overhaul

A POPULAR seaside town known for being home to ‘the Golden Mile’ is getting a huge makeover.

Great Yarmouth in Norfolk will have several projects taking place this year that will transform the seaside town.

The first is the opening of the 19th century Maritime House and the Old Duke art deco pub.

Maritime House is located on the seafront and has been abandoned for the past five years.

Originally, it was a safe house for sailors who became shipwrecked nearby and then over the years it has also been a museum and a tourist information centre.

When it reopens – which is expected to be in the spring – it will be a cafe and a block of flats.

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The Old Duke pub will also reopen this year, which closed back in 2007, with works expected to cost £2.4million.

Another spot getting a huge makeover is the Victorian Winter Gardens, which will undergo a £18million restoration this year and open next year.

The Grade II-listed landmark, which was originally built in Torquay in Devon in 1878, is the UK’s last surviving Victorian seaside cast iron and glass winter gardens.

The attraction will reopen as the ‘People’s Palace’ with indoor gardens, community areas, cafes and a number of different venues for leisure, entertainment and learning.

The final project is the North Quay – costing £20million and taking place over the next few years.

The area will become “a high-quality mix of commercial, residential, leisure and public realm uses”.

The 10-acre riverside area is set to include a ‘Leisure Box’ which will include an Imax-ready multi-screen cinema, around 70 shops, restaurants, cafes, housing and a 100 to 120-room hotel.

There will also be flexible workspaces and parking for up to 900 cars.

Along the waterside, there will be new walkways, play areas and public squares.

A cycle route will also connect the North Quay with the town centre.

On Instagram, Great Yarmouth Council noted: “This multi-layered development is set to create hundreds of jobs, boost local businesses, attract up to two million visitors a year, and strengthen Great Yarmouth’s position as a leading destination to live, work and visit.

“With sustainability, accessibility and community at its heart, the North Quay project is designed to unlock the town’s full potential and deliver long-lasting benefits for residents and visitors alike.”

Councillor Carl Smith, leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said: “This incredibly exciting development will breathe new life into our town and is something we have been working towards for many years.

“It will bring hundreds of new jobs for local people and build on our reputation as a wonderful place to visit and spend time.

“In tandem with bold regeneration completed or underway in the Market Place, The Conge and other locations in the town, North Quay demonstrates the confidence successful businesses have in the future of our borough.”

Great Yarmouth is known for its sandy beaches, which are often referred to as ‘the Golden Mile’.

The town has a number of traditional seaside attractions too, including Wellington Pier, Britannia Pier, the Pleasure Beach and the Hippodrome Circus.

For literature lovers, the town has several links to famous authors, such as Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, in which Great Yarmouth is referred to as “the finest place in the universe”.

In other seaside town news, the UK’s sunniest beach town feels like going back in time has ‘no arcades’ and barely any rain.

Plus, our favourite UK seaside towns to visit in winter – with seal cruises, seafront pubs and secret beaches.

Jan. 12 (Asia Today) — Kim Jong-cheol, chairman of South Korea’s broadcasting media and communications regulator, urged the Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corporation, known as Kobako to pursue budget efficiency and business restructuring as broadcast advertising continues to weaken and spending shifts to online platforms.

Kim made the comments Monday during a public business report at the Gwacheon government complex covering affiliated institutions, including Kobaco and the Viewers’ Media Foundation.

“The decline in the broadcast advertising market is a global phenomenon,” Kim told Kobaco President Min Young-sam, adding that Kobaco’s challenges appear heavier than those facing other institutions.

A 2025 survey on broadcast and telecommunications advertising spending released by the regulator and Kobaco showed online advertising spending reached 10.1011 trillion won (about $7.8 billion) in 2024, accounting for 59% of total ad spending.

Online advertising has climbed steadily since topping 10 trillion won for the first time in 2023, with 2025 sales estimated at 10.7204 trillion won (about $8.2 billion), according to the survey.

