Mbappe, PSG Coach Face Backlash for Laughing off Private Jet Question

05 September 2022, France, Saint-Germain-En-Laye: Paris Saint-Germain coach Christophe Galtier attends a press conference at Ooredoo Center ahead of Tuesday's UEFA Champions League Group H soccer match against Juventus. (dpa)
05 September 2022, France, Saint-Germain-En-Laye: Paris Saint-Germain coach Christophe Galtier attends a press conference at Ooredoo Center ahead of Tuesday's UEFA Champions League Group H soccer match against Juventus. (dpa)
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Mbappe, PSG Coach Face Backlash for Laughing off Private Jet Question

05 September 2022, France, Saint-Germain-En-Laye: Paris Saint-Germain coach Christophe Galtier attends a press conference at Ooredoo Center ahead of Tuesday's UEFA Champions League Group H soccer match against Juventus. (dpa)
05 September 2022, France, Saint-Germain-En-Laye: Paris Saint-Germain coach Christophe Galtier attends a press conference at Ooredoo Center ahead of Tuesday's UEFA Champions League Group H soccer match against Juventus. (dpa)

Paris St Germain coach Christophe Galtier and striker Kylian Mbappe were facing a backlash on Tuesday for laughing off a question about why the team took a private jet for a short trip to a game in Nantes at the weekend.

"Are you serious, responding like this???," Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted. "Wake up guys???"

Quizzed on PSG's jet trip to Nantes at a news conference on Monday, Galtier and Mbappe looked at each other and the World Cup winner burst out laughing as his coach responded with a quip.

"This morning we talked about it with the company which organizes our trips and we're looking into travelling on sand yachts," Galtier said. Asked for his views on the matter, Mbappe said he did not have any.

A video of their comments immediately went viral, triggering angry responses from social media users, environmentalists and ministers.

Photoshopped memes of Mbappe and Galtier on sand yachts could be seen across social media and the controversy occupied the top three tending topics on Twitter in France on Tuesday.

"I love Mbappe, we can all have the giggles at the least opportune moment and it really was the least opportune moment," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told BFM TV on Tuesday.

"But we all have to take climate change seriously," he said, adding that Galtier's irony had been "out of place".

PSG were not immediately available for comment.

Nantes is about two hours by high-speed train from Paris.

The use of private jets has been a much-discussed topic both in France and globally this summer, with social media users tracking - and criticizing - their use amid a series of heatwaves, droughts and floods triggered by climate change.

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday told a news conference that "everyone has to do their bit" to fight climate change.



Japan Launches Climate Change Monitoring Satellite

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H2A rocket is seen at the lauch pad before its 50th and final launch at Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, 28 June 2025. EPA/JIJI PRE/JIJI PRESS
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H2A rocket is seen at the lauch pad before its 50th and final launch at Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, 28 June 2025. EPA/JIJI PRE/JIJI PRESS
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Japan Launches Climate Change Monitoring Satellite

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H2A rocket is seen at the lauch pad before its 50th and final launch at Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, 28 June 2025. EPA/JIJI PRE/JIJI PRESS
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H2A rocket is seen at the lauch pad before its 50th and final launch at Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, 28 June 2025. EPA/JIJI PRE/JIJI PRESS

Japan on Sunday launched a satellite monitoring greenhouse gas emissions using its longtime mainstay H-2A rocket, which made its final flight before it is replaced by a new flagship designed to be more cost competitive in the global space market.

The H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan, carrying the GOSAT-GW satellite as part of Tokyo’s effort to mitigate climate change.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which operates the rocket launch, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will hold a news conference later Sunday to give further details of the flight.

Sunday's launch marked the 50th and final flight for the H-2A, which has served as Japan’s mainstay rocket to carry satellites and probes into space with near-perfect record since its 2001 debut. After its retirement, it will be fully replaced by the H3, which is already in operation, as Japan's new main flagship, The Associated Press reported.

The launch follows several days of delay due to malfunctioning in the rocket’s electrical systems.

The GOSAT-GW, or Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle, is a third series in the mission to monitor carbon, methane and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.

Japan sees a stable, commercially competitive space transport capability as key to its space program and national security, and has been developing two new flagship rockets as successors of the H-2A series — the larger H3 with Mitsubishi, and a much smaller Epsilon system with the aerospace unit of the heavy machinery maker IHI. It hopes to cater to diverse customer needs and improve its position in the growing satellite launch market.