prices of secondhand cars have been falling in the past few months. sluggish consumption is not the only culprit. the used car industry is coming up with innovative ways to ride out the storm. >> reporter: rows of cars line in a large lot. this is a storage site of a major used car exporter. some vehicles are headed to zimbabwe and africa while others are bound for the bahamas in the atlantic. but many countries restricted entry to their ports from march to guard against the coronavirus. unable to ship the cars, the company's stock swelled to around 12,000 units by april. according to data from a private research company, roughly 30% of japan's secondhand cars are exported. they have now become surplus stock. domestic consumption is also sluggish. the excess of inventory has led

to an average price drop of nearly $850 per unit. an official at the company says export restrictions had a greater-than-expected impact. >> translator: as evermore countries close their ports, we worried whether we could stay in business. >> reporter: the company decided to try to boost domestic demand. it established an agency to help used car dealers sell their vehicles. agents capture detailed images of the cars using 360-degree cameras and upload them to cloud storage using smart phones. then they post them on the dealer's website.e. inin the past customers had to visit a dealeler to check the car's condition and see bumpsps and scscratches. ththis allows them to see it up close and full, reducing the need for such visits. >> translator: dealers said they were receiving fewer customers. ththis system let's customers he a close look at vehicles as if

they're at the dealership. it allows sales to be made while minimizing physical contact. >> reporter: also increasing in demand are subscription services for usesed cars. this major used car dealer started a domestic subscription service in february. new customers can rent out a car for an entire month for about $280. the pandemic has made many people wary of commuting by public transport. the company says its number of registered users has surgeged five-folold since april. 40% of them are medical workers such as doctors and nurses. they say the service is attractive because it offers personal access for a reasonable price. >> translator:r: users can rent car for just 30 days or keep it longer if needed. the system's flexibility seems to appeal to customers.

>> reporter: the company says the subscription service is also growing popular among small busisiness ownersrs. many p people seem to be findin the flat fee system handydy as they try to control their cash on hand. >> let's get a check on the markets.

and that's it for "newsline" biz, from our tokyo studios, i'm ramin mellegard. thank you very much h for joini s. anchor: celebrations here in france. fewer troops in central paris, fewer guests and this year it's all about paying tribute to health workekers. president macron renews a tradition by giving a live tv

interview. we'll look at how w previous leaders he fared. and the u.s. state of california reimposes restrictions of covid-19 -- as covid-19 cases score and schools in the state's two biggest districts are to go online-only i in the autumn. hello and thanks for joining us. we start with celebrations here in france. claire: this year, as covid-19 continues to claim lives, the ceremony in paris was a smaller affair. no military parade down the street. instead, a gathering on that was losed to the public. ♪ claire: french national anthem

there. reporter: this was a bastille day like no other. the shadow of covid-19 was really cast over this daday. there was no traditional military parade down the world famous avenue. military vehicles and troops instead staged a scaled-down event here in paris' plaz. a military aircraft staged a fly-over, including planes that had been used to transport french covid patients from some of the hardest hit areas of the country at the heightest pandemic. usually this parade attracts large flag-waving crowds but the public had been asked to stay away this year and watch it on television to avoid transmitting the virus. at the height of the pandemic, president macron compared france's fight against covid to a war. and this year's ceremony has paid homage to those at the front lines of that battle. doctors, nurses, hospital staff. they actually have place it's

here and the staff -- places here for foreign dignitaries. selective key workers make up the majority of the 2500 officially invited guests. claire: president macron is reviving the tradition of giving a tv interview from the palace today. we report on past bastille day grillings. reporter: as macron'n's firstt h of july in 2017, he did away with the usual tv interview. but as of tuesday, he'll return to a tradition started in 1968. he wanted to modernize the presidency and do away with formalities. reporter: his socialist successor followed in his foot steps.

it was during one of those interviews that he showed a moment of weakness. reporter: jacques started off with a decidedly statesmanly version which looked more like a press conference than a q&a. befofore going back to the tv interview format where he memorabley dismissed overspspending on travel. reporter: it's also a chchance put potential rivals in their place like in 2004. reporter: or as was tried to do to macron.

