Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 13, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2025 B4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I WORLD Turkish military cargo plane crash kills all 20 aboard A Turkish military cargo plane crashed Tuesday in neighbouring Georgia, kill- ing all 20 servicemen aboard, Turkish authorities said Wednesday, launching an investigation into the incident. The C-130 aircraft crashed shortly after crossing into Georgia, returning from Ganja, Azerbaijan, to Turkey, the Turkish Defence Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. Search efforts co- ordinated between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia began immediately, offi- cials said. Nineteen bodies have been recovered and one remains missing, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu reported. The crash was a “painful piece of news that plunged all 86 million of us into sorrow,” Erdogan said in a post on X on Wednesday. The soldiers were in Azerbaijan for fifth anniversary Vic- tory Day celebrations of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, he said — an event he also attended. Turkey and Azerbaijan are close partners, and Tur- key backed Azerbaijan in its war with Armenia to take control of the contest- ed Nagorno-Karabakh region. In the wake of the crash, Erdogan extended condolences to the grieving families, the Turkish armed forces and all Turkish citizens. “May the Almighty God make the resting places of our martyrs paradise and their ranks exalted,” Erdogan said. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte sent condolences to Turkey, a NATO member. No cause for the crash has been pro- vided so far. A team is conducting a technical investigation into the crash, the Defence Ministry said Wednesday. Azerbaijani and Georgian authorities also helped with the search and rescue, and they are mobilizing “all the resour- ces” they can, Erdogan said. Photos of the scene shown pieces of burned metal strewn in a large open, grassy area near the Azerbaijani bor- der. Emergency workers, soldiers and investigators, as well as police and military vehicles and ambulances, sur- rounded the wreckage site. Video of the plane crash, published by the Associated Press, showed a large section of the plane spinning from the sky, leaving a helix of smoke, before hitting the ground. C-130 Hercules four-engine turbo- prop military transport aircraft, made by U.S. manufacturer Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin, have been used to airdrop supplies, provide relief oper- ations, transport crews, drop bombs, retrieve satellites. “Those who design, build, fly, sup- port and maintain a Hercules often say the plane is without a doubt the world’s most proven workhorse — and for good reason,” Lockheed Martin said in a page about C-130 Hercules’ history. The aircraft has the “longest, continu- ous military aircraft production run in history,” the company said, adding that 2,500 C-130s have been ordered to at least 63 nations. The Defence Ministry published the names and military portraits of the 20 servicemen who were killed. “The homeland is grateful to you,” a state- ment read. Erdogan urged Turkish citizens to be aware about disinformation as it spreads online about the incident. — The Washington Post SAMMY WESTFALL U.S. Mint presses nation’s final pennies P HILADELPHIA — The U.S. ended production of the penny Wednes- day, abandoning the 1-cent coins that were embedded in American cul- ture for more than 230 years as sym- bols of frugality and the price of a per- son’s thoughts, but had become nearly worthless. When it was introduced in 1793, a penny could buy a biscuit, a candle or a piece of candy. Now, most of them are cast aside to sit in jars or junk draw- ers, and each one costs nearly 4 cents to make. “God bless America, and we’re go- ing to save the taxpayers $56 million,” Treasurer Brandon Beach said at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia before hitting a button to strike the final penny. The coins were then carefully placed on a tray for journalists to see. The last few pennies were to be auctioned off. Billions of pennies are still in circu- lation and will remain legal tender, but new ones will no longer be made. The last U.S. coin to be discontinued was the half-cent in 1857, Beach said. Most penny production ended over the summer, officials said. During the final pressing, workers at the mint stood quietly on the factory floor as if bidding farewell to an old friend. When the last coins emerged, the men and women broke into applause and cheered one another. “It’s an emotional day,” said Clayton Crotty, who has worked at the mint for 15 years. “But it’s not unexpected.” President Donald Trump ordered the penny’s demise as costs climbed and the 1-cent valuation became virtually obsolete. “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote in an online post in February. “This is so wasteful!” Still, many Americans have a nostal- gia for them, seeing pennies as lucky or fun to collect. And some retailers voiced concerns in recent weeks as supplies ran low and the end of produc- tion drew near. They said the phaseout was abrupt and came with no govern- ment guidance on how to handle trans- actions. Some businesses rounded prices down to avoid shortchanging shop- pers. Others pleaded with customers to bring exact change. The more creative among them gave out prizes, such as a free drink, in exchange for a pile of pennies. “We have been advocating abolition of the penny for 30 years. But this is not the way we wanted it to go,” Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Conven- ience Stores said last month. Proponents of eliminating the coin cited cost savings, speedier checkouts at cash registers and the fact that some countries have already eliminated their 1-cent coins. Canada, for instance, stopped minting its penny in 2012. Some banks began rationing supplies, a somewhat paradoxical result of the effort to address what many see as a glut of the coins. Over the last century, about half of the coins made at mints in Philadelphia and Denver have been pennies. But they cost far less to produce than the nickel, which costs nearly 14 cents to make. The diminutive dime, by com- parison, costs less than 6 cents to pro- duce, and the quarter nearly 15 cents. No matter their face value, collectors and historians consider them an im- portant historical record. Frank Holt, an emeritus professor at the University