Latest news with #Postcards
Sky News AU
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
‘I'm going to cry': Jelena Dokic opens up about coming to Australia as a refugee during Nine Postcards appearance
Jelena Dokic has become teary-eyed after opening up about arriving to Australia as a refugee over three decades ago while serving as a guest presenter on Channel Nine's Postcards. The 42-year-old retired athlete is currently back in the spotlight as part of Channel Nine's sports team covering the upcoming French Open. Dokic, who lives in Melbourne, recently added to her duties for the network after filling in for the travel series Postcards as a guest presenter. On Sunday's episode, Dokic took viewers around the culture-rich inner Melbourne suburban Northcote. During the segment, the retired tennis star began off the main drag at bakery Akimbo Bread before heading to Merri Creek Trail, a scenic route for walkers and cyclists that winds through the leafy landscape. Jelena then returns to High Street to visit Free to Feed, a social enterprise connecting refugees and locals through the universal language of food. The former Wimbledon semi-finalist became visibly emotional after hearing about the social enterprise's work with refugee communities. 'I was a refugee, I came to Australia when I was 11,' Dokic said. 'It's one person who can help you or understand, or connect with food. 'I'm going to cry.' Dokic was born in 1983 in the former communist state Yugoslavia before resettling in Serbia and then arriving in Australia as a refugee in 1994. The Aussie tennis star was just 16 years old when she advanced to the semifinal at Wimbledon in 2000 and reached a peak of World No. 4 in 2002. Privately, the star allegedly suffered abuse at the hands of her father and coach Damir Dokic, which culminated in the player firing her father and rebooting her career. In 2009, Dokic enjoyed an unforgettable run at the Australian Open after entering the draw as a wildcard and ultimately advancing all the way to the quarter finals before retiring in 2014. In a December 2023 interview, Jelena said she has been estranged from her father for more than 10 years, and claimed he has never apologised for his alleged verbal, emotional and physical abuse. The retired tennis star's glamorous new gig comes months after Dokic opened up about her weight loss journey. In March, Dokic posted a side-by-side comparison of her before-and-after weight loss, musing that she is the 'same hardworking person' regardless of her weight. 'What is the difference between the two images?,' she wrote. 'Nothing except what you see on the outside, my BODY SIZE. 'I am the same hardworking person, respectful, generous, empathetic, compassionate, humble, kind, driven, strong, resilient, capable and loving person, woman and friend.'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proud of being a voice for region, Pioneer PBS now asks supporters to speak up
May 9---- is a small public television station that prides itself on giving a voice to a large, rural area of western Minnesota through its commitment to locally produced programming, according to its president and general manager, Shari Lamke. Now, Lamke, her staff and board of directors are hoping residents in its service area will use their voices to support public television amid threatened cuts to federal funding for public broadcasting. An executive order by President calls for ending federal funding for the Corporation for Pubic Broadcasting, which distributes the funds to public television and radio stations across the country. National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service are challenging the president's orders. Public broadcasting supporters are also asking Congress to continue funding. Federal funds represent 29 percent of the annual budget for Pioneer PBS, according to Lamke. The funds are used mainly to pay for much of the national programming it airs, ranging from educational programming for children to science, news and entertainment shows. It's impossible to know at this point exactly how the local television system would be affected if the federal funds are lost. There would be real harm, according to Lamke. "It is infrastructure," she said of the national programming made possible by the federal funds. "If you take the infrastructure away, what happens, none of us know" she said. Pioneer PBS got its start in February 1966 in an old schoolhouse near . Today, it's located in a modern studio in Granite Falls. Lamke is currently looking to fill a few vacant spots, but at full staffing the operation relies on 26 employees. It is one of 330 independent, locally run and operated, community-licensed television stations whose focus is the regions they serve in the U.S., said Lamke. Pioneer PBS broadcasts from towers in Appleton, and Fergus Falls to a 45-county area of western Minnesota. It's home to just over 1 million potential viewers. Pioneer PBS also streams programming through a variety of platforms, reaching audiences in most of eastern South Dakota, parts of western Wisconsin, and large urban areas including Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the Twin Cities. Its local programming is recognized with a trophy case holding 31 Emmy awards