BERLIN (AP) — Local officials with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party rejected a bid to expel former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder over his close ties to Russia, the news agency dpa reported Monday. An arbitration committee of the center-left Social Democrats’ branch in Hannover, where Schroeder lives, considered 17 applications from party members for proceedings against him. Schroeder’s longstanding connections to the Russian energy sector and refusal to distance himself fully from President Vladimir Putin after Russia invaded Ukraine have left his political standing in tatters.