First Thing: Zelenskiy faces difficult time in Washington amid Congress spending battle

Republicans propose stopgap bill that excludes funding for Ukraine as both parties signal they have questions for Kyiv's delegation. Plus, why are 500,000 people watching paint dry?

• Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here

Good morning.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy is likely to find his latest visit to Washington a much tougher occasion than the hero's welcome he was given nine months ago.

What are the Republicans saying? The Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, made clear to his party that he would approach Biden's pending request for an additional $24bn in support for Ukraine with considerable scepticism. Where's the accountability on the money we've already spent? What is the plan for victory? I think that's what the American public wants to know," he said.

What about the Democrats? Democrats too will have questions if the Ukrainian delegation comes with requests for drone technology. Party leaders are wary of providing weapon systems that could be used to strike Russian territory, and congressional sources say Zelenskiy will be quizzed on Kyiv's role in recent strikes on Moscow and other targets deep within Russia.

What did the letter say? The letter warned of an out-of-control race" to develop minds that no one could understand, predict or reliably control", and urged governments to intervene if a moratorium on developing systems more powerful than GPT-4 could not be agreed between leading AI companies such as Google, ChatGPT's owner OpenAI and Microsoft. It asked: Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilisation?"