Latest news with #Begg
New York Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Influencer slammed over Japan travel post: ‘The song isn't even in Japanese'
An Australian influencer has been criticized online and accused of 'cultural appropriation' by some followers over her song choice and an outfit she wore in a social media post sharing photos from her current holiday in Japan. Sophia Begg, who goes by the name Sopha Dopha online and has more than 1.4 million followers, shared a carousel of photos from the first day of her trip in Tokyo on Instagram. However, the 21-year-old accompanied her 'photo dump' with a song in Mandarin by Chinese rapper SKAI ISYOURGOD called Blueprint Supreme. 'Day one: Tokyo,' Begg captioned the post, which included photos of her friends eating ramen, drinking matcha, shopping, and posing next to a vending machine and on trains. Some of her followers immediately noticed her choice of song. 3 Sophia Begg was criticized for using a song by a Chinese rapper in her post about Japan. @sophadophaa_/Instagram 'Girl I love you but please, the song isn't even in Japanese,' said one user, whose comment received over 100 likes. 'I fear this song is Chinese,' another bluntly pointed out. Others called her out for not only choosing a Mandarin song but also wearing a T-shirt with the Japanese word 'Suki' on it, meaning 'like' or 'love'. One user thought she was using 'culture for aesthetic' without actually understanding it. Another woman, who is Asian, said she also took issue with Begg wearing a shirt with Japanese characters on it. 3 Begg's 'photo dump' featured images from her first day in Tokyo. @sophadophaa_/Instagram 3 Some followers took issue with the influencer's outfit. @sophadophaa_/Instagram However, some defended her outfit and song choice saying the shirt 'looked good' and she was 'embracing the culture'. Someone else argued, 'I highly doubt she did it with malicious intent.' 'I don't understand why people can't appreciate other people's culture, even aesthetically,' asked a different user. Communications strategist Kriti Gupta, a South Asian woman, said that using a country's culture to be 'visually appealing' is an issue. 'Culture isn't a choice,' she explains. And even if the outfit and song choice was a 'misunderstanding,' – Ms Gupta reminds influencers to think carefully about their content before posting, as she says impact is more important than intent. Begg is yet to comment on the backlash online. has reached out to her for comment.
Perth Now
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
‘Giving racism': Internet unleashes on Aussie's Japan post
An Australian influencer and business owner has been grilled amid claims of cultural appropriation during her holiday to Japan. The internet unleashed at All For Mimi founder Sophia Begg, known online as Sopha Dopha, after she posted a series of photos capturing her first day in Tokyo to her Instagram. Begg can be seen posing against a vending machine sporting a polka dot bandana, bright pink shorts and a baggy white t-shirt branded with Japanese characters 'Suki' which translates to 'like' or 'love.' Subsequent photos show Begg and her two friends, including employee Bailey, indulging in matcha and ramen while exploring the city. The 21-year old's post also featured Chinese rapper SKAI ISYOURGOD's song Blueprint Supreme playing over the top. With a following of more than 660,000 on the platform, critics were quick to unload on the TikTok star. Sophia Begg in Tokyo, Japan. Credit: Instagram @sophadophaa_ 'This honestly reflects white privilege on another level… being able to pick and choose parts of someone else's culture for aesthetic without needing to understand or respect it. Meanwhile, we as Asians grow up being shamed or mocked for these same things. It's not just a song or a vibe, it's a lived culture, and treating it like a trend is harmful,' one person wrote. 'Look good but it's giving racism,' said another. A third added: 'The casual racism is sending me LMAO.' Many of the people unhappy with Begg's upload took issue with the song choice given it is in Mandarin and is not by a Japanese musician. 'Girl I love you but please the song isn't even in Japanese,' 'You should change the song or remove it. its not even Japanese,' Despite calls for the influencer to remove the audio from the post, Begg has not taken it down or responded to the negative comments.
