DANIEL O’Donnell has said he “slowed down” and spoke about retirement ahead of his ‘career break’.

Earlier this year in May, the 63-year-old announced that he was to take a break from touring following “health challenges.”

Getty Images - Getty

The spokesperson said Daniel will continue his touring commitments until December 2025, but he has realised that he needs to step back and focus on his health and well-being.

The spokesperson added: “This pause is essential for him to recharge and recover.”

He emphasised that “this is not a retirement but rather a temporary break”.

Daniel has reiterated the fact that he doesn’t have any plans as of yet to fully give up his beloved gigs.

He told RSVP: “I don’t know if I’ll ever retire. I’ve slowed down a good bit. I don’t do as many shows.

“I like time off as much as I like going out and doing a concert. The balance is important.”

When asked if he thinks there’ll ever be a time he won’t sing, Daniel said: “Who knows. We don’t know what the future holds.

“If the time comes that I feel that I’m not able to do it as well, I’d like to think that I wouldn’t sing if I’m not able to or if the audience is not there. There might not be the audience that there is now. We’ll wait and see.”

The Donegal crooner is a stepdad to his wife Majella’s kids, Michael and Siobhan and they’ve been in his life since they were nine and eleven.

Michael and his wife Sarah, who got married last July in Tuscany, Italy, welcomed their son, Jack, into the world earlier this year in April.

Sarah is from Australian and the happy family live in Melbourne together – which means Daniel and Majella have yet to meet their grandchild.

However, the pair are going to see their adorable grandson very soon as Michael, Sarah and Jack fly back to Ireland this month.

FAMILY LOVE

Daniel said: “We’re looking forward to having everyone together then for a new family photo. They will come again in December.

“Majella is going out in September and her daughter Siobhan is going in May. The world is small now.”

Daniel has three other grandchildren, Archie, Olivia, and Luke and he often gushes over his happy family.

The 63-year-old said: “It’s beyond what you could hope for, especially in my case, because Siobhan and Michael aren’t biological to me, I’m their stepfather, but I’ve had them in my life since they were 11 and nine.

“And I’m blessed — there’s never been any issues or disagreements, never a bit of bother even in their teens.

“I recently spent a week in Banbridge with Siobhan and Gavin and the three children. And even if Majella wasn’t there, I’d still stay with Siobhan. I’ve a great connection with them.”

A HAIRDRESSER has revealed the three things clients do that give her the “ick” – and eye contact is a major issue.

Danielle, from Aberdeen, regularly shares her styling tips and favourite haircare products on social media (@dp_blondeexpert).

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A hairdresser revealed the three ‘icks’ that clients do at appointments[/caption]

In a recent video, the mum of one opened the lid on the annoying habits customers have that hair experts always notice.

Danielle said: “I thought it’d be fun to share my top three client icks because I’m a hairdresser and I have been for like 18 years.

“This is light hearted, it’s just a little bit fun.”

First up, she poked fun at clients with “floppy necks” – including her own mum.

She explained: “Every hairdresser has experienced this. Doesn’t matter how lightly you put your comb or your brush on your client’s head, they just lose all strength in their neck. I don’t know why. FYI, my mum is one of them.”

Next, Danielle revealed that clients running late can be an ick if they finally arrive with a specific item.

“When a client arrives late with a takeout coffee, you guys are bold”, she laughed.

“When I was younger, that used to p*** me off, but see now, I love it. Cause I’m like, you don’t give a f***.

“You’re like, ‘yeah I’m late, dare you to ask me where I was’. And I do not.”

And the hair expert has pleaded with clients to stop doing the final ick on her list which she insists that hairdressers find “creepy AF”.

She said: “When you are lying in the basin, you don’t have to shut your eyes, but what you do not do is like lean all the way back and stare at us.

“Like don’t, don’t make eye contact. When you’re in the basin, we do not appreciate eye contact.

“Don’t know what it is, but it’s like, just, it’s intense. Relax, close your eyes, zen out for a few minutes, but do not stare at us.”

Other hairdressers immediately flooded Danielle’s comments with their thoughts on her list.

“Number 1 is 100% the worst”, one insisted.

A second added: “When they come in with the take away coffee! Like babe if your gona be late at least bring me a coffee!!”

“Haha the basin one I would never”, added a third.

A fourth wrote: “Omg the floppy neck gets me every time and the basin stare.”

A fifth cried: “The basin eyeball, cannae cope with it!!! Always worry I have visible snotters on show. Actually had a client tell me one day that ‘I had a bat in the cave’,”

Meanwhile, a sixth echoed: “Ahhhhhh don’t stare at meeeeeee hahahahah it’s the worst isn’t it.”

Danielle earlier revealed the big mistake people make when washing their hair – and it could be wrecking your locks.

