diff --git a/e2e/news-real/news.spec.ts b/e2e/news-real/news.spec.ts
index 6c9d1073..d337de11 100644
--- a/e2e/news-real/news.spec.ts
+++ b/e2e/news-real/news.spec.ts
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ test("staff signs in, saves a draft, previews it and publishes to anonymous read
 				body: JSON.stringify(errors, null, 2),
 				contentType: "application/json",
 			});
-		await anonymous.close();
+		await anonymous.close().catch(() => {});
 		await database.end();
 		redis.disconnect();
 	}
diff --git a/scripts/ci-preflight.sh b/scripts/ci-preflight.sh
index b4166d93..cea83037 100644
--- a/scripts/ci-preflight.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci-preflight.sh
@@ -36,7 +36,8 @@ trap 'exit 143' TERM
 
 pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
 pnpm exec playwright install chromium
-build_attempted=1
+export NEWS_E2E_IMAGE="$image"
+export NEWS_E2E_RELEASE="$sha"
 DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build --network=host --progress=plain \
   --build-arg NEXT_DEPLOYMENT_ID="$sha" -t "$image" .
-NEWS_E2E_IMAGE="$image" NEWS_E2E_RELEASE="$sha" node --import tsx e2e/news-real/run.ts
+NEWS_E2E_IMAGE="$image" NEWS_E2E_RELEASE="$sha" node --import tsx e2e/news-real/run.ts
\ No newline at end of file