AFP USA

A US judge on Wednesday handed Meta a victory over authors who accused the tech giant of violating copyright law by training Llama artificial intelligence on their creations without permission.District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco ruled that Meta’s use of the works to train its AI model was “transformative” enough to constitute “fair use” under copyright law, in the second such courtroom triumph for AI firms this week.However, it came with a caveat that the authors could have pitched a winning argument that by training powerful generative AI with copyrighted works, tech firms are creating a tool that could let a sea of users compete with them in the literary marketplace.”No matter how transformative (generative AI) training may be, it’s hard to imagine that it can be fair use to use copyrighted books to develop a tool to make billions or trillions of dollars while enabling the creation of a potentially endless stream of competing works that could significantly harm the market for those books,” Chhabria said in his ruling.Tremendous amounts of data are needed to train large language models powering generative AI. Musicians, book authors, visual artists and news publications have sued various AI companies that used their data without permission or payment.AI companies generally defend their practices by claiming fair use, arguing that training AI on large datasets fundamentally transforms the original content and is necessary for innovation.”We appreciate today’s decision from the court,” a Meta spokesperson said in response to an AFP inquiry.”Open-source AI models are powering transformative innovations, productivity and creativity for individuals and companies, and fair use of copyright material is a vital legal framework for building this transformative technology.”In the case before Chhabria, a group of authors sued Meta for downloading pirated copies of their works and using them to train the open-source Llama generative AI, according to court documents.Books involved in the suit include Sarah Silverman’s comic memoir “The Bedwetter” and Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” the documents showed.”This ruling does not stand for the proposition that Meta’s use of copyrighted materials to train its language models is lawful,” the judge stated.”It stands only for the proposition that these plaintiffs made the wrong arguments and failed to develop a record in support of the right one.”- Market harming? -A different federal judge in San Franciso on Monday sided with AI firm Anthropic regarding training its models on copyrighted books without authors’ permission.District Court Judge William Alsup ruled that the company’s training of its Claude AI models with books bought or pirated was allowed under the “fair use” doctrine in the US Copyright Act.”Use of the books at issue to train Claude and its precursors was exceedingly transformative and was a fair use,” Alsup wrote in his decision.”The technology at issue was among the most transformative many of us will see in our lifetimes,” Alsup added in his decision, comparing AI training to how humans learn by reading books.The ruling stems from a class-action lawsuit filed by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, who accused Anthropic of illegally copying their books to train chatbot Claude, the company’s ChatGPT rival.Alsup rejected Anthropic’s bid for blanket protection, ruling that the company’s practice of downloading millions of pirated books to build a permanent digital library was not justified by fair use protections.

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars allocated for the construction of electric vehicle charging stations in over a dozen US states.In a ruling Tuesday, US District Judge Tana Lin granted a preliminary injunction to require distribution of funds for National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) development, which was allotted $5 billion for use from 2022 to 2026.Signed into law by then-president Joe Biden in 2021, the NEVI program was defunded by the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation in February, axing expected funding for 16 states and the District of Columbia.President Donald Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” abandoned electric vehicle booster programs and campaigned to drill for oil extensively. Trump has also blocked California’s plan to ban internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035.Seventeen attorneys general sued the Trump administration to unfreeze funds in May, led by California, the state with the largest number of electric vehicles.”It is no secret that the Trump Administration is beholden to the fossil fuel agenda,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, adding legal programs can’t be dismantled “just so that the President’s Big Oil friends can continue basking in record-breaking profits.”The Democrat praised Lin’s order and said California “looks forward to continuing to vigorously defend itself from this executive branch overreach.”In responding to the ruling, a Department of Transportation spokesperson on Wednesday blasted the Biden-era NEVI program as a “disaster” and said Lin was “another liberal judicial activist making nonsensical rulings from the bench because they hate President Trump.”It was not clear whether the administration intends to appeal the ruling.”While we assess our legal options, the order does not stop our ongoing work to reform the program,” the spokesperson added.The Trump administration has until July 2 to appeal or release funds under Lin’s order, which applies to Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

