Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner on February 14 and “Day After Valentine’s” Brunch on February 15, Reservations Recommended

EAGLE BEACH — On the most romantic day of the year, couples are invited to celebrate love in one of the Caribbean’s most iconic settings: Elements Restaurant, the award-winning, adults-only dining destination at Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort, overlooking Eagle Beach. In 2025, Tripadvisor ranked Elements as the #1 Fine Dining Restaurant in the Caribbean and the #7 Best Spot for Date Night in the World and named it, placing it among the most celebrated restaurants worldwide.

To mark the occasion, Elements will host a romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner on Saturday, February 14, 2026, followed by an extended celebration with a special “Day After Valentine’s” Brunch on Sunday, February 15. Both experiences feature the same curated Couples’ Valentine’s menu, offering guests the opportunity to celebrate either under the evening sky or in the warm glow of a relaxed seaside brunch.

A Prime Eagle Beach Location with Panoramic Views

Elements is perched above Eagle Beach — Tripadvisor’s #3 Best Beach in the World and #1 Best Beach in the Caribbean — and offers a dining experience defined as much by its setting as by its cuisine. From its elevated position, the restaurant commands panoramic views across the white sands and turquoise sea, creating a cinematic atmosphere that feels effortlessly romantic from the very first course to the last.

Guests may choose to dine on the shaded Elements Deck, where ocean breezes and sweeping views set the tone for an open-air celebration, or inside in the elegant, air-conditioned indoor dining space, where expansive panoramic windows keep Eagle Beach fully in view while offering cool comfort and refined intimacy. Whether couples choose the deck or the indoor setting, the ambience remains the same: elevated, serene, and designed for connection.

A Special Couples’ Valentine’s Menu Served for Both Dinner and Brunch

The Couples’ Valentine’s menu, served on both February 14 and February 15, begins with a celebratory welcome toast and unfolds through a series of thoughtfully crafted courses designed for sharing. The experience includes refined soups and elegant starters such as locally produced burrata paired with roasted grapes, as well as sesame-seared tuna with tropical ponzu. Guests are then invited to choose from a selection of mains, including filet mignon, seared chicken, or fresh mahi mahi, complemented by warm seasonal accompaniments and rich finishing touches. The menu concludes with a refreshing rosé sorbet and a decadent dessert-sharing platter, offering a sweet finale to an evening—or afternoon—of romance. For couples looking to elevate the celebration even further, optional premium Champagne upgrades are available.

Reserve Early, Seating Is Limited

With its award-winning culinary reputation, adults-only atmosphere, and extraordinary location overlooking one of the world’s most celebrated beaches, Valentine’s weekend seating at Elements is already filling up quickly. Guests are encouraged to reserve early to secure their preferred dining time.

Plumb, his team’s head of “AI enablement,” says he was so prolific in his use of Amazon’s new AI coding tool that the company flagged him as one of its top users.

Many assumed Amazon’s 16,000 corporate layoffs announced last week reflected CEO Andy Jassy’s push to “reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”

But like other companies that have tied workforce changes to AI — including Expedia, Pinterest and Dow last week — it can be hard for economists, or individual employees like Plumb, to know if AI is the real reason behind the layoffs or if it’s the message a company wants to tell Wall Street.

“AI has to drive a return on investment,” said Plumb, who worked at Amazon for eight years. “When you reduce head count, you’ve demonstrated efficiency, you attract more capital, the share price goes up.”

“So you could potentially have just been bloated in the first place, reduce head count, attribute it to AI, and now you’ve got a value story,” he said.

Amazon said in an emailed statement that AI was “not the reason behind the vast majority of these reductions.”

“These changes are about continuing to strengthen our culture and teams by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and helping reduce bureaucracy to drive speed and ownership,” it said.

“We just don’t know,” said Karan Girotra, a professor of management at Cornell University’s business school. “Not because AI isn’t great, but because it requires a lot of adjustment and most of the gains accrue to individual employees rather than to the organization. People save time and they get their work done earlier.”

If an employer works faster because of AI, Girotra said it takes time to adjust a company’s management structure in a way that would enable a smaller workforce. He’s not convinced that’s happening at Amazon, which he said is still scaling back from a glut of hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A report by Goldman Sachs said AI’s overall impact on the labor market remains limited, though some effects might be felt in “specific occupations like marketing, graphic design, customer service, and especially tech.” Those are fields involving tasks that correlate with the strengths of the current crop of generative AI chatbots that can write emails and marketing pitches, produce synthetic images, answer questions and help write code.

But the bank’s economic research division said in its most recent monthly AI adoption tracker that, since December, “very few employees were affected by corporate layoffs attributed to AI,” though the report was published Jan. 16, before Amazon, Dow and Pinterest announced their layoffs.

San Francisco-based Pinterest was the most explicit in asserting that AI drove it to cut up to 15% of its workforce. The social media company said it was “making organizational changes to further deliver on our AI-forward strategy, which includes hiring AI-proficient talent. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team members.”

Pinterest echoed that message in a regulatory disclosure that said the company was “reallocating resources to AI-focused roles and teams that drive AI adoption and execution.”

Expedia has voiced a similar message but the 162 tech workers the travel website cut from its Seattle headquarters last week included several AI-specific roles, such as machine-learning scientists.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week that 2026 will be when “AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work.”

“We’re investing in AI-native tooling so individuals at Meta can get more done, we’re elevating individual contributors, and flattening teams,” he said on an earnings call. “We’re starting to see projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person.”

So far, Meta’s layoffs this year have focused on cutting jobs from its virtual reality and metaverse divisions. Also driving job impacts is the industry shifting resources to AI development, which requires huge spending on computer chips, energy-hungry data centers and talent.

