Donald Trump’s construction of the new ballroom at the White House caused radio issues that led air traffic controllers to not hear messages sent from pilots preparing to carry the US President

Ongoing construction at the White House contributed to radio problems that reportedly caused radio problems which resulted in Marine One’s near miss with a passenger jet, a report has found.

Federal investigators said on Thursday the construction work resulted in air traffic controllers being unable to hear warning calls that Donald Trump’s helicopter was preparing to take off. This resulted in them clearing an airline jet to take off as Marine One lifted off earlier this month, the investigators said on Thursday.

In the week leading up to the near-miss, air traffic controllers met with Marine One pilots to discuss having not received the standard three-minute warning call ahead of its flights, a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report said.

They planned to relay radio calls through someone else if there were future problems but that was also unsuccessful on the day of the August 4 incident. Communication issues would come up again on Thursday, when the air traffic controllers at Ronald Raegan Washington National Airport were not able to hear Marine One and had to ask a support helicopter for help just before take-off.

“I can’t hear Marine One,” an air traffic controller says to the support helicopter. “If you hear Marine One, can you let me know?”

Following the incident earlier this month, technicians discovered the reason Marine One was having trouble talking to the tower at times was because the helicopter shifted to a new location during the construction. So, the Federal Aviation Administration moved the radio receiver out of a neighbourhood near the airport and to the top of the tower at Raegan to fix the problem.

“Even though they were aware of some previous communications issues, they never got at the root cause,” aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti told the Associated Press. A recording posted by ATC.com showed the Marine One pilot telling the tower it was “three minutes to lift” just like the 2013 agreement between the FAA and the military calls for. But the controller seemed surprised a few minutes later when it took off.

“Uh, Marine One, you said, uh, you’re proceeding as briefed?” the controller asked before giving directions and continuing: “OK, no three minutes, roger, proceed as briefed.”

Guzzetti told the agency he did not believe the controllers were at fault as they never heard Marine One’s warnings. He added: “In this case, the controller did absolutely nothing wrong.

“He did not receive the transmission saying that they were three minutes away from taking off. So he had no reason to hold the airplane that was lining up and waiting.”

Three Scottish Fire and Rescue Service crews were called to the scene on the A76 alongside paramedics, with an air ambulance also spotted flying in the vicinity.

One person has been injured in a crash involving a police vehicle in Ayrshire. Emergency services were called to the A76 at Kingencleugh, near Mauchline, following the collision at around 2.40pm on Friday, August 28.

The road remains closed following the incident while investigations into the crash are ongoing. Three Scottish Fire and Rescue Service crews were called to the scene alongside paramedics, with an air ambulance also spotted flying in the vicinity.

A spokesperson for the fire service confirmed one casualty, the passenger of a car, was extricated by firefighters who assisted police and paramedics. It is understood both police officers travelling in the police vehicle were not seriously injured following the collision.

The Record also understands the car was not involved in a police pursuit. The car passenger’s condition or seriousness of their injuries are unknown.

A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: “The A76 is closed at Mauchline following a crash involving a police vehicle and a car, reported around 2.40pm on Friday, August 28. Emergency services are in attendance, and motorists should use an alternative route.”

A spokesperson for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were alerted to a two-vehicle RTC south of Mauchline at around 2.40pm. Operations control mobilised three fire appliances to attend.

“Crews used rescue equipment to extricate a passenger.”

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PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough were killed in the early hours of Saturday, August 22, when their police car was struck by a VW Passat going the wrong way on the A66 in South Bank.

Hartlepool United‘s Victoria Park fell silent before tonight’s tie against Eastleigh in memory of the officers, including dad-of-two PC Blades, who lived in the town and coached youth teams.

A two-minute’s silence was held for PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough before Hartlepool’s game against Eastleigh tonight. (Image: MARK FLETCHER)

The officer’s family joined the players in the centre circle as the stands fell silent just before kick-off.

Two hats had been left on the pitch marking the lives of each officer.

Two officers’ hats left on the pitch at Victoria Park in memory of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough, (Image: MARK FLETCHER)

A two-minute’s silence was held for PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough before Hartlepool’s game against Eastleigh tonight. (Image: MARK FLETCHER)

Hartlepool football clubs previously paid tribute to PC Blades.

FC Hartlepool said: “As coach of our under-ten reds, a team that was made even more special by having his eldest son playing alongside the boys, Matty was so much more than a coach.