She said: “If you shampoo the ends of your hair, you are doing it wrong.

“Shampoo is for cleaning your scalp and roots of your hair.

“Shampooing the ends can cause tangling and possible breakage.”

She also revealed the three shampoo brands she swears by that she always recommends to customers.

As well as in-salon hair services, Danielle offers online tutorials to help her fellow hairdressers perfect their colouring skills – in particular, bleaching and balayage.

LOTTO RESULT July 3, 2025 – Here is the official result of the 6/42 Lotto and 6/49 Super Lotto draw for today, Thursday, July 3, 2025. The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office or more commonly known as PCSO got five major lotto games – the 6/58 Lotto Result, the 6/55 Lotto Result, the 6/49 Lotto Result, ... Read more

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FORMER Olympic swimming coach George Gibney will appear in court in the US next week after he was arrested by US Marshals.

The hearing at the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, in Orlando, will offer the pensioner the chance to either accept or contest plans by Gardai to extradite him.

RTE

An international arrest warrant was issued after the Director of Public Prosecutions moved to charge him with 78 counts of alleged indecent assault and one count of alleged attempted rape.

The allegations were made to Gardai by four women between 2020 and 2022.

Gardai later submitted a file to the DPP who ruled last year the ex-coach, who’s now in his 70s, should be charged with the offences.

The complaints were made after a BBC Sounds and Second Captains Podcast – entitled ‘Where is George Gibney’ – was aired in 2020.

It’s understood Gibney plans to fight the extradition.

Gardai had been working closely with the US authorities before Gibney’s arrest on Tuesday.

Gibney was remanded in custody by a judge in Orlando and is due back in court next Friday week.

A former member of Gibney’s old swimming club in Dublin welcomed the arrest, adding: “It’s hard to believe that he has been arrested after 30 years since he left Ireland.

“Former members of the club will be keeping a close eye on the developments.

“Everyone is adamant that he will be fighting the extradition.”

PREVIOUS ARREST

Gibney has been arrested 32 years after he was charged with 27 counts of indecency against young swimmers.

But the case was later withdrawn after he initiated a judicial review over the time it took the allegations to come to court.

He spent some time in Scotland after his legal win before moving to the US in 1995.

RTE

VIRGINIA Giuffre left her three children a heartbreaking final letter before her tragic suicide.

The mum-of-three had spent the weeks leading up to her death pleading to see her kids one last time amid a bitter separation from her husband.

Getty

Virginia Giuffre left her three children a heartbreaking final letter before her tragic suicide[/caption]

Instagram/virginiarobertsrising11

Virginia Giuffre and her husband Robert had been married for 22 years[/caption]

PA

A notorious photo of Prince Andrew and Virginia[/caption]

Robert Giuffre filed for temporary custody of two of the couple’s three children shortly after both made official police reports accusing each other of abuse.

Virginia – who helped to jail paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and accused Prince Andrew of having sex with her twice as a 17-year-old – alleged Robert hospitalized her after a night of abuse.

On January 9, Virginia told her brother Sky about an alleged incident where Robert “punched her over and over”.

Virginia claimed the alleged attack was sparked when she refused to have sex with her husband.

At this point the pair were estranged and living apart with them only meeting to spend time with the children.

Sky recalls Virginia facetiming him and saying she had suffered recurring injuries to her sternum and spine.

Robert soon hit back with accusations of his own as he claimed Virginia headbutted, spat and punched him on the same evening.

Police were informed of both accusations and investigated them but no charges were filed.

Robert then managed to take custody of their two youngest children.

Around the same time, he filed a restraining order against his former partner – leaving Virginia on her own and unable to see her children.

She never saw her children again as cops found Virginia, 41, unresponsive at her remote farmhouse in April.

In the weeks after her suicide, Virginia’s family and friends found her notebook which revealed how much the mum had been struggling in her final moments without seeing her children.

The very last diary entry was titled: “To the kids.”

It read: “Everyday that I don’t see your faces has a little less light.

“The world is dimmer without you in it.”

The rest of the page was filled out with poignant song lyrics which said: “It’ll all be alright, you’ve always had a rainbow over your head, angels by your side and God in your heart.

“I’m here for you here and everywhere.”

The written message to her children came just weeks after another desperate plea from Virginia.

Instagram

A mysterious post by Virginia claimed she had just days to live in the weeks before her suicide[/caption]

instagram/@virginiarobertsrising11

Her relationship with Robert has highlighted several major issues[/caption]

In March, she posted a photograph of herself that quickly made headlines around the world as she was covered in bruises and in a hospital bed.

Virginia claimed her car had been hit by a school bus travelling at nearly 70mph and had just four days left to live.

In a gut-wrenching statement she said: “I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time.”

However, shock quickly turned to confusion after Australian police revealed the collision was logged as a minor traffic incident and that no injuries were reported. 

