- Kyrgios vows to 'shut up' doubters with December comeback
- Public hearings start into death of Brit by Russian nerve agent
- Ex-Stasi officer faces verdict over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Role of government, poverty research tipped for economics Nobel
- 'Stolen satire' feeds US election misinformation
- Rookie McCarty captures first PGA Tour title in Black Desert Championship
- Australia all-rounder Green ruled out of India Test series
- Seeing double in Nigeria's 'twins capital of the world'
- UK FM to attend EU foreign affairs talks for first time in 2 years
- Carter, Billups among 13 new Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
- Ravens rip Commanders as Lions lose NFL sacks leader in win
- Hezbollah drone strike kills four, wounds dozens at Israeli base
- China says launches military drills around Taiwan
- Stewart leads Liberty past Lynx to level WNBA Finals
- England return to winning ways in Nations League, Austria thrash Norway
- UN chief says attacks on UNIFIL 'may constitute a war crime'
- Ravens outlast Commanders while Bucs batter Saints in NFL
- Dozens hurt in Israel as Hezbollah claims drone strike
- England deserve 'world class' coach: Carsley
- Burkina Faso win to become first qualifiers for 2025 AFCON
- AC Milan's Pulisic among five out for USA match in Mexico
- France's Amandine Henry retires from international football
- Centre-left set to win pro-Ukraine Lithuania's vote
- India's World Cup hopes in Pakistan hands after Australia defeat
- Zelensky says NKorea sending troops to Russian army
- England beat Finland to get back on track
- King and Lewis propel West Indies to T20 triumph over Sri Lanka
- Pre-Halloween 'Terrifier' lands atop North America box office
- 'I still plan to compete and play next season,' says Djokovic
- Harris, Trump seek advantage in knife-edge election battle
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record in Chicago
- Kamindu and Asalanka power Sri Lanka to 179 against West Indies
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record as Korir wins in Chicago
- Spain send injured Yamal home 'to prioritise player's health'
- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Iraq walks fine line with pro-Iran factions to avoid war
- Race four abandoned after New Zealand breeze into 3-0 lead in America's Cup
- West Indies win toss, put Sri Lanka in to bat in first T20
- Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market
- Netanyahu tells UN to move Lebanon peacekeepers out of 'harm's way'
- Bangladeshi Hindus defy attack worries to celebrate festival
- Kiwis three up in America's Cup as Ineos pay for time penalty
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Dominant England crush Scotland at Women's T20 World Cup
- Dropped: The rise and fall of Pakistan batting maestro Babar Azam
- Israel fights Hezbollah on the ground, pounds Lebanon from the air
- Sabalenka outlasts local hero Zheng to win third Wuhan Open title
- Bangladeshi Hindus shrug off attack worries to celebrate festival
- Former Pakistan captain Azam dropped for second England Test
- 'Opportunist' Dupont dazzles on Toulouse return
US Capitol probe skewers Trump but faces battle to sway voters
Americans were served up an engrossing night of television as a congressional panel laid out in damning detail Donald Trump's culpability in last year's US Capitol insurrection.
Yet 17 months after the mayhem, the biggest challenge for the House of Representatives committee investigating the riot could be ensuring the brutal images of violence it played in prime time will pack the intended political punch.
Thursday's presentation was devastating for Trump, who was characterized as an ongoing threat to US democracy as he bids to carry his campaign to steal the last election into the next.
The committee's footage of hand-to-hand combat between police defending Congress and the mob Trump sent marching on the Capitol made for gut-wrenching viewing.
Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards was shown being knocked unconscious and gave evidence in person about "slipping in people's blood" as the carnage reached its savage peak.
The hearing concluded with video of several members of the mob saying they marched on the Capitol simply because Trump had asked them to.
Liz Cheney -- a rising Republican star until she refused to accept Trump's false claims of a stolen election -- carefully filleted every aspect of the former president's so-called "Big Lie."
She repeatedly referred to the "illegality" of his "sophisticated seven-point plan" to overturn the election.
Testimony from Trump's closest allies -- including his attorney general Bill Barr and daughter Ivanka -- underscored that he had been made aware again and again how dangerous his conspiracy theories were.
- Images of carnage -
The night got progressively worse for Trump, who didn't lift a finger for hours to help quell the insurrection, according to the committee.
And there were gasps in the room when Cheney quoted a witness claiming that Trump had said vice president Mike Pence deserved to be hanged by the mob storming the Capitol.
The challenge for Democrats -- burned by the lukewarm public reaction to Trump's two impeachments and numerous other revelations of misconduct -- will be to ensure that his latest calumny registers with voters.
While powerful images of the carnage may have jogged memories, much of the outrage appears to have dissipated since January last year, with voters increasingly focused on pocketbook issues such as soaring inflation.
In a YouGov/University of Massachusetts poll in May, just 42 percent of respondents backed the drive to hold the insurrectionists accountable -- a drop of 10 points in a year.
"Trump is still doing well with his followers at the grassroots level," Ahmed Zohny, a political science professor at Coppin State University in Baltimore, told AFP.
"So unless the congressional committee on January 6 comes up with criminal evidence that prevents him from running again, it is unlikely that the (Republicans) in both the House and Senate will go against him."
- 'Facts still do matter' -
Meanwhile, the refusal by Fox News -- the go-to network for America's cable-viewing conservatives -- to air the presentation live and unabridged severely curtailed its reach among right-wing voters.
"Gas is over five bucks. Inflation is higher than it's been in the lifetime of most Americans," prime-time host Tucker Carlson complained as he glossed over the most damning testimony.
"Violent crime is making cities impossible to live in, and more than 100,000 Americans ODed on drugs last year. Why isn't there a prime time hearing about any of that?"
While experience has taught activists in deeply-polarized America not to rest their hopes in scandals changing minds, political analyst Mike Hernandez believes that "facts still do matter."
"The facts that the January 6 committee will be presenting will either offer evidence that the president of the United States directed thousands of his supporters to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College or it will not," Hernandez, who works for the Telemundo 51 South Florida network, told AFP.
"It will either result in proof that there was coordination from elected officials in the House and Senate with the president and the efforts to overturn the 2020 election or not."
One thing we know for sure -- another pundit from South Florida was keeping a particularly keen eye on proceedings -- and he wasn't enjoying what he saw.
"A one sided, totally partisan, POLITICAL WITCH HUNT," Trump wrote in a nine-post rant on his Truth Social platform.
D.Cunningha--AMWN