Three BBC correspondents from China, Germany and Canada describe how the attack on the US Capitol was viewed abroad.

Image source, Getty Images

It's been a busy day in Washington DC, so let's recap:

• Biden delivered a nearly 30-minute speech from a chamber on Capitol Hill that was occupied by pro-Trump rioters one year ago today
• "He's a defeated former president, defeated by a margin of over seven million of your votes in a free and fair election," said Biden

• He accused Donald Trump, whom he did not mention by name, and Republicans of holding "a dagger at the throat of American democracy"
• In later remarks to reporters, Biden denied his speech was meant as part of a “contemporary political battle” with Trump
• Trump has released two statements so far, slamming Biden and repeating his unsubstantiated claim that the election was stolen from him
• Top Democrat Nancy Pelosi has led lawmakers on Capitol Hill in a moment of silence
• Democrats have been giving speeches throughout the morning about what they witnessed that day, and arguing that Trump continues to threaten American democracy
• Most Republicans have left Washington, and accused Democrats of politicising the attack
• Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans working with Congress to investigate the riot, was the only member of her party to attend the event
• Cheney's father, former Republican Vice-President Dick Cheney, also attended and criticised his party's leadership for not participating

BBC has asked ordinary Americans from around the country how they see the 6 January attack today.

To A'Kayla Sellers, a law student from South Carolina, last year's riot "exposed a lot of the cracks America had in its foundations", not least of which was how police respond in different situations.

As she saw it, police were "lackadaisical" with individuals who stormed the Capitol - most of whom were white.

A'Kayla marched in several 'Black Lives Matter' protests in 2020, during which she claims she was tear-gassed and saw many others treated poorly by law enforcement.

"Thinking now about that juxtaposition between how African Americans were treated versus those that broke into the Capitol brings back those emotions of frustration about how our police as a whole treats different groups of citizens," she tells the BBC.

She believes there is a lot more racial tension and political anger remains.

"A group of individuals that were angered and frustrated decided to take matters into their own hands and charged the Capitol unlawfully," she says.

"I don't think this is the end of that rage."

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Given that a third of the US public thinks violent action against the government is sometimes justified, it should come as no surprise that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that what happened at the US Capitol last year was a sign of things to come.

Talk of 6 January being an inflection point toward a more unified nation – something that was encouraged by Joe Biden in his Inaugural Address – have long since faded away.

Image source, Getty Images

Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, who served for 23 years in the US military before becoming a lawmaker, has described the harrowing moment that she realised that Congress was under attack.

Duckworth, who lost both of her legs in 2004 when the helicopter she was co-piloting was attacked by Iraqi insurgents, was due to give a speech on the floor about 15 minutes after rioters first breached the building.

The Capitol Police told her that she could still make it to the House chamber, but would then need to be evacuated with the other lawmakers.

"I decided not to do that, because I am a wheelchair user and they would have had to carry me down multiple flights of stairs. These historic buildings only have a limited number of elevators," the Democrat told BBC News.

"I said: 'You guys go get the other senators and come get me when you're done'." She and two staff members then sheltered in a secure room for four hours until police returned.

"Never in a million years did I think that our nation's capital was the one that would need to be defended," she says.

"I served 23 years in the military. I was in Iraq, helping the Iraqis earn their right to vote, establish their democracy."

"It never occurred to me in those 23 years of wearing the American flag on my shoulder, on my uniform, that I would see Americans using that same American flag to beat United States Capitol Police officers."

Echoing comments made by President Biden earlier today, she says: "You can't be a patriot only when your side is winning. I served in Iraq even though I opposed that war."

Tara McKelvey
BBC News, Washington

Image source, Getty Images

To some, Liz Cheney, a Republican congresswoman from Wyoming, has become an enemy of her own party.

She is vice-chairwoman of a special committee that is examining the 6 January attack, and she has condemned the former president, Donald Trump, for his false claims about election fraud.

In turn, she has been ousted from the party in Wyoming and targeted by Trump, who is backing her rival, lawyer Harriet Hageman, in this year’s Republican primary.

This is all the more striking because of her family background. She is the daughter of Dick Cheney, the former vice-president and one of the nation’s most prominent conservatives.

Admirers see parallels between her decision to defend the Capitol and her father's response on 9/11.

Back then, the then vice-president was sequestered in a White House bunker, an underground room designed to withstand a nuclear detonation.

Garrett Graff, author of The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11, says Dick Cheney “marshaled the nation’s defences in those first chaotic hours after the terror attacks” from the bunker.

In a similar way, “Liz Cheney today sees the Republicans’ embrace of authoritarianism and [its] turn away from shared, democratic traditions as just as existential a threat to the future of the US as her father did al-Qaeda did on 9/11”, according to Graff.

BBC has asked ordinary Americans from around the country how they see the 6 January attack today.

