GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) — Thieves stole tens of millions of euros’ worth of property from safety deposit boxes inside a German bank vault that they drilled into Monday during the holiday lull, police said.

Related Articles

What to know about the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 as the search resumes

Asia rings in 2026 and Australia is defiant after its worst mass shooting

Today in History: December 31, Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigns

Nearly 25 Islamic State fighters killed or captured in Syria, US military says

US commits $480M in health funding to Ivory Coast, the latest to sign ‘America First’ health deals

Some 2,700 bank customers were affected by the theft in Gelsenkirchen, police and the Sparkasse bank said. About 3,000 safety deposit boxes, which made up more than 95% of the bank’s inventory, were broken into.

Thomas Nowaczyk, a police spokesperson, said investigators believe the theft was worth between 10 million and 90 million euros ($11.7 million to $105.7 million).

German news agency dpa reported that the theft could be one of Germany’s largest.

The bank remained closed Tuesday, when some 200 people showed up demanding to get inside, dpa reported.

Each safety deposit box is insured for 10,300 euros ($12,088) unless a bank customer additionally insures it privately, Sparkasse said on its website.

This picture, provided by the Gelsenkirchen Police on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025 shows a hole in a wall of the savings bank branch in the Buer district in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (Police Gelsenkirchen via AP)

A fire alarm summoned police officers and firefighters to the bank branch shortly before 4 a.m. Monday. They found a hole in the wall and the vault ransacked. Police believe a large drill was used to break through the vault’s basement wall.

Witnesses told investigators they saw several men carrying large bags in a nearby parking garage over the weekend. Video footage from the garage shows masked people inside a stolen vehicle early Monday, police said.

The fire alarm was also triggered Saturday but authorities did not find any damage.

Gelsenkirchen is about 192 kilometers northwest of Frankfurt.

Minnesota Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson is the latest state lawmaker to call for Gov. Tim Walz to resign as fraud investigations and allegations receive increasing attention.

“I think it would be best for him to resign,” Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, told Forum News Service earlier this week. “Will he do that? I don’t know. I mean, we haven’t seen any Democrats in either the House or the Senate call for his resignation. Which, to me, is a little bit disappointing as well, too, because they gotta recognize the issues that we’re facing here in Minnesota, and that’s a significant part of it.”

Johnson joins five lawmakers who on Monday sent out a joint call for Walz to resign: Sen. Bill Lieske, R-Lonsdale; Sen. Nathan Wesenberg, R-Little Falls; Rep. Marj Fogelman, R-Fulda; Rep. Drew Roach, R-Farmington, and Rep. Mike Wiener, R-Long Prairie.

Johnson said that in the private sector, any CEO or head of a company would be held accountable in a similar situation.

“You’re seeing the same thing here. If he’s going to be the executive of this branch — we see all the fraud that’s going on throughout that — I think it is time for the governor to really realize his role in that and take responsibility,” Johnson said of Walz.

Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, was less committal during a Monday news conference when asked about calls for Walz to resign.

“Taxpayers are fed up with this. They’re frustrated. We watched our state budget explode. We watched all of our taxes and fees go up, and Minnesota taxpayers across the state are done with funding fraud,” said Demuth, who is campaigning for the Republican nomination for governor. “That’s a frustration that we are hearing from across the state, and as you saw in the letter (from the five Republican lawmakers) today.”

It’s not the first time Minnesota Republicans have asked Walz to resign. After the 2020 murder of George Floyd sparked rioting and arson, they called for the governor and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to resign.

YouTube video

On Friday, Nick Shirley, a right-wing YouTuber, posted a video alleging millions of dollars of fraud at some of Minnesota’s day care centers. The video has received 2.2 million views on his YouTube channel and 128 million on X, and prompted responses from Vice President JD Vance and FBI Director Kash Patel.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said Tuesday that the federal government has frozen all child care payments to Minnesota as a result. Walz responded to that move on X on Tuesday and said President Donald Trump is “politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”

In response to the claims in the video, Tikki Brown, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families, said Monday her employees have conducted unannounced on-site visits and have seen children at the centers seen in the video.