reporter: when sarkozy came to power in 2007, he also abandoned the traditional 14th of july interview, but unlike macron, he didn't u u-turn. clclairemomore morore on that,t joined by our international affairs editor. a lot of french people will be looking for answers about the coronavirus pandemic and macron's plan for the last two years of his presidency. reporter: yeah. thiss aa traditional iererview on july ththe 14thth. as we we've been saying, macron decided nonot t to do this in previousus years. he's decided to do it this year for one simple reason. because he needs to bounce back. he's been losing ground in the popolls because e of his handlif the covidid-19 crisis. and essentially any opportunity to try to show the french public that he's back in control is something that he's going to try to use quite obviously. there's already been some

reforms agreed to thee health system in france. but it's far from unanimous. we've got a protest today in republic square in paris. so there are elements within the health care system that believe that the current investment plan falls far short of what is really needed. so even on that, which has already been agreed, there's still dissent. there's certainly no sort of unifying view when it comes to how to get the economy back on track. because we now have this predictive double-digit crax in the french economy and that's really what macron i think is going to be judged on in the next two years. eslings the 600 days left of his -- essentially the 600 days left of his presidency, he'll presumably be trying to get elected from 600 days from now. but really living standards and jobs are the key thing, i think, fofor a lot of french people aso whether they will give him --

they will vote for him again. so i think he'll be probably off quite a bit about how he's going to do -- what he's going to do to try and revive the economy. claire: the economy, unploim. tell us more about what french people will hope to get t out o this intererview, toto find out about. reporter: there's certainly a few areas that interest me. i don't know how much h they'lle talked about.. the climate crisis is something ththat we e obviously can't for despite the apparently more pressing or more visible covid-19 crisis. but you'll remember that green political forces do quite well in the municipal elections. just recently in france. and yet macron has done this turn in a sense to the right to the traditional right by getting allies of former president sarkozy into his government. so that would look like actually a move away from green politics. so it's a bit of a contradiction in a sense.

i think he may well be asked about that sort of turn in this interview. one other thing i would look for and i think probably a lot of people will is also the controversy surrounding at least one, perhaps one could even say two, of his new ministers. of course he just changed the government, former prime minister is out. there's a n new prime minister o is a close former society of the former president, -- associate of the former president, sarkozy. the new interior minister is accused of rape. he hasn't been charged with anything. and the new justice minister has come out with some quite critical comments of the #metoo movement. so a lot of activist associations are saying, well, this makes a mockery of macron's entire -- his whole approach to politics when he came into power , was opening politics up to kind of new forces and not just

the old patriarchal values and old male faces, but actually -- not that they're old in terms of age, but a kind of continuity of a male establishment and, after all, republic on the move was meant to and did actually open things up to more women in politicscs, if you look at the number of m.p.'s that were elected in parliament when macron came to power. i think he will be asked whether he's in a way moving away froro all thatat, by including thehes controversiall ministersrs in h new cabinet. claire: all right. we'll find out shortly. thank you very much. now, it wasn't that long ago that the u.s. state of california was being praised for its response to the coronavirus pandemic. but now it's reintroducing restrictions. the governor ordering all bars to close and all restaurants to stop indoor activities as virus cases soar. reporter: it was the first state

to issue a stay-at-home order in mid march. but despite its early efforts, california has not been able to slow the spread of the coronavirus. the number of new daiaily cases has doubled in the past month. now averaging 8 8,000 aay. prompting governor gavin newsom to order new shutdowns in the following sectorsrs. >> restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, moving -- movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos and museums, card rooms, and the shuhuttering of l bars. this is in every county in the state of california. reporter: meanwhile, in 30 of the states hard -- s state's hardest hit counties, additioiol restrictions will take effect, including the closure of gyms, places of worship and hair salons. impacting nearly 80% of california's 40 million residents. public health experts are hailing the new closures, but for many business owners, it's yet another harsh blow. >> i still agree with the order,

but -- [indiscernible] -- reporter: newsom's order follows another bombshell announcement in california. the state's two largest school districts in los angeles and san diego have said that learning will be online-only in the fall. a decision affecting more than 800,000 students. so far, california has the second highest number of coronavirus cases in the u.s. nearly 300,000. along with 7,000 deaths. claire: mike e pompeo, thee u.s secretetary of state, has said that china's claims to ofoffsho resources in the south china sea are illegal. china has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by other countries. beijing accusing the u.s. of deliberately distortrting the facts. we have more. reporter: the u.s.'s policy toward china's expanse ofive claims to the south china --