“He was a role model, a mentor, a friend, and someone the children looked up to and admired.

PC Matthew Blades. (Image: FAMILY)

“Matty gave his time, energy and heart to the team.

“He encouraged the boys, believed in them, supported them and helped them grow – not only as footballers but as young people.

“His kindness, patience, and infectious personality made him loved by all who had the privilege of knowing him.

A two-minute’s silence was held for PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough before Hartlepool’s game against Eastleigh tonight. (Image: MARK FLETCHER)

“The under-ten reds have lost a coach, but our club has lost a truly special person and a valued member of the FC Hartlepool family.

“Our deepest thoughts and condolences are with Matty’s family, friends, and everyone who knew and loved him – especially his wife and two boys whom he adored.”

Flags were flown at half-mast earlier in the week at both FC Hartlepool and Seaton Carew FC.

Seaton Carew FC said: “Matty and his oldest son are much-loved members of our club and our U10 Lions football family.”

“Matty had only recently joined our club as a coach and was preparing for his first season with our brand-new U7 Seahawks team.

Police officers at the scene of a fatal crash involving a police car and a Volkswagen Passat on the A66 in South Bank, near Middlesbrough (Owen Humphreys/PA)

“He was looking forward to being part of the team and, most importantly, to coaching his own son, who is going to be playing for the Seahawks this season.

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with Matty’s wife, his two boys and all of his family and friends at this incredibly difficult and heartbreaking time.”

A fundraiser for the officers, created by the Cleveland Police Federation, has raised more tha £1m to be split equally between the two officers’ families.

PC Tom Clough, 38, and PC Matthew Blades, 37 (L-R). (Image: CLEVELAND POLICE)

Inquests were opened into their deaths on Thursday (August 27) and heard both died of head and neck injuries.

Five people travelling in the Passat – Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Theo Rae, 17, Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Jakub Matusiak, 23, and Makai Saddington, 18. – also died at the scene. Four of them had previous criminal convictions.

Officers have been working ’20-hour days’ with over 200 extra police drafted in on Teesside following the devastating A66 crash and the Grangetown house blaze that saw two lives lost.

Police now say the house fire and the A66 incident are ‘not being linked’.

In an emotional tribute, PC Blades’ wife described him as an adored son, brother, uncle and son in law, whose loss had left a gap that could never be filled.

She said: “No words will ever feel like the right words to honour our Matt – my beloved husband, my best friend, and the most devoted father to our two young boys.

Floral tributes by the A66 for PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

“He was an adored son and brother, a perfect son-in-law, and the most fun uncle. He was loved beyond words by all his family and friends, and his loss has left a space that can never be filled.

“He gave his life in the line of duty, protecting and serving others with courage, dedication and selflessness.

“The pain of losing him is beyond words, and our lives will never be the same. Neither will the love he gave us ever fade.

“Our children will grow up knowing what an incredible father he was and will always be, and I will carry his love, his memory and everything we shared with me always.

“He may have left this world committed to the duty he believed in, but his greatest legacy will always be the love he gave to his family.

“We would also like to express our deepest gratitude and heartfelt thanks to all of the emergency services and to our police family who have stood beside us through the most difficult time of our lives.

“The kindness, compassion, love and unwavering support we have received as a family has meant more to us than words could ever express. Every message, visit, gesture of support and every person who has stood alongside us will never be forgotten.

“Forever loved. Forever missed. Forever our superhero. Our Matt and Dad.”

Meg Mason’s new book, Sophie, Standing There, has been advertised as a bittersweet story of love, loneliness and finding connection in the most unlikely of places.

Most reviews describe Sophie, Standing There as a novel about loneliness, chaos or obsession. Others focus on its insider insights on the world of literary festivals, drawing parallels with Mason’s own rapid rise to literary success.

However, what stands out to me is the novel’s depiction of intense introspection. Sophie is, as the title implies, a static participant in her own life. At times, her reflection and awkwardness is gruelling to observe. But while some readers might become impatient, others will feel a strong affinity with her minute self-analysis.

Sophie is a sound technician working in a precarious, seasonal role at literary festivals. She deferred her career to support her husband’s job, but the novel opens with her grieving the end of her marriage – he brutally ended their relationship while she was showering.

Sophie dwells on the immediate practical and emotional consequences of their separation, but does not disclose details until late in the novel. Throughout, plot elements are gradually and painstakingly conveyed: perseverance is the key.