Fresh from his success with the “Dune” saga, Denis Villeneuve has been tapped to direct the next movie in the storied James Bond franchise, Amazon MGM Studios announced Wednesday.The online retail giant has chosen a filmmaker very much in vogue in Hollywood as he makes his first foray into the world of the now-iconic British agent 007, first brought to life seven decades ago by writer Ian Fleming.Villeneuve, who is Canadian, said he grew up watching Bond films with his father. “I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory,” Villeneuve said in a statement released by Amazon. “I intend to honor the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come,” he added. “This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honor.”There is no word yet on who will play Her Majesty’s spy.Daniel Craig’s final portrayal of James Bond came in 2021 following the release of “No Time to Die.” Since then, 007 has seen many twists and turns.Amazon paid nearly $8.45 billion to buy legendary Hollywood studio MGM in 2022, which included distribution rights to Bond’s extensive back catalog.But for the subsequent three years, the retail behemoth was met with resistance from Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, the franchise’s historic producers who for decades had jealously guarded the governance of one of cinema’s most valuable properties.The company run by Jeff Bezos finally reached a financial agreement with the pair in February to take creative control of the franchise.Some fans have expressed concern that the character will be exploited by Amazon through a multitude of new films, or spinoff series that go direct to its streaming platform Prime.Against this backdrop, the choice of Villeneuve, who also directed “Blade Runner 2049” and “Arrival,” resonates as a pledge to purists.”We are honored that Denis has agreed to direct James Bond’s next chapter,” Mike Hopkins, head of Amazon MGM Studios, said in the statement, noting Villeneuve’s track record with “immersive storytelling.””He is a cinematic master, whose filmography speaks for itself.” Villeneuve’s two installments of science-fiction saga “Dune” were each nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. “Dune: Part Two,” released in 2024, grossed $700 million globally and won Oscars for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.

After weeks of painstaking testimony in the high-profile trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, legal teams will enter a pivotal moment of the proceedings Thursday as they deliver closing arguments.Both sides have said their climactic summations will last several hours each, as the fate of the once-powerful music mogul hangs in the balance.Prosecutors say Combs, 55, masterminded a decades-long pattern of wrongdoing that saw him and an inner circle of employees carry out crimes including forced labor, arson, bribery and witness tampering.The famed producer coerced two women — the singer Casandra Ventura and later a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane — into years of drug-addled sex with paid escorts, prosecutors say.The most serious charge of racketeering — which includes the existence of a criminal enterprise that committed a pattern of offenses — could send Combs to prison for life. He also faces two charges of sex trafficking and two more for transportation for purposes of prostitution.But Combs denies it all: his lawyers have argued the artist’s relationships were consensual and have sought to convince jurors that many of the witnesses who testified were doing so for reasons including financial gain or jealousy.Along with alleged victims, government witnesses included former assistants and other employees, as well as escorts, friends and family of Ventura, and a hotel security guard who said he was bribed with $100,000 in a paper bag.Law enforcement officials and a forensic psychologist were also among the 34 individuals to take the stand.Combs opted against testifying on his own behalf, a common strategy of defense teams who are not required to prove innocence, only to cast doubt on government allegations of guilt.The government’s evidence included thousands of pages of phone and text records, and hours of testimony involved meticulous readings of some of the most explicit and wrenching exchanges.Many of those records appear to indicate distress on the part of the alleged victims. But a lot of the messages also show affection and desire — texts the defense underscored again and again.Jurors have seen video evidence of the sex parties prosecutors say were criminal, while the defense has exhibited exchanges they said imply consent.Also in evidence are reams of financial records — including CashApp payments to escorts — as well as flight and hotel records.- Deliberations up next -Since early May the proceedings have gripped the Manhattan federal courthouse where they’re taking place. And though electronics — that includes phones, laptops, and even AirPods — are barred from the building and must be left with security, dozens of influencers and content creators have buzzed around the courthouse’s exterior every day, delivering hot takes to eager social media fans.Combs is incarcerated and does not enter or exit the courthouse publicly. But some of the high-profile attendees and witnesses do, including members of the music mogul’s family and figures like Kid Cudi, the rapper who testified that Combs’s entourage torched his car.The marathon closing arguments are anticipated to wrap up on Friday.There is a slim chance jurors will go into deliberations that afternoon, but legal teams have indicated it’s more likely the panel of citizens will get the case on Monday.Then the world waits, as 12 New Yorkers consider the future of a man whose reputation as a dynamic starmaker is now in tatters.

