finding

The rise of girls’ flag football is following a familiar path. There now are travel teams with girls competing in offseason competitions as all-star teams similar to seven-on-seven football tournaments.

Under The Radar sports media, which for years has shot videos for YouTube and been involved in 11-man football competitions, is sponsoring a flag football team gaining attention for its success this year.

Called the Ballerettes, the team has several high school athletes from Southern California.

Leah Davis is a sophomore from Upland who was All-Baseline League. Denver De Jongh was a standout freshman at Mater Dei.
Savvy Su’e was the freshman quarterback at Banning last season. She also plays softball and basketball.

As participation and popularity rise, you can expect more travel competitions, camps and opportunities for college recruiting.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

THERE’S a line in Badlands, one of Mumford & Sons’ new songs, that feels like a mission statement for new record Prizefighter.

Singer Marcus Mumford says: “The lyric says, ‘Don’t look down now/I’m not done here yet’. I was listening to that song today and that’s the sentiment of Prizefighter.

“We try really f***ing hard, we want to be great. And I think we’ll keep trying.”

I’m chatting to Mumford and keyboardist Ben Lovett in Bath, a few hours before they are due on stage at The Forum to celebrate the release of their new album.

“We feel very fortunate to be launching our sixth album, it’s a big deal,” says Lovett.

“It’s a marker of beyond the creativity and how we feel about the music itself. “When we started this band, it was all about longevity for us.

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“And it feels great to be coming up to 20 years as a band and feel like we want to do another 20.

“That’s a big statement of success for us.”

The pair are seated together on a sofa, comfortable and clearly energised by their new record.

It’s hard to believe it’s only 11 months since fifth album Rushmere signalled their return from a seven-year hiatus.

For Prizefighter, they worked with producer Aaron Dessner from US rock band The National.

They had worked with him on 2015’s Wilder Mind, and they crossed paths again while mixing Rushmere in Electric Lady Studios in New York City.

Mumford says: “Aaron showed us the beginning of an idea for Prizefighter, the song he’d written with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.

“And we instantly started writing on it.

“Aaron’s always writing music with his mates for fun. He then played us a snippet of what became new single The Banjo Song that he’d started with Jon Bellion as a sketch.

“This was the be­ginning of the record, a beginning of ideas, like we do with each other all the time. It was just for fun to see where it goes.”

Mumford & Sons have continued as a trio since founding member Winston Marshall departed in 2021 after publicly expressing support for a book by right-wing American journalist Andy Ngo.

Lovett explains: “We got together in January 2023 and started making music without any agenda and I felt very free.

“That was the right thing to do. That was the right start or restart after Marcus’s solo record [2022’s Self-Titled].

“And it was the first time we’d played together in a couple of years. It felt like riding an old bike.”

Their first new music came in the form of Good People — a surprising collaboration with Pharrell Williams in 2024.

“That record was a very different experience but showed us that we have range and versatility,” says Lovett.

“So, by the time we got to the studio with Aaron, we were confidence high. We loved it and wanted to be curious creatively, from a place of positivity.

“And that’s basically how the record got in to motion.”

Mumford says stepping back was crucial to finding their confidence again.

“I am less insecure about being an artist,” Mumford tells me. “I will go off to a coffee shop and read poetry and do it unapologetically.

“I’m also more playful with my lyrics. I love Clover in particular.

“I just didn’t have the confidence to be tongue-in-cheek, surreal or even slightly ridiculous.

“Those types of lyrics would never have got on any previous albums.

Aaron, like Pharrell and Dave Cobb, who produced Rushmere, sat us down and gave us quite a serious talking to about believing in ourselves and looking back at what we’ve done with pride while also looking ahead.

“Recognising our confidence and DNA at the same time is what led to us being able to write this record.

“There’s a lot of insecurity and confidence on the record and also nostalgia and ambition and so that’s why it’s called Prizefighter.”

Lovett adds: “We feel more comfortable in our own skin, with a stronger sense of identity than we’ve had as a band for a while.

“The success of Rushmere [their third No1 album] and touring last year gave us a big confidence boost and reminded us that people still care and we are having a good time.”

Prizefighter sees Mumford at their most collaborative. Gorgeous piano ballad Badlands features Gracie Abrams, while Chris Stapleton, Hozier and Gigi Perez are also guest singers.

