Los Angeles, United States | One year after Covid-19 sent sport across North America grinding to a halt, professional leagues and tours are inching back towards normalcy after absorbing a multi-billion-dollar financial hit.

Twelve months ago on March 11, NBA commissioner Adam Silver sent shockwaves across the sporting world after dramatically halting the season following confirmation of Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert's positive test.

The NBA decision triggered a domino effect, with baseball, soccer, golf, ice hockey and other sports swiftly following suit either by suspending their seasons or cancelling events altogether.

A year after the start of the shutdown, US leagues are continuing to count the cost of the pandemic as they adjust to the new realities of sport in the age of Covid-19.

The NBA has reached the halfway point of its abbreviated 2020-2021 season after losing an estimated $1.2 billion through its interrupted 2019-2020 campaign, with a $4 billion loss projected for 2020-2021.

NBA chief Silver however is hopeful that the worst may be over, noting that next season may resemble something like a return to normality as more Americans get vaccinated against Covid-19 and fans return to arenas.

"I'm fairly optimistic at this point that we will be able to start on time," Silver said ahead of Sunday's All-Star game.

"If vaccines continue on the pace they are, and they continue to be as effective as they have been against the virus and its variants, we're hopeful that we'll have relatively full arenas next season."

Silver added that despite losses he described as "considerable", the "long-term health of the league is very solid."

- Baseball revenues hit -

Major League Baseball, meanwhile, is also counting the cost of coronavirus. The league slashed its 2020 season from 162 games to 60, finally starting in late July before wrapping the World Series in October.

Although fans were allowed to return for the late stages of last year's playoffs, regular season games in 2020 took place in empty arenas, denying clubs game day revenue and contributing to collective losses estimated by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred at around $2.8-$3 billion.

A full 162-game regular season is planned when the 2021 campaign gets under way on April 1, but spectator access will vary depending on city and state health regulations where each team is based.

The World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers will only be allowed a maximum of 100 fans at Dodger Stadium under current rules; the St. Louis Cardinals have been approved to allow 14,500 spectators.

Major League Soccer is bracing for another hefty financial loss after taking a $1 billion hit in 2020.

MLS was halted just two weeks into its new season last year, returning with a tournament staged in a bubble in environment in Florida before the regular season resumed in August.

"We are forecasted to lose pretty close to $1 billion, if not $1 billion (exactly), that we have been talking about," Garber said in February. "When you don't have fans for the majority of your season, it's just pure math."

The National Football League, meanwhile, provided a template for professional leagues in North America by completing its season in February with the Super Bowl in Tampa.

A robust testing program and strict health and safety protocols allowed the league to fulfill all of its 256 regular season games and playoff schedule successfully.

A crowd of 25,000 fans, including several thousand vaccinated healthcare workers invited as guests, attended last month's Super Bowl, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell admits it is unclear what fan attendance may look like when the 2021 season kicks off next September.

- 'They got lucky' -

"One of the things that I think I have learned and I think all of us have learned is try not to project too far in advance because it's difficult to do," Goodell said. "I know this: We've learned to operate in a very difficult environment. We have found solutions, and we'll do it again."

Zach Binney, an epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University in Atlanta, believes that major US sports "did some really good things" as they plotted a return from Covid-19.

"The NBA, Major League Baseball and the NFL all found various ways to bring sports back without having a lot of cases among their players and staff," Binney told AFP. "The various models were quite strong on that front."

Binney noted however that some NFL and college football teams allowed large numbers of fans back into arenas before being certain it was safe to do so.

"I think they were reckless and got lucky," Binney said.

Other aspects of the US sporting landscape, meanwhile, shifted in more profound ways by the pandemic.

In almost every major sport, television ratings were down sharply, sometimes by striking margins.

The NBA finals ratings nosedived by 51%, while the battle for ice hockey's Stanley Cup cratered by 61%. The US Open tennis tournament slumped by 45% and even February's dream NFL Super Bowl pitting Tom Brady against Patrick Mahomes drew its lowest audience since 2006.

In college sports meanwhile, budget shortfalls caused by the pandemic have led to the elimination of more than 350 sports programs -- the vast majority in Olympic sports including athletics, swimming and volleyball.

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Sao Paulo, Brazil | An ex-metalworker who became one of Brazil's most popular presidents, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva fell spectacularly from grace when he was jailed for corruption, but could now make a political comeback after a judge overturned his convictions.

Monday's ruling by Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin restores the 75-year-old leftist icon's right to run for office -- potentially just in time for a showdown against his nemesis, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, in elections next year.

