Samoa PM apologises after Nazi salute video emerges

Samoa’s Prime Minister La’auli Leuatea Schmidt has apologised after previously unseen video showed him leading a Nazi salute and saying “Heil Hitler” at a family gathering. Schmidt issued the apology on Monday after the Samoa Observer, a local newspaper, published the seven-second clip the previous day. The footage was recorded at a Schmidt family reunion on the island of Savai‘i in July 2007, when he was an MP and deputy speaker of parliament. In the video, Schmidt is holding a microphone as he leads a “hip hip” exchange with the group before telling those present to raise their right hands and say “Heil Hitler”. About a dozen people visible in the footage appear to follow him.