Brown said several of the centers have been investigated and “none of those investigations uncovered findings of fraud.”

Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said Demuth’s recent statement that the state GOP directed Shirley to Minnesota indicates their party places political gain over solutions.

“Republicans are playing sick games and winning devastating prizes,” Murphy said, in a statement Wednesday. “Sending a YouTuber to drive around demanding that he gets to see children isn’t an investigation; it’s creepy. And now, tens of thousands of Minnesota families will pay the price as Donald’s Trump’s agents strip away crucial funding. Our daycare system is already stressed; this reckless decision could force a collapse that affects all of us.

Murphy also said Republican lawmakers with the House fraud committee are withholding whistler blower tips from investigators.

“They care more about viral tweets and being featured on Fox News than they do about Minnesotans. DFLers will continue to work to actually stop and prevent fraud, and protect the necessary services that Minnesotans rely on,” she said.

Walz spokesperson: ‘Governor has been combating fraud for years’

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Walz said “the governor has been combating this for years and, before the viral video, had already referred these cases to law enforcement.”

“He has asked the state Legislature for more authority to take aggressive action,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities. He has hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.”

House Leader Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, echoed Johnson’s comments but also did not directly call for a resignation.

“In any organization, any company, anyone who oversaw the kind of failure that the chief executive of the state has overseen — those in charge find a way to get rid of that leader,” Niska said.

“If Gov. Walz resigns, the next person up for the job is the person who has been by his side throughout this entire failed administration as well. So it may ultimately be up to the people of Minnesota to fire Gov. Walz at the ballot box in November of 2026,” he added.

In a December interview with Forum News Service, Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, said she had “no comment” on whether Walz should resign or drop out of the campaign.

Johnson said the call for a resignation is not because there is evidence that the governor is criminally guilty of anything.

“What I think the problem is, is he’s allowed a system to develop that has almost encouraged or become so well known throughout the country and the world, that you come to Minnesota and you can walk out with bags of cash,” Johnson said. “Creating that atmosphere, that environment, is not something that we expect for good government. And so if that’s how he’s running it, I just don’t think that he should be.”

Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College in Northfield, told Forum News Service in December he thinks a Walz resignation would not be “a good look” and would “lead to suspicions of culpability or guilt.”

Related Articles

Strip citizenship, deport fraudsters? UMN professor says process lengthy, up to courts

Trump administration says it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota after series of fraud schemes

MN paid leave applications open early statewide. Here’s how to apply.

Surge in federal officers in Minnesota focuses on alleged fraud at day care centers

Video alleging fraud in MN draws federal response; state casts doubt on it

Schier also weighed in on whether Walz could drop out of the campaign.

“I think the future of Tim Walz, his political career, will be determined by his own party,” Schier said. “If they stand by him, he will be the candidate in November of 2026. If there is internal division and concern about whether he should continue, either in office or as a 2026 candidate, then he’s got serious problems, but Republicans calling for him to resign is not going to determine his electoral or governing fate.”

Gold medal contender against gold medal contender.

A team looking for its first IIHF World Junior Championship gold in 14 years, facing the two-time defending gold medalists, on their home ice.

It’s Sweden against the United States, New Year’s Eve in the State of Hockey, with first place in Group A of the 2026 World Juniors at stake.

“We’ve been looking forward to this game for a long time,” Swedish forward Wilson Bjorck said after his team’s 8-1 Group A win against Germany on Monday afternoon at Grand Casino Arena. “We know the arena will be packed and the atmosphere in it will be crazy.

“It’s a really good game to look forward to.”

The teams meet this evening at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul. Puck drop is set for 5 p.m.