An independent who voted for Donald Trump in 2020, Keri did not approve of what happened at the Capitol and thought "it was a bit silly". But she rejects the notion that it was a serious incident.

For her, "it was a day like any other", she says.

"It was a rally of - to borrow a phrase from the media - mostly peaceful people who came to express their frustration with what they saw as election tampering."

She thinks people within that crowd "with bad intent" forced a breach on the Capitol.

Keri believes Democrats and the media have spun a narrative of chaos and trauma, and finds the comparisons to 9/11 and the attack on Pearl Harbour risible.

"I think it was a serious incident if you view it as a symbol of people's growing mistrust in the political system and the media," says the podcaster.

"Neither party will let a crisis go to waste. They keep us distracted arguing about which one is the good side and all we do is squabble over these relatively unimportant distractions."

Keri has grown increasingly pessimistic about the future of the country and fears things will get worse soon.

"America was a great experiment, but we’re already in decline," she says.

"There are more people on the left and right currently talking about the possibility of a national divorce, because they want to avoid political violence."

Republican members of Congress Matt Gaetz, of Florida, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, are expected to hold a press conference at 14:15 local time.

The two staunch supporters of the former president will likely be the loudest pro-Trump voices heard today.

A little later we'll be hearing from other members of Congress, who will share their memories and reflections from inside the Capitol.

Mike Wendling
BBC anti-disinformation unit

Image source, Getty Images

Gettr, Gab, Parler – you’d be forgiven for being unfamiliar with these “alt-tech” social networks. But they and others are teeming with conspiratorial thinking.

QAnon activists – followers of a wide-ranging conspiracy theory claiming that Satan-worshipping paedophiles control government, business and the media – were at the heart of the Capitol riot. And after years of mostly ignoring their swelling ranks, Big Tech took big action after 6 Jan.

Twitter, for instance, zapped 70,000 accounts in less than a week.

Cast off of the mainstream avenues, many sought out new online homes.

So-called “alt-tech” platforms haven’t quite replaced well-known social media. While they are somewhat effective at rallying true believers, they lack cultural clout. The world of alt-tech is distinctly one-note, with precious few people to argue with or try to convert.

The Silicon Valley giants still hold most of the online power. That’s a concern for all sorts of people of course, not just extremists. And while QAnon has been fragmented, with splinters flying off in many directions, the rage and conspiratorial thinking behind the movement certainly hasn’t dissipated.

Image source, Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

In the year since the riot, 153 Capitol police officers have quit the force, Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told the Senate this week.

He says that leaves the force understaffed and vulnerable, on top of those on sick leave due to Covid-19 and other causes. Only about 1,600 officers are available on a given day.

One police officer, Brian Sicknick, died of natural causes a day after the attack, and over 140 were injured.

Image source, Getty Images

Former Republican Vice-President Dick Cheney was seen earlier in the Capitol with his daughter, Liz Cheney - a current Wyoming congresswoman and one of two Republicans on the congressional committee investigating the riot.

Asked why he was there today, the elder Cheney told ABC News: "It's an important historical event."

He went on to criticise his party's leaders, most of whom are skipping today's events.

"I'm deeply disappointed we don't have better leadership in the Republican Party to restore the Constitution," said Cheney.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

The idea of taking up arms against an oppressive government isn’t exactly unfamiliar ground for Americans.

The United States was founded on the back of a rebellion against perceived government tyranny, after all.

In light of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, however, talk about “justified” violence against government lands differently.

Some other polls, like the one below, show that a smaller number of Americans – though a figure that still totals in millions – believe the use of force would be justified in order to return Donald Trump to power now, before the next election.

Image source, Getty Images

The events of the 6 January riot began hours before supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol. By the end of the day, five people were dead and hundreds of police officers were injured.

Here’s a look back at how the day unfolded:

08:17: Then-President Trump tweets allegations of vote fraud ahead of a planned rally in Washington DC.

12:00: Trump begins a speech to supporters from outside the Capitol, urging them to converge on the building to “peacefully and patriotically” make their voices heard.

12:53: - As the president speaks, a crowd outside the Capitol is swelling. They begin marching towards the police barrier and get past officers.

13:10: Trump ends his speech with a vow to “fight like hell”. Soon after, Capitol police officers call for back-up and report that officers have been injured in a melee with the crowd.

13:45: As protesters surge up the west steps of the Capitol, officers move to declare a riot.

14:13: Vice-President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the certification of the election results, is evacuated by the Secret Service. An immediate recess of the Senate is called as protesters begin to stream into the building by breaking windows and smashing doors.

14:24: Trump tweets that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done”. Meanwhile, House members are told to take shelter.

14:41: Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt is fatally wounded by a police officer while trying to enter the Capitol.

15:13: Trump calls for crowd to “remain peaceful”. An hour later, he releases a video urging the mob to go home.

18:00: Trump tweets that the crowd at the Capitol are “great patriots”. “Remember this day forever,” he says.