Broadcast advertising continued to decline, falling more than 15% to 3.3898 trillion won (about $2.6 billion) in 2023 from 4.0212 trillion won (about $3.1 billion) in 2022. It slipped another 5% to 3.2191 trillion won (about $2.5 billion) in 2024, or 18.8% of total ad spending, the survey said.

Kim said Kobaco’s management performance evaluation has worsened for three consecutive years and called for introspection. He said Kobaco’s performance has fallen about 3 percentage points faster than overall broadcast advertising revenue, adding that the result is “painful” given the generally strong broadcasters Kobaco works with.

Min said deregulation is needed to help Kobaco expand into new markets, calling for legislative passage of a proposed amendment to the advertising sales agency law. He said Kobaco faces limits on entering parts of the digital advertising market and said “cross-media agencies” should be introduced so firms selling broadcast ads can also handle online and mobile advertising.

Kim said structural responses are needed but urged the corporation to focus on measures it can take on its own, including restructuring, to use this year’s budget more efficiently.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

The Trump administration announced a major overhaul of American nutrition guidelines Wednesday, replacing the old, carbohydrate-heavy food pyramid with one that prioritizes protein, healthy fats and whole grains.

“Our government declares war on added sugar,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a White House news conference announcing the changes. “We are ending the war on saturated fats.”

“If a foreign adversary sought to destroy the health of our children, to cripple our economy, to weaken our national security, there would be no better strategy than to addict us to ultra-processed foods,” Kennedy said.

Improving U.S. eating habits and the availability of nutritious foods is an issue with broad bipartisan support, and has been a long-standing goal of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement.

During the news conference, he acknowledged both the American Medical Assn. and the American Academy of Pediatrics for partnering on the new guidelines — two organizations that earlier this week condemned the administration’s decision to slash the number of diseases that U.S. children are vaccinated against.

“The American Medical Association applauds the administration’s new Dietary Guidelines for spotlighting the highly processed foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and excess sodium that fuel heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic illnesses,” AMA President Bobby Mukkamala said in a statement.

DEVON’s ‘English Riviera’ is bouncing back to its former glory.

Once a 19th-century Golden Age hotspot that boasted visiting Royalty such as Princess Victoria, the trio of towns known as Torbay (also the English Riviera) is getting a multi-million-pound makeover.

Known for its microclimate and green palms, the region once attracted the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Darwin, and dancer Isadora Duncan.

Famous crime writer Agatha Christie was even born in one of the towns.

But after years of decline and boarded-up shops, a massive overhaul is getting underway. Here’s everything you need to know.

Torquay

Torquay is known as the ‘Queen of the Riviera’ with a population of over 50,000 people and while Paignton is bigger, Torquay is often seen as the main hub for tourism in the area.

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The town was named in a Which? survey last year as Britain’s least favourite town, with locals admitting they felt “embarrassed” by the state of the town centre.

The good news is that the town will soon see a number of changes, including at the top of the high street, where Union Square Shopping Centre is found.

The rundown destination will be demolished and in its place around 100 new homes, healthcare facilities and new shops will be built, with construction starting this year.

Also on Higher Union Street, the area surrounding the shopping centre will be revitalised as part of a broader 10-year plan.

Moving down the high street, you will eventually reach the harbour, which will have a completely new look, including a completely new promenade already in place.

A derelict Debenhams store will be demolished and replaced with a mixed-use development, which might include a high-end boutique hotel.

The total cost for the town centre and harbour redevelopment is set to cost between £60 and £70million.

Moving around the harbour, on the cliffside, there is currently a huge netted structure which is the former Living Coasts site – a visitor attraction that had seals, penguins and a number of other marine life.

The coastal zoo featured the world’s first open-air aviary for birds but closed permanently in 2020.

The site is now hoped to be turned into a marine innovation hub, run by Arc Marine, which will work on reef restoration.

Back towards the harbour, you will find Torquay Pavilion, which opened back in 1911.