of Houston who has studied the history of coins, laments the loss. “We put mottoes on them and self-identifiers, and we decide — in the case of the United States — which dead persons are most important to us and should be commemorated,” he said. “They reflect our politics, our religion, our art, our sense of ourselves, our ideals, our aspirations.” — The Associated Press MARYCLAIRE DALE MATT SLOCUM / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach holds one of the last pennies pressed at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, Wednesday. ZURAB TSERTSVADZE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Debris is seen at a crash site of a Turkish military cargo plane in Georgia's Sighnaghi municip- ality, close to the Azerbaijani border on Wednesday. Treasurer says move will save taxpayers US$56 million Trump signs government funding bill, ending shutdown WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill Wednesday night, ending a record 43-day shutdown that caused financial stress for federal workers who went without paycheques, stranded scores of travellers at airports and generated long lines at some food banks. Trump’s signature draws to a close the second government shutdown he’s overseen in the White House, one that magnified the partisan divisions in Washington as his administration took unprecedented unilateral actions — in- cluding cancelling projects and trying to fire federal workers — to pressure Democrats into relenting on their de- mands. The signing ceremony came just hours after the House passed the meas- ure on a mostly party-line vote of 222- 209. The Senate had already passed the measure Monday. Democrats wanted to extend an en- hanced tax credit expiring at the end of the year that lowers the cost of health coverage obtained through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. They refused to go along with a short-term spending bill that did not include that priority. But Republicans said that was a sep- arate policy fight to be held at another time. “We told you 43 days ago from bitter experience that government shutdowns don’t work,” said Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican chairman of the House Ap- propriations Committee. “They never achieve the objective that you an- nounce. And guess what? You haven’t achieved that objective yet, and you’re not going to.” The frustration and pressures gen- erated by the shutdown was reflected when lawmakers debated the spending measure on the House floor. Republicans said Democrats sought to use the pain generated by the shut- down to prevail in a policy dispute. “They knew it would cause pain and they did it anyway,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said. Democrats said Republicans raced to pass tax breaks earlier this year that they say mostly will benefit the wealthy. But the bill before the House Wednesday “leaves families twisting in the wind with zero guarantee there will ever, ever be a vote to extend tax cred- its to help everyday people pay for their health care,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats would not give up on the subsidy extension even if the vote did not go their way. “This fight is not over,” Jeffries said. “We’re just getting started.” The House had not been in legislative session since Sept. 19, when it passed a short-term measure to keep the govern- ment open when the new budget year began in October. Johnson sent law- makers home after that vote and put the onus on the Senate to act, saying House Republicans had done their job. The legislation is the result of a deal reached by eight senators who broke ranks with the Democrats after reach- ing the conclusion that Republicans would not bend on using a government funding to bill to extend the health care tax credits. The compromise funds three annual spending bills and extends the rest of government funding through Jan. 30. Republicans promised to hold a vote by mid-December to extend the health care subsidies, but there is no guaran- tee of success. The bill includes a reversal of the firing of federal workers by the Trump administration since the shutdown began. It also protects federal workers against further layoffs through Janu- ary and guarantees they are paid once the shutdown is over. The bill for the Agriculture Department means people who rely on key food assistance pro- grams will see those benefits funded without threat of interruption through the rest of the budget year. The package includes US$203.5 mil- lion to boost security for lawmakers and an additional US$28 million for the security of Supreme Court justices. Democrats also decried language in the bill that would give senators the opportunity to sue when a feder- al agency or employee searches their electronic records without notifying them, allowing for up to US$500,000 in potential damages for each violation. The language seems aimed at helping Republican senators pursue damages if their phone records were analyzed by the FBI as part of an investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The provisions drew criti- cism from Republicans as well. John- son said he was “very angry about it.” “That was dropped in at the last minute, and I did not appreciate that, nor did most of the House members,” Johnson said, promising a vote on the matter as early as next week. The biggest point of contention, though, was the fate of the expiring enhanced tax credit that makes health insurance more affordable through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. “It’s a subsidy on top of a subsidy. Our friends added it during COVID,” Cole said. “COVID is over. They set a date certain that the subsidies would run out. They chose the date.” Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the enhanced tax credit was designed to give more people access to health care and no Republican voted for it. “All they have done is try to elimin- ate access to health care in our country. The country is catching on to them,” Pelosi said. Without the enhanced tax credit, premiums on average will more than double for millions of Americans. More than 2 million people would lose health insurance coverage altogether next year, the Congressional Budget Office projected. It’s unclear whether the parties will find any common ground on health care before the December vote in the Senate. Johnson has said he will not commit to bringing it up in his chamber. — The Associated Press KEVIN FREKING, JOEY CAPPELLETTI AND MATT BROWN ;