Kirk's mantra was always that peaceful public discussion was the best way to prevent political disagreements from spilling into violence. Regrettably, his death has already seen celebration from the extreme end of the opposite political camp, the inability to hold a minute's silence in the House of Representatives, and claims 'Israel did it' from the further right. President Trump gave a televised Oval Office address saying a crackdown on "far left political violence" looms. Regardless of your politics, it's a dark day for those hoping western societies can hold together through multiple conflating challenges via rational policy debate.

That's as Nepal's finance minister was attacked by an angry mob, barely escaping with his life; angry crowds started fires outside the French interior ministry; European Commission President von der Leyen's State of the Union address yesterday was peppered with heckling; London Underground remains paralyzed by a week-long tube drivers' strike as the UK sees spontaneous efforts to raise the Union Jack or national flags; and things remain tense in many other countries.

To say the agitated global public is not ready for a recession and unemployment is an understatement – as recession fears rise; nor are they ready to stomach austerity – as belt-tightening is flagged; and they won't accept more inflation – as Aussie consumer inflation expectations jump back from 3.9% to 4.7% and we all wait for US CPI. If so, what does the economic policy toolkit tell our finance ministries and central banks to do – apart from increase their personal security? The ECB walk that razor's edge today, the Fed next week.

It's not a coincidence that gold continues to power to fresh all-time highs even if long bond yields are for now following the US lower post-PPI, especially as the international situation isn't helping calm nerves.

The Israeli press accused Qatar of helping Hamas hide the results of its recent attack in Doha (which is what all neutral negotiators do?).

'Poland 'closer to military conflict than at any time since WW2' as Nato allies weigh response to Russian drones', says the Guardian. One view is that Russian drones recently entering Polish airspace were a probing tactic to test western readiness. Von der Leyen spoke of building a "drone wall" yesterday – but does Europe build drones?

Indeed, as @FRHoffmann1 notes: "Imagine being Europe's uncontested missile prime with €4.9bn in revenue and a €37bn order backlog in 2024 and taking more than 3.5 years of war to present a "concept" (not a product) that replicates some basic lessons of Ukraine's experience. If I sound snarky, it's because I mean to", as MBDA presents a "concept" of a new cruise missile called Crossbow.