“I know all the players are excited, but as a coach, to be in the environment that we’re expecting here on New Year’s Eve, I think it could be great. I mean, I really do,” said U.S. head coach Bob Motzko, who has coached in many college hockey conference and NCAA regional tournaments in Grand Casino Arena, formerly the Xcel Energy Center.

“I’ve been in this building when it, when you get — you know — the old tournament (WCHA Final Five) that used to be in here, and the Frozen Fours that have been in here … this state, there’s going to be some juice in this building, for sure.”

Both teams bring 3-0-0 records into the final game of group play. Sweden has defeated Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany by a combined score of 15-5. The U.S. has defeated those same teams by a combined 14-9, including a down-to-the-wire 6-5 win against Slovakia on Monday night.

“It’s good. It’s going to be a good, good hockey game,” said U.S. forward Ryker Lee, a Michigan State freshman who scored the first U.S. power-play goal of the tournament, against Slovakia. “It’s going to be a dog fight again. Every game in this tournament has been super close, super competitive.

“They’re super skilled and play together really well.”

Regardless of Wednesday’s outcome, both teams know when and where they’ll play in Friday’s WJC quarterfinals. The only question remaining is who each team will play. Wednesday’s winner will be the No. 1 seed out of Group A, and will face the No. 4 seed from Group B — either Latvia or Denmark — which is a more favorable matchup than the likely No. 3 seed from Group B, Czechia.

Sweden will play Friday’s first quarterfinal game, at 1 p.m. at Grand Casino Arena. The U.S. will play the day’s third quarterfinal game, at 5 p.m, also at GCA. Canada, which will be the No. 1 or 2 seed out of Group B, will play Friday’s last quarterfinal game, at 7:30 p.m. at 3M Arena at Mariucci, in Minneapolis.

“I’d like it, bu the importance right now is how we’re playing,” Motzko said when asked the importance of earning the No. 1 seed. “Who knows who you play after (the U.S.-Sweden game)? For us, it’s all about how we play and continuing that. I’d like to get the number one seed. But more important, I want to know how we’re going to play.”

The last time the U.S. and Sweden met in the World Juniors was in the 2024 gold medal game, when the Americans blasted the Swedes 6-2 on their home ice in Gothenburg. A year before that, the U.S. prevented Sweden from earning a medal, beating it 8-7 in a high-scoring bronze-medal game in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

“They obviously beat us in the finals two years ago on our home soil, so I think it’s our turn to beat them on theirs,” said Swedish defenseman Sascha Boumedienne, who is a sophomore at Boston University, where he is teammates with U.S. forward Cole Eiserman and defenseman Cole Hutson. “We have a great team, and I feel like we have a big chance to beat them.”

When asked how high the motivation is for Sweden to win on Wednesday, Boumedienne replied: “It’s high. It’s very high.”

Related Articles

Gophers won’t retain special teams coach Bob Ligashesky

Men’s basketball: Gophers defeat Fairleigh Dickinson

Women’s basketball: Amaya Battle leads Gophers in rout at Indiana

World Juniors: Injured U.S. D Cole Hutson back with team

World Junior Hockey Championship games will play as scheduled today

By JAMES POLLARD

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission wants to turn America’s 250th birthday celebration into the country’s single biggest year for volunteering.

But America Gives, the program unveiled Wednesday just before the U.S. begins commemorating the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, will have to revitalize a culture of service that has recently waned. Declining volunteering rates still haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. Just 28% of Americans said they volunteered time to a religious or secular charitable organization this year, according to a December AP-NORC poll.

Organizers don’t know how many service hours they need to set the record and aren’t targeting a specific number. The idea is to leverage nationwide reflections on the country’s direction to encourage lasting community involvement that will strengthen nonprofits’ volunteer pipelines beyond 2026. Funding comes from congressional appropriations as well as corporate sponsors including Walmart and Coca-Cola.

