News

During the Christmas holidays, thieves robbed a savings bank vault and allegedly stole cash, gold, and jewelry worth up to $105 million, according to the police and the bank.

The perpetrators, who were arrested on Tuesday, used a large drill to cut through a dense concrete wall at a Sparkasse bank branch in Gelsenkirchen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state, to say what police said. The thieves breached a nearby parking garage and obtruded more than 3, 000 safe deposit boxes by forcing open an underground vault room.

According to investigators, the total value of the stolen goods could range between 10 and 90 million euros (between 111.7 million and $105.7 million), according to Thomas Nowaczyk, a police spokesperson.

According to the German news agency dpa, the robbery may be among the largest in the country’s history.

More than 95 percent of the 3, 250 customer safe deposit boxes were broken into by unknown perpetrators, according to Sparkasse, who confirmed that the branch had been “broken into over the Christmas holidays.”

It is thought that the crime occurred over the extended Christmas break when businesses were closed. Police believe the gang may have used the long weekend to break into the deposit boxes and stayed inside the building for a number of days.

A fire alarm was set off the theft, which was the only thing that was made public on Monday morning. The hole in the vault was discovered by emergency responders who arrived at the scene.

Later, witnesses later reported seeing several men carrying large bags through the parking garage stairwell between Saturday and Sunday.

A black Audi RS 6 was also captured on surveillance camera leaving the garage early on Monday morning, with masked people inside. Later, it was discovered that the vehicle had a license plate from a stolen car in Hanover, which is located more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) northeast of Gelsenkirchen.

Ocean’s Eleven-like

A police spokesman compared the operation to a Hollywood-style robbery reminiscent of Ocean’s Eleven and described it as highly organized.

He claimed the break-in was “indeed very professionally executed.”

To plan and carry this out, he added, “a great deal of prior knowledge and/or a great deal of criminal energy must have been involved.”

According to the police, each deposit box’s average insured value is more than 10,000 euros ($11,700). However, officers claimed that several victims had reported that their boxes’ contents were significantly more expensive than the money they had been insured.

Customers gathered outside the bank on Tuesday to demand answers. After staff members reportedly received threats, the branch remained closed for security reasons.

“It was so hard to sleep last night. One man claimed to have used the safe deposit box for 25 years and had stored his retirement savings there, but he said, “We’re getting no information.”

Officers continued to monitor the situation, according to Nowaczyk, the police spokesperson. He continued, “We’re still on site and keeping an eye on things,” adding that “the situation has significantly calmed down.”

The bank stated that it would write to affected customers as soon as possible and had set up a hotline. Additionally, it stated that it would be collaborating with insurers to determine the manner in which compensation claims would be handled.

“We’re shocked,” said Frank Krallmann, a bank press representative. We are assisting our customers and awaiting the arrest of the perpetrators.

The suspects are still at large, according to police, and investigations are ongoing.

On Wednesday, December 31st, what is the current situation:

Fighting

• One person was killed when Russian forces shelled the Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, according to a source. According to the Ukrinform news agency, the deadly attack occurred one day after another person was killed and four were hurt in a Druzhkivka attack.
• Two Panama-flagged civilian vessels, Emmakris III and Captain Karam, were attacked as they approached the Black Sea ports of Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk in the Odesa region of Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian navy, who also launched numerous attacks.
• Oil storage tanks were also targeted in the port attacks, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba.
• Authorities in the northern Chernihiv region of Ukraine issued a mandated evacuation order to residents of 14 border villages spread across four districts. According to an official, the order will affect about 300 residents who still reside in the communities of Novhorod-Siverskyi, Semenivka, Snovsk, and Horodnya, which have been experiencing daily shelling.
• According to the deputy minister of energy of Ukraine, Olha Yukhymchuk, 75 000 Chernihiv households are still without electricity as a result of Russian attacks on the region’s energy infrastructure. She noted that there were also settlements in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions that were completely or partially without electricity.
• In addition, Yukhymchuk added that repair work has been done on transmission lines close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to ensure “stable and reliable power supply to the station in the event of damage or shut down of the Dniprovska overhead line as a result of” Russian shelling.
• In eastern Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense announced that it had taken control of two more settlements. They were identified as Bohuslavka in the Kharkiv region and Lukianivske, a village in the Zaporizhia region.
• Russian authorities claimed that a Ukrainian drone attack on a residential area of the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse damaged port infrastructure and a gas pipeline. No injuries were reported, according to the regional administration.
• A woman was killed and four others were hurt in other Ukrainian drone attacks on Belgorod, according to local authorities.

allegedly an attack on Putin’s residence

Russia will “toughen” its negotiating position in discussions over a resolution to end the conflict in Ukraine as a “diplomatic consequence” of an alleged drone attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Novgorod residence on Sunday, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
• Peskov claimed that the attack, which Ukraine denies, was intended to scuttle the peace talks and that the media in the West were complicit in Kyiv’s denial.
• The Russian claim has been refuted by Ukraine as lies intended to justify further attacks on Kyiv and prolong the conflict.
• Andrii Sybiha, the foreign affairs minister in Ukraine, claimed that Russia had not provided any believable proof of its accusations. “And they won’t,” he said. since there isn’t. On X, Sybiha claimed that no such attack took place.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, criticized nations that have condemned the alleged attack, including India and the United Arab Emirates, saying it “didn’t even happen.” The movements were described as “confusing and unpleasant.”
• When China was asked about the alleged attack on Putin’s residence, China claimed that “dialogue and negotiation” are the only “viable way out of the Ukraine crisis.”
• According to Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “relevant parties must adhere to the principles of no expansion of the battlefield, no escalation of fighting, and no provocation by any party,” to work toward de-escalation and “accumulate the conditions for the political settlement of the crisis.”
• The “pattern of observed evidence,” which is typically seen “when Ukrainian forces launch strikes into Russia,” was found by analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, DC.
• Matthew Whitaker, the US ambassador to NATO, questioned the accusations made by Russia and said he would like to see US intelligence on the incident. Whitaker told Varney &amp, Co. on Fox Business, “It is unclear whether it actually happened.”
• The German government expressed concern for Ukraine that Russian claims of the attack could be used as a pretext for a further escalation of Moscow’s conflict.

