By Rachel More and Matthias Williams

BERLIN — A senior figure in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party became the latest target in a string of attacks on German politicians when a man struck her from behind with a bag containing a hard object in a Berlin library, officials said on Wednesday.

Berlin senator and former city mayor Franziska Giffey was slightly injured and taken to hospital for a short time to treat the pain.

A 74-year-old suspect, who was previously known to police for hate crime and unspecified incidents against state security, has been detained, police said, adding the suspect was also believed to have mental health issues.

The attack on Tuesday coincided with an emergency meeting of state ministers calling for greater police protection of politicians after a rising number of verbal and physical assaults ahead of European and local elections this year.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was in the German capital attending a party conference, said perpetrators must face the full force of the law.

“We must protect all those who stand up for our democratic society and our country from attacks – no matter what party they belong to,” she said.

“If these people are no longer safe, then our democracy is no longer safe either.”

On the same day in a separate incident, two people were arrested in the city of Dresden after a member of the Greens party was shoved and spat at while putting up campaign posters, two of which were torn down, police said.

Earlier the two suspects were seen in a group of people nearby and were heard shouting Hitler salutes, police said.

Video from the DW broadcaster, which filmed the incident, showed two people in black hooded casual wear confronting the Greens team.

“The perpetrators wanted to publicly declare their own district a no-go area for the Greens,” a Greens party spokesperson said in a statement.

“Their slavering hatred and ruthlessness in front of the camera are repulsive and shocking.”

‘THIS IS MY CITY’

Giffey condemned a “fair game culture” targeting politicians but in televised remarks also warned against walling off elected officials from ordinary citizens.

“I like taking the underground, I like being out and about, I like speaking to people, I like approaching people. And I would like to hold onto this. This is my city,” she said.

The incidents occurred days after another member of Scholz’s Social Democrats, Matthias Ecke, was kicked and beaten while putting up posters in an attack that left him needing surgery.

Prominent members of the Greens, who are in coalition with Scholz’s SPD at federal level, have also faced angry protests this year, when Germany holds a string of state elections against a backdrop of rising support for the far right.

Attacks on politicians have doubled in Germany since the 2019 European Parliament elections, according to government data published in January. The number jumped 53 percent in 2023 alone compared to 2022.

Mainstream politicians have blamed the rising political violence on the resurgence of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who could sweep three state polls this year.

Following the attack on the weekend on Ecke, Saxony premier Michael Kretschmer, a conservative, said such aggression and attempts at intimidation recalled the darkest era of German history, a reference to Nazi rule.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel has said attempts to use the attack on Ecke for political gains were “vile and irresponsible,” and that AfD politicians and members were frequently attacked.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said she would look at tightening the law against political attacks.

The latest incidents coincide with the trial of 27 people over a suspected plot by the far-right Reichsbuerger group to overthrow the government and install military rule.

The group, formed in mid-January 2022, had set itself the goal “of triggering civil war-like conditions in Germany by means of violence” in the hope of overthrowing the government and parliamentary democracy, according to prosecutors.

WASHINGTON — As Donald Trump strengthens his lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, some US allies are worried about an American turn toward isolationism, a shift that would reflect an electorate largely focused on domestic issues.

That was shown in polling in Iowa where Trump scored an overwhelming victory on Monday, with foreign policy the top issue for just one in 10 participants in the state’s caucus, according to a poll by Edison Research.

That compared to four in 10 who said the economy was No. 1 and three in 10 who pointed to immigration.

National polling provides a similar picture. When Americans have cited matters involving foreigners as the country’s top problem, they most often have referred to immigration and not foreign conflicts, Reuters/Ipsos polling over the last decade shows.

In a December Reuters/Ipsos poll, 6% of respondents nationwide said war and foreign conflicts were the US’s most pressing problem, compared to 11% who cited immigration and 19% who pointed to the economy. Ten percent cited crime.

While domestic concerns have long dominated US politics, isolationism has grown in recent years – particularly within the Republican Party – as Trump and other leaders have criticized US aid to help Ukraine fight off Russia’s 2022 invasion, while Trump has warned America could become ensnarled in a world war.

Foreign diplomats in Washington are scrambling to assess the former president’s foreign plans, with Trump aides saying he would cut defense support to Europe, further shrink economic ties with China and again wield tariffs as a key tool of his foreign policy.

They have also expressed worry at congressional Republicans’ opposition to Democratic President Joe Biden’s request for more funds for Ukraine, for Israel in its conflict with Hamas and for Taiwan as it faces a more assertive China. The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives in November passed an Israel aid package that would offset that spending with cuts to the federal tax-collection agency, an idea the Democratic-majority Senate has rebuffed.

