SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — The California legislature has passed Assembly Bill 2244 that would establish a non-ultra-processed certified seal that food manufacturers could place on their products that meet standards for not being ultra-processed.

“While Washington, DC, is paralyzed by inaction, Republicans and Democrats in California are joining forces to empower consumers to avoid harmful ultra-processed foods,” said Jesse Gabriel, the assembly member who authored the bill. “Like the USDA Organic label, this new seal will provide consumers with clear, trustworthy information and make it easier for them to locate healthier foods that are free from harmful additives. Parents shouldn’t need a PhD in chemistry to understand what they’re feeding their kids.”

The bill passed by a vote of 32-0 in the state Senate and by a vote of 72-0 in the state Assembly. California Governor Gavin Newsom has until Sept.30 to decide whether to veto the bill or sign it into law.

No federal law defines ultra-processed food, but the US Department of Health and the US Department of Agriculture have submitted for final review a proposed definition.

The bill in California would establish a process overseen by the California Department of Health where food manufacturers could apply to accredited certification agents to use the non-ultra-processed certified label on their packaging.

A state law in California regarding certain school-related purposes defines ultra-processed food as any food or beverage that contains a specific substance and either high amounts of saturated fat, sodium, or added sugar or a non-nutritive sweetener or other substance. The law requires the California Department of Health to define ultra-processed foods of concern and restricted school foods by June 1, 2028.

CSE shares are trading at about 2,100 rupees, up from near 900 rupees in early June, when transactions were sporadic after years of inactivity, according to Dharawat Securities. UnlistedZone, another platform that facilitates transactions in unlisted shares, quoted CSE at 2,175 rupees.

Interest picked up after Swapan Dasgupta, the new finance minister of West Bengal, said on June 25 that the government was working toward reviving the exchange in the state capital. The rally gained further momentum after CSE outlined a broader strategy in its annual report released Aug. 19. The exchange’s board decided to approach the Securities and Exchange Board of India to request that its February 2025 application for a voluntary exit be put on hold, according to the report.

“Demand remains strong,” said Hitesh Dharawat of Dharawat Securities, which deals in unlisted stocks. The shares “have surged since the West Bengal government signaled plans to revive the exchange.”

CSE said in its annual report that it sees opportunities across bond markets, equity derivatives, currencies, commodities, carbon trading and mutual funds, while also developing offerings for small and medium-sized enterprises. CSE had 1,507 companies listed and about 500 registered stockbrokers as of March 2026, though there was no active trading on the exchange, the report showed.

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The renewed interest comes as the National Stock Exchange of India prepares for its long-awaited initial public offering, putting a spotlight on India’s exchange industry.
Investors have previously piled into unlisted shares of another Indian bourse on expectations of a turnaround. Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India attracted investments from firms including Billionbrains Garage Ventures Ltd., the parent of online brokerage Groww, and Zerodha’s Rainmatter Investments as part of a revival effort, local media reported.MSEI’s unlisted shares surged about 5-fold between December 2024 and January 2025 before losing about half their value since then, according to UnlistedZone. The exchange has yet to establish a significant presence in India’s equity trading market.

Any CSE revival would require regulatory approvals and potentially anchor investors that meet capital-adequacy and “fit and proper” requirements, according to the annual report.

A representative for CSE didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Nvidia has agreed to buy artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face in a deal valued at about $12.9bn (£9.5bn), one of the AI chipmaker’s biggest acquisitions as it expands into software.

Hugging Face, founded in 2016, has become a popular online platform where developers and researchers can find, share and test AI models and tools.

It recently made headlines after rogue AI agents that escaped a testing environment appeared on its platform, raising questions about AI safety and oversight.

The deal would bring one of the world’s largest AI developer communities into Nvidia and give it control of a leading open-source platform – an alternative to systems offered by OpenAI and Anthropic.

Nvidia is best known for making the advanced chips used to train and run AI systems. Demand for those chips has surged as companies race to build AI products.