Few novels have such self-effacing main characters. Sophie is something like the “witness-protagonist” figure – a major character who observes the central plot from the margins, such as Nelly in Wuthering Heights or Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby.

However, both Nelly and Carraway largely observe the transformative effects of events on others while, arguably, influencing events from the periphery. This novel conveys Sophie’s life intimately, so her passivity is more perplexing.

Essentially, Sophie, Standing There is a love story – even though it’s about books and writers, readers and reading. In many ways, it is a conventional contemporary romance. Lacking self-worth and eager to be of service, Sophie is recovering from her marriage breakdown and failed IVF, and is struggling financially.

Beautiful but unhappy and unable to advocate for herself, she develops an obsession with a successful writer who, it transpires, will be a surprise replacement headliner at the upcoming literary festival she’s working at.

This revelation instigates Sophie’s fantasies about lacing microphone wires under the author’s clothes. She fails to pursue her fantasies to an erotic conclusion, though, as she cannot imagine herself being sexually attracted to women.

Reviewers have made comparisons to Virginia Woolf and Bridget Jones, and to sad-girl fiction – a genre Sophie avoids now that it evokes her own life. But in its introspective emotional analysis, unlikely coincidences and catastrophes, this novel also resembles a contemporary Jane Austen story.

As well as Sophie’s dream author’s sudden proximity, several other unexpected events arise: spilled soup and expensive trousers, sudden feverish illness and inopportune recovery.

There are also volte-face revelations about the people in her life. Sophie’s ineffectual and impolite manager Annaliese is redeemed as vulnerable and loyal, for example, while her flighty best friend Emma conveys unexpectedly astute emotional intelligence.

In Sophie, Standing There, as with Austen, the domestic everyday is overwhelming: egg sandwiches dripping inelegantly, dogs leaning warmly against legs, cold bathrooms, loose leggings, electric car chargers, playlists and light switches. An abundance of insignificant obstructions apply pressure. Among the painstaking minutiae of everyday life emerges gradual recovery.

Perseverance is rewarded with the late revelation of an important truth – a key enabling the fragile and passive heroine to start shaping her life. When that revelation comes (and the title’s specific meaning is revealed), Sophie’s inaction comes into sharp and painful focus.

Authors’ endorsements that describe this book as heartbreaking, moving and breathtaking suddenly make sense. Sophie forgives herself and others, and the reader can only do the same.

While reviews of this novel have generally been very positive, some have described reading it as unsettling and uneasy, or suggested that the object of Sophie’s obsession is unsatisfyingly distant. One found the late, hasty revelation of Sophie’s backstory inadequately explored.

While the swiftness of these revelations does feel at odds with the rest of the novel, their startling impact on Sophie seems realistic in light of her lifelong suppressed feelings and self-effacement.

Comparisons have been made with Mason’s previous novel, the runaway bestseller Sorrow and Bliss. Sophie, Standing There is described as less hilarious, more touching but just as well-observed.

Many readers will enjoy the deferred ending and opportunities to imagine alternatives. Alongside this, there is a hearty dose of criticism for the literary industry – including festival employees who barely read, author gossip, and impolite and inappropriate writers.

There is a constant reminder to look beyond the surface (to not judge a book by its cover, perhaps). The novel shows repeatedly that things happen in life – often financial or related to family dependencies – that impede politeness, effectiveness or keeping in touch. While some exploit those vulnerabilities, others make allowances and offer support.

Beyond revealing what is beneath Sophie’s surface behaviour, Sophie, Standing There is about the importance and complexity of friendship.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and contains links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Due to a shortage of train crew between Swansea and Llandrindod, Transport For Wales says services will be cancelled in both directions.

It adds: “We expect the incident to last until 10pm, and disruption to services is expected from 5.47pm until the end of the day.

“We have organised buses to run between Swansea and Llandrindod to assist customers to complete journeys where possible at no extra cost.

“These will arrive at Swansea at approximately 5.47pm travelling as far as Llandrindod, provided by Gower.

“When arriving into Llandrindod customers will be met by another bus that will stop as required as far as Shrewsbury. Further replacement road transport will also be arriving into Llandrindod at 8:07pm travelling all stops to Swansea, provided by Francis.

“These arrangements are in place on services until 10pm.”

South Cambridgeshire District Council has approved funding to help a church with repairs to improve public safety

A council has agreed to help fund “urgent repairs” to a village church amid safety concerns. St Andrew’s Church in Wimpole had already spent £14,000 of their own money repairing the aging building from damage caused by water ingress and deteriorating masonry.