“Trump has been instrumental in raising questions about our alliances and our involvement in the world that were pretty much taken for granted,” said Dina Smeltz, a public opinion expert at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

A Chicago Council poll in September found that 53% of Republicans thought the US should “stay out of world affairs,” the first time a majority of either party backed such an isolationist stance in the council’s polls going back to 1974.

NATO SKEPTICISM

If elected to a second term following his 2017-2021 presidency, Trump is expected to install loyalists in key positions in the Pentagon, State Department and CIA whose primary allegiance would be to him, allowing him more freedom to enact isolationist policies.

Thierry Breton, a French commissioner who is responsible for the European Union’s internal market, said earlier this month that in 2020 then-president Trump told top European officials the United States would never help Europe if it came under attack, and that Washington would withdraw from its NATO military alliance with European countries and Canada.

It is not just Republican lawmakers who are skeptical about aid for allies. Republican respondents to a January Reuters/Ipsos poll showed a similar view with one in three backing sending weapons to Ukraine, and just one in five when respondents were asked whether they support providing Ukraine with both weapons and money.

Nearly half of Republicans supported sending weapons to Israel. The level of support was slightly lower for both money and weapons.

Some of those closest to the United States have also expressed concerns about the prospect of another Trump presidency, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying on Tuesday: “It wasn’t easy the first time and if there is a second time, it won’t be easy either.”

NEW DELHI. — Deeper and more entrenched divisions over Russia’s war in Ukraine risk derailing progress on issues such as food security, debt distress and global cooperation on climate change when the world’s most powerful nations meet this weekend in New Delhi.

The hardened stance on the war has prevented agreement on even a single communique at the 20 or so ministerial meetings of the G20 during India’s presidency this year, leaving it to the leaders to find a way around, if possible.

But China will be represented by Premier Li Qiang, not President Xi Jinping, while Russia has confirmed President Vladimir Putin’s absence, suggesting that neither nation is likely to join any consensus.

That means the two-day summit from September 9 will be dominated by the West and its allies. The G20 leaders who will attend include US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman and Japan’s Fumio Kishida.

A failed summit would expose the limits of cooperation between Western and non-Western powers, and prompt countries to double down on the groups they are more comfortable with, analysts said.

To tackle global threats “breaking off into Western and non-Western blocs isn’t what you want,” said Michael Kugelman, the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington.

Failing to forge a consensus will also hurt the diplomatic credentials of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is using the presidency to bolster New Delhi’s position as an economic powerhouse and a leader of the global south.

“If the leaders’ summit is a flop, New Delhi and especially Modi will have suffered a major diplomatic, and political, setback,” Kugelman said.

India, which has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, will have to either convince the bloc to agree to a joint statement – the so-called Leaders Declaration – or allow its presidency to be the first to end without such a communique since 2008.

“The positions have hardened since the Bali Summit,” a senior Indian government official told Reuters, referring to the 2022 summit held in Indonesia. “Russia and China have toughened their position since then, a consensus would be very hard.”

Last minute

In Bali, Indonesian President Joko Widodo clinched a last-minute joint statement from the bloc. India is hoping that the leaders can again work something out at the last minute, another government official said.

The Bali Leaders’ Declaration said “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy.”

It also said that “there were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions.”

Another Indian official said that in Bali, “Russia and China were more flexible.” But as the war completes 18 months, countries “are not agreeing even to the language used in the Bali Declaration.”

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who will come in place of Putin, have already drawn battle lines.

Trudeau, while confirming that he will travel to India for the meeting in a call with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that he was disappointed that the Ukrainian president was not invited.

“As you know, we will be speaking up strongly for you, and we will continue to make sure that the world is standing with Ukraine,” Trudeau said in the call with Zelenskiy.

Lavrov said last week Russia will block the final declaration of the G20 summit unless it reflects Moscow’s position on Kyiv and other crises. Diplomats said any acceptance of Moscow’s stance was highly improbable, and the summit would most likely end up issuing a non-binding or partial communique.

China pushing brics?

Last month, the BRICS group of nations, where China is the heavyweight, added half a dozen more countries to the bloc in a push to reshuffle a world order it sees as outdated.

“Xi’s absence may be Beijing’s attempt to put a nail in the G20’s coffin, only weeks after expanding the BRICS organization which is more aligned with China’s world view,” said David Boling, director at consulting firm Eurasia Group.

India is a member of BRICS, along with Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa, and had some concerns about the bloc’s expansion earlier. But at the summit in Johannesburg last month, it joined a consensus on the criteria for new entrants.

In its G20 presidency, India has sought to relegate the differences over Ukraine to the background and pushed for resolution on climate change, debt for vulnerable countries, rules around cryptocurrencies and multilateral bank reforms.

