Katy Perry’s performance at Belgium’s Werchter Boutique music festival on Saturday was abruptly canceled only hours before she was scheduled to appear on stage.

The 41-year-old pop star, who recently made headlines with a striking new music video speculated to be about her ex-partner Orlando Bloom, addressed her fans on Instagram, explaining that the decision was beyond her control.

Originally set to headline the festival after a set by Pitbull, Perry’s plans were thwarted by hazardous weather conditions, which led to the cancellation of her performance.

“Tonight, I’m unable to perform at @WerchterBoutique due to a government-forced cancellation over severe weather threats and safety concerns,” she wrote in an Instagram post.

The “Dark Horse” singer expressed her disappointment, noting that she was backstage preparing for her show when she received the news, leaving her with no alternatives.

‘I am just as unhappy as you are,’ she continued, before adding that the situation ‘is beyond my control’ and the safety of attendees is the main priority. 

‘I am sorry I can’t change the weather, and even sorrier that all of us can’t be together tonight.’ 

Perry concluded her message to fans by expressing her disappointment that she cannot celebrate her return to the festival stage after her last appearance back in 2009. 

‘I was even gonna wear the same outfit from that 2009 show again. I love you all, and please get home safe,’ the singer wrote along with a sad face emoji. 

The music artist additionally uploaded a photo of herself sitting outside while donning a pair of striped sweatpants and a white robe. 

She could be seen puffing on a cigarette as the outfit she seemingly had planned to wear that evening was placed next to her. 

Perry additionally included the official announcement which showed that the festival would end early at 9pm. Perry’s set had been scheduled to kick off an hour later. 

The last-minute cancellation of Perry’s show was due to ‘severe thunderstorms’ that were predicted to hit the area. 

The decision was to ‘ensure that the exit of visitors proceeds in a safe and orderly manner, allowing everyone to return home calmly. The safety and health of everyone present is always our top priority.’

Perry is scheduled to perform at a number of other festivals throughout the summer season. 

She will take to the stage at Depot Live in the U.K. on June 30 which is set to be held at Cardiff Castle. 

The mom-of-one has been keeping busy and dropped the music video to her new track Watch It Burn on Thursday. 

The star appeared to sing about her breakup with Orlando Bloom which occurred last year following nine years of dating. The former couple also share daughter Daisy, five. 

Some lyrics included: ‘Tonight’s the night, I light a match/ Throw it hard behind my back/Gonna try to forgive and forget/ Light a cigarette, and watch it burn.’

In one scene, magazines at a stand caught on fire, with one cover looking eerily similar to a Details magazine interview Bloom previously did. 

The model’s name on the cover was Jensen Turner, which some fans believed was a possible reference to Bloom’s character Will Turner in the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise.   

The horror-themed video showed Perry turning into a scorpion/human hybrid and had a tail which destroyed everything in its path. 

Fans shared their thoughts about the song and music video on social media, with one penning, ‘SHES SO BACK, ABSOLUTE CINEMA.’

Another wrote, ‘Katy Perry should stick to her signature sound. This song is so her! This is her DNA! Hope the upcoming album is simply like THAT!’

‘She is literally back this reminds me of old katy,’ one typed, and another said, ‘This is so 2008 and I’m here for it.’

During a recent appearance on the Unfamous podcast, Perry explained that when it comes to the track, she is ‘wrestling with my darkness, but last year was pretty tough.’

The songstress added, ‘I have not given myself permission to be angry my whole life over things where I should be f***ing angry about.

‘What I’ve done is I pushed it down, but I should be f***ing angry. I’m allowed to be angry for a f***ing moment.’ 

Perry later shared during the interview that she has ‘love in my life now. That’s transformed me,’ referring to her relationship with former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. 

The pair were first romantically linked back in July of last year when they were seen grabbing dinner in Montreal during the Canadian leg of her Lifetimes Tour.

Later that month, Trudeau was spotted in the crowd at one of her Lifetimes Tour concerts.

In October 2025, the couple went public with their romance as they held hands during a night out in Paris to celebrate Perry’s 41st birthday.

