Posted: Dec 21, 2020 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: December 21, 2020 A new power growing: Maybe intense pandemic coverage means you didn't notice the birth of the world’s biggest trading bloc, one that excludes Canada. The virtual signing ceremony of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement took place in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Nov. 15.(Kham/Reuters) There's an old but revealing joke in the news business from when most television news programs were a broadcast of fixed duration. The joke went: "Isn't it funny that every day, there is always exactly half an hour's worth of news?" The point was, of course, that of all the millions of things that happened in the world that day, news editors selected a half-hour's worth. No more. No less.