Daniel Boffey

Ukraine

Chief Reporter at The Guardian

The Guardian's Chief Reporter

Articles

Watchdog raises concern over DWP plan to deduct benefit overpayments

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

A government watchdog has criticised ministers for understating the impact on the poorest of plans to directly deduct benefit overpayments from people’s bank accounts. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is legislating to require banks to withdraw cash from the accounts of claimants who have been overpaid due to fraud or error. Banks will be able to charge claimants for “reasonable” administration costs prior to making deductions. The government is yet to specify the value of the charges.
‘Romeo and Juliet’ clause exempts consensual teen relationships from child abuse reports

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

Teachers will not have to inform on sexually active teenagers under a new legal duty to report child abuse after a novel “Romeo and Juliet” exemption received cross-party support. A new crime and policing bill obliges professionals in England, including teachers and healthworkers, to report suspicions of child sexual abuse to the police or local authority in an attempt by the government to prevent cover-ups.
Trump’s ‘Liz Truss moment’: when economic bravado meets market reality

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

A maverick economic policy announcement from a self-styled disruptor plunges the country’s currency into freefall and puts rocket boosters behind the cost of government debt, prompting warnings of an economic nuclear winter and forcing a pretty undignified U-turn. If, on top of general concern, there has been a nagging sense of deja vu in Britain over the past 24 hours, then the ill-fated 49-day reign of Liz Truss as the UK prime minister may well be to blame.
Greenpeace UK co-head arrested for pouring red dye into US embassy pond

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

Scotland Yard has been accused of suppressing a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest after the head of Greenpeace was arrested for pouring biodegradable blood-red dye into a pond outside the US embassy in London. Will McCallum, the co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, was among five people arrested when the large pond outside the embassy was turned red on Thursday in what Greenpeace said was a protest at the US government’s continued sale of weapons to Israel.
Andrew Tate told woman ‘I’m debating whether to rape you’, court told

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

Andrew Tate told a woman he was “debating whether to rape you or not” before he strangled and forced himself upon her, according to one of four women suing the self-proclaimed misogynistic influencer. He is also accused of whispering “good girl” as he raped a woman he employed at his webcam business whom he had separately threatened with a gun, and strangling another so often that she developed spots from burst capillaries around her eyes.
Wife of Briton detained in India speaks of fears for his health

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

The wife of a British man arrested over extremism claims at an Indian airport at the end of a family holiday has spoken of her fears for his health. Heiba Khanum, 44, said she had been initially reassured by officers that she would be swiftly be reunited with her husband, who has a heart condition, but that he had since spent more than seven months in a prison cell.
Noel Clarke allegations had ‘high public interest’, Guardian editor tells court

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

The editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Katharine Viner, has told the high court there was a “very high public interest” in reporting allegations made against Noel Clarke after he received a special Bafta award. In a witness statement, Viner said she believed it was conceivable that the actor’s endorsement by the British academy film awards could lead to an escalation of his allegedly abusive behaviour towards women.
US officials challenge Ofcom’s risk to free speech caused by online safety laws

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Michael Savage |Daniel Boffey |Ben Quinn

US state department officials have challenged Britain’s communications regulator over the impact on freedom of expression created by new online safety laws, the Guardian understands. A group of officials from the state department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) recently met with Ofcom in London. It is understood that they raised the issue of the new online safety act and how it risked infringing free speech.
‘Incel’ accounts using self-improvement language to avoid TikTok bans - study

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

Advocates of “incel” ideology are rebranding as “Sub5s” and adopting the language of self-improvement to push their content on TikTok, according to a study. Hateful material is banned from the social media site but accounts disseminating the beliefs are said to be hiding behind new terms and “socially palatable” language. One of the fundamental tenets of the involuntary celibate, or incel, ideology is the belief that society is organised based on a looks-based hierarchy.
Noel Clarke ‘told producer to fuck off’ when warned about behaviour before sex scene

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Daniel Boffey

Noel Clarke told a producer to “fuck off” after being warned that his behaviour with a female actor before a sex scene would “end up on the front of a national newspaper”, a witness has told the high court. The producer said he had approached the former Doctor Who star after being informed by a distressed actor, named as Maya, that Clarke had said “things like ‘we’re going to fuck later on, we’ll fuck next week’”.