Global News
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Global News
B.C. quadruples size of hate crimes team as incidents surge by 23%
The British Columbia government is quadrupling the size of the province's hate crimes policing unit, amid surging reports of incidents motivated by race, religion and sexual orientation. Public Safety Minister Gary Begg announced the expansion Friday, which will take the unit, which is a part of the B.C. RCMP, from two officers to a team of eight. 2:16 Speech at Vancouver pro-Palestine protest investigated as hate crime The province is providing $734,000 in new funding, which will be used to hire five new RCMP officers and one intelligence analyst. Story continues below advertisement 'We cannot ignore the reality that acts of hate have been on the rise in recent years,' Public Safety Minister Gary Begg said. 'Over the past year alone, we have seen reprehensible acts of violence here in our province. Places of worship have been vandalized, treaty offices have been defaced, and innocent people have been targeted while going about their daily activities.' Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy According to provincial data, police-reported hate crimes in B.C. surged by nearly a quarter (23 per cent) between 2022 and 2023. Hate crimes motivated by race or ethnicity were up by 12 per cent, while incidents linked to religion spiked by over 50 per cent and incidents related to sexual orientation were up 43 per cent. 1:39 B.C. updates hate crime policies 'Hate has no place in British Columbia. It only deepens fear, it creates division, erodes public safety, and stands in direct opposition to everything we value and believe in,' Begg said. Story continues below advertisement 'As community leaders, we have a responsibility to protect those who are targeted simply because of who they are.' Begg said the new funding will help ensure prosecutors have the necessary evidence to win convictions on hate crimes charges, and bolster court proceedings by providing expert testimony and support for witnesses and victims. The B.C. Hate Crimes Team is the only RCMP provincial hate crime team in Canada. Chief Supt. Elija Rain, Officer in Charge of the B.C. RCMP Major Crimes Section said the unit has been facing a growing workload. 6:11 Vancouver police say Israel-Hamas war has fuelled rise in hate crime He said the team is currently reviewing more than 100 files per week where hate could be a motivating factor, and provide guidance and oversight to both RCMP and municipal police forces. Story continues below advertisement 'Whether it is hate-motivated crime, hate propaganda or non-criminal but deeply harmful incidents involving hate or bias, we recognize the impact these incidents have on victims and communities. We also recognize the importance of investigating hate-related files,' he said. 'The B.C. Hate Crime Team provides operational support and expertise to all policing agencies across the province, which means the positive impacts of expanding this team will be felt in every region of British Columbia.' Along with the expanded hate crime team, the province says it has received $4 million from the federal government through the Shift B.C. program, which works to prevent radicalized violence by supporting people at risk.
Sky News AU
02-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Albanese government misses every target of National Housing Accord, falling more than 55,000 homes short in first year
The Albanese government has failed to meet a single target in the first year of its flagship National Housing Accord, falling more than 55,000 homes short of its annual goal. New figures from the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) reveal the worsening housing crisis amid construction delays and exacerbated supply issues due to immigration. The housing policy, which began in July 2024, aimed to deliver 1.2 million new homes by 2029— or 20,000 homes per month—to improve housing availability and affordability. Analysis by the IPA found that just 185,000 homes have been completed since the accord began, leaving the government over 55,000 dwellings behind schedule. The government's target included 55,000 social and affordable homes, of which just 2,600 were completed in 2024. 'The federal government's National Housing Accord is one year old and already tens of thousands of homes behind target,' Director of Research at the IPA Morgan Begg said. 'In its first year of operation, the National Housing Accord as failed to hit a single target. 'At the same time the federal government is bringing in 1.3 million new migrants over three years, Australia is being set up for a disaster.' The latest forecast from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council projected the government will fall 250,000 homes short of its target by 2029. Meanwhile, bureaucratic red tape has strangled the number of new homes being built as the time taken to build a new dwelling continues to grow. According to findings based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data, it takes 50 per cent longer to build a house in 2025 compared to a decade ago. 'There is unprecedented demand for new homes. Yet it is taking far longer to build them, and it costs significantly more to do so,' Mr Begg said. The IPA also pointed to the contradiction between falling construction rates and rising net migration, with about 1 million migrants set to come in by 2029. The federal budget papers have forecast net overseas migration of 260,000 in 2025-26 and then 225,000 in the subsequent three years. 'There is no plan on how to house new arrivals … This is a manufactured housing disaster,' Mr Begg said. The damning findings follow similar warnings from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC). In its State of the Housing System 2025 report, the council projected that only 938,000 homes would be built by June 2029—over 250,000 homes short of the federal target. It noted that no state or territory was on track to meet its share of the target, based on population. ABS figures show just 177,000 dwellings were completed in 2024—well below the estimated underlying demand of 223,000. The Albanese government increased total housing commitments to $33 billion in the 2025 federal budget, including the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. Housing Minister Clare O'Neil has defended her approach, arguing 'it takes time to turn the tide on a housing crisis a generation in the making'. The Property Council of Australia (PCA) has since called on governments to redouble efforts to boost housing supply productivity. 'We're projected to be 262,000 homes behind the 2029 target but imagine the gap without these reforms,' PCA Chief Executive Mike Zorbas said in a statement. 'We … desperately need to address falls in productivity that mean we're building fewer than half as many homes per hours worked today than in the mid-1990s. 'We need to move from 170,000 homes a year into the high 200,000s to meet the Accord's target. 'That requires bold leadership to dissolve assessment and approval gridlock in key corridors.'