And late last year in December, the couple went Instagram official as the songstress shared a post featuring her beau from their trip to Tokyo. 

The couple made their red carpet debut at the 25th Annual Tribeca Festival in NYC earlier this month.

Perry had been supported by Trudeau at the screening of Katy Perry The Lifetimes Tour – Live From Paris during the festivities. 

The songstress notably confessed that Trudeau was the ‘love of my life’ during a Q+A session following the screening. 

‘I would say now at the end of 91 shows, I feel like a more grounded person in so many aspects of my life. I am very in love.’ 

She added, ‘Actually, that show was after I met the love of my life, and so I felt very anchored by that, because I’m a little bit like a rainbow kite.

‘I fly super high and like touch the veiled cosmos, and sometimes I need to be anchored, so to have that anchor finally makes me feel really whole now.’ 

A new law in Mississippi will empower the state’s leading law enforcement agency to compile a list of immigrants residing in the state without legal status. This initiative is poised to take effect on Wednesday.

Despite the law’s implementation, questions linger about how this information will be used. The legislation is already raising concerns among immigrant advocacy groups. They worry that this approach might be used aggressively against immigrants, aligning with former President Donald Trump’s strategies to deport millions who are living in the U.S. without proper documentation.

The statute grants the state Department of Public Safety the authority to employ “all reasonable lawful investigative means” to identify and count individuals labeled as “illegal aliens” in Mississippi. This involves gathering personal details such as names, addresses, country of origin, age classification, and any criminal background. Furthermore, the legislation indicates that data regarding deportation proceedings — including date, location, and status — will also be compiled.

As part of the new regulations, the department is tasked with collaborating with state and local agencies when laws appear to be breached. Notably, the law does not mandate, nor prohibit, the sharing of this database with federal immigration authorities like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Republican State Senator Angela Hill, who played a key role in sponsoring this measure, asserts that states have both the right and duty to support the U.S. government in deterring illegal immigration. According to Hill, illegal immigration is a gateway to crimes such as human and drug trafficking, and should be addressed proactively.

The new law “seems like commonsense to me,” Hill said. “In order to address the problems caused by illegal immigration, we need to understand the magnitude of the problem. Identifying the number and identity of illegal aliens in Mississippi is a concrete way to better understand the problem.”

Immigration laws are proliferating in states

In Republican-led states, those measures generally have aligned with Trump’s agenda by requiring local sheriffs to sign cooperative agreements with ICE, reinforcing eligibility restrictions for public benefits and directing election clerks to check voter rolls against the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system in an attempt to flag noncitizens.

Democratic-led states generally have pushed back against Trump with new laws banning cooperative pacts with ICE, forbidding ICE tactics like wearing masks and restricting immigration enforcement actions in schools, hospitals and other sensitive locations without judicial warrants.

The closest thing to Mississippi’s new law appears to be a 2021 executive order by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. That measure directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to “use all lawful investigative means available” to determine the number and identities of all “illegal aliens” who had been transported from the nation’s southwest border to Florida.

The Florida agency did not respond to an AP request for information about the results of the executive order.

Trump’s administration, meanwhile, has stepped up enforcement of a decades-old federal law that requires noncitizens to register with the U.S. government.

Some question how the Mississippi law will work

The Mississippi law envisions more than a one-time count. It prescribes an ongoing effort to keep track of immigrants illegally in the state for the next two years. That could get complicated as people overstay visas, apply for new forms of legal status and move into and out the state.

“You can be undocumented today, and then have status tomorrow, and then lose it again next month, and then regain it three months from now,” said Efrén Olivares, vice president of litigation and legal strategy at the National Immigration Law Center, a nonprofit that advocates for low-income immigrants.

“It’s practically unworkable, but it’s also very worrisome, because it’s eerily reminiscent of other countries that have created lists of certain groups of people,” Olivares said.

State officials will need to come up with “a credible and fairly foolproof way of correctly determining someone’s immigration status,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonprofit think tank that supports restrictions on immigration.