The iconic building features a copper-covered dome which is topped with a life-size figure of Britannia and was originally a theatre, then a shopping centre before closing to the public in 2013.

Currently, there is a consultation for what the venue could be turned into in the future, with the project reportedly costing £11million.

Rumours and past suggestions have included an Agatha Christie attraction – who was born in the town – with a permanent exhibition and research centre or a concert hall.

With the flurry of new developments, there are also new hotels popping up across the bay.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump has spent much of his two-week vacation in Florida golfing. But when he gets back to the White House, there’s a military golf course that he’s never played that he’s eyeing for a major construction project.

Long a favored getaway for presidents seeking a few hours’ solace from the stress of running the free world, the Courses at Andrews — inside the secure confines of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, about 15 miles from the White House — are known as the “president’s golf course.” Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden have spent time there, and Barack Obama played it more frequently than any president, roughly 110 times in eight years.

Trump has always preferred the golf courses his family owns — spending about one of every four days of his second term at one of them. But he’s now enlisted golf champion Jack Nicklaus as the architect to overhaul the Courses at Andrews.

“It’s amazing that an individual has time to take a couple hours away from the world crises. And they’re people like everybody else,” said Michael Thomas, the former general manager of the course, who has golfed with many of the presidents visiting Andrews over the years.

Andrews, better known as the home of Air Force One, has two 18-hole courses and a 9-hole one. Its facilities have undergone renovations in the past, including in 2018, when Congress approved funding to replace aging presidential aircraft and to build a new hangar and support facilities. That project was close enough to the courses that they had to be altered then, too.

Trump toured the base by helicopter before Thanksgiving with Nicklaus, who has designed top courses the world over. The president called Andrews “a great place, that’s been destroyed over the years, through lack of maintenance.”

Other golfers, though, describe Andrews’ grounds as in good shape, despite some dry patches. Online reviews praise the course’s mature trees, tricky roughs, and ponds and streams that serve as water hazards. The courses are mostly flat, but afford views of the surrounding base.

‘They all like to drive the cart’

The first president to golf at Andrews was Ford in 1974. Thomas began working there a couple years later, and was general manager from 1981 until he retired in 2019.

He said the Secret Service over the years used as many as 28 golf carts — as well as the president’s usual 30-car motorcade — to keep the perimeter secure.

“It’s a Cecil B. DeMille production every time,” said Thomas, who had the opportunity to play rounds with four different presidents, and with Biden when he was vice president.

He said the commanders in chief generally enjoyed their time out on the course in their own unique ways, but “they all like to drive the cart because they never get an opportunity to drive.”

“It’s like getting your driver’s license all over again,” Thomas laughed.

Trump golfs most weekends, and as of Friday, has spent an estimated 93 days of his second term doing so, according to an Associated Press analysis of his schedules.

That tally includes days when Trump was playing courses his family owns in Virginia, around 30 miles from the White House, and near his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, where he’s spending the winter holidays. It also includes 10 days Trump spent staying at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where his schedule allowed time for rounds of golf.

Trump has visited Andrews in the past, but the White House and base have no record of him playing the courses.

Another of Trump’s construction projects

Andrews’ military history dates to the Civil War, when Union troops used a church near Camp Springs, Md., as sleeping quarters. Its golf course opened in 1960.

The White House said the renovation will be the most significant in the history of Andrews. The courses and clubhouse need improvements due to age and wear, it said, and there are discussions about including a multifunctional event center as part of the project.

“President Trump is a champion-level golfer with an extraordinary eye for detail and design,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “His vision to renovate and beautify Joint Base Andrews’ golf courses will bring much-needed improvements that service members and their families will be able to enjoy for generations to come.”

Plans are in the very early stages, and the cost of — and funding for — the project haven’t been determined, the White House said. Trump has said only that it will require “very little money.”