Finneas, Dessner, Vernon, Bellion and Brandi Carlile are credited as co-writers on the record.

“We’ve always been a bit more protective in the studio,” says Mumford. “In the early days a band needs to set out their stall and show people who you are.

“We have always had this collaborative spirit where we’ve enjoyed playing with other bands but we’ve not really recognised that on record before.

“It felt the time to do it, so we’ve opened the doors and it’s been really fulfilling. It’s one big community.”

Gracie Abrams, a long-time friend of Mumford’s, was the first to hear the band’s new songs.

“I’ve known her right from the start,” says the singer. “Gracie was the first person to hear any of these demos, like before labels or managers or anyone else.

“And we found out recently that she came to one of our shows when she was 13.

“We’ve been friends for a long time. She’s amazing.

“With Badlands we asked her to pick any song to sing on and she said yes to that song which had been written to be her voice.”

Album opener Here was written with Grammy-winning country powerhouse Chris Stapleton in mind.

Mumford says: “I’m just a fan of his and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head that he should sing the second verse on Here.

“We hadn’t met, so I called him. We had a long conversation. We really connected. Then he heard the song and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll record it next week’. And he did. It was all pretty organic.

“We didn’t have a list. It was like, ‘Let’s send this to Andrew, aka Hozier, see if he wants to f*** with it’. And he said yes.”

Lovett adds: “It’s a simple environment up at Aaron’s Long Pond studio. We record then we sit around eating soup together.

“It’s not the glossy album where you’re stuck on the other side of the glass and the red light goes on and it’s your big moment.

“Making Prizefighter felt a much more human experience.”

Conversation With My Son (Gangsters & Angels) is another highlight on Prizefighter and a song that Dessner was a huge fan of.

“Yeah, Aaron was a huge advocate for that song,” says Lovett. “It felt like there was an opportunity to explore something musically and thematically that was a bit different to the rest of the record.”

Mumford, who has two daughters and a son with actress Carey Mulligan, adds: “It has a hymnal and intentionally repetitive, melodic thing like in a Trad Irish song.

“Ben is being modest but he had this clear vision for that song.

“Then we sat down and Ben made a little demo of his chord sequence, and I fell in love with it.

“I’d been writing some words that morning and it became an essential band moment.

“We sit quietly and play along until we have an idea. Ted Dwane was on the bass, Ben was on the piano, Aaron was playing a guitar, I was writing words.

“Aaron understands being in a band very well and when we play to our strengths. It fell together like that and is a good example of the alchemy of being in a band.”

Lovett, who has a young daughter with his partner, American fashion executive Molly Howard, says: “Having kids act as a mirror to your life makes you want to be a slightly better version of yourself.

“We all take fatherhood quite seriously and it means that when we’re together, it’s cherished in a very different way.

“There was a real fun and silliness to our 20s that was inefficient — like staying out until 5am just because, why not have one more?

“I think there’s something beautiful about treating this with more care. It’s a very precious thing.

“Being in Mumford & Sons is amazing and we’re lucky we get the opportunity to do this.

“And finding out we have people all over the place who appreciate that we continue to still do this, is a charger for Chapter Two.”

Mumford adds, smiling: “I would say we’re in the phase where we take our work more seriously but take ourselves less seriously.

“Making my solo album made me fall back in love with the band. I love these lads and the sense of belonging and home we get from being this band together.

“When we got back together it was like we renewed our vows.

“It’s very silly but a privilege so we’re really trying to be present and our audience has made us more grateful and appreciative. Seeing new and younger fans getting into the songs has been amazing.

“I think we’re about at the point of our career where Radiohead were when they released Hail To The Thief — that was my way into Radiohead. It’s my favourite record of all time. And through that record I discovered the rest of their catalogue.

“They’d always felt like my brother’s band, who is older than me, but then this album came out when I passed my driving test.

“I hope that Prizefighter is that first Mumford album for some people.”

Making an album so soon after another, has been inspiring and Mumford says: “We never want to turn the tap off. The tap still feels like it’s got something in it.

“We could have released Prizefighter a week after Rushmere, but we wanted to give people space and time, but now the idea is to be accelerating that process so that we can show people.

