Robin Williams: The apparent suicide of actor and comedian Robin Williams has been greeted as a national tragedy, dominating the news and national conversation.

Williams was found dead yesterday at age 63 in his Tiburon, Calif. home. The man who made the country laugh for 40 years had struggled with depression, drugs, and alcohol most of his adult life. His publicist said Williams had recently been suffering severe depression. Investigators said death appeared to be by asphyxiation.

He was a genius. The manic comedian burst into American culture with the 1970s television series “Mork & Mindy,” playing a clever alien who could never quite understand life on earth. As a screen actor Williams was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning once in 1998 for playing a therapist opposite Matt Damon in “Good Will Hunting.”

As a standup he was a brilliant improviser, a fountain of funny lines. And in a business in which fame and money make people into jerks, Williams was known to be friendly, kind, and understanding, in particular to people like him who wrestled with demons. His won.

Iraq: The US is directly arming Kurdish forces in their fight against ISIS extremists, a departure from the policy of dealing with Iraq only through the central government. The Kurds run a semi-autonomous region that’s been more peaceful and economically successful than the rest of Iraq.

President Obama yesterday also praised Iraqi President Fouad Massoum for his decision to name a replacement for a Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose partisanship for the Shiite majority has fed the unrest among Sunnis. The nominee, Haider al-Abadi, has 30 days to form a government that also represents the Sunni and Kurdish minorities. Maliki says he isn’t leaving.

Ukraine: Russia has sent a 280-truck humanitarian relief convoy from Moscow to Ukraine, raising fears that it’s a Trojan horse for a follow-up with invasion forces. The Ukraine army is slowly beating pro-Russian separatists, gambling so far that Russia will not intervene. The Ukraine government said the aid must enter the country through a government-controlled border crossing and be accompanied by the Red Cross.

Aftermath: Police used teargas and rubber bullets during a second night of violence in Ferguson, Mo. as angry crowds protested the police killing of an unarmed teenager over the weekend. The FBI has opened an investigation into the shooting in which witnesses said 18-year-old Michael Brown had his hands up when an officer shot him.

Awwww: A zoo in Guangzhou, China announced the birth of a rare set of panda triplets. The cubs are 15 days old and doing well so far, but life is precarious for baby pandas for the first six months.

Real Politik: Hillary Clinton, who won’t say she’s running for president, is distancing herself from President Obama’s foreign policy so she can run for president.

Clinton is quoted in an interview with The Atlantic Magazine saying that the White House inner-circle slogan “Don’t do stupid shit” does not amount to foreign policy. “Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle,” Clinton said. Clinton is joining critics who blame Obama for the Middle East mess. Clinton said that if Obama had armed the early rebels in Syria it might have prevented the current takeover of parts of Syria and Iraq by ISIS extremists.

It’s all Obama’s fault and Obamacare probably had something to do with it too.

Pressed: Amid rumors that his days are numbered, David Gregory, NBC’s host of “Meet the Press,” cut short his Nantucket vacation to defend home plate and host the show this past Sunday. Gregory apparently decided it was a bad time to be at the beach. Politico has reported that, with his ratings crashing, Gregory is soon to be replaced by White House correspondent Chuck Todd. Gregory wants to be sure his face is on the screen, even though his viewers stayed at the beach.

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