But Vaughan said the law “makes a lot of sense,” adding that it “raises the likelihood that someone’s illegal presence is going to come to the attention of federal authorities.”

Advocates say the law could break trust with police

Mississippi has one of the country’s smallest percentages of immigrants illegally residing in the state — fewer than 28,000 people, amounting to less than 1% of its population — according to a report by the American Immigration Council, which used 2023 Census Bureau data.

The new law “is very concerning for a bunch of different reasons,” including the potential to redirect law enforcement resources away from protecting the public to investigating people from foreign countries who may be contributing to the economy, said Victoria Francis, deputy director of state and local initiatives for the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of immigrants.

“A mandate like this invites profiling and turning entire communities into targets,” Francis said.

The law could undermine trust between police and residents, said Lydia Grizzell, policy and advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi.

“That increases the likelihood of individuals not reaching out to law enforcement when it’s needed – and that is opposite of the mission,” she said.

SAN FRANCISCO — Liberty standout Jonquel Jones was unflinching in the face of their tough defeat against Seattle on Thursday night, refusing to offer up excuses.

When a reporter hinted that the team’s fluctuating lineups might have played a role in the Liberty’s 16 turnovers, which the Storm capitalized on for 15 points, Jones didn’t bite.

“We just need to be more focused,” Jones remarked following New York’s 99-88 setback. “By now, we’ve logged plenty of practice, had our shootarounds, and spent time building team chemistry. I’m not here to make excuses for us—we simply have to perform better. That’s all there is to it. It’s not about practice reps, playing time, or any of those factors. It’s about showing heart and playing with real passion.”

The Liberty, currently struggling after dropping three of their last four matchups, will conclude their four-game road stint on Sunday against the Golden State Valkyries.

Throughout their recent games, a sense of complacency has occasionally crept in, with a tendency to match their level of play to that of their opponents.

Effort and focus has waned.

That hasn’t bode well for the Libs, who suffered disappointing losses against the Portland Fire, Washington Mystics, Los Angeles Sparks and Storm.

Playing down to an opponent shouldn’t be an issue for the Valkyries.

But the Liberty have to be prepared for the smothering team defense the Valkyries possess.

Led by All-Star candidate Gabby Williams, Golden State is coming off back-to-back wins against the Atlanta Dream, including Friday night’s 78-75 rock fight.

And Williams said she believes Friday night’s showing was proof that Golden State is ready to knock down another contender.

“We knew that Atlanta was really going to go after us after that first game and I think it’s going to be something similar with New York,” Williams said. “We know how bad New York wants this after seeing what happened with them in Seattle. And so just expecting that they’re going to want to throw that first punch, and I think the way we handle tonight, that gives me confidence that we can handle New York on Sunday.”

Consider that a warning shot directed at the Liberty.

The Valkyries already demolished the Libs once this season, defeating them 87-70 at the start of their Brooklyn homestand. In that loss, turnovers, missed shots and poor execution on defense were major factors in the Liberty’s demise.

New York’s defense has improved immensely since May 21, when the Liberty were without Leonie Fiebich, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Sabrina Ionescu.

All three are back.

Fiebich has been on a tear over the past four games, averaging 15.8 points on 55.6 percent shooting, including 59.1 percent from deep.

This month, Jones bolstered her own All-Star case, shooting 79.3 percent in the restricted area and 44.9 percent from behind the arc. She’s averaging 17 points and 9.1 rebounds in June.

Breanna Stewart, who sat out the Storm loss to rest, is expected to be back in the mix.

Meanwhile, Sabrina Ionescu hasn’t found her footing in the Liberty’s flow offense and hasn’t looked her best defensively since returning from back soreness.

But what better time for Ionescu to have a breakout performance than in the Bay Area, where her roots lie?

On Friday night, Ionescu had her high school gym in Orinda, Calif., named in her honor.

On Sunday night, she’ll have a chance to torment the Valkyries, who would be more than happy to one day bring the Bay Area native home.

