WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Samoa’s Prime Minister Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt apologized Monday for a video from 19 years earlier in which he said “Heil Hitler” and made a Nazi gesture during what he described as a family gathering.
His statement published on the government's Facebook page came a day after the Samoa Observer newspaper made public for the first time the existence and content of a seven-second clip that the outlet said was filmed at a Schmidt family reunion in Samoa in July 2007.
In a screenshot from the video, Schmidt holds a microphone in one hand with the other arm lifted, surrounded by others making the same gesture.
The newspaper reported Schmidt was heard saying into the microphone, “Raise your right hand, Heil Hitler!”
Schmidt, who was the deputy speaker of Samoa's Parliament in 2007, didn't dispute the report. He has led the South Pacific island nation of 220,000 people since winning an August 2025 election.
“I recognise that those words and gesture were inappropriate and capable of causing offence and hurt and I apologise for using them,” he said Monday. He added that the video was filmed “at a private family gathering — not intended for the public.”
He rejected “Nazism, antisemitism, racism and all forms of political extremism,” the statement said.
What happened immediately before and after the moment depicted was unknown, the newspaper said, and Schmidt's statement didn't explain further.
The episode unfolded as Pacific media groups decried Schmidt's ongoing rancor against the Observer, which has been barred from covering his and other government news conferences and events since November, when Schmidt accused the newspaper of misleading coverage.
On Friday, Schmidt confirmed claims that an Observer reporter's photos of him, taken in front of government buildings during an official event, were deleted from their camera by an aide. He defended the move, saying the Observer, Samoa's largest newspaper group, was flouting its prohibition.
The Observer has called his ban “authoritarian.” Pacific media groups have called on the prime minister for a reversal, with the Journalists Association of Samoa saying it was “deeply disturbed” by the photo deletion incident.
Like a number of other leaders of small island nations in the South Pacific Ocean, Schmidt has voiced vehement support for Israel before.
Since September 2023, three Pacific islands, not including Samoa, have been among a handful of countries to follow the United States in opening embassies in the contested city of Jerusalem instead of Tel Aviv, where most diplomatic missions are located.
Analysts attribute support for Israel in the region to deep Christian traditions woven throughout public life. When Schmidt was sworn into office in September 2025, he wore a Jewish prayer shawl during a ceremony that included the blowing of a shofar.
“Samoa will not withdraw from supporting Israel as the country of God’s people,” he told reporters after the event, according to local news outlets.
Samoa’s Prime Minister Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt speaks during the launch of the Pacific Rugby league partnership in Brisbane, Australia on July 8, 2026. (Jason O'Brien/AAP Image via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are holding relatively steady on Monday following the latest yo-yo moves for oil prices.
The S&P 500 ticked up by 0.3% and pulled within 0.7% of its all-time high set during the summer. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 135 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.5% and was on track to set its own record.
The moves were sharper in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of Brent crude swung between $100 and $103 in the morning. It was most recently at $101.94, down 0.3%.
Oil prices have been shaky because of uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global crude industry to return to normal. That in turn has helped push up yields in the bond market, and the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield edged up to 5.29% from 5.28% late Friday. It’s near its highest level since 2002.
High yields can slow the economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, while also making investors feel less willing to pay high prices for stocks and other investments.
Another factor that's been pushing up yields is the strength of the U.S. economy, which grew during the spring because of continued spending by businesses on AI data centers. U.S. consumers also keep spending and driving the economy, even though they say they're getting more frustrated by the high inflation that's squeezing their finances.
A report on Monday gave a mixed update on the strength of the U.S. economy. It said that activity for real estate, transportation, finance and other businesses in the services industries grew in September for a 27th straight month. But the growth was not quite as strong as economists expected.
The report from the Institute for Supply Management also said that prices U.S. services businesses are paying for materials and services grew at a faster rate, which could be a discouraging signal for upcoming inflation for everyone.
The general expectation on Wall Street is that the Federal Reserve will hike its main interest rate at least once by the end of the year in hopes of reining in the fast increases for the cost of living. The Fed raised its federal funds rate last month for the first time in three years.
On Wall Street, a couple buyout announcements helped support stocks.
RXO jumped 22.5% after C.H. Robinson Worldwide said it would buy the truck brokerage business in a deal where RXO investors could get $30.25 in cash for each of their shares. C.H. Robinson fell 11.9% for the largest loss in the S&P 500.
PTC leaped 34.9% for the biggest gain in the index after Schneider Electric of France said it would pay $205 in cash for each of the software company’s shares in a deal valuing it at about $22.6 billion.
In stock markets abroad, France’s CAC 40 fell 1.1% for one of the world’s bigger losses. Worries have been rising about the French government’s big debt and its strained budget.
On the winning side of the globe was Japan, where Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4% on strength for technology stocks.
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.
FILE - The New York Stock Exchange is shown in New York's Financial District on Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
FILE - Signs mark the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway in New York's Financial District on Wednesday Dec.11, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
