Image source, EPA

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “angry and saddened” by the violent attacks on the US Congress.

"I deeply regret that President Trump has not conceded his defeat, since November and again yesterday," she told German MPs at a meeting.

“Doubts over the election outcome have been stoked and that created an atmosphere which made last night’s events possible."

She welcomed President-elect Joe Biden’s statement and the fact Congress continued to certify his presidency, saying his inauguration should “open a new chapter” in America’s democracy.

“That means the forces of democracy have prevailed,” she said. “That is something I always knew about the United States and expected.”

You can read how other world leaders have reacted here.

The UK's home secretary Priti Patel has called the scenes in Washington on Wednesday "horrendous" and unacceptable".

"His comments directly led to the violence, and so far he has failed to condemn that violence and that is completely wrong," she told BBC Breakfast.

Read more of our interview with Patel here.

Shayan Sardarizadeh
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Getty Images

Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory, alongside far-right pro-Trump groups, were planning the rally outside Congress for weeks.

QAnon is a baseless conspiracy theory that claims President Trump and a secret team of military intelligence officers have been waging a war against Satan-worshipping paedophiles in the Democratic party.

In addition, supporters of the "Stop the Steal" election movement, Proud Boys and other groups have been encouraging their followers to attend the march.

So-called "patriot caravans" and other initiatives were organised online to help transport activists to Washington DC in anticipation of the protest.

• What is QAnon?
• Who are the Proud Boys and antifa?
• The deep roots of Trump's 'voter fraud' strategy

Many of those attending the rally had consumed viral conspiracy theories and misleading narratives about the presidential election on major online platforms, convinced that the vote was stolen from Trump.

US election officials have described the vote as the most secure in history.

Discussion on Gab and Parler, social media platforms popular with far-right groups banned from Facebook and Twitter, featured threats that anything other than Congress overturning the outcome would lead to "patriots" having to rescue their country from traitors, communists, Satanists and paedophiles.

The announcement was made by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, one of the four "tellers" appointed by the House and Senate to count the electoral college votes.

She said: "The report we make is that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be the president and vice president according to the ballots that have been given to us."

Vice-President Mike Pence, who as president of the Senate oversaw the certification process, confirmed to Congress that, of the 538 electoral college votes cast, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received 306 and Donald Trump and Mike Pence received 232 - mirroring the results of November's election.

“The announcement of the state of the vote by the President of the Senate shall be deemed as sufficient declaration of the persons elected President and Vice President of the United States, each for the term beginning on the 20th day of January, 2021 and shall be entered together with the list of the votes on the journals of the Senate and the House of Representatives," Pence said.

Image source, Reuters

Earlier today, two former officials who have worked closely with Donald Trump joined political leaders in condemning the storming of Congress. Former Defence Secretary James Mattis directly accused Trump of stoking the violence.

“Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr Trump,” he said in a statement. He also said Trump had been "enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.”

Mattis resigned from his position in 2018 after disagreeing with president over the war in Syria. He also sharply criticised Trump's response in July to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.

Meanwhile, former White House chief of staff John Kelly posted on Twitter that the US "needs to look infinitely harder at who we elect to any office in our land". He said candidates' character, morals, ethical record, and integrity should be examined more closely.

He singled out President-elect Joe Biden's remarks to the nation about the violence on the Capitol as "presidential". The retired general resigned from the White House in 2018 and, like Mattis, has since publicly criticised Trump.

President Trump has just released a statement committing to "an orderly transition on January 20th" but repeating his unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.

“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th," he said, in a comment published on his spokesperson's Twitter account. Twitter has temporarily blocked the president from using his own account.

"I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!" he added.

More than 60 legal cases by Trump's campaign team challenging the November result have failed.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Image source, Reuters

If this is the "at long last, have you left no sense of decency" moment for Donald Trump, it arrives as they're cleaning up blood and broken glass in the US Capitol.

As the afternoon stretched into the evening, and police finally secured the US Capitol, a growing chorus of voices - from the left and right - condemned the violence. It was not surprising that Democrats, like soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, laid the riots at the feet of the president.

More noteworthy, however, were the Republicans who followed suit.

And the condemnations were not limited to Trump's reliable intraparty critics. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who frequently sides with the president, also spoke out. "It's past time for the president to accept the results of the election, quit misleading the American people, and repudiate mob violence," he said.

First Lady Melania Trump's chief of staff Stephanie Grisham and Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews both resigned in protest, and there are reports that more administration officials will head for the exits in the next 24 hours.

Trump's presidency will be over in just two weeks. At that point, Republican Party leaders will have to grapple with a future where it has lost control of the Congress and the White House and has a former president whose reputation is badly tarnished but who still has strong sway over a sizeable segment of the party's base.

You can read more from Anthony's piece here.

Image source, Reuters

Congress has certified Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the next president and vice-president of the US.

The electoral votes were approved after both the Senate and the House of Representatives rejected objections to the votes in the states of Pennsylvania and Arizona.

