Before age 12, Karlie Stewart had already faced some of life’s toughest challenges. And by her 14th birthday, she wasn’t sure she would make it to the next one.

She grew up between Nowra and Sydney in a big, proud Aboriginal family, with ties to the Yuin nation and the La Perouse community.

She reflects fondly on growing up around cousins and culture, but there were real challenges too: violence, substance abuse and a last name that was familiar to police.

“[In] black families, it sometimes feels like it’s us against the world,” she said.

“We never, ever saw the police and thought, ‘they’re our friends’, or, ‘we could trust them’.”

By the time Karlie was in high school, she felt like she shouldn’t expect much from her life.

“I thought I would be dead...

A public health alert has been issued for 15 locations in the Brisbane area linked to the one new case of COVID-19 confirmed in Queensland on Friday.

The new confirmed case of coronavirus in Queensland is a 27-year-old man from Bellbird Park in Ipswich who was at the Madtongsan IV Korean restaurant in Sunnybank last Thursday with five others.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the man was now in quarantine.

Queensland Health has urged anyone who visited the following locations in the Brisbane South and West Moreton areas to monitor their health closely.

An...

For months, Papua New Guinea has avoided a large-scale coronavirus outbreak, but in the space of two weeks things have changed.

Until mid-July, only 11 cases had been recorded in the country. Then on July 16, a new case was discovered.

It was a lab technician — who had reported a fever, muscle aches, a cough and runny nose. They’d been working at a COVID-19 testing lab.

It prompted 37 staff at the lab to get tested. That was when three more cases were announced.

The acting Secretary of the Health Department said he ...

The UK Government has reversed its plan to ease lockdowns and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned of a potential second wave of infections as he announced changes to restrictions.

Meanwhile India tallies a record number of new infections in the past day, but the country is pressing on with reopening sections of the economy and removing a curfew.

This story will be updated throughout Saturday and was last updates at 1:45am.

Saturday’s key moments:

Britain PM Johnson postpones easing lockdown

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has postponed an easing in lockdown restrictions amid fears of a second wave of the pandemic and issued a warning to Britons at the same time.

Mr Johnson gave the warning a day after a late-night announcement of a new lockdown in northern England and said the re...

Yesterday US President Donald Trump said he was so concerned about “Universal Mail-In Voting” that he suggested delaying the November election.

“It will be a great embarrassment to the USA,” Trump said.

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It’s not the first time he’s attacked mail voting. He told Fox News recently that it would “rig the election” and that he might not accept the result of the election because of it.

But with record daily cases and a second wave apparently yet to reach its peak, the reality is setting in that COVID-19 won’t go away before November. Experts say without mail voting, Americans will be putting their lives at risk to cast a ballot.

So is there any truth to the claims that mail voting will “rig the election”? And is America ready to vote in the middle of a pandemic?

The answer differs stat...