Thursday briefing: Why the Conservatives’ identity crisis is their biggest challenge

In today’s newsletter: As they try to find Rishi Sunak’s successor, the Tories need to decide what they stand for

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Good morning. It’s been 27 years since the Conservatives last had to choose a leader after being kicked out of office. In 1997, the 36-year-old William Hague beat the former chancellor Kenneth Clarke in a race dominated by debates over Europe, and went on to lose the next election by a landslide.

Last night, nominations for candidates to succeed Rishi Sunak opened, and the Tories entered a new debate about their future, with the first candidates to declare James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat. The issues at stake are very different this time – and the party starts in an even worse position in the House of Commons, having lost support to the left and the right. The debate leading up to the membership vote closing on 31 October is about who can be the most effective leader of the opposition – but also, at a moment of huge uncertainty, what kind of party the Conservatives should now be.

US politics | Joe Biden has addressed Americans for the first time since his historic decision to withdraw from the presidential race, saying that “best way to unite our nation” is to “pass the torch to a new generation”. Biden said he could not allow his “personal ambition” to “come in the way of saving our democracy”. Read David Smith’s analysis.

Climate crisis | A surge in new oil and gas exploration in 2024 threatens to unleash nearly 12bn tonnes of planet-heating emissions, with the world’s wealthiest countries leading a stampede of fossil fuel expansion in spite of their climate commitments, new data shared exclusively with the Guardian reveals.

Wales | Eluned Morgan has been confirmed as the new leader of Welsh Labour and is to become the first female first minister of Wales. Lady Morgan was the only candidate to put herself forward to replace Vaughan Gething.

US news | Benjamin Netanyahu lauded US support for Israel’s war in Gaza but offered few details on ceasefire negotiations as he addressed a raucous joint session of US Congress that was boycotted by dozens of Democratic lawmakers and protested against by thousands outside the US Capitol.

Energy | Keir Starmer will promise to build enough offshore wind over the next five years to power 20m homes, by using taxpayer money to develop parts of the seabed owned by the royal family. The prime minister will announce details of the government’s energy generation company, known as Great British Energy, during a visit to the north-west on Thursday.

Since Brexit they have been an ideological mess, caught between Thatcherite economic liberalism and a desire to appeal to leave voters in the style of the European populist right. In the end they just pissed off everyone, and are no clearer on what their identity should be.