The companies already work together to help developers use Nvidia’s computing services through the platform.

According to the companies, Hugging Face is used by more than 18 million developers and hosts more than three million AI models. More than 200,000 companies use the platform, they said.

Nvidia said Hugging Face would remain open to developers and that users would not be required to use its chips or services.

Nvidia shares were up just under 1.5% at 17:30 BST.

Under the agreement, Nvidia will pay about $11.9bn to Hugging Face investors and offer up to $1bn in stock-based incentives to employees who join the company.

The deal could also help Nvidia expand its presence in AI software as some of its biggest customers, including Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI, develop their own chips.

Open-source AI models can be downloaded and adapted by users, unlike many AI systems that are controlled by a single company.

Supporters say the approach can make the technology more accessible to businesses, researchers and developers.

Yaël Ossowski, deputy director of advocacy group Consumer Choice Center, said the acquisition was “a vote of confidence in open AI” and suggested it could encourage competition by making AI tools more widely available to start ups and smaller companies.

The deal will be a “major victory for innovators and consumers worldwide” if Nvidia keeps Hugging Face open and accessible, he added.

The deal would also give Nvidia access to one of the world’s largest AI developer communities as competition in the sector intensifies.

Founded by French entrepreneurs Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond and Thomas Wolf, Hugging Face also provides datasets, software tools and cloud services used to build AI applications.

Hugging Face is backed by investors including Amazon, AMD and Intel.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins praised the Trump administration’s agriculture agenda as she took aim at Biden-era food policies, accusing the former administration of pushing Americans away from traditional meat products.

“There was a massive push under the last administration to eat less meat. Could you imagine? Don’t stop eating meat. There was a massive push under the Democrats to eat fake meat and lab-grown meat,” Rollins said.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins pushes back against efforts to move Americans away from traditional meat products. (Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe / Getty Images)

During an appearance on “Mornings with Maria,” Rollins explained the administration’s long-term cattle strategy, beef imports and efforts to support American farmers and ranchers.

“We’re working on deconstructing and then reconstructing our entire system around homegrown, nutrient-dense, fresh food, making America healthy again,” she said.

Rollins is encouraging Americans to keep meat on the menu as the administration works to rebuild the nation’s cattle herd and strengthen domestic beef production while ranchers face continued economic pressure.

“I was in Iowa… Talking to our ranchers, laying out a long-term program, incentives to retain their heifers, incentives, to make sure that they know that, that we’re behind them,” Rollins said.

Rollins said the administration is also looking to increase federal beef procurement and invest in small and mid-sized regional processors.

DOJ EXPANDS BEEF PRICE INVESTIGATION TO WALMART, COSTCO, AMAZON AND OTHER MAJOR RETAILERS

With ranchers facing a volatile cattle market and concerns about competition in meat processing, Rollins said the administration is focused on giving producers strong long-term incentives while expanding opportunities for U.S. agricultural products overseas.

US FARMER PUSHES FOR ONE MAJOR CHANGE AS IMPORTED BEEF DEBATE HEATS UP

“[We’re] really focusing on young ranchers, getting more people into the business of growing and farming and ranching, is part of this,” Rollins said.

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A growing debate over restaurant etiquette is playing out at dinner tables across the country, as diners increasingly question whether servers are clearing plates too quickly, and whether a simple placement of a knife and fork could resolve the confusion entirely.

Traditional dining etiquette calls for restaurants to wait until everyone at a table has finished eating before clearing any plates. But many contemporary restaurants have moved toward clearing plates individually as diners finish, a shift that has left some customers wondering whether they are simply receiving attentive service or being subtly rushed out of their seats.

Jacqueline Whitmore, a Florida-based etiquette expert and founder of the Protocol School of Palm Beach, said the traditional standard still holds in her view of proper dining etiquette.

“Everyone at the table should be finished before all the plates are cleared,” Whitmore told Fox News Digital.