New Delhi has also attempted to break an impasse over a deal that allowed the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, but Russia is unlikely to budge from its opposition to the plan, Indian officials said.

Over the year, there has been little progress on debt restructuring talks and a minimum global corporate tax, but India has been able to gain support from the U.S. and the IMF for over-arching global regulations on cryptocurrencies.

A G20 committee under former Indian bureaucrat N.K. Singh and economist Larry Summers, a former US treasury secretary, have also proposed increasing lending by multilateral banks to developing countries. The proposal has not been agreed on yet.

KHERSON, Ukraine — A torrent of water burst through a huge dam on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine on Tuesday, flooding a swathe of the war zone and forcing villagers to flee.

Ukraine and its Western allies accused Russia of blowing up the dam in a deliberate war crime. The Kremlin said it was Ukraine that had sabotaged the dam, to distract attention from a counteroffensive Moscow claims is faltering. Some Russian-installed officials said the dam had burst on its own.

Neither side offered immediate public evidence of who was to blame. The Geneva Conventions explicitly ban targeting dams in war, because of the danger to civilians posed by destruction of such “works and installations containing dangerous forces.”

By mid-morning in the city of Kherson on the Ukrainian-held side, a pier on a tributary of the Dnipro had already been submerged by the surge climbing the banks.

“The water level has so far risen one metre,” resident Oleksandr Syomyk told Reuters. “We’ll see what happens next but we hope for the best.”

The Nova Kakhovka dam supplies water to a swathe of southern Ukraine’s agricultural land, including the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, as well as cooling the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The vast reservoir behind it is one of the main geographic features of southern Ukraine, 240 km (150 miles) long and up to 23 km (14 miles) wide.

A swathe of countryside lies in the flood plain below, with villages on the Russian-held southern bank seen as particularly vulnerable.

The destruction of the dam creates a new humanitarian disaster in the centre of the war zone and transforms the front lines just as Ukraine is unleashing a long-awaited counteroffensive to drive Russian troops from its territory.

Russia has controlled the dam since early in the war, although Ukrainian forces recaptured the northern side of the river last year. Both sides had long accused the other of planning to destroy it.

“Russian terrorists. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Russians had “carried out an internal detonation of the structures” of the dam. “About 80 settlements are in the zone of flooding,” he said on Telegram.

NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called it “an outrageous act, which demonstrates once again the brutality of Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular news briefing: “We can state unequivocally that we are talking about deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side.”

“Apparently, this sabotage is also connected with the fact that having started large-scale offensive actions two days ago, now the Ukrainian armed forces are not achieving their goals, these offensive actions are faltering,” he added.

Earlier, Russian-installed officials had given conflicting accounts, some saying the dam had been hit by Ukrainian missiles overnight, others saying it had burst on its own due to earlier damage.

NUCLEAR PLANT

The UN nuclear watchdog said the Zaporizhzhia power plant should have enough water to cool its reactors for “some months” from a separate pond located above the reservoir, and called for the pond to be spared.

The water level at the town immediately adjacent to the breached dam could rise by up to 12 meters, its Russia-installed mayor, Vladimir Leontyev, said on Telegram.

Video showed water surging through the remains of the dam – which is 30 meters (yards) tall and 3.2 km (2 miles) long.

Some 22,000 people living across 14 settlements in Kherson region are at risk of flooding, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted the Moscow-installed head of the region as saying. Kherson is one of five Ukrainian regions Moscow claims to have annexed.

The Russian-installed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said there was a risk that water levels in the North Crimea Canal, which carries fresh water to the peninsula from the Dnipro river, could fall. Crimea, which Russia has held since 2014, had sufficient water reserves for the moment, and the level of risk would become clear in coming days.

The dam breach came as Ukraine prepares its long-awaited counteroffensive to drive Russian forces from its territory, using newly supplied Western tanks and armoured vehicles.

Moscow has said the Ukrainian offensive began on Sunday and has claimed to have repulsed Ukrainian advances.

Kyiv has mostly kept strict silence about it, although Zelenskiy hinted at successes. In an evening address before the dam broke, he hailed “the news we have been waiting for” claiming forward moves around Bakhmut, a ruined city Russia captured earlier this month in its first major claimed victory in nearly a year.

Russia also launched a fresh wave of overnight air strikes on Kyiv. Ukraine said its air defence systems had downed more than 20 cruise missiles on their approach to the capital.

The Shebekino district of Russia’s Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border came under renewed shelling on Tuesday, local authorities said. Anti-government Russian fighters based in Ukraine claim to have infiltrated the area.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year in what the Kremlin expected to be a swift operation, but its forces suffered a series of defeats and regrouped in the country’s east.