US president Joe Biden arrives in Kyiv in surprise visit | First Thing

US president meets Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy ahead of anniversary of invasion. Plus, the disruptors who want to make death greener

Good morning.

Joe Biden has arrived in Kyiv to meet Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Biden's public itinerary had suggested he would be visiting Poland, but the US president arrived in Ukraine's capital this morning and has been spotted on a walkabout in the country's capital.

What else is happening? The EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, backed a call from Estonia for the bloc's members to buy arms jointly to help Ukraine - an approach officials have said would be more efficient than EU members placing individual orders. EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the plan in Brussels today. He said the war was over unless the EU boosted its military support.

How would it work? Borrell said he would table plans at the meeting to use the existing 3.6bn (3.2bn) European peace facility for the EU to procure ammunition jointly on the model of the procurement of vaccines during the Covid crisis.

What else is going on at the social media company? Meta cut 11,000 staff in November - the equivalent of 13% of its workforce - amid falling ad revenue and economic downturn. The company's share price fell by more than 70% in 2022 before a rebound and in July it reported its first ever fall in revenue.

What has Elon Musk said? Twitter's chief executive, Elon Musk, responded to the news in a tweet saying it was inevitable" Meta would follow Twitter.