“I hope we can start writing songs and releasing them the next day, like Bruce f***ing Springsteen!

“Our Hyde Park show in July will be a celebration for us — the centrepiece of our year.

“We are inviting guests and friends and crafting the line-up at the moment.

“We’ve announced The War On Drugs, who are one of the best bands in the world and people know from working with Sam Fender.

“There’ll be more we can tell you about soon, which will be fun, we really put time and effort into those line-ups.

“Hyde Park is going to be wicked, with plenty of surprises on the day too.”

Lovett adds: “Prizefighter is important to us.

“As a band, we’ve had some fun getting here, but I think this album sets us up for a really bright future.”

• Prizefighter is out today.

MUMFORD & SONS

Prizefighter

★★★★☆

The United States has revoked a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for its actions to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.

The decision on Thursday is the most aggressive move by President Donald Trump to roll back environmental regulations since the start of his second term.

Under his leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalised a rule rescinding a 2009 government declaration known as the “endangerment finding”.

It is the legal underpinning for nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.

Established under the presidency of Democrat Barack Obama, the finding establishes that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.

But President Trump, a Republican, has called climate change a “hoax” and a “con job”. The endangerment finding, he argued, is “one of the greatest scams in history”, adding that it “had no basis in fact” or law.

“On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world,” Trump said at a White House ceremony on Thursday.

He hailed the repeal of the endangerment finding as “the single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far”.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, who also attended the ceremony, described the endangerment finding as “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach”.

Rescinding the endangerment finding repeals all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks. It could also unleash a broader unravelling of climate regulations on stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities, experts say.

But Thursday’s new rule is likely to face pushback in the US court system.

Overturning the finding will “raise more havoc” than other actions Trump has taken to roll back environmental rules, environmental law professor Ann Carlson told The Associated Press news agency.

Environmental groups described the move as the single biggest attack in US history against federal authority to address climate change. Evidence backing up the endangerment finding has only grown stronger in the 17 years since it was approved, they said.

As part of Thursday’s decision, the EPA also announced it will end tax credits for automakers who install automatic start-stop ignition systems in their vehicles. The device is intended to reduce emissions, but Zeldin said “everyone hates” it.

Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who was tapped by Trump to lead EPA last year, has criticised his Democratic predecessors, saying that, in the name of tackling climate change, they were “willing to bankrupt the country”.

The endangerment finding “led to trillions of dollars in regulations that strangled entire sectors of the United States economy, including the American auto industry”, Zeldin said, criticising the leadership of Obama and former President Joe Biden in particular.

“The Obama and Biden administrations used it to steamroll into existence a left-wing wish list of costly climate policies, electric vehicle mandates and other requirements that assaulted consumer choice and affordability.”

The endangerment finding had allowed for a series of regulations intended to protect against climate change and related threats.

They include deadly floods, extreme heat waves, catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters in the US and around the world.

Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who served as the White House’s climate adviser in the Biden administration, called the Trump administration’s actions reckless.

“This EPA would rather spend its time in court working for the fossil fuel industry than protecting us from pollution and the escalating impacts of climate change,” she said.

EPA has a clear scientific and legal obligation to regulate greenhouse gases, McCarthy explained, adding that the health and environmental hazards of climate change have “become impossible to ignore”.

Thursday’s EPA action follows an executive order from Trump that directed the agency to submit a report on “the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding.

Conservatives have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

Democratic Senator Ed Markey said that keeping the endangerment finding should have been a “no-brainer”.

“Trump and Zeldin are putting our lives and our future at risk,” he said in a video statement.

“They have rolled back protection after protection in a race to the bottom. Instead of ‘Let them eat cake,’ Zeldin is saying, ‘Let them breathe soot.’”

Feb. 10 (UPI) — Officials for the Environmental Protection Agency said they are working to end a 2009 declaration that says climate change is a danger to public health.

During the weekend, EPA officials submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a proposed rule revoking the 2009 endangerment finding that guided U.S. climate and greenhouse gas regulations.

The EPA did not say when the endangerment finding officially would be revoked, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested it would happen this week.

“This week at the White House, President [Donald] Trump will be taking the most significant deregulatory actions in history to further unleash American energy dominance and drive down costs,” Leavitt said in a prepared statement.

