The United States will hold a military exercise with the same bloc of 10 Southeast Asian countries that China held similar exercises with last year. Both superpowers are hoping to influence a region that could still swing either way.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On August 26, 1939, the first Major League Baseball game is broadcast live on television. The game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers took place at Ebbets Field in New York City and was broadcast on W2XBS, which is known today as WNBC-TV. At the time, TV was in its infancy, and it is estimated that only around 400 people owned TV sets in the New York area. The coverage was crude by today’s standards with just two cameras used, one aimed down the third base line, and another mounted high behind home plate. Initially, baseball owners were concerned that televised games would reduce attendance at the games, but they soon found that broadcasting games raised overall interest in the sport. Today, televised sports is a multi-billion dollar industry.

VIDEO: U.N. officials and human rights advocates say China continues to step up its persecution of ethnic Uighurs, confining as many as one million members of the largely Muslim ethnic group in conditions that observers describe as similar to concentration camps. Many of those who have fled the repression have made their home in the Washington D.C. area, which is home to the largest community of Uighurs in the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump made early headlines Monday as he expressed optimism to reporters for trade deals with China and Japan, as well as prospects for an agreement with Iran. He downplayed any sense of tension with French President Emmanuel Macron after the French leader met Sunday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

VIDEO: Satire is an integral part of US politics. Digesting the news of the day with the help of comedy draws attention to serious issues and shapes political opinions. To honor the genre, the Newseum in Washington opened an exhibition called ‘Seriously Funny’ that looks at how Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ impacted US politics and media in the course of the last two decades.

During the “Year of Return,” people of African descent are encouraged to go to Ghana to mark 400 years since the first enslaved Africans were brought to what became the United States. This week, a delegation from the U.S. civil rights organization National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is in Ghana visiting the sites of their ancestors.