Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo says he can­not yet es­ti­mate the eco­nom­ic im­pact of Car­ni­val 2026 but main­tains that this year’s cel­e­bra­tions al­ready rep­re­sent an im­prove­ment on 2025, cit­ing ex­pand­ed com­mu­ni­ty events and in­creased ac­tiv­i­ty at key venues.

De­spite eas­ing geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions in the south­ern Caribbean, tour op­er­a­tors say the 2026 Car­ni­val sea­son has failed to de­liv­er growth, with some re­port­ing worse per­for­mance than in 2025. In­dus­try lead­ers warn that Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ues to miss op­por­tu­ni­ties to po­si­tion Car­ni­val as a mar­ketable tourism prod­uct.

This evening’s Panora­ma Large Con­ven­tion­al Band Fi­nal brings to­geth­er some of the most suc­cess­ful steel­bands in the his­to­ry of the event.

Be­fore dawn broke over the cap­i­tal, Pic­cadil­ly Greens in Port of Spain was al­ready ablaze with fire­light, rhythm, and re­sis­tance. Short­ly af­ter 4 am yes­ter­day, the an­nu­al Can­boulay re-en­act­ment, host­ed by the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC), un­fold­ed in dra­mat­ic fash­ion, mark­ing the pul­sat­ing start of Car­ni­val week­end.

A woman and her boyfriend were shot dead dur­ing a brazen gun at­tack near their home in Cou­va yes­ter­day. Po­lice said Amelia Her­nan­dez was killed even as she tried to pro­tect their daugh­ter.

Ques­tions re­main about the pres­ence of Unit­ed States mil­i­tary air­craft and per­son­nel in Trinidad and To­ba­go, af­ter De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge de­clined to say whether pre­vi­ous­ly ap­proved op­er­a­tions are still un­der­way.

Just af­ter mid­night, flames en­gulfed the Moru­ga home of 75-year-old pen­sion­er Bernadette Guer­rero, as neigh­bours looked on help­less­ly, pray­ing she was not in­side.

Wil­fred Nicholas Mor­ris was sworn in yes­ter­day as Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny at Pres­i­dent’s House presided over by Act­ing Pres­i­dent Wade Mark. He joins Min­is­ters Bar­ry Padarath and Dar­rell Al­la­har in the of­fice.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo has ac­knowl­edged that the In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund (IMF) will be pay­ing close at­ten­tion to Gov­ern­ment's pro­ject­ed time frames for its poli­cies - but he says the ad­min­is­tra­tion is con­fi­dent in its abil­i­ty and that its plans will bear fruit in broad-based na­tion­al growth and de­vel­op­ment.

The Unit­ed States will send the world’s largest air­craft car­ri­er to the Mid­dle East to back up an­oth­er al­ready there, a per­son fa­mil­iar with the plans said Fri­day, putting more Amer­i­can fire­pow­er be­hind Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s ef­forts to co­erce Iran in­to a deal over its nu­clear pro­gram.

A 27-year-old Arou­ca man is ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore a mag­is­trate af­ter po­lice charged him with the mur­der of Yamerlis Lopez.

TTPS Gold com­man­der for Car­ni­val 2026 and DCP Op­er­a­tions, Suzette Mar­tin, yes­ter­day stressed that the po­lice were pre­pared and de­ployed to treat with any emer­gency or in­ci­dent as the fes­tiv­i­ties move in­to high gear head­ing to the cli­max on Mon­day and Tues­day next week.