Virginia representatives later said that the Instagram post was a mistake and had been intended for a private page.

Her family believe the post was a final attempt to reach out to her children.

A family torn apart

The final months of Virginia’s life were said to have been tougher than any legal battle or mental scars left behind by Epstein or Prince Andrew, her sister-in-law said.

Her passing followed a series of troubling events involving allegations of abuse, the mysterious bus crash riddle and her family being torn apart.

Now, Virginia’s loved ones and her heart-wrenching last few diary entries have revealed how tough her final days really were.

Amanda Roberts, the wife of Virginia’s younger brother Sky, told The Times: “[She] may have fought battles with some of the most powerful men in the world, like Epstein and Prince Andrew.

“But what people didn’t understand was that [in her final days] the hardest battle of her life was at home.

“Her death was a terrible ending to this story, but there is a big part of it she never got to tell.”

The hardship revolved around her home life and most notably her once trusted husband of 22 years Robert.

The martial arts instructor and the father to Virginia’s three children, reportedly left the brave accuser back in August 2023.

But in a tell-all interview shortly before her death, Virginia came forward for the first time with allegations that she had suffered abuse at the hands of her husband.

“I was able to fight back against Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, who abused and trafficked me,” she said in a statement to People magazine. 

“But I was unable to escape the domestic violence in my marriage until recently. After my husband’s latest physical assault, I can no longer stay silent.”

Virginia’s family have now shared extracts from her diary at the beginning of this year, in which she shares her memories of her marriage as it was faltering.

She alleges Robert was violent, abusive and “emotionally and physically controlling” within the texts and legal filings.

One passage detailed how Virginia believed the ramifications of her speaking out against Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and making the claims against Andrew caused her marriage to break down over time.

Virginia wrote in her diary: “The stronger I became, the scarier he became.

“Instead of praising his wife’s accomplishments he began to be jealous, trying to make me stop advocating for victims of trafficking”.

Another page detailed Virginia’s worries as she claimed there were “increased signs of possessiveness” from Robert towards her.

These allegedly included him telling Virginia his best mates were trying to sleep with her and banning her from going downstairs when any man was over at their home.

“I became a prisoner,” she wrote.

Robert’s attorney has said they cannot comment on the accusations due to legal proceedings relating to the family ongoing in Western Australia.

INSTAGRAM has gone down with users across the globe reporting issues.

Thousands of users have reported that they are experiencing problems on the popular Meta-owned app.

Common problems include viewing posts and commenting.

Others are also facing larger issues loading the app.

Over 2,000 reports of problems on Insta have been flagged at the time of writing, according to downdetector.

The outage tracking website saw a spike in the number of reports today just after 4pm in the UK.

Some users in both the UK and US also encountered other technical problems while using the meta-owned app.

A number of users reported not being able to see pages of their followers.

It saw a huge number of social media users taking to X, formerly Twitter, to share their problems using Insta.

One said: “Will forever run to X whenever Instagram is down to check if it’s just me or the whole world’s collapsing.”

Another wrote: “I was in people instagram pages thinking they blocked me but whole time instagram was down.”

3D LOTTO RESULT July 3, 2025 – The 3D Lotto draws are held today by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) at 2PM, 5PM, and 9PM and here are the results: Draw Winning Numbers 2:00 PM 5:00 PM 9:00 PM The PCSO has decided to change the name of one of its minor lotto games. ... Read more

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A CHILLING audio clip has emerged revealing the moment Russians shot down a passenger plane on Christmas that left 38 people dead.

New evidence suggests the Russians should have known the object in the sky they were aiming at was not a Ukrainian drone.

AFP

Emergency specialists work at the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet near the western Kazakh city of Aktau[/caption]

AFP

The wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lays on the ground with several emergency workers and vehicles nearby[/caption]

X/yo2thok

Footage shows the inside of the plane just moments before the deadly crash[/caption]

Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer E190, carrying 67 passengers from Baku to Grozny in Russia, crashed after crossing the Caspian Sea in Aktau, Kazakhstan.

An investigation by the Azerbaijani government found that the plane was hit by a Russian Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile defence system.

Russians claimed the city of Grozny was under attack from Ukrainian drones at the time the plane was hit.

A chilling voice recording ordering the shooting of the plane was leaked to Azerbaijani media.

A person can be heard saying: “Hello! Azimuth 338, range 7,000, altitude 490, speed 118, heading 230.”

To which a person replies: “Yes, range is now 7. Fire! I said fire!”

The first person, understood to be operating the Russian air defence unit, then replies: “Fired!”

“Missed… Missed! Again! Fire once more,” the other person says

“Copy, firing,” said the operator before firing the fatal air defence rocket.

The voice reporting the coordinates was Captain Dmitry Paladichuk, a Russian air defence officer commanding a missile unit, it has been found.

