brings

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has made a surprise appearance at United States-hosted G20 finance talks in North Carolina, sparking frustration and dismay among European ministers and officials.

Siluanov’s appearance at the talks in Asheville on Monday marks the first time the minister, who was appointed in 2011, has attended a G20 meeting in person since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

He held a bilateral meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with Russia’s Ministry of Finance saying the two men discussed financial cooperation within the G20 framework.

A US official said the meeting focused on US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine.

Asked about the invitation to Siluanov, Trump told reporters: “We like getting along with everybody. One of the reasons I’m so successful, I get along with everybody.”

European officials, however, criticised the move.

Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said he was unhappy to see Moscow represented, although he recognised the right of G20 hosts to invite guests.

“We do not trust Russia. They lie constantly, and you need to be really, really cautious while discussing with them,” ⁠he told the Reuters news agency, stressing that Russia was the aggressor in its conflict with Ukraine.

“So for me, it would be very difficult to have any kind of conversation with Russia.”

‘Troubling’ signal

German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said the US’s decision to welcome Siluanov sent a “signal I find troubling”.

He said he told Siluanov during a plenary session that Moscow had to end the war and “that we clearly support Ukraine”.

He also said Europe was preparing a further package of sanctions against Russia and hoped for close cooperation with Washington on the measures.

European ministers and central bankers also opposed appearing with Siluanov in the traditional G20 “family photo”, European officials said. The photograph was ultimately taken without the Russian minister.

Klingbeil said European officials, including European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, had discussed Russia’s involvement on Sunday and agreed that maintaining an avenue for dialogue could allow them to deliver a frank message to Moscow.

“However, the mere fact that the Russian finance minister is back – after, I believe, four G20 meetings without Russian participation – indicates an attempt at normalisation, and that makes it all the more important for us to push back,” he said.

Siluanov’s appearance marked a sharp contrast with the G20 meeting in Washington, DC, in April 2022, when his virtual participation prompted officials from Canada, the United Kingdom, the US, and the European Central Bank to walk out.

White House defends talks with Russia

Asked about Siluanov’s attendance, White House spokesman Kush Desai told the AFP news agency that the Trump administration had been working with Russia to push for a deal that “would stop the endless bloodshed that the president has really condemned”.

“The president and the administration will never shy away from talking with the folks we need to talk to, to further that,” he said. “That’s what we’re working on here at the G20.”

Separately, Reuters and AFP, citing sources familiar with the Washington-Moscow talks, said Bessent had made clear that the US would not provide Russia with economic relief until war in Ukraine was over.

Trump has pushed Moscow and Kyiv to reach a deal to halt the fighting, but an initial 28-point plan that largely adhered to Russia’s demands was criticised by Ukraine and European governments.

The US, which currently holds the rotating G20 presidency, did not invite South Africa, last year’s G20 host, to the gathering. Poland, which is not a permanent G20 member, was invited.

Certain reporters from major US newsrooms, including The New York Times and Bloomberg News, were not granted credentials to cover the gathering.

The decision was condemned by the National Press Club, which said that “no administration should be allowed to handpick the press corps that scrutinizes it”.

The two-day meeting comes as global debt levels have reached a record of nearly $353 trillion and the global economy faces an energy shock triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran. The talks also come amid rising tensions over China’s large trade surplus and uncertainty over the effects of a surge in artificial intelligence investment.

Aug. 28 (UPI) — Panama has brought home 17 citizens linked to the war between Russia and Ukraine as prosecutors investigate an alleged network accused of recruiting Panamanians for military service through false job offers.

The Foreign Ministry said Thursday that 11 of the citizens returned from Russia and six from Ukraine after diplomatic and consular efforts coordinated with Panamanian missions abroad. The statement did not identify the returnees or specify when they arrived.

Panamanian officials held four meetings with representatives of the Russian Embassy and two with Ukrainian Embassy officials to seek the release of citizens serving with military forces and arrange their return.

Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha also sent diplomatic communications to Russian and Ukrainian authorities to request their cooperation on humanitarian grounds.

Panama’s embassies in Russia and Poland, which handle the country’s diplomatic affairs involving Ukraine, continue working to locate and assist other Panamanians connected to the conflict, officials said.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office began to investigate the alleged recruitment operation in June. A judge on Aug. 18 ordered the pretrial detention of a third suspect charged with aggravated human trafficking.

The suspect was detained Aug. 16 at Tocumen International Airport after arriving from Colombia under an Interpol alert, the prosecutor’s office said.

Prosecutors said Panamanians were allegedly offered jobs paying more than $2,500 per month, but were placed in forced military work after reaching Eastern Europe.