Participants are invited to pledge their time and log volunteering on an online tracker. Nonprofit partners include Girl Scouts of the USA, which will offer a volunteering badge to any of its roughly 1 million youth members who complete a service project, and Keep America Beautiful, which is leading efforts to clean up 250 million pieces of trash by the Fourth of July. JustServe — a service project coordinator sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — is sending 250 semitrucks to deliver food donations to 250 food banks across the 50 states.

“We strongly believe that this is as much about the future as it is the past,” said America250 Chair Rosie Rios, who oversees the nonpartisan commission created by Congress to organize the anniversary. “Especially this next generation, we want them to give them something to believe in.”

FILE – America250 chair Rosie Rios speaks during an event to mark the launch of the “Our American Story” oral and visual history project ahead of the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026, on the National Mall, Monday, July 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein,File)

Connection and accessibility for young volunteers

That forward-focused goal requires courting a demographic that many nonprofits struggle to reach: young volunteers.

About one-quarter of adults under 30 said they volunteered their time to charity or provided non-financial support to people in their community in the past year, according to a March AP-NORC poll, compared with 36% of those over 60.

Rios said America Gives is working with high schools, many of which already list community service as a graduation requirement, to ensure those volunteering hours are logged and build giving habits that continue after students’ secondary education.

“They’re very passionate. They’re very purpose driven. They do want to give back,” Rios said, adding that “inspiring them to not just visualize, but maybe fuel their own future, is a big priority for us.”

Related Articles

Flu is rising rapidly, driven by a new variant. Here’s what to know

New Year’s Day: What’s open? Retailers. What’s closed? Government and Banks

Wall Street is slipping in light trading on the final day of 2025

US applications for jobless benefits fell below 200,000 last week with layoffs historically low

Today in History: December 31, Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigns

Service could be an opportunity to meet younger generations’ desire for in-person connections. Sofia Alvarez — a cohort lead for the Youth250 Bureau, a separate effort to center Gen Z perspectives throughout next year’s programming — said young people want “third spaces.” That means somewhere outside of home, school or work that feels “safe,” she said, but doesn’t require spending money.

“I think any sort of craft or activity that really helps people connect, where they can chit chat and bond with each other, really builds that sense of community,” Alvarez said.

Sarah Keating, vice president of Girl and Volunteer Experience at Girl Scouts of the USA, said they’ve had to make their volunteer opportunities more manageable.

Young people want to give back, Keating said, but they are busy and don’t know how. She said nonprofits must offer experiences “that match their lives.” Someone might not have time to lead an entire troop, for example, but they can help lead a specific badge program.

“A campaign like this shines a light on the multitude of ways that you can volunteer — that it doesn’t have to be whatever stereotype you have in your head,” she said of America Gives. “There are small ways to volunteer. There are big ways to volunteer.”

Building bridges — and habits of giving back

The patriotic appeal must also overcome extreme polarization and the slow erosion of national pride — trends that America Gives organizers believe they can counter with their call to action.

Acknowledging political divisions, Rios said the commission’s research shows that most Americans want to bring back a spirit of volunteerism.

“It is about one country,” she said. “I think there’s gonna be a lot of people who feel like now, more than ever, we all need to stand up.”

Keep America Beautiful CEO Jennifer Lawson expects her nationwide nonprofit network to unify people around the bridge issue of litter. Her benchmark next year is to reach 4 million volunteers through local chapters devoted to cleaning up their communities, planting trees and making gardens.

Lawson wants the volunteer opportunities to show people patriotism is an action — not a concept — that involves working with your neighbors.

“It doesn’t have to be all flags and tricornered hats,” Lawson said. “Patriotism in this country is an act of giving into community.”

America Gives will engage volunteers beyond July 4th in an attempt to build up the habit of giving back. Volunteers who register their service hours can enter a sweepstakes where 250 randomly selected winners will get to donate $4,000 to an approved nonprofit partner.

The program also plans to rally people around the national days of service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and 9/11. The year-round goal will be to keep things as local as possible.

“It should be on people’s minds all the time, not just the day that they’re doing service,” Rios said. “But how do they plan ahead to keep it going?

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.