leading generative AI developers with its Claude family of models. Its expansion has been underpinned by Alphabet’s Google and Amazon, which are simultaneously investors, suppliers of computing power and important distribution partners, as well as AI competitors. Anthropic has also sought to distinguish itself through its focus on AI safety, warning of the dangers posed by increasingly capable systems even as it competes in the race to develop and commercialize more powerful models. Its research has found that its own AI agents have engaged in troubling behavior in test environments, including leaking sensitive information and sabotaging code, though the company has said it has not seen evidence of such misalignment in real-world deployments. (Reporting by Milana Vinn in New York; Additional reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh, Sriraj Kalluvila and Matthew Lewis) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

Oct 14 (Reuters) – Anthropic told investors its third-quarter revenue jumped to $16.8 billion and that it turned a profit in the quarter, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru Editing by Anil D’Silva) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com