For­mer Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray has ac­cused the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion of ap­ply­ing “dou­ble stan­dards” on free­dom of speech, ar­gu­ing that the Gov­ern­ment’s re­cent ac­tions mir­ror com­plaints once made by the Op­po­si­tion when it sat on the oth­er side of Par­lia­ment.

Mid­night Mas in San Fer­nan­do was abrupt­ly shut down by po­lice just over an hour be­fore mid­night on Car­ni­val Mon­day, spark­ing out­rage among mas­quer­aders, band lead­ers and city of­fi­cials.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to re­tract com­ments about ca­lyp­so and is­sue an apol­o­gy to the na­tion.

Ex­tem­po artistes lit up the stage in Ch­agua­nas on Mon­day night, de­liv­er­ing not on­ly sharp wit and lyri­cal bril­liance but al­so a pas­sion­ate call for the art­form to reach even greater heights.

Gov­ern­ment has plead­ed “no cen­sor­ship”, and state-owned Trinidad and To­ba­go Tele­vi­sion (TTT) has apol­o­gised to view­ers for the loss of au­dio dur­ing for­mer Ca­lyp­so Monarch Helon Fran­cis’s per­for­mance at Sun­day’s Di­manche Gras show—but Fran­cis is not con­vinced.

Ca­lyp­son­ian Ter­ri Lyons reaped the bless­ings of her hard work, ded­i­ca­tion and faith in God as she was crowned the 2026 Ca­lyp­so Monarch yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was out ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing en­joy­ing J’Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions in Bar­rack­pore.

Of­fi­cers of the Re­gion I Homi­cide Bu­reau and the Port-of-Spain CID were kept busy on Car­ni­val Mon­day as a 19-year-old man was killed and two peo­ple were shot in two sep­a­rate in­ci­dents in Wood­brook and Ari­api­ta Av­enue, St James.

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro says the po­lice would be main­tain­ing max­i­mum na­tion­wide cov­er­age through­out the Car­ni­val sea­son and warned that due to the height­ened po­lice pres­ence, crim­i­nals would be dealt with by the po­lice.

Record Car­ni­val King Cur­tis Eu­stace has strong­ly crit­i­cised the T&T Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­BA) for its or­gan­i­sa­tion of this year’s Car­ni­val King and Queen com­pe­ti­tion.

As the say­ing so of­ten goes, “Car­ni­val is Woman”, and Car­ni­val Mon­day 2026 was cer­tain­ly no dif­fer­ent.

En­core, Cyah Be­have and Road Man were the mas­quer­aders’ and spec­ta­tors’ three top choic­es for the 2026 Road March ti­tle at yes­ter­day’s Car­ni­val Mon­day cel­e­bra­tions in down­town Port-of-Spain.