Revoking the endangerment finding removes the EPA’s statutory authority to regulate motor vehicle emissions that was provided via Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act of 1970, an EPA spokesperson told The Hill.

The endangerment finding is “one of the most damaging decisions in modern history,” the Leavitt said.

The Clean Air Act forces the EPA to regulate vehicle emissions that produce any pollutant that are reasonably thought to pose a danger to public health or welfare.

A 2007 Supreme Court ruling determined that greenhouse gas emissions that are thought to contribute to global warming meet the standard for air pollutants that require regulation due to their potential for harming public health.

The Obama administration in 2009 issued the endangerment finding for greenhouse gas emissions, which the prior Supreme Court ruling said requires the EPA to regulate them.

The EPA that year decided that greenhouse gas emissions likely would cause widespread “serious adverse health effects in large-population areas” due to increased ambient ozone over many areas of the United States.

“The impact on mortality and morbidity associated with increases in average temperatures, which increase the likelihood of heat waves, also provides support for a public health endangerment finding,” the EPA said in its endangerment finding.

“The evidence concerning how human-induced climate change may alter extreme weather events also clearly supports a finding of endangerment,” the EPA said, while acknowledging that the conclusion was based on “consensus.”

The finding said carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases are fueling storms, drought, heat waves, wildfires and rising seas, which pose a threat to public health.

Because the finding determined emissions from the burning of coal, gas and oil were said to contribute to climate change, the EPA undertook regulations of power plants, vehicles and other sources of greenhouse gas emissions, including gas stoves, ovens, water heaters and heating systems.

Revoking the endangerment finding ends those regulations, which could be reversed if a future administration reinstates the finding.

Emigrating to sun-kissed Lanzarote might sound like a dream come true, but one British couple have confessed that they miss quite a few things from back home – including the weather!

Taking early retirement and leaving the soggy British winters behind forever is an impossible dream for many of us. But designers Richard and Tarnya Norse-Evans managed to do just that when they sold their business and relocated to the Canary Islands.

While they don’t regret making a new home for themselves in balmy Lanzarote, where the temperatures rarely drop into single figures, Richard and Tarnya say there are a few things they miss about chilly, rain-lashed Britain.

“When you live on a small island you need to see and do something different, because here you don’t get to go to the art galleries, visit people, go to the city or eat in different restaurants,” Richard told the i Paper.

He added that, while Lanzarote’s weather makes for a nice easy life there’s something to be said for a good old-fashioned chilly day. He said he sometimes feels nostalgic about the idea of “putting on a coat and Wellingtons and getting out in a forest for a good stomp and an English pint in a pub”.

While that’s a rare treat these days, it’s still a possibility. Because the cost of living in Lanzarote is much lower than in the UK, Richard and Tarnya can afford to splash out on an occasional flight back to Blighty for a taste of what they missing.

The pair also noted the struggles with the language barrier, and highlighted challenges in Spain with paperwork that meant long wait times for permits.

According to the most recent figures, between 6,200 and 6,500 British people are officially registered as residents in Lanzarote, making them one of the largest foreign populations on the island.

That number’s swelled massively in the summer, of course, when thousands more flock to the sun-kissed islands. Because the climate is so mild, there’s no real “low season” on Lanzarote, and holidaymakers are arriving at the island’ airport at any time of year. Tourism is the single biggest of the island’s economy.

Holiday rentals on Lanzarote grew by by 113% between June 2023 and December 2025. While there have been a few reports of extreme, violent anti-tourist hostility, they tend to be exaggerated, and the island remains generally welcoming to holidaymakers.

Richard and Tarnya have become part of that thriving industry, with a luxurious-looking Airbnb to supplement their lifestyle. “We certainly do not live a permanent holiday,” Richard said. “Work life still goes on regardless of the weather.”

They also own a vineyard that produces around 7,000kg of grapes a year, which they sell to a local wine producer.

And there are many kinds of business that simply aren’t available on Lanzarote – with Richard bemoaning the lack of variety when it comes to the arts and entertainment.

But luckily, he says there’s always the option of popping home for a taste of what he’s missing. He added: “With a four-hour flight we can be back in London quickly and enjoy the best of both worlds.”