Two men who returned from Ukraine told reporters Aug. 12 they knew they were traveling to the country, but had been promised they would not be required to participate in combat missions.

They said their passports and phones were taken after they arrived and that they were required to sign contracts written in Ukrainian without receiving Spanish translations.

“We were told that they would not take our passports, that we would not lose contact with our families and that they would not take our phones,” one of the men said, according to Panama’s La Prensa. “When we arrived, that was the first thing that happened.”

The men said recruiters used TikTok, Instagram and WhatsApp to find candidates. They spent about six weeks in Ukraine and said they did not receive the money they had been promised.

The Foreign Ministry estimated that approximately 30 Panamanians may have been or remained connected to the conflict, including 13 associated with Russian forces and 17 with Ukrainian forces.

The ministry stressed that the figures were preliminary, and said some people enlisted voluntarily while others reported being deceived by offers of civilian work.

Panama is not the only country in the region facing cases of deceptive recruitment. Peru has reported a significantly larger recruitment operation.

In early August, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry said that it had official information showing 459 Peruvians had enlisted, including 11 who died, 114 who were missing and three who were captured by Ukrainian forces.

Peruvian authorities evacuated 31 citizens, including 28 who returned to Peru and three who chose to remain elsewhere in Europe. Four of those evacuated said they had escaped forced recruitment.

Prosecutors opened a human trafficking investigation May 1 after families reported that Peruvians had been offered security and other jobs in Russia before allegedly being forced into combat.

Similar allegations have emerged in Bolivia and Colombia.

Bolivia’s Deputy Consular Affairs Minister Héctor Huanca said in July that approximately 16 Bolivians might be in combat zones, although he described the figure as preliminary, Unitel reported. Bolivian prosecutors opened a human trafficking investigation involving false employment offers.

In Colombia, Noticias Caracol reported in early August that families had documented dozens of suspected recruits, although no nationwide official count was available. A Tolima regional official separately told Caracol Radio that authorities knew of at least six local cases involving allegedly false job offers.

Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Arturo Hoyos said Panamanians are still traveling to become involved in the conflict despite repeated warnings.

“We urge, recommend and almost implore Panamanians not to go,” Hoyos said to El Siglo.

The Magic Castle is getting in on the theme park game.

The famed Hollywood institution is teaming up with Knott’s Berry Farm for its after-hours Halloween event, Knott’s Scary Farm, now in its 53rd year. The Magic Castle will supply the artists and show direction for a production that is expected to run nightly in the park’s recently refurbished Bird Cage Theatre.

The theme park initially reached out to the Magic Castle last year, says Payden Adams, vice president of entertainment for Knott’s Berry Farm, but the castle was in the middle of a leadership reorganization at the time. With that completed, a partnership could finally begin.

“It is just astounding what they’ve done with the Bird Cage Theatre,” says Jessica Hopkins, granddaughter of castle pioneers Bill and Irene Larsen and the castle’s chief operating officer. “Magic Castle magicians have been performing in there for decades. It just felt right.”

The magic shows will take place at the park’s recently refurbished Bird Cage Theatre.

(Kyusung Gong / For The Times)

Curating Knott’s magic show will be Rudy Coby, a resident magician at the Magic Castle. Coby performed at Knott’s about 35 years ago and credits the park in helping him get his start. He says the new show, “Occultum,” will vary by week with different performers lined up throughout the Halloween season. Knott’s Scary Farm begins Sept. 17.

And yet, says Coby, “Not every magician is for this audience.” So what’s the differentiating factor for a Halloween magic show?

“It’s a little more edgy,” Coby says. “You really have to grab their attention. It’s the TikTok generation.”

Some of the illusions Coby says he will bring to Knott’s Scary Farm would be “too intense for the Magic Castle.”

“The ideas I’ve had, with chainsaws and cutting off my limbs, I couldn’t get away with at the Magic Castle,” he says.

“But you can here,” says Hopkins.

The Magic Castle-headlined show is not the only new addition to Scary Farm in 2026. Here are two other reasons I’m looking forward to the event.

Inked: A new maze with killer vintage cartoons

Concept art for the new Knott’s Scary Farm maze, Inked.

(Knott’s Berry Farm)

One of the two new mazes coming to Knott’s Scary Farm will rely heavily on black-and-white, vintage-style animation. Inked, as it’s called, will be set in the 1930s, and was introduced at a media event with a song-and-dance production that recalled Disney’s classic Silly Symphony “The Skeleton Dance.”

The story centers on Mortimer Morbid, a deadbeat, down-on-his-luck animator whose career changes — not necessarily for the better — when it’s discovered his blood can bring his drawings to life. