Major social advances have often emerged from the depths of disaster: the Black Death brought an end to serfdom, and Britain's welfare state emerged from the ruins of World War II.

Britain now has the world's second-highest cumulative coronavirus death toll, behind only the United States, after updated official figures released on Tuesday showed it had surpassed Italy.

Protest-hit Lebanon has approved an economic rescue plan and requested aid from the International Monetary Fund as it battles its worst financial crisis in decades.

The coronavirus pandemic blindsided international organisations, prompted individual states to unilaterally strike out alone and heralded a new chapter in the 21st century's chief geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China.

Israel's coalition deal between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz breaks a year-long deadlock but has pitfalls -- from power sharing mechanisms to West Bank policy and the premier's corruption charges.

The killing which left at least 16 dead in Canada at the weekend is the worst of its kind in the history of the country, which is largely free of major violence.

Sporting events may be on hold in Germany, but the race to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel is gathering pace as the country makes cautious progress in the fight against the coronavirus. 

"The world will never be the same again," has been the oft-repeated refrain since the coronavirus brought the global economy to a juddering halt.

In the three months since China first came across a new coronavirus, the world has been plunged into turmoil. 

Boris Johnson, who led Britain out of the European Union in January after years of political chaos and paralysis, now finds himself professionally and personally tested like never before by the COVID-19 crisis.