A Mississippi man who had been on Death Row for nearly 50 years was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, one of two executions in the United States this week.Richard Jordan, 79, was convicted in 1976 of the murder of Edwina Marter, the wife of a bank executive in the town of Gulfport.Jordan, a shipyard worker, kidnapped Marter from her home and demanded a $25,000 ransom.He was apprehended when he went to pick up the money.Jordan confessed to murdering Marter and led the authorities to her body, which had been hidden in a forest. She had been shot.Jordan was pronounced dead at 6:16 pm Central Time (2316 GMT) at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, according to a statement issued by the Mississippi Department of Corrections.He was Mississippi’s longest-serving and oldest death row inmate at the time of his execution, the statement said.His execution came one day after that of Thomas Gudinas, 51, who was put to death by lethal injection in Florida on Tuesday.Gudinas was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murder of Michelle McGrath, who was last seen leaving a bar in the city of Orlando in the early hours.McGrath’s battered body was found the next day and Gudinas was arrested shortly afterwards.Florida has carried out more executions — seven — than any other US state so far this year.The execution in Mississippi was the first in the southern state since December 2022.There have been 25 executions in the United States this year: 20 by lethal injection, two by firing squad and three by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.The use of nitrogen gas as an execution method has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment, and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

Young self-declared socialist Zohran Mamdani was on the cusp of a stunning victory Wednesday in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary — pummeling his scandal-scarred establishment rival in a race seen as a fight for the future of the Democratic Party.Results were not yet final, but Mamdani — who is just 33 and would become the city’s first Muslim mayor — had such a commanding lead that his biggest rival, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, conceded defeat overnight.  Mamdani’s success was seen as a rebuke to Democratic centrists who backed the powerful Cuomo, as the party flails nationally in search of a way to counter Republican President Donald Trump’s hard-right movement.The Ugandan-born state assemblyman was behind Cuomo in polls until near the end, surging on a message of lower rents, free daycare and other populist ideas in the notoriously expensive metropolis.Commenting on the primary result in his former hometown, Trump lashed out at Mamdani as “a 100% Communist Lunatic,” adding that Democrats had “crossed the line” by choosing him.The top two Democrats in Congress, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — both from New York — separately applauded Mamdani’s victory, but did not explicitly endorse him.”Tonight we made history,” Mamdani said in a victory speech to supporters. On Wednesday he suggested his campaign and shock upset could serve as a model for the future for Democrats.”It has been tempting, I think, for some to claim as if the party has gone too left, when in fact what has occurred for far too long is the abandonment of the same working-class voters who then abandoned this party,” he told public radio WNNY.Cuomo, a 67-year-old political veteran vying to rebound from a sexual harassment scandal, said he called his rival to concede.Mamdani had taken 43 percent of the vote with 95 percent of ballots counted, according to city officials. Cuomo was at around 36 percent and appeared to have no chance to catch his rival.However, the contest is ranked-choice, with voters asked to select five candidates in order of preference. When no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote outright, election officials start the time-consuming process of eliminating the lowest-ranking candidates and retabulating.For political scientist Lincoln Mitchell, the vote was “a clear referendum on the future of the Democratic Party.”- Prime Trump target? -Cuomo had big money and near universal name recognition in the city, as a former governor and son of another governor.However, he was weighed down by having quit in disgrace four years ago after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment. He was also accused of mismanaging the state’s response to the Covid pandemic.Even so, Mamdani’s success was stunning.The son of Indian-origin immigrants, he is backed by the Democratic Socialists of America party — the kind of niche, leftist affiliation that many Democratic leaders believe their party needs to shed.The fact Mamdani speaks out for Palestinians and has accused Israel of “genocide” also makes him a prime target for Trump.His supporters include two favorite Trump foils — fiery leftist Senator Bernie Sanders and progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”Billionaires and lobbyists poured millions against you and our public finance system. And you won,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X. – Big ideas, low experience -Currently a New York state assemblyman representing the borough of Queens, Mamdani’s eye-catching policy proposals include freezing rent for many New Yorkers, free bus service, and universal childcare.In a city where a three-bedroom apartment can easily cost $6,000 a month, his message struck a chord.Voter Eamon Harkin, 48, said prices were his “number one issue.””What’s at stake is primarily the affordability of New York,” he said.The confirmed winner will face several contenders in November, including current Mayor Eric Adams, who is a Democrat but has vowed to run again as an independent.

