(Oranjestad)— Some places you visit. A rare few you carry home. For nearly four decades, travellers have come to one quiet stretch of powdery sand on Aruba’s Eagle Beach, fallen in love with the island, the sea, and one another, and then spent years writing about it. More than 10,000 of those love letters, left as five-star reviews, have now once again ranked Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort as the No. 8 Hotel in the World, the No. 1 Hotel in the Caribbean, and the No. 1 Hotel in Aruba in Tripadvisor’s 2026 Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best Awards.

This devotion is anything but new. Every single year since 2002, Bucuti & Tara has kept its place on Tripadvisor’s Best of the Best list: No. 1 in Aruba for 25 years, No. 1 in the Caribbean for more than 20 years running, and the most romantic destination in the region for over two decades. Its beloved Eagle Beach is ranked the No. 1 beach in the Caribbean and No. 4 in the world, and together these honors place the resort among the top 0.001% of the 1.6 million hotels Tripadvisor lists worldwide. Nearly a quarter-century of guest devotion, documented and real.

What makes the recognition so meaningful is that it comes, as it always has, from the guests themselves: from the stories they choose to share after returning home, and from the moments that stay with them long after their footprints traced Eagle Beach. The sunrise walks. The anniversary dinners. The rare gift of uninterrupted time together. Behind each of those moments is a Bucuti Associate who did everything they could to make their day extraordinary, bringing heart, intention, and authentic Aruban warmth to every greeting and every remembered detail. A legacy written by guests, and brought to life by the people who genuinely care for them. An honor like this is never won. It is given.

“We are deeply humbled and grateful,” said Crescenzia Biemans, Managing Director of Bucuti & Tara. “Every review is someone telling us we mattered to a chapter of their life: a honeymoon, an anniversary, a quiet morning they never forgot. To our guests, thank you for letting us be part of those moments, and for sharing them with the world. To our Bucuti Associates, who give their hearts to this place each day, this honour is yours. We are so proud and honored to have you as part of our Bucuti family. And to our beloved Aruba, our One Happy Island, thank you for giving us a home. We vow to cherish and protect you for generations to come. Masha danki, from the bottom of my heart.”

That gratitude is something you can feel, taste and see all throughout the resort. At Elements, the No. 1 fine-dining restaurant in the Caribbean, and at the new Terra by Jeremy Ford, the region’s first restaurant led by a chef holding both a Michelin Star and the rare Michelin Green Star for sustainability, every plate begins the same way:

with the morning’s catch from local fishermen and produce from island farmers. Forbes called Terra the “most coveted reservation to score” within a month of its opening, yet its truest distinction, just like the resort, is that it belongs to Aruba. And on the same sand where guests fall into deep relaxation as they listen to the rhythm of the waves, sea turtles return each season to nest, watched over by the Caribbean’s first and only certified Carbon Neutral resort and the only hotel ever to receive the United Nations Global Climate Action Award. Here, caring for the island and honoring our people has never been an obligation. It is a form of gratitude, made visible

For nearly four decades, the purpose has remained unchanged: to care, exceptionally, for every guest, every Associate, and the island the resort is honoured to protect each day. Everything else, including this honor, follows as gently as the tide. To everyone who made it possible, the message from Eagle Beach is simple. Thank you. Masha Danki. This is yours.

Peace, Love and Happiness. Naturally. To learn more, visit Bucuti.com.

ORANJESTAD – Weichert® – Aruba Realty marked a milestone moment with its soft opening and official blessings ceremony, gathering partners and staff at the brand-new Palm Beach office, a space purposely built to deliver a modern, warm, and world-class real estate experience to every client who walks through its doors.

A celebration rooted in purpose. The gathering was a heartfelt celebration with the entire team and the exciting news: Weichert is now a reality in Aruba. PalmAruba Group has the privilege of holding one of the most recognized real estate franchises in the world, and this soft opening marked the first official step toward the island-wide launch planned for June 24th. The event was blessed by a local priest in a brief and meaningful ceremony, symbolizing the values of community and trust that guide the company.

