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Tinto Brass, director of Caligula and maestro of Euro erotica, dies aged 93

The Guardian World
3 days 11 hours ago

The cult Italian film-maker began as an assistant to Roberto Rossellini but moved into sex films, believing ‘eroticism to be a fundamental key to human expression’

Italian film director Tinto Brass, who was once hailed as the “Antonioni of the 70s” but came to be better known for bringing Italian erotic cinema to a wider audience with films such as Caligula and Salon Kitty, has died aged 93.

His wife Caterina Varzi and children Bonifacio and Beatrice Brass announced the news of the director’s death to Italian press agency Ansa on Wednesday.

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AI data centers also lost big in the 2026 midterm elections

Fast Company
3 days 12 hours ago

President Donald Trump wasn’t on the ballot this midterm election season, but on some tickets, an industry he wholeheartedly supports was: Ballot measures in more than 30 districts across the country asked voters to weigh in on AI data center development.

And data centers lost big. 

Voters overwhelmingly chose to ban or pause local data center development across 38 out of 41 ballot measures. (The other three measures aren’t yet reporting results, according to Ballotpedia.)

The ballot questions varied, in some instances asking voters to prohibit data centers in their cities, and in others, asking them to allow data center development, or even to uphold specific data center deals. 

Where were data centers on the ballot?

Not all results are yet in. But it’s still clear that no matter the framing, data centers lost by landslides.

In Edgewater, Florida, more than 77% of voters approved a ballot initiative to amend the city charter in order to “prohibit the approval, construction, expansion, or operation of new data centers.” 

In Ashville, Ohio, a ballot referendum asked voters to maintain the village’s deal with EdgeConneX for two data centers and on-site natural gas across nearly 200 acres. Residents struck it down with more than 81% of the vote. 

Grove City, Ohio, saw one of the closest races, but it’s still looking bad for data centers. It looks like voters there still chose to rein in data center development—by requiring public approval for certain projects—with 55% of the vote. 

In 28 of the 38 ballot measures for which Ballotpedia is reporting results, support for banning or pausing data center development hit 70% or more. In 13, it hit 80% or more. 

Strong support for data center critics

Data centers didn’t only lose when it came to specific ballot questions, either. Candidates who spoke out against data centers won handily.

In some cases, candidates seemed to sense the public rebuke of data centers early on, and switched their tune.

Democrat Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, for example, was once in support of the AI data center boom. Then in August he signed an executive order to restrict certain projects and require them to be approved by local officials. 

“We will not be bulldozed by the lawyers working for these big tech companies,” he said at the time, according to NBC News. He won a second term on Tuesday. 

In Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, who won her race for governor, made a statewide data center pause a key part of her campaign. Georgia is one of the leading states for data center development.

Texas, too, is a major data center hub, with more than 781 data centers either operating, under construction, or planned across nearly 300 campuses, according to Cleanview. 

Outgoing Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who lost his reelection bid, did recently introduce a data center moratorium, but he had backed the industry before, and even raised about $9 million from data center donors. 

Governor-elect Democrat Gina Hinojosa, Abbott’s opponent, called that temporary moratorium a “scam.” She campaigned on data center opposition, promising a new construction moratorium, an end to data center tax breaks, and tighter regulations around water and power use. 

Across both parties, midterm campaigns and outside groups spent more than $173 million in anti-data center ad spending. Democrats led that charge, with $140 million of that spending, versus Republicans with $28 million. 

The data center industry fought back, setting up a super PAC that set aside $1.5 million in ads to supporting Republican Darline Graham, who was fighting to keep her late brother Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat in South Carolina.

She lost to Democrat Annie Andrews in what New York Times reporter Teddy Schleifer called “a black eye for the data-center industry.”

Trump has gone all-in on data centers and AI companies, even writing “let Data Reign” on Truth Social in August. Voters clearly disagree.

Jeff Bezos praised Raising Cane’s. Its founder built a $22 billion fortune by breaking 3 fast-food rules

Fast Company
3 days 12 hours ago

Raising Cane’s isn’t following the standard fast-food playbook.

From its limited menu to the employee dress code, founder Todd Graves is charting his own path in a competitive industry. Now, one of the world’s richest men is pointing to his chicken finger empire as a prime example of the power of entrepreneurship.

In a recent Fox News interview, Jeff Bezos pushed back on the notion that building a successful business and becoming a billionaire made someone a villain.

Instead, he pointed to entrepreneurs who expanded their companies and created thousands of jobs. For the Amazon founder, Graves is a prime example of that.

“There’s nothing wrong with making unbelievably good chicken that people love,” he said. “And it doesn’t make him a bad person.”

However, although Graves and Bezos are both billionaires, the former followed a different playbook than the latter.

In 1996, Graves, who was 24, opened the first Raising Cane’s in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He used loans from friends, family, and the Small Business Administration, as well as savings from his jobs as a boilermaker and an Alaskan salmon fisherman.

Three decades later, the ethos of the fast-food chain remains the same: a simple menu centered on chicken fingers, fries, coleslaw, Texas toast, and Cane’s Sauce.

Even now, the smallest change, such as the addition of a sandwich combo, can create anxiety and stress.

“To tell you the truth, man, I kind of wish we didn’t even have it on the menu. It’s like 3 or 4 percent of sales. And it slows us down,” Graves previously told Inc. “I wish we didn’t have it, but I won’t take it away now.”

This small admission reflects the chicken chain’s broader philosophy. While Bezos launched a publicly traded giant, Graves has focused on keeping Raising Cane’s limited in scope and tightly controlled.

Keeping the company private

The biggest difference between the two billionaires may be their views on taking a company public.

Forbes estimates Graves currently owns about 92 percent of the company, with a net worth of approximately $22 billion. The founder has said Raising Cane’s has no plans to go public, a choice he has tied to preserving the chain’s culture.

A key executive has echoed the same sentiment. “We have no plans on that,” AJ Kumaran, the company’s co-CEO and COO, told Restaurant Business. “We are privately held because we want to remain that way.”

By comparison, Bezos took Amazon public just three years after its founding. It debuted on the stock market in May 1997 at $18 a share, raising $54 million to fuel its growth.

Focusing on employees

However, even though Graves is committed to retaining control of the business, he takes a more relaxed approach with his employees.

At Raising Cane’s, crew members wear casual uniforms and music has been allowed in the kitchen since the early days. It is a deliberately relaxed approach that stands apart from Amazon’s more regimented structure.

A commitment to charity

Yet, even amid their differing approaches to business, both Bezos and Graves are committed to charitable giving.

Bezos’s Earth Fund, backed by a $10 billion pledge, has distributed about $2.4 billion to date. His Day 1 Families Fund has donated more than $850 million to nonprofits addressing homelessness.

After the Texas floods in 2025, Graves donated $1 million to the Red Cross. In August, Graves told Dallas Weekly that the company had given more than $165 million to charitable causes over its first 30 years, something he hopes will continue.

Raising Cane’s didn’t immediately respond to a request from Inc. for comment.

—Amaya Nichole

This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com. 

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