expanse claims to the sosouth china sea has often but neutral. it's now for the first time waiting explicitly on the side of multiple southeast asian countries. secretary of state pompeo upped the ante in a statement saying, we are making clear, beijing's cleams to -- claims to offshore resources are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them. china claims 90% of the south china sea, as well as the uninhabited islands where it has been building up military bases. but brunei, malaysia, the philippines, taiwan and vietnam also lay claims to parts of the sea which is home to valuable oil and gas deposits and is a vital waterway for the worlrld' commercece. beijing says its intentions are peaceful, but conducts naval exercises and harasses foreign veteran vessels in the region. the united states and china's relationship has grown

increasingly tense over the past six months over beijing's handling of the coronavirus, its treatment of hong kong, and its crackdown on china's uighur muslim community. donald trump's critics say the u.s. president i is hoping to deflect attention from his own handling of coronavirus in the united states ahead of the november elections. claire: that's it for this edition. but don't forget, you can go to our website. that of course is france24.com. you'll find plenty more on there on today's bastille day celebrations here in france. they of course have been toned down because of the coronavirus pandemic. fewer troops, fewer guests, but still a an impressssive flyover. thanksks for watching. do stay tuned. >> i remember as a young journalist reporting on the closing of a factory. i spoke to people and the security guardses ability the

workers and trade unions and people in the community and i learned there was a different story. the story was being told was the one i was supposed to publish. the story i found was a huge cover-up. and a huge intrigue and eventually by exposing that, i actually managed to save those people's jobs. so i'm proud of that. and i'd urge every journalist to go further, go deeper, ask more questions, and don't just take the first thing that people tell you for the truth. because very often the truth is way beyond that. find that truth. >> africa on "france 24" is

about its people and their stories. >> hello and welcome to the interview on "france 24." my guest today envisions ecology through the lens of profitability. he believes solving climate change is a fantastic market opportunity. he's a world explorer and a passionate aviator, as well as a doctor and psychiatrist, the initiater and chairman of the solar impulse foundatioion. welcome to the show. thank you for being with us. >> with pleasure. hello. >> hello. you are well known for your achievements.

the first solo flight around the world with a plane powered by the sun. without using a single drop of fuel. and before that, in 1999, the first ever nonstop around the world flight in a hot air balloon. is saving our planet your new challenge? >> i would say yes. but not saving the planet in a nanaive wayay. because saying that nature isis beautifuful and we have to prott it is not enough. whatat i want is to briring technology to solutions that can protect the envivironment in a financially prprofitable way.. it means it also creates jobs, itit makes life e better for everybodody alson ththe social level. and d this is possible today because the cleanan technologie are so much betttter than they were beforore, that now they ar profitable. >> a lot of people are currently asking to go back to normal, to the way it was before the covid-19 crisis. but you're saying, we shouldn't.

>> back to normal, back toto th past is really dangerous. what did we e have before the crisis? we had t the world thahat was fragagile. it was destroyed by vivirus. it w was unstable. it wasas unfair. it was polluting. it wasas on the edge of a recessionn already. so if we have a crisis, it is not to have it for nothing. it is to learn something, it is to get out of the crisis much better than we were when we entered the crisis.s. this is whwhy you h have to calr habits into question and we e he to find completely new ways to make b business. new ways to prototect the envivironment in a profitable w. and also new ways for the industry, new outcomes, managing the waste, all the energy efficiency development on our planet, all this is a f fantast hold for humankind but this is in the future, not in the past.

>> you claim that solving climate change is a great market opportunity, rather than an expensnsive problem. >> absolutely.y. you know, what i bebelieve ins nott to fight against growth. because this bringss a sociall chaos. but t it's also o not to go int this unmnmered consumption because this brings an environment of chaos. i believe in qualitativeve grow. qualitative growth i is when yo create jobs and make profitit b replacing what is p polluting b what is protecting the environment. and all these newew infrastrtructures, technologies systems,s, programs, all this i the market opportunity ofof the century. we can make all the infrastructures of the countries modern, efficient, energy saving , environmental protecting, and this is just a fantastic business opportutunity for the industry, the economy and the

finance. >> and you believe that we can still maintain a good quality of life, evenen while taking g car our plplanet? >> we will have auch betterer quality of life if wee take car of our planet. for two reasons. the first onee is what i said before. it is now a market opportunity toto take care of the planet. to take carare of the environme. but also it's not only aboutt climate change. it's j just a question of fifigg popollution, whichch is desestr ththe healthth of the peoeople. i is a about protectining the natural resources off our plane in order to haveve enough food, enough water for the p populati. it is about ththe healthier lif if you have smog in the c city, it's not just climate change. you are getting cancer, you are getting acute asthma and this has s be included ininto all t political discussions about what