Diplomacy

• Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine and the Willing group of nations, which are supporting Kyiv, intend to hold their upcoming meetings at the beginning of January. According to Zellenskyy, the nations’ national security advisers will meet in Ukraine on January 3 and with French leaders on January 6.
• Additionally, he added that Kyiv and US President Donald Trump were discussing possible US troops presence in Ukraine as part of security arrangements.
• We are, of course, discussing this with President Trump and with members of the [Western] coalition that support Kyiv. This is what we desire. This is what we want. The president of Ukraine said that would be a strong security guarantee.
• According to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, there is reason to believe that Ukraine will soon experience peace. Peace is on the horizon, he said, “There is no denying that there is reason to believe that this war will end, and quite quickly,” but there is still a chance, far from 100% certain.
• Tusk claimed Kyiv’s security guarantees were a sign that the US was willing to put an end to the conflict, but that Kyiv would need to make a compromise on territorial issues.
• According to the US Treasury Department, the US lifted sanctions on Alexandra Buriko, the former head of Sberbank, the country’s state-owned bank.
• Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a group of senior executives and board members resigned from Western-approved Sberbank. In a federal court in Washington in December 2024, she claimed that her continued inclusion on the sanctioned list was unlawful because she had ties to Sberbank cut short after it was sanctioned.

Weapons

Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the country would contribute 50 million euros ($58 million) to the Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PRURL), a European initiative to purchase weapons from US companies for Ukraine.
• Belarusian authorities said in a video that the Russian hypersonic Oreshnik missile system, which it claimed would be, was being deployed on its territory to improve Moscow’s ability to strike targets across Europe in the event of a war.

EXCLUSIVE

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the president of Somalia, claimed that the recognition of Somaliland by Israel may have an impact on Gaza’s Palestinians.

No country in the world has recognized the secession issue, Mohamud said in an exclusive interview from Istanbul, Turkiye, on Tuesday. “Somaliland has been claiming it for a long time, over the past three decades.

The Somali leader continued, “We’ve been trying to bring the country back together in a peaceful manner.” So it was unexpected and strange that Israel suddenly intervened and declared, “We recognize Somaliland,” after 34 years.

Israel became the first and only nation to formally recognize Somaliland, a separatist region in northwest Somalia that borders the Gulf of Aden, as of last week.

According to Somali intelligence, the country has accepted three Israeli demands in exchange for Israeli recognition, including the establishment of an Israeli military base off the Gulf of Aden and the signing of the Abraham Accords. A series of pacts that restore normalcy between Israel and several Arab nations are the subject of the agreements. The agreements have been signed by the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.

Mohamud added that Somalia has intelligence that indicates that Israel is already operating in the area and that its recognition of the region is merely a covert normalization of what was already happening.

The Somali leader said that Israel will use force to force Palestinians to relocate to Somalia and that its presence there is not peaceful.

Prior to a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the administration of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan stated that “no one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who want to do so will be free to do so and to return.”

Israel has reportedly continued to look for ways to evacuate Palestinians from the besieged and occupied territory, including through enigmatic flights to South Africa, which has formally accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.

According to Mohamud, Israel is also attempting to control strategically significant waterways that connect crucial commercial and economic-critical seas, such as the Red Sea, Gulf, and Gulf of Aden.

The leaders of the Somalia and Turkey both warned that Israel’s recognition of the breakaway region might lead to agissent in the Horn of Africa during a press conference in Turkiye on Tuesday.

Before Israel changed its position last Friday, Somaliland officially proclaimed independence from Somalia in 1991 but had failed to do so with any other member states.

At a Monday emergency meeting in New York, members of the UN Security Council swiftly condemned Israel’s action.

According to authorities, Disney has agreed to pay $ 10 million to settle claims that it broke child privacy laws in the US.

According to the Department of Justice, the settlement was approved by a federal court on Tuesday in response to allegations made by the US Federal Trade Commission.

Disney is also required to establish a program to ensure future compliance with the order, as well as operate its YouTube channel in accordance with data-protection regulations.

The US antitrust watchdog filed a lawsuit in September, and Disney agreed to pay the costs.

According to the allegations, Disney allegedly collected children’s personal data without parental consent through its YouTube videos.

More than 300 YouTube videos, including those from The Incredibles, Toy Story, Frozen, and Mickey Mouse, were allegedly misclassified as not being directed at children, according to antitrust officials.

According to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, YouTube requires content creators to designate videos as “Made for Kids” or “Not Made for Kids.”

Companies in the US are prohibited from collecting data from children under the age of 13 without parental consent under the new rule.

Google and Microsoft are two other notable businesses that have settled claims under the rule, which has been amended numerous times since its enactment in 2000.

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate, “The Justice Department is firmly committed to ensuring parents have a say in how their children’s information is collected and used.”

The Department will take immediate action to find any unwarranted violations of parents’ privacy rights.