Florida began construction this week on a detention center surrounded by fierce reptiles and cypress swamps, an “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades wetlands, as part of US President Donald Trump’s expansion of deportations of undocumented migrants.The chosen site, an abandoned airfield in the heart of a sprawling network of mangrove forests, imposing marshes and “rivers of grass” that form the conservation area, will house large tents and beds for 1,000 “criminal aliens,” according to state Attorney General James Uthmeier.The 30-square-mile (78-square-kilometer) area “presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility, because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” he said recently in a video on X showing the area and clips of migrant arrests.”If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them, other than alligators and pythons,” he added. “Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.”Uthmeier described what he is calling Alligator Alcatraz as a “one-stop shop to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda.”Such a project — during searing summer months in an inhospitable and dangerous landscape filled with reptiles and mosquitos — fits into a broader series of harsh optics which officials hope will discourage migrants from coming to the United States.The large southeastern state governed by Republican Ron DeSantis boasts of collaborating closely with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement.Since the billionaire businessman’s return to the White House in January, his administration has enlisted local authorities to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ramp up arrests of undocumented migrants.Uthmeier said the new facility will be up and running within 30 to 60 days after construction begins.It is expected to cost roughly $450 million per year to operate, with the state likely to apply for funding from the federal government, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told local media.The plan has already raised hackles among critics of Trump’s immigration crackdown, which recently sparked anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles and other American cities.”Turning the Everglades into a taxpayer-funded detention camp for migrants is a grotesque mix of cruelty and political theater,” former DHS spokesman Alex Howard told the Miami Herald.”You don’t solve immigration by disappearing people into tents guarded by gators,” he added. “You solve it with lawful processing, humane infrastructure, and actual policy — not by staging a $450 million stunt in the middle of hurricane season.”The project is also controversial because of its environmental impact on a subtropical ecosystem that is home to more than 2,000 species of animals and plants and is the site of costly conservation and rehabilitation programs.The Friends of the Everglades, a non-profit group instrumental in helping preserve and protect the wetlands, has criticized the project in a letter to Governor DeSantis, saying construction of the center “poses an unacceptable and unnecessary risk to on-site wetlands.”

A medical panel appointed by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held its first meeting Wednesday, pledging to revisit the childhood vaccine schedule and promoting themes long embraced by anti-vaccine activists.The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent group that reviews scientific evidence to determine who should receive vaccines and when, rarely draws headlines.But that changed after Kennedy — who spent decades spreading vaccine misinformation before becoming President Donald Trump’s top health official — abruptly fired all 17 sitting members earlier this month, accusing them of industry conflicts of interest.He replaced them with eight new appointees, including scientist Robert Malone, known for promoting false claims during the Covid-19 pandemic. The panel’s new chair, Martin Kulldorff, co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for ending lockdowns in October 2020, even though it was known Covid vaccines were nearing approval.Kulldorff opened the meeting by announcing a new working group to re-examine the childhood vaccine schedule. He raised questions about the potential cumulative effects of vaccine interactions and the wisdom of administering the Hepatitis B shot “on the day of birth.”Experts met the announcement with skepticism.”The rationale for Hepatitis B vaccination prior to hospital discharge (not ‘day of birth’) for neonates is well documented and established — but it’s another pet cause of the anti-vaccine movement,” Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, told AFP. The panel’s first major test comes Thursday, when it votes on whether to recommend a newly approved antibody shot against RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, for infants whose mothers did not receive an RSV vaccine during pregnancy.- Fabricated citation – The meeting agenda also signaled plans to revisit long-settled debates around thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, and to highlight rare side effects linked to measles shots — with no planned discussion of the overwhelming public health benefits of immunization.Lyn Redwood, a nurse and former leader of Children’s Health Defense — the anti-vaccine group once chaired by Kennedy — is scheduled to present Thursday on thimerosal.Scientists reviewing her slides, posted ahead of the meeting, discovered she cited a 2008 paper by RF Berman titled “Low-level neonatal thimerosal exposure: Long-term consequences in the brain.”No such study exists. While Berman did publish a paper that year, it appeared in a different journal and found no link between thimerosal and autism.The presentation was quietly revised without explanation. The incident echoed possible AI chatbot hallucinations blamed for similar sourcing errors in Kennedy’s recent flagship Make America Healthy Again report.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is overseeing the meeting, had been set to deliver a presentation defending thimerosal, but that document was deleted from the website at the last minute.The panel will vote on thimerosal-containing flu vaccines on Thursday afternoon.- Sweeping implications -During a discussion on Covid-19 vaccines, Malone suggested that mRNA shots may have triggered novel, poorly understood effects on the immune system.CDC scientist Sarah Meyer pushed back, saying the nation’s vaccine safety systems would have flagged such issues if they had occurred.The panel will also revive a debate on the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) shot, which is offered as an alternative to separate MMR and varicella injections.While the combined version spares children an extra jab, it slightly increases the risk of febrile seizures — a rare and typically harmless side effect.Current guidelines already recommend splitting the doses for a child’s first shot at 12–47 months, leaving experts puzzled as to why the issue is being re-litigated.As panelists scrutinize rare side effects, there is no plan to discuss the measles vaccine’s enormous public health benefits — including preventing millions of hospitalizations.The United States, which declared measles eliminated in 2000, is experiencing its worst outbreak in decades — with over 1,200 cases and three confirmed deaths this year. ACIP’s recommendations could carry sweeping implications, shaping school entry requirements and insurance coverage across the country.