The normally procedural session of Congress was disrupted on Wednesday when supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol building. The session resumed and continued through the night after the building was cleared.

The US Congress has formally confirmed Joe Biden's victory. We'll bring you more details shortly.

Image source, Reuters

The US House of Representatives has just voted 282-138 to reject an objection to Pennsylvania’s electoral college votes. The Senate has already dismissed a similar objection there.

The House and Senate will continue to count the remaining Electoral College votes needed to certify Joe Biden as the next US president.

Image source, Getty

The FBI has put out an appeal seeking help in "identifying individuals who are actively instigating violence in Washington DC".

It is asking for "tips and digital media" relating to the violence that broke out at the US Capitol building and the surrounding area on Wednesday.

Members of the public who "witnessed unlawful violent actions" are urged to submit information to fbi.gov/USCapitol, external or call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-‪800-225-5324).

Image source, Reuters

Matt Pottinger, deputy national security advisor, is the latest Trump official to reportedly resign.

Bloomberg News, citing sources close to Pottinger, said he was "dismayed by the attack on the Capitol and Trump's incitement of protesters", while sources told CNN Pottinger had said "there was very little for him to consider".

It follows after earlier reports that numerous other White House staff members also resigned following the chaos of the day.

Among those who stepped down earlier are Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews, the chief of staff of First Lady Melania Trump, Stephanie Grisham, and White House social secretary Rickie Niceta.

Here's more from Mitch McConnell. Speaking after the chamber resumed its meeting, McConnell tried to reassure the country that the Senate would not bow to pressure and violence.

"We will not be kept out of this chamber by mobs, thugs or threats," he said.

"We will not bow to lawlessness or intimidation."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he believes no other states’ votes will be challenged.

This is after objections to results from Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania were all rejected.

After the November vote, the Kentucky senator had himself for weeks backed Donald Trump's unfounded claims the election was rigged.

However, earlier on Wednesday, he said attempts to overturn the election result would be hugely damaging for American democracy.

"The voters, the courts and the states, they've all spoken... This election actually was not unusually close. Just in recent history - [the elections of] 1976, 2000 and 2004 - were all closer than this one."

"If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral. We'd never see the whole nation accept an election again. Every four years would be a scramble for power at any cost."

Image source, AFP

Jamie Stiehm is a US political columnist who was in the Capitol building when it was stormed. Here's what she saw from the press gallery in the House of Representatives:

"There was a shot. We could see there was a stand-off in our chamber. Five men were holding guns at the door. It was a frightening sight. Men were looking through a broken glass window and looked like they could shoot at any second.

Many of us are hardened journalists - I've seen my share of violence covering homicides in Baltimore - but this was very unpredictable.

The police didn't seem to know what was happening. They weren't coordinated. They locked the chamber doors but at the same time, they told us we would have to evacuate. So there was a sense of panic.

There was a sense of 'nobody's in charge here, the Capitol Police have lost control of the building, anything can happen.'"

Read her full eyewitness account here.

Asian stocks and US Treasury yields rose on Thursday, while the dollar slumped to an almost three-year low after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol and Democrats won control of the US Senate after run-off races in Georgia.

Japan's Nikkei added 1.6% to close at 27,490.13, while markets in Singapore, South Korea and Australia also pushed higher.

Mainland Chinese markets edged higher before reversing course later in the session.

Hong Kong was the outlier, slipping after the New York Stock Exchange said it would delist three Chinese telecom companies.

We continue to watch the session in Congress to certify Joe Biden's win in the November election. More on that shortly - but first here's a video showing how Wednesday's events in Washington unfolded.

If you're joining only now, welcome to our rolling coverage of the unprecedented sitiuation in the US. Here's a roundup of the latest developments:

• Lawmakers are continuing with the certification of Joe Biden's win in the November presidential election after clashes on Capitol Hill during which four people died
• Proceedings were halted when the complex was overrun by a violent group of President Trump's supporters angry at what they considered to be a rigged election
• Washington DC is under curfew and police in riot gear continue to guard the streets
• So far, at least 52 people have been arrested - 47 of them for curfew violations
• Twitter and Facebook have locked President Trump's accounts, preventing him from being able to post
• Meanwhile, the Democrats have taken control of the US Senate after a run-off race in Georgia in which its challengers defeated the two Republican incumbents

So what did the thousands of Trump supporters who gathered in Washington DC want?

These demonstrators' views were captured in the hours before the protests turned violent.

Reactions to the stunning scenes from Washington continue to stream in from around the globe.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “distressed to see news about rioting and violence” in Washington and urged the “peaceful transfer of power must continue”.

New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern tweeted that "democracy - the right of people to exercise a vote, have their voice heard and then have that decision upheld peacefully - should never be undone by a mob".

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also called on Trump supporters to "stop trampling on democracy".

"The enemies of democracy will be pleased to see these incredible images from Washington DC. Inflammatory words turn into violent actions."