Tragedy struck Brooklyn’s Dyker Beach Park on Saturday as a violent incident left a 21-year-old man dead and another man, aged 30, fighting for his life. The unsettling event has cast a shadow over the normally peaceful weekend atmosphere.

Officers from the New York City Police Department responded swiftly to a 911 call received just before 2 p.m. local time. The report detailed a double stabbing near the junction of 86th Street and 14th Avenue, an area within the 68th precinct’s jurisdiction. Authorities immediately dispatched units to the scene.

Upon arrival, police discovered the two men both suffering from serious stab wounds. Emergency services quickly took action to manage the scene and provide aid as investigations into the circumstances of the attack began.

DEATH OF GREAT-GRANDMOTHER BRUTALLY KILLED ON TRAIN TRIGGERS FEDERAL ACTION

EMS took both men to Maimonides Medical Center in critical condition, where the 21-year-old was later pronounced dead, according to the NYPD.

Authorities are withholding the deceased victim’s identity pending family notification.

A person of interest has been taken into police custody, though their identity has not yet been released.

No motives were released, and the NYPD said the investigation remains ongoing.

No individual might be more astonished by the breadth and endurance of Kathie Lee Gifford’s illustrious career in entertainment than Gifford herself.

“I’ve always felt like Waldo,” Gifford, now 72, reveals in an exclusive chat with the Daily Mail, likening herself to the iconic children’s book character who unwittingly finds himself at the center of major historical moments.

Such a scenario played out during her performance at President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985. “It’s surreal—what’s this skinny kid from Bowie, Maryland doing singing for the president?” she recalls with a laugh.

Gifford exudes a charming blend of humility and an unyielding positive outlook.

“They needed someone in a pinch, and I was available, so I just went,” she shares. “Those were the good old days, when we weren’t caught up in party politics but just embraced being American.”

‘Like a lot of things in my life, it was a fluke.’

Perhaps, but as Gifford’s career – as a cost-host of Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee for 15 years and later as a Today Show co-host – suggests, talent may have had something to do with it.

‘Frank Sinatra was standing next to my manager,’ Gifford says of that inauguration day at the US Capitol Building, ‘and I was rehearsing and Sinatra said, “the kid can sing.”

‘I’ve thought about that every time I’ve gotten a bad review, which has been often,’ she joked.

The irony is not lost on Gifford that four decades later, she’d be asked to write and perform a song for the soundtrack of a biopic about President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy.

The movie, Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid and Penelope Ann Miller, will be re-released in more than a dozen cities on July 4, marking the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.

Gifford was drawn to the project, she says, as much by the performance of Quaid, as by the story of the Reagan’s marriage. Her positivity dims, for only a moment, as she laments that Quaid did not get the recognition he deserved from Hollywood.

‘Dennis Quaid’s performance, I thought, was Oscar-worthy,’ Gifford tells the Daily Mail. ‘I truly did. I said, there’s a possibility he can get nominated for this performance and then I thought to myself, no, it’s Reagan, so they won’t even give it a fair shot. It’s just the world we live in. It’s unfair, and it’s sad to me.’

But the politics, she insists, aren’t as important as the bigger picture.

‘This is a love story. Yes, there’s politics involved. Yes, there’s history being made. But at its core, it’s a love story.’

Songwriter Richard Spitz and Gifford wrote the duet ‘I Knew It Would Be You,’ which she then recorded with country singer Josh Turner.

‘You couldn’t be around [the Reagans] without realizing how deeply they loved each other,’ Gifford says of the first couple. ‘It was palpable. It was obvious. They just adored each other.’

Gifford’s appreciation for Reagan is a personal one. Her late husband Frank Gifford, the NFL star and sports commentator, was a friend of the president.

‘Frank adored Ronnie, everybody adored Ronnie,’ she says, insisting that the president did not seem, to her, to be a particularly partisan figure. ‘Ronnie started out as a Democrat. People forget that. He was president of the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) Union. This was a moderate, literate and good man.’

‘One of my favorite pictures is in my library in Connecticut, and it’s, me standing next to Bob Hope on one side of me, President Reagan on the other, and then Mrs. Reagan, just the four of us,’ Gifford says.