since 2013. But Lamke said it is the support and interest of local viewers that matters most, along with the opportunity to share the region's stories to those living well beyond its 45-county home turf. Its popular "Prairie Sportsman" program, for example, is also carried by stations in Illinois, Wyoming, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Iowa and Michigan. Two other locally focused and produced programs, "Prairie Yard and Garden" and the arts- and culture-focused "Postcards," also have large audiences well beyond the region. Giving voice to the stories of the region is at the heart of much of its local programming, often as special projects, according to the general manager. Documentaries have focused on regional stories ranging from the Willmar 8 to the region's rich Scandinavian folk arts and culture, as well the life of professional rodeo star Tanner Aus. Lamke also cited ongoing documentaries and programs that have brought the compelling stories of the region's war veterans and Indigenous residents to a broad audience as other examples of the station's important role. She likes to point out that public broadcasting is unique in that it is not beholden to the forces that drive commercial decision-making, where there is the criticism of "if it bleeds, it leads." Public television relies on donations from its viewers, along with grants and the support of the state and federal governments. In the United States, residents are all currently paying about $1.60 per person per year to support public broadcasting, according to Lamke. She points out that residents in Japan pay about $40 per year per person. In the United Kingdom, it is around $100; it is $176 in Norway and $32.43 in Canada. Lamke recently returned from trips to both St. Paul and Washington to speak to Minnesota elected officials. In Washington, she was able to meet directly with U.S. Sens. Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar. Klobuchar left the Senate floor to visit with her and other representatives of public broadcasting. Lamke said she was encouraged, too, by the support she heard during visits with state legislators representing the region. She said she is hopeful of support from the viewing public in western Minnesota. Viewer surveys and ongoing input from an advisory board and residents from the region indicate the station is very much appreciated, she said. In a rural area, she said, there are many viewers who rely on it. Some have told her and other staff members that it is their lifeline to the outside world. But the most telling testimony of viewer support came in mid-2023, when the station's aged technology broke down and knocked it off the air for several weeks. Over and over, the station was contacted by viewers expressing how much they missed it and wanted its return, said Lamke. One man kept his television tuned to channel 10, waiting for the moment the signal returned, she said. "If you are going to support a station in a community, they better represent that community," she said of the station's focus. "I have a huge belief in (that) the voice of the local community is what makes us unique." Information about the station's local content and programming and more is available on its website at
CairoScene
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Postcards' ‘Ripe' Is a Love-Hate Letter to Beirut
A raw-grunge soundtrack to the beauty and brutality of Beirut, Postcards' latest album captures the angst, nostalgia, and defiance of a city in turmoil. Mar 30, 2025 There's an unmistakable tension in Ripe — the kind that only comes from living in a city that chews you up and spits you out, yet you still refuse to leave. It feels like a politically engaged university student in Beirut, both in love with and exhausted by their home. Postcards tap into the golden era of 2010s soft raw-grunge, aligning themselves with bands like Composure, Basement, Citizen, and Pity Sex. This is the soundtrack of burning youth, cigarettes over cityscapes, and late-night existential spirals. With the current situation in Gaza and Lebanon, the album takes on an even deeper resonance, its rawness mirroring the heartbreak, rage, and resilience of a region constantly on edge. The album, released on Berlin's t3 Records, opens with I Stand Corrected, an immediate plunge into nostalgia-laced grunge. Dreamy yet rough around the edges, it has the kind of worn-in, scuffed-up charm that makes you want to dig out your old band tees. There's a steady pulse to it, a weight that feels both grounding and restless—like the cycle of destruction and rebuilding that defines Beirut. Dust Bunnies, the lead single, encapsulates everything Ripe is about—teenage angst bottled into sound, bursting at the seams with emotion. It carries the same energy as a Heartstopper soundtrack, full of unfiltered passion and fury, like scribbled notes in the margins of a high school notebook. Postcards Band Poison shifts into something darker, layering classic rock structures with pure grunge sensibilities. There's something cinematic about it, like a vampire love story unraveling under flickering neon lights—brooding, reckless, and drenched in distortion. Then comes Wasteland Rose, the album's softest moment, airy and dreamlike, floating