Not everyone in the hospitality industry agrees that a cleared plate should be read as a signal to leave. Salar Sheik, who runs Savory Hospitality Restaurant Consulting in Los Angeles, said diners shouldn’t automatically assume the worst when a server removes their plate ahead of others at the table.

“Clearing a plate is not necessarily an attempt to rush the guest or turn the table,” Sheik told Fox News Digital. “Often, the server is simply trying to keep the table tidy, maintain the flow of service and prepare for the next course.”

Determining the right moment to clear a plate, according to Sheik, requires a fair amount of skill and attentiveness on the part of restaurant staff. He said servers are typically trained to watch for specific physical cues indicating a diner has finished eating, including a plate being pushed away, silverware being placed together, a diner sitting back from the table, or a guest looking around the room as if searching for a server’s attention when little or no food remains on their plate.

“We train the best service professionals to read the guest’s body language, pace and overall energy to determine when it is appropriate to approach and clear a plate,” Sheik said. “This is a subtle skill that only a small percentage of staff members truly master.”

Getting the timing wrong, however, can produce exactly the negative experience diners sometimes suspect. Sheik said repeatedly hovering near a table or attempting to remove a plate while a guest is still actively eating carries real consequences for how customers perceive the quality of their service.

“Can make the guest feel rushed and is a sign of poor service,” Sheik said of premature plate-clearing attempts.

For diners looking to avoid this kind of miscommunication altogether, Whitmore pointed to a longstanding, largely universal signal rooted in the specific placement of silverware on a plate. According to Whitmore, crossing a knife and fork on the plate indicates that a diner is still eating or simply taking a pause, while placing the utensils side by side at roughly the four-o’clock position on the plate signals that the meal is finished and the plate can be cleared.

Sheik echoed the usefulness of silverware as a general cue for servers, though he cautioned that such signals are not entirely universal across all dining settings. He noted that customs surrounding silverware placement and its meaning can vary meaningfully between different countries and even between individual restaurants, meaning diners traveling internationally or visiting unfamiliar establishments should not necessarily assume staff will interpret the same signals in the same way.

Given the potential for miscommunication even when relying on traditional cues like silverware placement, Sheik suggested that the most reliable solution for servers may simply be to ask directly rather than attempting to interpret indirect signals at all.

“If there is any doubt, the server should always ask, ‘May I clear this for you?’” Sheik said.

While much of the etiquette conversation has focused on restaurant staff avoiding the perception of rushing customers, both experts noted that diners carry their own responsibilities when it comes to table etiquette and turnover. Sheik said there is no universal standard governing how long a party should be permitted to occupy a table, explaining that the appropriate length of a meal depends on a range of factors, including the specific restaurant, the size of the dining party, whether other guests are waiting for a table, and whether a specific dining time window was communicated to the party in advance.

Whitmore offered a similarly situational approach for diners weighing how long to linger after a meal has concluded, encouraging guests to simply “read the room” based on the circumstances around them. She said diners lingering at their table while other customers wait in line for an available table should remain mindful of those waiting nearby, while parties dining at a restaurant with no one waiting for a table should feel free to continue enjoying their time without concern.

The etiquette debate drew significant public engagement following its publication, with readers offering a range of perspectives on the underlying tension between attentive restaurant service and old-fashioned dining manners. Some commenters argued the entire discussion reflected a minor, low-stakes concern relative to more pressing issues, while others defended traditional table manners as basic social skills that have eroded over recent decades amid a broader cultural emphasis on speed and efficiency in dining settings. Still others pointed to differences in dining customs between the United States and other countries, suggesting American restaurants in particular have moved further away from traditional plate-clearing etiquette compared with European dining norms.

Ultimately, both etiquette experts suggested that good restaurant service may depend less on servers perfectly decoding subtle diner body language and silverware placement, and more on restaurant staff simply communicating directly with guests when any uncertainty arises about whether a meal has concluded. As Sheik put it, the solution to the entire dilemma may come down to five simple words that any server can use to eliminate the guesswork altogether: “May I clear this for you?”