PARIS (AP) — French sports media leader L’Équipe has disavowed comments by a female presenter who criticized Belgium winger Jeremy Doku for wanting to leave the World Cup to be at the birth of his first child.
L’Équipe also apologized to Doku in a statement late Sunday and said the comments by France Pierron did not represent its values.
Pierron described childbirth as “a disgusting moment, excuse me, where the dad is useless” when taking part in the television show “L’Équipe de Choc” on Friday.
“There are hundreds of footballers who would kill to be in your place,” she said on the show, reacting to Doku’s comments in the United States.
Doku’s wife Shireen is due to give birth to their son in early July when Belgium hopes to be playing in the knockout rounds of the World Cup.
“No one wants to miss a birth,” said the 24-year-old Doku, who is a star in the Belgium squad and plays for Manchester City.
Pierron questioned Doku’s priorities as he was “living a childhood dream. It might never happen again in your life.”
It was unclear if Pierron would be part of Monday’s scheduled broadcast of the talk show on the cable channel run by the storied daily sports newspaper.
Doku received support from England forward Ollie Watkins, who was asked about the family choices facing players.
“He said it only happens once, your first child. Welcoming them to the world is a blessing,” Watkins said during a news conference at the England training camp.
“Someone labeled it disgusting. And I think for a start that’s not a way to label a birth. I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business what he gets up to after training,” Watkins said.
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Belgium's Jeremy Doku, front, and Egypt's Emam Ashour fight for the ball during the World Cup Group G soccer match in Seattle, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Confirmed cases in the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo have reached 1,003, including 254 deaths, officials said, as tracing those who had been in contact with patients remains a major challenge.
A total of 100 people have recovered in the outbreak concentrated in the Ituri province since it was declared on May 15, Congo’s Ministry of Health said Sunday. At least 365 patients are in hospitals or in isolation, it said.
The Ebola outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no vaccines or treatment, was the worst ever in its first month. Officials admit there could be far more cases they still don’t know about and that the peak of the outbreak is still ahead.
Contact tracing remains a key issue for local authorities, who have only achieved a 55% coverage rate, the ministry said.
“If you want to control an outbreak, especially Ebola outbreak, you must know the index case. We don’t have confidence on when this outbreak started,” the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya told The Associated Press last week.
Officials also are yet to identify the patient zero and trace more than 35,000 people who have come in contact with infected individuals as of last week, authorities said.
That’s partly because eastern Congo is also battling ongoing violence from rebels. In Ituri, attacks by the Islamic State group-backed Allied Democratic Force have cut off access to many villages and forced people to flee their homes, including those sheltering in overcrowded camps and others constantly on the move.
More than a month into the outbreak, officials believe the disease continues to outpace response efforts and no one knows its true scale.
At the Kigonze displacement camp in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, camp officials said Friday that 10 people had died last week in unusual circumstances, raising the fear of a possible outbreak in the camp of over 20,000 displaced people.
There had been no Ebola case confirmed at the site, camp officials said, but added that the death rate was unprecedented and called for investigation.
The U.N. refugee agency has said at least 2 million people forcibly displaced from their homes, including over 320,000 refugees, live in areas at risk of Ebola in Congo.
In a statement on Friday, the agency said it was “deeply concerned by the accelerating spread” of the virus and “the growing risks it poses to displaced communities across the region.”
“If a disease or epidemic were to spread among the thousands of people living at this (Kizonge) site, it would be a real catastrophe given our already very precarious living conditions,” said Charité Banza, a civil society leader in Ituri.
Red Cross workers prepare to bury Vanisa Anifa, a 6-month-old orphaned girl who died of Ebola, at the Bigo Cemetery, in Bunia, Congo, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Relatives of Vanisa Anifa, a 6-month-old orphaned girl who died of Ebola, attend her burial, in Bunia, Congo, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
