DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, CMC – West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews has commended the Caribbean side for showing character after suffering a deflating 10-wicket loss to South Africa in their opening match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup here. Since that defeat, the West Indies have registered emphatic victories over Scotland and Bangladesh and currently sit atop Group B. Speaking at a post-match press conference on Thursday after their eight-wicket win over Bangladesh at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Matthews said she was impressed with the way the team had recovered. “After that first defeat, we did speak a lot about how we wanted to come back and how we wanted to do it as a team, and I think everyone was up for the challenge from that moment.“Obviously in a World Cup, you lose one game early on it does put the pressure on, but I think the team has been wonderful with the way they have handled the pressure,” Matthews said.“Everyone is in a good mood, everyone is in good spirits, and everyone is up for the challenge. That’s been the biggest thing.“I think a lot of the time when you do get into trouble situations, players and the team can sometimes shy from it, but I think the way the girls have stepped up and really tried to put in performances and take the attack to the other team, it has been great to see,” the skipper added.s Matthews said there had been a complete shift in the mindset of the team and it could be seen in their performances on the field. “Just our attitude at the crease, wanting to play fearlessly and wanting to take the game to the other teams. “We could have been stuck on the backfoot after that first match, but we just wanted to throw the attack and come back at the other teams…” Matthews maintained. “I think the girls have done a great job of being able to bounce back and really have that attitude and that fight within them and we’re obviously going to try to take that into the next match against England. “We know how crucial that is and how big of a match that is, but we want to try to have the same attitude even against better teams,” she added. Matthews also defended the decision to continue to keep Stafanie Taylor in the lineup, despite the veteran battling a leg injury. She said Taylor, who became the first West Indian woman to score 1000 runs in T20 World Cups in the match against Bangladesh before retiring hurt, was invaluable to the team. “The doctors and the physios have been managing it along with her of course, and I think there was a conversation at halftime more around what she wanted to do and if she was comfortable going out to bat,” Matthews said. “I think she’s been fantastic with that the whole tournament, wanting to get out on the park and do the job even though she’s struggling a bit with an injury. She’s obviously very, very important to the team and what we do as a group, so it’s great to have her out there.”

NAIROBI, Kenya, CMC – Kenya Friday announced that it would be sending an additional 600 officers to Haiti, where criminal gangs continue to wreck efforts aimed at bringing security to the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country. “I am pleased to announce that an additional 600 Kenyan police officers are completing their pre-deployment training and will be ready for duty next month,” President William Ruto told reporters,  flanked by the visiting Haitian Prime Minister Garry Connile. While he gave no exact date when the troops would be deployed, the number of troops from the African country under the United Nations Security-sanctioned Multinational Security System (MSS) Mission is expected to reach 2,500. Kenya has sent 400 Kenyan police officers to Haiti so far. CARICOM countries, including Jamaica and the Bahamas, are also participating in the MSS. Ruto called on the international community to “urgently” rally behind the MSS, which is also facing a lack of funding. “This is the moment to provide that critical support for us to be able to undertake the exercise at hand,” he said. Prime Minister Conille, who arrived in Kenya on Thursday for a four-day official visit, echoed President Ruto’s call saying that while there had been “constructive meetings” with international partners, more was needed. “We would like to see a quicker response, we would like to see more commitment and we are going to continue to push for it.” Conille’s visit to Kenya comes as the Haitian country deals with an upsurge in gang violence, the last occurring on Thursday, less than a week after gunmen killed more than 100 people in Pont-Sondé in the central Artibonite region north-west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Media reports say another gang on Thursday attacked another town, killing people and setting homes on fire. Several radio stations have reported that the attack was launched by the gang in the area of Canaan known as the Taliban. The gang has around 200 members and operates mostly in the northern part of the Port-au-Prince capital. Members of the Haitian National Police (PNH) have since regained control of the situation and are maintaining security. The number of people killed has not yet been made public. Arcahaie is located between Haiti’s capital and Pont-Sondé, where the Gran Grif gang, described as one of the most violent of Haiti’s gangs, carried out a massacre last Thursday, killing at least 115 people. In January last year, members were accused of attacking a police station near Port-Sondé and killing six officers. It is also blamed for forcing the closure of a hospital serving more than 700,000 people. Amnesty International Thursday expressed deep concern about gang-related violence against children. “We have documented heartbreaking stories of children forced to work for armed gangs – from making deliveries to gathering information and performing domestic tasks under threat of violence,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International. “In addition, girls have been subjected to rape and sexual violence. The desperation of their situation is truly disturbing; many have been displaced or have nowhere to go.” Prime Minister Connile has described the criminal activities as “senseless” saying a security mission had swiftly deployed to the area of the attack and remained there. “The work is being done, house by house, neighbourhood by neighbourhood,” he said.

By Rob Picheta, CNN (CNN) — Russia has confirmed that Donald Trump sent the Kremlin sample COVID-19 tests in the early days of the pandemic, after revelations in veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s new book raised further questions about the former US president’s relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The Trump administration “sent us several samples of test kits,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday, broadly supporting Woodward’s claim. His intervention comes after Trump denied the claims, telling ABC News they were “false.” Legendary reporter Woodward wrote in “War” that Trump “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.” “Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin said to Trump, according to Woodward. “I don’t care,” Trump replied. “Fine.” “No, no,” Putin said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.” Peskov did not confirm whether or not those tests were specifically for Putin’s own use, as Woodward writes. The Kremlin’s press secretary said: “At that time, the pandemic was starting, and the situation was very difficult for all countries. “Of course, initially, all countries tried to exchange aid shipments with each other,” he continued. “At that time, we sent a shipment of ventilators to the United States, and the Americans sent us several samples of test kits, as those were practically unique items. Many countries were doing the same.” The Kremlin’s response seemingly contradicts Trump’s denial of Woodward’s claims. “He’s a storyteller. A bad one. And he’s lost his marbles,” Trump told ABC News of Woodward on Tuesday. In a statement, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said Trump gave Woodward “absolutely no access” for the book. “None of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true,” he said. Citing a Trump aide, Woodward also reported that there have been “maybe as many as seven” calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left the White House in 2021. Peskov denied those claims, saying: “That is not true; it did not happen.” Trump also denied those claims to ABC News. The frantic first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a diplomatic opening for Putin; the Trump White House was criticized at the time for purchasing medical supplies from Moscow, a move that was described by experts as a propaganda win for the Kremlin. The Trump administration also spent $200 million sending thousands of ventilators around the world, starting weeks after the former president touted America as the “king of ventilators,” but without any established way to locate them, the Government Accountability Office found in a report. Russia was among the countries to receive those ventilators. Woodward’s claims once again throw scrutiny on Trump’s relationship with Putin, weeks before the US presidential election. They were quickly seized on by Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris, who said in an interview with Howard Stern: “People were dying by the hundreds. Everybody was scrambling to get these (test) kits … and this guy who was President of the United States is sending them to Russia? To a murderous dictator, for his personal use?” “You’re getting played,” Harris said of Trump. Trump has, for his part, continued to speak fondly of his relationship with Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 made him a pariah among Western leaders. “I got along well with him. I hope to get along well with him again,” Trump said during an interview on X with billionaire Elon Musk. Trump added that getting along well with strongmen world leaders “is a good thing.” The-CNN-Wire & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.