Thursday briefing: How the Conservatives went from ‘greenest government ever’ to giving up on climate

In today's newsletter: With the news that Rishi Sunak may ditch a key climate commitment, we look back at the party's poor record on the environment

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When David Cameron threw his hat in the ring to be the leader of the Conservatives in 2005, his mission was to modernise the party and, crucially, make it more environmentally friendly. He took a trip to the Arctic where he posed with a husky and committed to leading the greenest government ever". His campaign worked. All the political parties in Britain were, generally, on the same page: the climate crisis was an imminent threat and they needed to cut fossil fuel use as quickly as possible.

UK news | Richard Ratcliffe - husband of British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe - alongside the families of other political prisoners, has accused the Foreign Office of complacency after it rejected a call by MPs to overhaul the way it goes about trying to secure the release of British nationals overseas.

Policing | The head of the Metropolitan police, Sir Mark Rowley, has said the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation may be irreparably damaged by the egregious errors made in the first weeks after the killing. Rowley also rejected a BBC report claiming a man called Matthew White, who died in 2021, was a new suspect in the investigation.

Lung cancer | The number of women diagnosed with lung cancer in the UK is expected to overtake men this year for the first time, prompting calls for women to be as vigilant about the disease as they are about breast cancer. Cancer experts said the very stark" figures reflected historical differences in smoking prevalence.

Company profits | The world's 722 biggest companies collectively are making more than $1tn a year (780bn) in windfall profits on the back of soaring energy prices and rising interest rates, according to research by development charities. Windfall profits are defined as those exceeding average profits in the previous four years by more than 10%.

Threads | Meta's Twitter rival, Threads, logged five million sign-ups in its first four hours of operation, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as the company seeks to woo users from Elon Musk's troubled platform. The app is freely available in 100 countries, but regulatory concerns mean it will not be available in the EU.