The Grade II listed building is owned by the Diocese of Ely and, as well as providing church services, also hosts concerts, community events and art exhibitions. But the church’s future has been put at risk with water damage causing staining, plaster deterioration and even falling debris.

The church applied for £2,000 of funding from South Cambridgeshire District Council’s community chest to continue repairs. This will also go towards restoring two historic monuments – reattaching the lion to the effigy of Thomas Chicheley and cleaning and refixing the brass plaque to Reginald York.

This will cost £3,719 while the roof and masonry work will cost £11,234. The church said they will meet their remaining costs through fundraising activities, existing reserves, private donations and applications to external funders.

They have submitted applications to the Cambridge Historic Churches Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund – and secured a £1,000 private donation, with indications of future private support.

Council officers recommended approving the funding as it would support “the continued use of a well-used community facility and heritage site, ensuring it remains accessible to residents, visitors and researchers for years to come”.

They said the repairs were necessary to stop the building deteriorating further and to improve public safety. The council approved the funding.

British right-wing political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has apparently been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to the agency’s records.

Yiannopoulos, 41, a former editor of Breitbart News and a onetime employee of rapper Kanye West, appears to be held in Louisiana, according to a search of ICE’s inmate registry.

The self-styled provocateur has called himself the “most fabulous supervillain on the internet”. His critics call him a purveyor of hate speech.

Neither ICE nor Yiannopoulos has responded to the BBC’s request for comment, but his name and British origins appear in a search of detainees nationwide.

The circumstances around his apparent detention were unclear. Yiannopoulos, who grew up in Kent in the south of England, has been residing in the US.

He was an early supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 election, headlining an event that year called Gays for Trump during the Republican National Convention.

But he fell out with Trump’s movement. Yiannopoulos still voices support for the Republican president’s agenda. “Total legal immunity for ICE agents when they’re on duty,” he posted on X last year.

But he posted in March this year on X that Trump “has lost his way, bought off by foreign interests”.

Yiannopoulos has courted controversy with his comments on transgender people, Muslims, Black Lives Matter, feminists and gay people, even though he himself identified as gay. He now calls himself an “ex-gay”.

He has written columns titled “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy” and “Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?”

In 2017, Yiannopoulos was uninvited from speaking at CPAC, a US conservative conference that also hosted Trump, after footage emerged of him appearing to condone paedophilia. He also later apologised and resigned from Breitbart.

He denied the allegations, and said he had been speaking about his own experiences as a child.

Yiannopoulos was once regularly linked with the alt-right, a disparate group that is outspoken against political correctness and feminism and which includes neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

He has said he does not consider himself part of the alt-right, although he has called it “energising and exciting”.

President Donald Trump’s son, Barron, is reportedly keeping a low profile these days due to threats from Iran and the multiple attempts on his father’s life.

A source familiar with the situation reportedly told The New York Post that Barron, 20, “doesn’t go out” and has spent much of the summer with First Lady Melania Trump at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.

Another source reportedly told the paper that the young man is “pretty reclusive.”

The president has had a string of attempts on his life, including the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting that left his ear bleeding and an attempt on his life during the White House Correspondents Dinner.

But Barron has also reportedly been identified as a target. A video that has been attributed to an individual in Iran was released with the title “Where to kill Barron Trump.” It announced a $10 million bounty on the young man’s head. The same group reportedly named the first lady as a target as well.

According to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s book Regime Change, Barron was also reportedly shaken by the shooting death of conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk, whom he considered a friend.

“This is what happens when you go out there,” Barron reportedly told his father.

When asked for comment, the Office of the First Lady reportedly told the New York Post that “in light of recent threats” it would withhold publishing “any details concerning his private life.”

During President Joe Biden’s administration, Barron was scheduled to lose his Secret Service protection, but the first lady petitioned the then-president to extend his protection. Biden agreed. Trump rewarded that act by cancelling the Secret Service detail for Biden’s adult children, Hunter and Ashley, upon his return to office.

Dr Azita Sayan, a therapist who has treated adolescent trauma but has not treated Barron, said the young man is likely hyper-aware of the potential danger someone in his position might face.

“Barron is probably a lot more aware and a lot more astute, and a lot more conscientious in terms of the real dangers,” she told the paper.

She noted that just because he is reclusive doesn’t mean he’s traumatized, however.

“He’s protecting himself and making his friendships and his decisions privately rather than to have them be on display, which I think is developmentally healthy,” she said.