The Andrews improvements join a bevy of Trump construction projects, including demolishing the White House’s East Wing for a sprawling ballroom now expected to cost $400 million, redoing the bathroom attached to the Lincoln bedroom and replacing the Rose Garden’s lawn with a Mar-a-Lago-like patio area.

Outside the White House, Trump has led building projects at the Kennedy Center and wants to erect a Paris-style arch near the Lincoln Memorial, and has said he wants to rebuild Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, the Trump administration ended a lease agreement with a nonprofit for three public golf courses in Washington — which could allow the president to further shape golfing in the nation’s capital. The White House, however, said that move isn’t related to the plans for Andrews.

Presidential perks of golfing at Andrews

When the president is golfing, Andrews officials block off nine holes at a time so no one plays in front of him, allowing for extra security while also ensuring consistent speed-of-play, Thomas said.

That’s relatively easily done given that the courses aren’t open to the public. They’re usually reserved for active or retired members of the military and their families, as well as some Defense Department-linked federal employees.

Thomas remembers playing a round with the older President Bush, a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee known for fast play, while first lady Barbara Bush walked with Millie, the first couple’s English Springer Spaniel. George W. Bush also played fast, Thomas said, and got additional exercise by frequently riding his mountain bike before golfing.

When he wasn’t golfing at Andrews, Obama tried to recreate at least part of the experience back home. He had a White House golf simulator installed after then-first lady Michelle Obama asked Thomas how they might acquire a model that the president had seen advertised on the Golf Channel. Thomas gave her a contact at the network.

Obama famously cut short a round at Andrews after nine holes in 2011 to hustle back to the White House for what turned out to be a top-secret review of final preparations for a Navy SEAL raid on the compound of Osama bin Laden.

But, while Thomas was golfing with presidents, he said he never witnessed play interrupted by an important call or any major emergency that forced them off the course mid-hole. There also were never any rain-outs.

“If there was rain coming, they’d get the weather forecast before we would,” Thomas said. “They would cancel quick on that.”

Weissert writes for the Associated Press.

The move opens key assets to private investment and comes as Petroperu faces mounting losses and debt.

Peru’s government has approved an emergency decree allowing private investment in parts of the state-owned oil company Petroperu, as authorities move to stabilise a firm weighed down by mounting losses and debt.

President Jose Jeri announced the decision shortly before the beginning of the new year.

The measure permits the reorganisation of Petroperu into one or more asset units, opening the door to private participation in key operations. That includes those at the flagship Talara refinery, which recently underwent a $6.5bn upgrade.

Beyond the refinery, Petroperu operates or holds concessions for six crude oil blocks with limited production, alongside a nationwide fuel distribution and marketing network.

In a statement, Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said the decree seeks to “ensure compliance with financial obligations through technical management of its assets, laying the foundation for Petroperu to become a self-sustaining company”.

The ministry said the company’s financial position “is particularly sensitive”, citing accumulated losses of $479m between January and October 2025, as well as debts to suppliers totalling $764m through December.

Those figures come on top of reported losses of $774m in the previous year.

Petroperu’s financial strain has been compounded by debt linked to the Talara refinery modernisation, which ultimately cost double its original estimate and led to the company losing its investment-grade credit rating in 2022.

Since then, the government has repeatedly stepped in to support the firm, providing about $5.3bn in financing between 2022 and 2024.

The company, which is seen as crucial to Peru’s energy security, has also faced environmental scrutiny.

Authorities declared an “environmental emergency” and launched an investigation following an oil spill along a stretch of the country’s northern coastline in 2024, affecting an estimated 47 to 229 hectares (about 116 to 566 acres).

The Petroperu restructuring effort comes amid persistent political instability in Peru. Several presidents have failed to complete full terms in recent years, including Dina Boluarte, who was impeached by Congress in October.

Her successor, Jeri, has struggled to steady leadership at Petroperu, appointing three board chairs in just three months.

The move comes as Peru faces continuing political volatility, economic uncertainty and public pressure for stronger oversight of state institutions.