Known for his charisma and common man's touch, Lula left office on January 1, 2011 as a blue-collar hero who presided over a watershed boom and helped lift tens of millions of people out of poverty.

But he has been embroiled in a massive corruption scandal that has engulfed some of Brazil's most influential politicians and business executives.

Lula was jailed in 2018 -- sidelining him from the race that brought Bolsonaro to power -- and spent more than 18 months in prison before being freed pending appeal.

In a procedural decision, Fachin ruled that the court that convicted Lula lacked jurisdiction, and sent four cases against him to another federal court, in Brasilia.

The ruling landed like a bomb just as Brazil gears up for the October 2022 elections, for which a recent poll gave Lula the most likely votes -- the only politician to outperform Bolsonaro.

- Tarnished image -

Brazil's first democratically elected leftist, Lula enjoyed widespread popularity, as a booming economy during a period of high commodity prices helped him ride out numerous corruption scandals.

He presided over a so-called golden decade for Latin America, when a rising China's ravenous demand for raw materials propelled regional economies to record growth.

Lula also helped secure for Brazil the world's two biggest sporting events -- the World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

He was called "the most popular politician on Earth" by no less than Barack Obama, and stepped down after two terms basking in 80 percent popularity ratings.

But his image has been tarnished by numerous corruption charges.

Lula was sentenced to a total of 26 years in jail on charges of accepting a triplex beach apartment and renovations at a ranch property as bribes for greasing companies' access to juicy contracts with state oil giant Petrobras.

He will still face those charges, as well as several other corruption and influence peddling cases.

He denies all the accusations, arguing they were politically motivated.

- From poverty to power -

Lula grew up in deep poverty, the seventh of eight children born to a family of illiterate farmers in the arid northeastern state of Pernambuco.

When he was seven, his family joined a wave of migration to the industrial heartland of Sao Paulo state, where Lula worked as a shoeshine boy and peanut vendor on the street before becoming a steelworker.

In the 1960s he lost the little finger of his left hand in a workplace accident.

He rose quickly to become president of his trade union, and was the force behind major strikes in the 1970s that challenged the military dictatorship then in power. 

In 1980, he co-founded the Workers' Party, first standing as its candidate for president nine years later.

Lula made three unsuccessful presidential bids, from 1989 to 1998, each time chipping away at the establishment parties and the idea that a poor, uneducated labor leader could never be president of Brazil. 

The fourth time, in 2002, he succeeded, taking office on January 1, 2003.

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Still, even as more women rise and some companies allow greater flexibility to working mothers, finance remains a challenging career domain and progress is coming more slowly than many women would like.

- 'Never been easy' -

As a little girl, Hermina Batson was always curious when she saw cash exchanged.

"I was always wondering when my parents paid for things, why we never got the same bill back," Batson told AFP. "I wanted to know what was happening."

Batson's mother took her to visit the Federal Reserve Bank of New York when she was six. 

She has been hooked on finance ever since, even while recognizing that the career, as an African American, "has never been easy."

"I did not feel rejected. I might have felt awkward," she said.

Throughout her career, senior management or clients would sometimes hand Batson their coat when they arrived at a meeting. Eventually she learned to return the gesture.

After high school, Batson, who goes by Nina, immediately began working for a bank. After studying securitization in college, she worked her way up to senior positions, eventually spending 25 years at Japanese bank MUFG.

"Though I'm currently in transition, I'm very much looking forward to staying in the financial industry," she said.

Batson will take over as president of the Financial Women's Association in July. The group was established in 1956 after its founders were turned away from a men's club to share professional experiences and further their knowledge.

Batson applauded Citigroup's appointment of Jane Fraser as the first female chief executive of a giant Wall Street bank.

"For a woman, or anybody that's underrepresented, to be able to look and see someone that looks like them, or has a similar upbringing, is very, very important to moving the needle," she said.

Transparency has improved following US banking regulations requiring data on employee diversity, but "we're not there yet," she said.

The wage gap especially is still too wide, Batson added.

- Need 'a strong network' -

Anna Zhou, 22, was undecided on her career path when she started at Yale University in 2016 after being recruited to the fencing team. 

She began exploring finance after one of her friends introduced her to Girls Who Invest (GWI), whose mission is to boost the number of women in portfolio management and executive leadership in asset management.

The organization helped Zhou line up a summer internship at Wellington Management in Boston.

She found support from women at different levels of the firm. Keeping in touch helped Zhou land a job at Wellington after she graduated.

Zhou sees signs of progress on diversity in finance, but says there is "room for improvement." 