“This was a beautiful occasion to celebrate together with our team and share the good news that Weichert Realtors® is now a reality here in Aruba. We want to elevate our service level—we want our agents to be the best-trained and most prepared professionals on the island, capable of delivering an outstanding experience to every client. We are very proud and excited about this step we are taking, and we are confident that Aruba will welcome us with open arms.”

— Victor Acosta, Owner and Broker, Weichert® – Aruba Realty

A prime location, built from the ground up. The office sits in one of Aruba’s most commercially vibrant corridors, Palm Beach, in a building designed and constructed by PalmAruba Group itself. Interior design was entrusted to architect Laura Vélez, whose vision shaped every detail of the space. Renovations began in September of last year and spanned nearly six months, encompassing custom furnishings, layout improvements, and all finishing touches required to meet Weichert’s global standards.

Designed for comfort, privacy, and collaboration. The new headquarters features two main offices, two open workstations, two meeting rooms, two co-working areas, a reception, two enclosed private offices, a kitchen, and two restrooms. Open and closed spaces have been deliberately balanced to give clients both a welcoming atmosphere and the confidentiality they often require during real estate conversations. A striking scale model of Caribbean Town-Palm, Aruba’s flagship development, greets visitors at the heart of the showroom floor.

Looking ahead to the official launch. The official public opening is scheduled for June 24th. The team plans to welcome island authorities, fellow brokers and agents, and community leaders to experience the new facilities firsthand. The message is clear: starting July, Weichert® – Aruba Realty is present on the island and ready to serve. The company aims to create a measurable, positive impact on Aruba’s real estate industry by combining local expertise, a powerful international brand, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.

This soft opening reinforces PalmAruba Group’s long-term vision of elevating real estate standards on the island, now backed by the strength of one of the most respected franchises in the world.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior, which manages the National Mall in downtown Washington, described the incident as “deranged vandalism” and said it “will not be tolerated.”

“Any threat against the president is taken very seriously by the department, and our U.S. Park Police will investigate this incident and hold those responsible accountable,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The Trump Justice Department has claimed previously that the numbers “8647” constitute a threat to the president — “86” meaning to kill and “47” a reference to Trump being the 47th president.

Former FBI director James Comey, an outspoken political opponent of Trump, was indicted in April for allegedly threatening the Republican president in an Instagram post that showed the numbers “8647” spelled out in seashells.

Comey apologized at the time for the Instagram post, denied threatening the president and said he “didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.”

The Park Police said grass samples have been collected for testing to determine what caused the discoloration of the lawn on the National Mall and the investigation is ongoing.

He will control more than 82 percent of its voting shares. There is no designated successor, no deputy and no key-person life insurance written into its filings.

The world’s most valuable IPO depends entirely on one man.

“He’s completely upending the conventional conduct of running a publicly traded corporation by declaring himself an irreplaceable dream weaver and master engineer of the whole undertaking,” Quinn Slobodian, co-author with Ben Tarnoff of “Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed,” told AFP in an interview.

For Slobodian, a professor of international history at Boston University who has spent years studying Musk’s empire, that brazen concentration of personal power is not a flaw in the SpaceX offering — it is its defining feature.

SpaceX is targeting a valuation of approximately $1.8 trillion and aims to raise $75 billion when trading opens Friday under the ticker SPCX, in what will be the largest public offering in history.

– Jobs and Gates –

To understand how Musk positioned himself as literally irreplaceable, Slobodian pointed to the “prophetic founder” model exemplified by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

“Jobs and Gates are kind of the template,” Slobodian said, adding that Musk’s decision to give Walter Isaacson — the biographer who immortalized Jobs — access for his own biography was itself a tell.

What gave Musk’s version of that archetype genuine credibility, Slobodian argued, was a willingness to go against the grain of early 21st-century investment orthodoxy.