to do today. >> with your foundation, you're aiming to find 1,000 clean, efficient and profitable solutions. solutions that are not only good for the environment, but also for the economy and that create jobs. can you give us a few examples of the solutions you have already selected? >> yes, absolutely. on our way to the 1,000 solutions, we haveve now 537 technonologies or systetems or productsts that are crereble, ty work t today, they can go on th market today o or they are already. ththey're profitable and they protect the environment. and this is in the field of wawater. solalar energy. purification of water, detection of l leaks in the e water systef thee city. it's's in mobility with hydroge with better batteries, with syststems that can reduce thee particles emitted by the thermal engine business 80%.

-- engines by 0%. it's in the field of construction with much better insulation, small buildings that can be off -- [indiscecernible] it's in the field of industrtry like producing stainleless stee with 99% less water and 91% cheaper. it's in the fieldd of agricultue whwhere you have the seeds, f f examplple, that are protecteded special produducts, natural productsts, that reqequires les water and less chemicals in order to grow them. you see in every field, you can be more efficient, more profitable. and by the way, it protects the environmnment. so you see even if there was no climate change at all, itit wou bebe logical as much as ecologil to use these systems and this product and technologies. >> how do you convince political and business leaders, those who have power, to follow that path, especially when they have other priorities such as getting re-elected or making profit?

hohow do you motivate e governr and indudustries to take action? >> i i show themem that the besy to be re-elected and the best way to make prprofit and to cree jojobs is to implemement these technologieses. becaususe it is more profitable today to protect t the environmt than to destroyoy it. it is more profitable to be enenergy efficieient. it is much more profitable e to have circular economy and to make a good waste management. so all this is a language that they can understand. yoyou know, the goal is not to y the planet is beautiful, we have to protect it. the goal is to talk to the people who are decision makers and show them that it is in their own n interest to do much better and to be more -- and to be more ambitious in the energy polilicies and environmental targets. >> you're e so very invololved finding sustainable solutions in the aviation sector and airline industry. what are some concrete measures that could be implemented to

reduce our carbon footprint, especially now that international flights are going to resume? >> yes. there are three levels. the first one you can do immediately. it's about offsetting the carbon that the passengngers are producing.g. and this is v very cheap. wi five euro setf carbon on the seat in an n airplane from paris to spain, you cover your emissions of co-2. this can be reused for refoforestation, to convert coa power plants into solar or wind energy systems or things like that. this youou can do i immediately. ananyou would d be covered neneutral. but of couourse you h have now t 2020% that you c can do with operations. momore directt roots. [indiscernible] -- elecectric tractorsrs on the airports to bring the airplane to the thresholold. this has to be d done. and then you have the third

level which is the new technologies. we will have in 10 or 15 years electrical airplanes for scombrbrears, short o or medium passengers, shortt or medium hold, not transatlantic or trans-pacific, but 50 seats to travel 1,000 kilomometers, electric. it means eher r with batteries that are charged on the ground, not l like solar imimpulse whic charging with the susun during e flight, or using hydrogegen t t is converted into a fuel cell to produce electricity and water. this can be usesed. the frerench government was courageous enough to launch a program for absbsolutely cleann airplane by 2035. i think it's realllly credidibl you knowow that the p people why it's impmpossible should be careful. because e the one e who said it with ble to flfly in 1903 thee wright brotothers seemed reallyry -- ridiculous

afterwards. >> you're also a doctor and psychiatrist. why are we so afraid of the cororonavirus, but n not of cli change? >> because the coronavirus is an imminent threat. the climate change is a threat that goes on the long term. but i agree that it's not logical. because when you haveve two degrees of tetemperature increa inin your body, you run to the doctor and youou say, i'mm i ind by the coronavirus. and d when the planet is two degrees more in temperatuture, people don't care. so, i thihink it's ridiculous. and maybe to chanange the perspectivive of climate change we have to speak more of pollutution and less about clime change. because pollution is somethingg people feeeel. pollution makes peoeople sick today. climate change willl make peopl sick maybe in 10 years. so a l lot of people say, ok, w have time to reactct. no. we d d't have titime to reacact. we havave to do all of it now.

>> thank you. thank you very much for sharing your vision and youour ideas foa better world and thank you all for watching. do stay tuned for moree news on "france 24."