"Since my freshman year at Yale, more opportunities for women to enter finance have emerged," she said. "Through my involvement with GWI, I both experienced and am currently promoting the importance of a strong network for females in the finance industry."

Mentoring from senior colleagues has been crucial, she said, adding: "I have a clear view of my career path ahead."

- Grateful to work part-time -

"Before it was even popular, S&P gave me the opportunity to work part time when I started having my family, in 1993," recalled Robin Prunty.

Prunty, 57, who has been at S&P Global Ratings since 1987, had originally expected to work the reduced schedule for six months, but "ended up working part-time for 17 years," she said.

"I really appreciated that flexibility, and I think it really made a big difference to other women coming into the organization after me," she said. "That really was a big factor in my decision to stay at S&P."

Prunty kept gaining experience working part-time even if her career didn't advance as quickly as it might have.

"When I came back full time and was ready to take on management responsibilities, they were fully supportive of that," said Prunty, who currently manages analytics and research on US public finance.

Prunty is active in the women's bond club and applauds the more significant focus on diversity in recent years throughout the industry, but adds: "I think there's room for improvement."

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Paris, France | While International Women's Day on March 8 celebrates female gains like the right to vote, a World Economic Forum study found that at present rates of change gender parity still won't happen in our lifetimes.

Here's a look at how institutions have evolved to make room for women:

- The vote -

New Zealand was first to give all women –- white and Maori -- the right to vote in 1893. In neighbouring Australia, women got it the following year, but the Aboriginal population would have to wait another 70 years.

By 1920 women had the right to vote in Finland, Australia, the United States and Britain -- though in the UK only women over 30 could vote until 1928.

France only give women a vote in 1944.

But they have nothing on referenda-ruled Switzerland, where the country's men voted over and over to deny women suffrage until 1971.

Oman gave women the vote in 1994 and other Gulf monarchies followed: Qatar in 1999, Bahrain in 2002 and Kuwait in 2005.

Saudi Arabia decided to give its female subjects a voice in municipal polls in 2011 -- the kingdom's only elections.

- Equal pay -

Worldwide it is estimated that women earn 19 percent less than men do, a gap that parity laws have attempted to close with mixed results.

In the US where it has been illegal for nearly 60 years to pay men and women different salaries for similar work, women still earn on average 18 percent less than their male counterparts.

Policies that punish women for pregnancy and related caregiving duties are notorious for holding women back in the workplace.

Even when women do advance to higher-earning positions they continue to make less, with women managers in the EU earning an average of 23 percent less than men in the same jobs.

A major reason that men continue to earn more than women is lack of transparency in salary reporting.

In 2018 Iceland became the first country in the world to require employers to prove they pay men and women equally.

It is currently the country with the lowest gender wage gap at 13.5 percent.

- Abortion and contraception -

Russia was the first country to decriminalise abortion in 1920.

All countries where a woman can legally terminate her pregnancy either require a reason –- such as a threat to the mother's health -- or impose a time limit on the practice. 

Commonly abortion becomes illegal after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Five percent of the world's women live in countries where abortion is banned even when the mother's life is threatened.

The contraceptive pill was invented by a US doctor in the 1950s and became legal for women there in 1960.

Married women in the UK could start taking the pill in 1961, and French women got it in 1967.

However, in all of these countries women must obtain a doctor's prescription to get the pill.

- Maternity leave -

Sweden is the best country for paid parental leave with a new mother or father able to take up to 480 days off and continue to earn 80 percent of his or her salary in addition to 18 weeks off reserved just for the new mother.

Iceland gives parents 12 months of leave and requires that time to be split between mother and father.

In Norway mothers and fathers can take up to more than two years off at 80 percent pay, divided between them however they like.

The US and Papua New Guinea are the only countries in the world with no national paid maternity leave.

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The very word "lingerie" is a French export -- used from Japan to Holland to Brazil -- but France has been slow to adapt to a changing mood in the global industry which no longer treats expensive underwear primarily as a weapon of seduction.

The shift has been noticeable in recent years in other Western countries, measured most notably in declining sales at Victoria's Secret, the US store that brought sexy lingerie to the mass market in the 1970s and then made billions worldwide by promoting images of impossible physical perfection. 

Judging by its typical billboards and shop windows, France held out longer than others, but could not ignore the change forever. 

"The priority is no longer seduction, it's no longer about attracting men's attention," said Pascale Renaud, who directed a short film to launch this year's French expo, Promincor-Lingerie. 

