You may have missed it: a new star was born the other day.

It was at the inauguration of Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, president and vice-president of the United States respectively, our neighbours — in case this could ever slip our minds — to the south. The star was not of the celestial type. Nor was it Ms. Harris herself, though she is clearly a political figure to watch. Not the singers and entertainers, good as they were. Not the fireworks. Not the parade of lights along the Reflecting Pool, each one representing a thousand of our American neighbours’ lives lost to the coronavirus; there were 400 of them. And not, despite its importance and even occasional eloquence, the rebirth of civility and hope expressed by America’s simultaneously oldest and newest president.