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What are the 20 most controversial album covers of all time?
Content warning: This article contains images which some readers may find offensive. If you're a music lover and enjoy a bit of drama, you must have heard that controversy is brewing over the artwork of Sabrina Carpenter's upcoming album 'Man's Best Friend'. The suggestive – but hardly sexually explicit - cover features the buzzy 'Espresso' hitmaker on her knees in front of a faceless man who is pulling her hair back. And the release of the image has caused much debate. Many argue that Carpenter's MO has always been pop-horniness, and that she has every right to express herself and her sexuality – in this case what some may perceive as a submissive kink - in any way she sees fit and crucially, without being policed or harassed; others see this image as degrading, regressive and promoting traditional gender roles. At the end of the day, it's her album cover and can't we just let her be? Some hyper-conservative and hyper-progressive corners of the internet clearly disagree, and the reactions have been intense – which is hardly surprising, considering sexuality has always rubbed some people up the wrong way. Plus, scandal is hardly new for musicians, as artists have sparked outrage with their album covers for decades, leading some to be censored or even banned. From nudity to the open courting of outrage via political statements (and sometimes, downright poor taste), here are 20 provocative covers that rocked the music world and faced the most backlash. We proceed chronologically. While hardly controversial compared to some of the other covers in this list, that's a downright unfortunate title to go with this image. And isn't the one on the right an uncanny dead ringer for a young Stephen Fry? Unsettling. It's not one of the Fab Four's most famous albums, but certainly their most notorious. Photographer Robert Whitaker took a snap of the band in white butcher's coats, surrounded by raw meat and dismembered baby dolls. Paul McCartney claimed it was a comment against the Vietnam War. US retailers were shocked and refused to stock the album, leading to it being withdrawn and reissued with a more vanilla alternative. Today, the 'Butcher cover' is available in pirated form. Those lucky enough to own an original pressing have an expensive and coveted piece of music history. The cover for the avant-garde 'Two Virgins' captures John Lennon and Yoko Ono completely naked. It sparked outrage, leading distributors to clandestinely sell the album wrapped in brown paper bags. At the end of the 1960s, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker founded a supergroup with Steve Winwood and Ric Grech. They released only one album together, and to mark the occasion, they enlisted photographer Bob Seidemann. His image features a young topless girl holding a model spaceship. The image was considered deeply problematic and was promptly banned and replaced with a more classic shot of the band members. The Stones have had several album cover controversies over the years, including 'Beggar's Banquet''s artwork which featured a graffiti covered bathroom wall. However, it's the band's ninth studio album, designed by Andy Warhol, matched with its inuendo-heavy title, which rubbed censors up the wrong way. It features a suggestive denim-clad crotch and the original pressing of the LP also had a working fly which unzipped to reveal white underwear. The cover was famously banned in Spain, which was under the fascist rule of General Franco at the time. Photographer Eric Boman's shot of Constanze Karoli and Eveline Grunwald led many US outlets to censor the image, feeling uncomfortable with the sight of scantily clad models. Thankfully, most European distributors weren't irked by the sight of lingerie. There's misguided and then there's what was going on in the minds of German rockers Scorpions in 1976. The album titled 'Virgin Killer' depicts a naked 10-year-old girl with broken glass covering her genitalia. The controversy led to a bump in sales, but it remains to this day one of the most censored album covers in music history. NB: Euronews Culture has decided to blur the image since this album cover has been deemed by many as child pornography. Sex Pistols' only studio album caused plenty of pearl clutching when it was released in 1977. A record