No photo-shopped sexualised models in her film -- instead it is women of all sizes and ages, exercising, dancing, meditating, riding motorbikes... essentially, being real people. 

"Women are playing things differently these days... We see it in all the publicity," said Renaud. 

"Things that were seen as faults in the past -- a few extra kilos, lines, scars -- today, these are signs of individuality." 

The products featured at the expo were themselves signs of the changing mood. 

Empreinte's plus-size bras were pitched as something "to be forgotten once they are on", while another model in black lace was trailed as "sports chic", with the focus very much on assisting posture and distributing weight. 

Another with straps that can be crossed at the back was specially designed to cushion movements associated with boxing and horse riding. 

"Women complain that they can only find bras that either squash or bother them, or don't offer support. It has taken several years to get here," said its director Noemie Berthaux. 

- 'Inclusivity' -

As with so much else, the pandemic has accelerated the trend. 

With many turning to yoga during the past year's lockdowns, the bra-and-leggings combo has become particularly popular.

Ethical concerns as well as practical ones are driving the change. 

"After #MeToo, pictures of objectified women with large breasts and idealised bums are no longer acceptable," said Brigitte Chauchon, commercial director for Lejaby.

"There's a strong demand now for inclusivity. We are moving away from this model of women with perfect measurements."

That means au revoir to push-up bras in favour of practical shapes, ecologically-sourced materials and maximum comfort.

Glamour still exists, but its meaning is being redefined.

Flesh-coloured tones, once seen as dowdy and unflattering, are "now much more fashionable," said Stephanie Perele, a director at her family's brand, Simone Perele.

"We're now having fun working with transparent designs, adding little details."

"Underwear can be invisible, like a second skin, but still very sophisticated," added Chauchon.

"It's about women who are pleasing themselves, comfortable in who they are, who have their own lives that are free from traditional demands."

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Johannesburg, South Africa | Queueing outside an upmarket Johannesburg clothing store, young fashion lovers hope to lay their hands on the latest sneakers to come out of the United States.

For South Africa's city dwellers, sneakers are more than just shoes.

As a marker of personality as well as social status, they are cared for and worn with pride, and youths compete to hunt down the rarest models from a market flooded with old and new sneakers -- including many fakes. 

"Sneakers kind of tell your story," graffiti artist Rasik "Mr.ekse" Green told AFP as he was spray-painting a commissioned mural on the rooftop of a building in downtown Johannesburg.

Green's elaborate graffiti designs -- which he also uses to redecorate and personalise sneakers -- are highly sought after.

The shoes are often an expression of geographic roots in a country with 12 official languages and dozens of ethnicities.  

"For instance we know Cape Townians love their bubbles," said Green, referring to a chunky, thick-soled Nike design.

And residents of the Johannesburg township of Soweto "love their (Converse) All Stars", he said. "It's kind of a code."

The athletic footwear craze is linked to African American hip-hop culture, which infuses South Africa's rich musical heritage as well as its fashion. 

Collecting and trading shoes has become a hobby in Africa's most industrialised nation, with aficionados known as "sneaker heads".

In 2019, 800 pairs of Reeboks, created in a limited edition in collaboration with South African rap sensation AKA, sold out 10 minutes after their online release.

A South African brand, Bathu -- slang for "shoe" -- conquered the local market with a unique mesh design.

While its low-end sneakers cost 1,300 rand ($84), Bathu came out with a limited edition, the Opel GSI, with only 80 pairs which it sold for 397,000 rand each in June 2019.

"That wouldn't have happened 30 years ago," Green said.

But another designer, Andile "ScotchIsDope" Cele, warned that sneaker fanaticism is "becoming about class."

Paying extravagant amounts for the shoes is "almost like an investment to say, you're helping yourself, so that you can live with these (wealthy) people... almost like 'fake it till you make it' type of thing."

- Worn 'art piece' -

Sneakers have not always been viewed positively in South Africa.

Gangsters terrorising townships during the 1980s often wore Chuck Taylor All Stars, a high-topped stitched canvas shoe manufactured by the US firm Converse.

The sneakers, originally designed as basketball shoes, acquired a "thug" reputation that stuck.

"My parents didn't want me to get a pair because it was mixed up with a certain culture that was for criminals," recalled Hector Mgiba, 28, who has an extensive collection of Converse All-Stars.

He said Converse shoes were also associated with "pantsula", a dance born among young black township dwellers as a form of protest against apartheid, and snubbed by older generations.

"Pantsula" dancers typically wore smart shirts, flare trousers and All-Stars -- perfect for their quick steps and hops.    

