The Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ES­CTT) has voiced strong sup­port for Helon Fran­cis, the 2025 Ca­lyp­so Monarch, fol­low­ing the dis­rup­tion of his per­for­mance at Di­manche Gras on Car­ni­val Sun­day night.

So­ca icon Machel Mon­tano has shared his ex­cite­ment and grat­i­tude af­ter win­ning the 2026 Trinidad and To­ba­go Road March, mark­ing a his­toric mile­stone and break­ing a 50-year record.

For the first time in years, the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my (BLCA) in Tarou­ba was silent dur­ing Car­ni­val, leav­ing some res­i­dents call­ing the sea­son “bor­ing and un­event­ful.”

Machel Mon­tano has made his­to­ry again, cap­tur­ing the 2026 Road March ti­tle with En­core and ex­tend­ing his record to 12 wins, the most by any artiste in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Car­ni­val 2026 gen­er­at­ed a bumper sea­son and re­in­forced Trinidad and To­ba­go’s po­si­tion as a world-class cul­tur­al des­ti­na­tion, the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion of Trinidad and To­ba­go have said.

San Fer­nan­do’s main Car­ni­val routes were large­ly free of de­bris on Ash Wednes­day, but piles of house­hold waste re­mained along some off-route streets.

Con­tro­ver­sial so­cial me­dia per­son­al­i­ty Gabriel “Bat­man” Har­ri­gin has been re­mand­ed to prison af­ter be­ing de­nied bail on charges of kid­nap­ping and rape.

Port of Spain, Feb­ru­ary 18, 2026: For­mer Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert said the work that led to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s re­moval from the Eu­ro­pean Union’s non-co­op­er­a­tive tax ju­ris­dic­tions list was com­plet­ed un­der the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ad­min­is­tra­tion be­fore the 28 April 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says Trinidad and To­ba­go’s re­moval from the Eu­ro­pean Union list of non-co­op­er­a­tive ju­ris­dic­tions for tax pur­pos­es marks a ma­jor step for­ward for the coun­try and sig­nals re­newed con­fi­dence in its fi­nan­cial sys­tem.

Trinidad and To­ba­go has been of­fi­cial­ly re­moved from the Eu­ro­pean Union list of non-co­op­er­a­tive tax ju­ris­dic­tions fol­low­ing a de­ci­sion by the Eu­ro­pean Union’s Eco­nom­ic and Fi­nan­cial Af­fairs Coun­cil on 17 Feb­ru­ary 2026.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ex­tend­ed greet­ings to the Chris­t­ian and Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ties as Lent and Ra­madan be­gin at the same time in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

For­mer Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith has praised the coun­try’s Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices for their per­for­mance dur­ing the Car­ni­val sea­son, say­ing their ef­forts kept the na­tion safe while cel­e­bra­tions un­fold­ed.