The US Federal Reserve released plans Wednesday to relax a key capital rule for major banks, a move they say can help facilitate Treasury market trading.The Fed board voted 5-2 to propose amendments on a measure introduced after the 2008 global financial crisis, that requires banks to hold a certain amount of capital relative to their assets.This was part of efforts to boost their stability.The measure, called the “enhanced supplementary leverage ratio,” calls for the country’s biggest banks to hold an extra layer of capital.Under the latest proposal, the capital requirement for holding companies is set to be lowered from its current five percent while banking subsidiaries will have their requirement reduced from six percent.The plan will face a 60-day window for public comment.The rule was initially set up as a “backstop,” said Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the board’s open meeting on Wednesday.But he added that banks have increased the amount of “relatively safe and low-risk assets” on their balance sheets over the past decade or so.”Based on this experience, it is prudent for us to reconsider our original approach,” he said.”We want to ensure that the leverage ratio does not become regularly binding and discourage banks from participating in low-risk activities, such as Treasury market intermediation,” Powell said.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is also meeting Thursday about changes to the standard.Fed vice chair for supervision Michelle Bowman said that “the proposal will help to build resilience in US Treasury markets.”She argued that it reduces the chance of “market dysfunction and the need for the Federal Reserve to intervene in a future stress event.”But Fed governors Michael Barr and Adriana Kugler expressed reservations about the plan.Barr warned that the proposal significantly reduces bank capital, raising risks surrounding a major bank’s failure.Kugler, meanwhile, expressed doubt that benefits involving the Treasury market justified proposed reductions in capital requirements, “especially in light of the potential for elevated financial stability risk.”American Bankers Association president Rob Nichols called the proposal a key step towards boosting the financial system and “reducing bank funding costs.””We urge regulators to move as quickly as possible to finalize these much-needed reforms,” he added.

Global stocks were mixed Wednesday as markets weighed lingering worries about the Iran-Israel conflict while Nvidia surged to a fresh all-time high on bullishness over artificial intelligence.Analysts cited not only concerns that the ceasefire between Iran and Israel could break down, but leaked US intelligence that said strikes had set back Tehran’s nuclear program by just a few months.”Maybe the US bombardment didn’t destroy the Iran nuclear program,” said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital Management, adding that that revelations about the Iran nuclear program suggested the Iran story is not a “new chapter.”The S&P 500 finished a choppy day flat, while the Dow edged lower and the Nasdaq advanced.”Investors are sort of catching their breath, since we had a very strong move on Monday and Tuesday,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment officer at CFRA Research. “Nvidia’s on everyone lips today.”The chip company shot up 4.3 percent to $154.31, giving it a market valuation of around $3.76 trillion — more valuable than Microsoft, Apple and other tech giants.The rise came as CEO Jensen Huang presented the company’s latest technologies at Nvidia’s annual meeting.Asian stock markets had closed higher earlier on Wednesday following rallies on Wall Street and in Europe the day before. But European stocks fell in Wednesday’s session.Oil prices, meanwhile advanced after two days of heavy losses following a US crude inventory report that showed a bigger than expected drawdown in inventory.The dollar continued to slide against the euro, with fewer benefits from the flight to safety due to unrest in the Middle East.While the Israel-Iran conflict has dominated global attention in recent days, markets are also shifting attention back to trade. Shares of FedEx fell 3.3 percent after the shipping company did not provide a full-year forecast, citing uncertainty about the global trade outlook and tariffs.Dozens of countries are locked in negotiations with Washington to clinch some sort of trade deal to mitigate the impact of US tariffs. Only Britain has been reached a deal, although Beijing and Washington have agreed to lower tariffs from the highest rates they imposed upon one another.- Key figures at around 2040 GMT -Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.8 percent at $67.68 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.9 percent at $64.92 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 42,982.43 (close)New York – S&P 500: FLAT at 6,092.16 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 19,973.55 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.5 percent at 8,718.75 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.8 percent at 7,558.16 (close) Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.6 percent at 23,498.33 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.4 percent at 38,942.07 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.2 percent at 24,474.67 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.0 percent at 3,455.97 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1656 from $1.1609 on TuesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3664 from $1.3615Dollar/yen: UP at 145.32 yen from 144.94 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 85.26 from 85.27 penceburs-jmb/des