The devastating exchange was leaked to the Azerbaijan outlet Minval amid deeply strained relations between Moscow and Baku.

A leak of handwritten testimony by Captain Paladichuk revealed a gripping account of how he was ordered by an unnamed commander to shoot.

In a sworn statement he said: “I was ordered by phone to destroy the target.”

He said: “At 08:13:30 I ordered the operator to engage. At 08:13:33 the missile cleared the launcher. At 08:13:47 the BM-72V6 [fire] control system reported a miss.

“At 08:13:48 I ordered a second engagement….

“The second missile was launched when the target had the following characteristics: azimuth 311°, distance 8,000 m, altitude 1,300 m, speed 120 m/s.”

The plane’s speed, around 265 mph, was more than double the speed of most drones.

Also, the altitude of the object – between 1,607ft and 4,265ft – indicated it was a plane seeking to land at a nearby airport.

AP

A preliminary investigation suggests the jet was downed by a Russian air defence system[/caption]

AP

Flowers and portraits at the Consulate of Azerbaijan in the memory of victims of the Azerbaijan Airlines’ crash[/caption]

“This suggests that the military had every indication that the object was a manned aircraft,” said the Insider independent media outlet analysing the leak from media in Azerbaijan.

Terrifying footage showed the Embraer aircraft nosediving before smashing into the ground in a fireball.

It exploded next to the aircraft, with the shrapnel hitting passengers and cabin crew, the report said.

Grozny is the capital of the region of Chechnya, controlled by a close Putin ally and warlord, Ramzan Kadyrov.

The use of air defence systems aligned with reports of Ukrainian drone attacks in Chechnya on the morning of Christmas Day.

It marked the second time in a decade that Russia has downed a passenger plane after the MH17 crash in Ukraine in 2014.

MIRACLE SURVIVORS

Dozens of passengers, including children, miraculously survived the horror crash.

Around 150 emergency responders rushed to the scene, battling towering flames and thick plumes of black smoke rising ominously into the sky.

Meanwhile, an investigative team led by the deputy prosecutor general of Azerbaijan is working at the crash site.

They found the black box of the doomed flight which revealed the haunting final words the pilot said just moments before the plane crashed on the ground.

Struggling to control the plane, one of the pilots said: “I can’t execute, control is lost!”

The pilots reportedly tried to take the plane to three different airports but failed to land.

But they lost communication with the ground crew before vanishing off the radar for 37 minutes.

Footage emerged showing terrified passengers making final video calls and leaving messages as the aircraft began to plunge.

Distressed people on board can be seen jumping out of their seats as they try to make sense of the situation.

As the oxygen masks dangled in the air, some passengers started to scream in horror, while others called their loved ones and began praying.

ONE of the UK’s biggest networks has warned customers that the closure of a key service will take place in several areas soon.

The move means some customers risk being left with no data at all to access the internet or message friends on WhatsApp when they’re out and about.

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O2 is offering support to those who need help with the switch[/caption]

PA:Press Association

Other networks like GiffGaff will also be affected by the move[/caption]

O2 alerted its 23 million customers of the changes earlier this year.

But now plans to switch off 3G are picking up pace, with three more locations set to wave goodbye to the old network in less than two weeks.

O2 is the last of the big networks to make the change, as part of an objective agreed with the Government in 2021.

After more than 20 years, the company is stripping out 3G to make way for more faster 4G and 5G services.

The shake-up will also impact Tesco Mobile, GiffGaff and Sky Mobile, which rely on O2’s network technology.

For most people, the demise of 3G shouldn’t be a problem but for a small number of users it will result in a data blackout.

Some older handsets aren’t able to handle 4G or 5G.

They’ll still be able to make calls and send texts, but without 3G they won’t be able to get online when out and about – though they can technically still go online when using Wi-Fi.

The next areas where O2’s 3G will be switched off on July 16 are:

• Norwich
• Telford
• Guildford

It’s already ended in the city of Durham.

After this latest batch, Torquay will follow on August 4.

“While we know that the vast majority of our customers already have a 4G or 5G device and will not have to take any action, our priority is to provide support to those who need it,” said Jeanie York, Virgin Media O2’s Chief Technology Officer, said

“That is why we are reaching out directly to customers who do not have a 4G or 5G handset, and calling those we know are vulnerable, to provide information about their next steps.

“It is important these customers upgrade their handsets in order to continue using mobile data after 3G is switched off.”

2D LOTTO RESULT July 3, 2025 – The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) is holding a draw for 2D Lotto today, July 3, 2025, and here are the results of the 2PM, 5PM, and 9PM draws. Draw Date Winning Numbers 2:00 PM 5:00 PM 9:00 PM The PCSO operation is back and among the recent ... Read more

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