Soon after, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser placed the city under a 12-hour curfew. Several dozen people would be arrested before the night's end, while hundreds more left the scene.

To date, more than 725 people have been arrested for their role in the riot.

It was only in the many days since he confronted the mob with his rifle on the Capitol a year ago that officer Harry Dunn could begin to make sense of what had happened.

"My day was basically filled with 'let's survive and get home'," he told the BBC.

Looking back and recalling the rioters moving like waves of "possessed zombies", Dunn is still in shock. "Is this America?"

Watch his full interview below.

Shrai Popat
BBC News, Washington

Image source, Shrai Popat/BBC

The walk from The Ellipse to the Capitol building, the same route that rioters took last year, is comparatively barren in 2022. Security is scattered around the nation’s capital, a blanket of snow covers much of the lawn beneath the Washington Monument, and pockets of tourists brave the cold along the National Mall.

It’s a far cry from the events of last year.

DC locals like Kimberly Anderson-Felga remember the moment the Capitol was seized. “It didn’t seem real that this could possibly happen in the United States, especially in DC.”

Image source, Shrai Popat/BBC

For visitors like Maxwell Romeyn, from Darien, Connecticut, the shock of last year’s attack hasn’t waned.

“I think it’s just a reminder about how everything is more polarised than it used to be,” he added. “You still hear people debating over whether it was an insurrection or not.”

Image source, Shrai Popat/BBC

Mr Romeyn does feel that things appear more calm since President Biden took office, but some fear that 6 January was a harbinger of more anarchy.

Harry Nethery, from Lakeland, Florida, feels that the rise in conspiracy theories and misinformation throughout the United States doesn’t leave much hope for moving forward.

“I think we’ve somehow lost knowledge in the whole process,” he said.

Image source, Shrai Popat/BBC

Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar has just spoken to the BBC's Laura Trevelyan.

He says that the Capitol riot probe is not about taking down Trump, but rather is "about gathering as much evidence as we can find" and to "make sure that this never happens again".

Aguilar, a California congressman, describes feeling "scared" last year as he was within 20 feet (six metres) of a door that rioters broke through to storm the building.

"Police in the building told us some measures we might need to take. Using gas masks and evacuating," he says.

"All of us took a posture to reach out to our families, but to also be very protective and to get ready for anything."

Banning Trump from social media still affects US politicspublished at 17:28 Greenwich Mean Time 6 January 2022

17:28 GMT 6 January 2022

James Clayton
North America technology reporter

By the time the 6 January riot happened last year, social media companies had long been concerned about what to do with Donald Trump.

In the run up to the US elections in November, they knew it was likely that Trump would contest the election result if he lost.

Privately, Facebook had radical plans to effectively turn off parts of the platform in a worst case scenario.

They and other companies were concerned this could cause civil unrest. They breathed a huge sigh of relief when that didn’t happen directly after the election.

Instead the unrest was delayed, and spectacular. As predicted, Donald Trump repeatedly told the public things that weren’t true - that the election had been stolen from him.

Then the attack happened. For bosses like Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg, Trump’s social media messages had directly led to violence.

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all blocked him.

Banning the president from Twitter was a sensational thing to do. Twitter was Trump’s megaphone. A year later, we hear far less from the former president. He simply doesn’t have the platform he needs to connect to millions of social media users anymore.

His ban on Facebook, too, hurt the former president. Twitter isn’t an effective campaigning tool, but Facebook very much is. Whether he’s allowed back on the platform could have wide implications for any tilt at the White House in 2024.

House Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi has finished speaking on the floor of Congress.

She began by praising the police officers who bravely defended lawmakers and other people who were sheltered inside the halls of US democracy as the riot raged.

The "insurrectionists" targeted more than just the building. They targeted "democracy itself," she says.

She goes on to read the names of the Capitol Hill police officers who died in the days after the riot.

The House is now adjourned until 18:30 local time on Monday, 10 January.

CNN reported that the only Republicans present during Pelosi’s remarks were Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Image source, Getty Images

Testimonials from Senate Democrats are continuing on the Senate floor.

The longest-serving, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, has been in office since 1975, but he never expected a day like 6 January to unfold, he said.

Known as "the Dean of the Senate" for his nearly five decades of service, Leahy said he'd received threats and even anthrax envelopes over the course of his career, but "to see so much hatred and anger" one year ago was deeply disturbing.

He said it was insulting that some people have downplayed the incident as "just another day in January".

"Amnesia has set in some quarters," he said.

The US House of Representatives has just held a moment of silence to mark the anniversary of the 6 January riot.

“These events are intended as an observance of reflection, remembrance and recommitment, in a spirit of unity, patriotism and prayerfulness,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of the commemoration.

Most of the participants are expected to be Democrats.

The event is one of a number of prayer vigils, historical discussions and speeches to mark the anniversary of the attack.