shop owner in Nottingham, UK, was arrested for displaying the records. This led to an obscenity-related court case, as he was charged for contravening the Indecent Advertisement Act 1889. The charges were eventually dropped. All because of the word 'bollocks'. All it took was a female-led punk outfit appearing topless and covered in mud for everyone to collectively lose their minds. Considering the sheer amount of topless men on album covers, the only words that come to mind are: deal with it. With an album title like that, it was pretty obvious that the (cheeky) cover image would cause some outrage. There are no words. It's one of the most famous album covers in the world but the artwork for Nirvana's grunge masterpiece proved divisive at the time of its release. It features a photo taken by Kirk Weddle of a four-month-old nude baby named Spencer Elden. Kurt Cobain refused for it to be censored, but did state that he would agree to a sticker covering the penis, reading: 'If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile.' It didn't come to that. However, several decades later, Elden attempted to sue Nirvana for violating US federal child pornography protections with the image, arguing that it resulted in 'lifelong damages'. The suit was eventually dismissed. Rap pioneer Ice Cube was no stranger to controversy, what with the headline-grabbing lyrics of N.W.A's 'Fuck Tha Police.' But with 'Death Certificate', he sparked further outrage with the image of a corpse identified as Uncle Sam. The famous rap-metal band's debut album depicts the infamous self-immolation of Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức in 1963, protesting the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam's US-backed government. The graphic image caused outrage. Not displeased with the situation, frontman Zach de la Rocha famously burned a US flag at Woodstock '99. The question remains: Could anyone really be surprised with a name like Rage Against The Machine? Heavy metal has always been a genre that has courted controversy, and there are numerous album covers that have shocked over the years. For their 1994 album, titled 'Youthanasia', Megadeth wanted to comment on the fact that society was euthanizing the young. The visual depiction of this ended up being a woman hanging babies by their feet on her washing line. A bit on-the-nose, but it was enough to get everyone freaking out. Marilyn Manson has always pushed the envelope when it comes to taste, and the controversial rocker did just that in 2000 for the album 'Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death)'. The disturbing cover depicts Manson as a crucified Christ, which led US stores to ban it completely. Considering that the controversial shock rocker's intended purpose was to critique censorship and that the previous albums 'Mechanical Animals' and 'Portrait Of An American Family' also sparked moral panic, the reaction to the artwork must have delighted him. European fans of New York rockers The Strokes were treated with the original cover of their stunning debut album, featuring a leather gloved hand on a naked hip. The US were quick to call foul, however, disapproving of the suggestive nature of the image. The band had to swap the gorgeous shot by Colin Lane – who spontaneously took a picture of his then-girlfriend after she came out of the shower. The replacement? A psychedelic but far less impactful depiction of subatomic particle tracks. In 2001, US hip-hop group The Coup, composed of Boots Riley and DJ Pam the Funktress, wanted to make a statement about destroying capitalism. Their idea: pose in front of the World Trade Center on fire. The image was conceived prior to 9/11 and the eerie timing of the album's November release meant that they had to replace the image with a martini glass on fire. Probably for the best. The cover for Ted Nugent's album was pulled before it hit shelves - and considering the misogynist credentials of this particular image, it might have been for the best. The sleeve for 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' saw a painting of a naked Kanye West being straddled by a winged female monster with sharp teeth. The controversial rapper refused for the image be pulled, but the record label reached a compromise by pixelating the image in some territories. Sabrina Carpenter's 'Man's Best Friend' is released on 29 August.