At a time when “design in California, assemble in China” was the way — with the iPhone as the example — Musk poured his early fortune from PayPal into a rocket company and an electric vehicle manufacturer, both requiring him to solve brutally hard engineering problems.

His distance from his tech-billionaire peers is now measurable in purely financial terms.

Musk’s fortune, expected to hit $1 trillion with the IPO, is approaching three times the size of that of the second richest person on the planet, currently Google co-founder Larry Page.

“He’s operating at a different scale, and with a scope of ambition that just makes him singular,” Slobodian said.

– Too big to fail –

Musk is often framed as a libertarian entrepreneur who built his empire outside the reach of government.

Slobodian argues that Musk has always depended on government as primary client or subsidy giver, from his earliest startup Zip2’s reliance on publicly funded GPS data to the billions SpaceX draws in federal contracts today.

He pointed in particular to what he described as SpaceX’s Golden Dome contracts, worth $4 billion, to supply satellite infrastructure for the Trump administration’s proposed national missile defense shield.

In his view, SpaceX is structurally too critical to national security interests for any administration to let it fail.

“If Trump gave a second thought to bailing out Spirit Airlines,” Slobodian said of the bankrupt low-cost carrier, “what about SpaceX?”

– After Henry Ford –

Slobodian situated Musk’s alignment with far-right movements in the United States and sovereigntist parties in Europe as serving commercial ends, not merely personal ones.

He argued that Musk sees compliant political partners both abroad and at home as essential to obtaining the regulatory approvals SpaceX needs: spectrum allocations, satellite launch rights and permission to operate Starlink in key markets.

That worldview, Slobodian and Tarnoff contend in their book, has roots in Musk’s upbringing in the suburbs of Pretoria under apartheid-era South Africa — a regime they argue deployed IBM mainframes and advanced technology to control the population through data collection and surveillance.

As for whether the Musk model outlasts the dream weaver himself, Slobodian pointed to Palantir — which, like SpaceX, first broke into government work by suing the US military for contracts — as one potential carrier of the torch.

But a true successor, he suggested, may be hard to find, “just as there was no Henry Ford after Henry Ford,” only imitations.

(Oranjestad)—When traveling to any country, it’s important to make sure you have the right documents with you. For Aruba, one document that always seems to confuse people is the ED card. Scammers have taken advantage of the confusion, with dozen of fake and identical website overcharging visitors. To avoid this happening to you, here’s a brief guide on how to obtain the ED card the right way: What website to use and how much it actually costs.

The Embarkation/ Disembarkation (ED) card is a pre-registration form required to enter Aruba. The ED Card has been in a requirement for visitors for decades and in 2020 it was digitalized. In 2024, the government of Aruba implemented a sustainability fee for all visitors of the island, which include a $20 contribution for the improvement, updating and maintenance of the local waste water plant.

First things first, make sure you have the right website. The official website for the ED card is www.edcardaruba.aw. It is important to note that there are NO alternatives for this website; this website is the ONLY way you can obtain an official ED card. Other website that may look similar are not official and may possibly be a scam. Be careful not to fall for the trap!

Next up, make sure you have the right information with you when you apply for an ED card. You should have on hand:

1. A valid passport

2. Personal details

3. Contact information

4. Travel information

5. A valid credit card (Visa, Mastercard or Discover)

We mentioned a $20 contribution mandatory for every visitor. Keep in mind that this is a YEARLY fee; so if you plan on visiting Aruba more than once this calendar year, you would only have to pay the first time around.

Other important info

We should clarify that the ED card is not a substitute for a visa. Visitors who need a visa for Aruba must apply for both a visa and an online ED card. You can also start applying for the ED card 6 days before your flight.

If you extend your trip, you don’t have to reapply for or edit your ED card. However, you must reapply if you missed your flight and/or your flight got canceled and your traveling to the island on another flight.

For more info, visit the official website for ED card of contact the immigration office of Aruba at (+297) 523 7404 or email them at info@dga.aw