Mgiba, a teenager at the time, saved up to buy a second-hand pair behind his parents' back.

"I loved it so much and I wanted to pave my own way to how I express myself," he said.

"The way it fades when it gets worn out, it becomes more of an art piece."

A popular music genre known as Kwaito that emerged in Soweto during the 1990s cast Converse into a new light.

Dancers in colourful All Stars turned the shoe into a symbol of township youth in post-apartheid South Africa.

Today the rubber-soled shoe is worn with both formal fitted suits and casual dress by young South Africans of all backgrounds and skin tones.

- 'Bringing us together' -

As demand for sneakers has grown, local entrepreneurs have become fierce rivals to international brands.

Unable to afford the latest sneakers as a young boy, local designer Lekau Sehoana made his first pair of sneakers from worn-out shoes, old jeans and polyurethane.

His "Drip" footwear brand, launched in 2019, gained popularity with its brightly coloured bubble soles and stretchy material.

Sehoana now uses part of the company's earnings to make shoes for children in townships.

"I guess it's one way of uniting us and bringing us together, as a people, as a country, as different races," Green said.

"Besides all our differences, at least we share one common thing... shoes."

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Beijing, China | Until recently, few people had even heard of the Chinese billionaire with a gruff reputation who built a fortune on China's seemingly unquenchable demand for his ubiquitous red-capped bottled water.

But reclusive Zhong Shanshan has become Asia's richest man following the stock listings last year of his Nongfu Spring mineral water and separate pharma company Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, which has tapped into massive demand for Covid-19 test kits.

Zhong's net worth has surged to $85 billion and made him the seventh-richest person on the planet, Hurun Report, a China-based compiler of "rich lists", said last week.

Called a "lone wolf" by Chinese media for his rare public appearances and aversion to interviews, Zhong has achieved one of the fastest accumulations of wealth in history, according to Bloomberg.

He became the first Chinese entrepreneur to enter Hurun's top-ten global rich list this year, leaping out of nowhere to put him hot on the heels of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and American investor Warren Buffett.

Not bad for someone who dropped out of school at the age of 12 during the political upheaval of China's 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, and whose later jobs included bricklayer, carpenter and news reporter, according to Chinese media.

Zhong founded Nongfu Spring in 1996 and still owns an 84 percent stake in the company which, according to market research firm Mintel, holds more than a quarter of the bottled water market in China, where many people avoid tap water over health concerns.

In contrast to charismatic Alibaba founder Jack Ma -- who Zhong dethroned as China's richest man -- little is known about Nongfu's billionaire boss aside from his gruff image.

"I don't have the habit of flattery in my personality," he once told Chinese media in a rare interview. 

"I don't like to deal with people and have to drink," he added, referring to a Chinese business culture that encourages excessive wining and dining to cement deals.

His fortunes have risen just as those of Chinese tech companies have slid.

- Political scrutiny -

Ma is now worth a comparatively paltry $55 billion, according to Hurun, after government regulators launched an anti-monopoly investigation into his tech empire, which has pummelled Alibaba's share price and left a massive IPO by financial arm Ant Group in limbo.

Although Alibaba and Nongfu are headquartered in the humming eastern tech hub of Hangzhou, Zhong is not a regular attendee at the city's business events, one local entrepreneur told China Economic Weekly.

A former business partner told state media he once attended an industry conference with Zhong, who "went to the stage to give a speech, and offended everyone as soon as he opened his mouth", without providing details of the offending words.

Alongside Nongfu, which listed last year in Hong Kong, Zhong is also the biggest shareholder in Wantai, which went public in Shanghai.

The group's rapid Covid-19 test gives results in 75 minutes and, according to its website, has shipped more than 10 million kits.

Wantai is also developing a Covid-19 vaccine nasal spray in conjunction with a prominent university.

Wantai is the biopharma arm of Yangshengtang Group, a medical company Zhong founded three years before Nongfu, which specialises in infectious diseases and says it is the largest production base in Asia for HIV diagnostic reagent.

Hurun says the share listings make Zhong one of only a handful of entrepreneurs in the world today to have founded more than one $10 billion business.

Zhong has a stake, investment or board role in more than 100 companies, according to Chinese business data.

But like other high-profile Chinese industrialists, he has to tread a line between commercial success and official scrutiny.

"The Chinese Communist Party wants Chinese businesses to become big and become international, but it also wants to retain some degree of control over them," said Yun Jiang, director of China Policy Centre in Canberra. 

She says no high-profile business people can entirely hope to "escape political scrutiny" -- particularly once they appear on rich list rankings.

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