‘I must have been, like, in my early, early 20s,’ she says. ‘It’s like so many of the pictures in my career, I just go, what’s Waldo doing there?’

Gifford has similar feelings about the time she found herself at actor Kevin Costner’s house seated next to President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. 

‘[Gorbachev] was a lovely man. Of course, his translator, that we all knew from seeing him on the news, was there. He was stuck with me for two hours at dinner. I’ll never forget it.’

So many years later, Gifford concedes that the America may feel like a different place, but her hope for its future – rooted in her deep faith and spiritually – is evident.

‘I think the world is full of either people that are fearful, or people that are fearless. And I’ve always been more of a fearless person. Am I concerned about certain things? Yeah,’ she says.

What those ‘things’ are, Gifford – a true professional – is discreet, abiding by the advice that another great communicator gave her early on in her career.

‘I met Reverend Billy Graham in my early 20s and he became one of my dearest friends for the rest of his life.

‘He said, the only thing I really regret that I did in my life that I would like to have back is when I got involved with politics, because the minute you open your mouth, you lose half your audience.

‘I’ll take someone’s kindness any day over their opinion,’ says Gifford, who also does not shy away from expressing her appreciation for her country.

‘I love our Constitution, and I believe that that grants us the right to think the way we want to, worship the way we want to, and vote the way we want to. And then we deserve the government we vote for. That’s our cherished, cherished heritage.’

In a significant political triumph, Louisiana Rep. Julia Letlow, who carries an endorsement from former President Trump, emerged victorious over State Treasurer John Fleming in the Senate Republican primary runoff on Saturday. This win underscores the former president’s continued influence within the party’s election outcomes.

Letlow is now poised to be the Republican contender in the upcoming November elections, having secured over 55% of the vote. Meanwhile, Fleming gathered 45%, with just 41% of the vote having been tabulated.

Letlow received Trump’s endorsement in January, ahead of the May primary. She initially was elected to office in 2021 to succeed her late husband, Luke, who passed away due to COVID-19 complications. Her campaign effectively unseated incumbent Senator Bill Cassidy in a competitive three-way race.

More recently, her matchup against Fleming became increasingly competitive, as suggested by a series of polls conducted this month after Letlow led in the primary election.

On the Democratic side, Jamie Davis clinched his party’s nomination convincingly, obtaining more than 78% of the votes. His rival, Gary Crockett, trailed significantly with just 21% of the vote.

The president had a series of clashes with Cassidy, who voted to impeach him in 2021 after the Jan. 5 Capitol riot on “incitement of insurrection,” although Cassidy also provided a critical vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary.

Trump repeatedly blasted his “disloyalty” and declared his career “OVER.”

The tension lingered after Cassidy’s defeat, and the two got into a shouting match in a closed Senate luncheon last week when Cassidy joined three other Republicans in voting against the president on an Iran War Powers resolution.

Fleming, 74, the state Treasurer, served in Congress from 2009 to 2017. He also previously served as Deputy White House Chief of Staff at the tail end of Trump’s first term.

Both had conservative positions and jockeyed to show their support for Trump’s agenda.

Despite Trump’s endorsement of Letlow, he called himself the MAGA conservative in the race, and rapped Letlow for prior support of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Follow The Post’s live coverage of President Trump and national politics for the latest news and analysis

But the president made a series of online posts to boost Letlow, 45, in the final days of the race.

On Friday he called her a “Highly Respected America First Congresswoman” and a “Great Star” as well as a “TOTAL WINNER” and “wonderful person” who has been “tested at the highest and most difficult levels.”

Letlow beat Fleming 45-28 in the May primary, with Cassidy coming in third at 25%.

But polls in recent days showed a tightening race in what was expected to be a low-turnout election.

Trump has achieved a success rate of 98% in his endorsements, according to Ballotpedia, although that includes candidates who didn’t have an opponent, and there have been contested races where Trump took a pass or jumped in after a candidate had pulled ahead.