Jassy told Amazon employees last June to be “curious about AI, educate yourself, attend workshops and take trainings, use and experiment with AI whenever you can, participate in your team’s brainstorms to figure out how to invent for our customers more quickly and expansively, and how to get more done with scrappier teams.”

Plumb was fully on board with that and said he demonstrated his proficiency in using Amazon’s AI coding tool, Kiro, to “solve massive problems” in the company’s compensation system.

“If you weren’t using them, your manager would get a report and they would talk to you about using it,” he said. “There were only five people in the entire company that were a higher user of Kiro than I was, or had achieved more milestones.”

Not all companies are signaling AI as a reason for cuts. Home Depot confirmed on Thursday that it was eliminating 800 roles tied to its corporate headquarters in Atlanta, though most of the affected employees worked remotely.

Home Depot’s spokesman George Lane said that Home Depot’s cuts were not driven by AI or automation but “truly about speed, agility” and serving the needs of its customers and front-line workers.

And exercise equipment maker Peloton confirmed on Friday that it is reducing its workforce by 11% as part of a broader cost-cutting move to pare down operating expenses.

His annual prediction and announcement that he had seen his shadow was translated by his top hat-wearing handlers in the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club at Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania.

The news was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos from the tens of thousands who braved temperatures in the single-digits Fahrenheit to await the annual prognostication. The extreme cold kept the crowd bundled up and helped keep people on the main stage dancing.

Usually guests can come up on stage and take pictures of Phil after his prediction, but this year the announcer said it was too cold for that and his handlers were afraid to keep him out too long. Instead, the audience was asked to come to the stage, turn around and “do a selfie.”

Agreeing with Punxsutawney Phil that more winter weather is on the way this year have been Buffalo Bert, a New York groundhog, and groundhog mascot Dover Doug in Pennsylvania. Also in the “more winter” camp were That Dog Named Gidget, a Havanese in New York, and possum Birmingham Jill in Alabama.

Last year’s announcement was six more weeks of winter, not much of a surprise during the first week of February. His handlers insist Phil’s “groundhogese” of winks, purrs, chatters and nods are being interpreted when they relate the meteorological marmot’s muses about the days ahead.

AccuWeather’s chief long-range weather expert, meteorologist Paul Pastelok, said early Monday some clouds moved into Punxsutawney overnight, bringing flurries he called “microflakes.”

Pastelok said the coming week will remain cold, with below-average temperatures in the eastern United States.

Delighting the people of Aruba, the most popular song of the season crowned Lord Lally as Soca Monarch 2026.

“The Lizard Kacking,” composed by Soilo Sanchez, arranged by Emil Krozendijk, and performed by Lord Lally with Hot Ones Band, created a sensation from its very first presentation.

The Top 5 was completed by:

Mitch with Tsunami, with the song “Kurukuchu,” in 5th place;

Galloway with Tsunami, with the song “Turnaround,” in 4th place;

Mighty Tattoo with Zeta Band and the song “Right or Wrong,” in 3rd place;

and Diamond Chip with Groove Masters, singing “Born in Soca,” in 2nd place.

In the photo, you can see a large crowd enjoying Lord Lally’s performance, courtesy of Awe24.

Lord Lally stole people’s heart with his catchy songs, becoming an overnight sensation and meme. Many were left disappointed when Lord Lally did not go over to the finals round of the competition, and rallied for his return. Stichting Musica (Music Foundation) set up a voting poll to bring back any of one of the participants who did not pass through, and to no one surprise, Lord Lally won with almost all of the vote!

This shows the true spirit of Carnaval: the community coming together and celebrating each other!

On Sunday, February 1, Carnival 72 officially kicked off after Prime Minister Mike Eman received the 2026 Carnival monarchs at the Bestuurskantoor, where the traditional transfer of authority took place. During the symbolic ceremony, the Prime Minister handed over the Carnival key, thereby granting the monarchs the mandate to lead, take charge of, and guide Aruba’s largest cultural celebration.

The transfer of authority is a cultural tradition in which the Government of Aruba symbolically entrusts Carnival leadership into the hands of the monarchs, recognizing their role as ambassadors of joy, identity, and unity within the community.

The 2026 monarchs are:

Children’s Queen Amélie Koolman

Youth Queen Kyra Jong

Adult Queen Gabriela Croes

Mrs. Carnival Marylain Kock

Children’s Prince and Pancho: Kirenzly Petit (Prince Ami) and Maison Gotze (Pancho Abo)

Youth Prince and Pancho: Leandray Gomes (Prince Ma) and Jeaven Lanting (Pancho Bisabo)

Grand Prince and Pancho: Shaundrik Ventura (Prince Los) and Jerwin Mercera (Pancho Eeeee)

Adult Prince and Pancho: Jairo Maduro (Prince Lanta Para) and Tyson Croes (Pancho Boso por sinta)

SMAC 2026 Monarchs:

Children’s Tumba King Jaymerson Kelly

Youth Tumba Queen Melody Franken

Children’s Calypso King Ashandric Richardson

Children’s Roadmarch Queen Adeliza Henriquez

Youth Calypso Queen Caylee Pietersz

Youth Roadmarch King Brayden Elisabeth

Tumba King Loco Gino Petrocchi

Tumba King Rodrick Franken

After the Children’s Prince and Pancho read their decree, the Prime Minister presented them with the symbolic machete. The Youth Prince and Pancho received their swords, while the Adult and Grand Prince and Pancho received the key, symbolizing their roles as Carnival leaders.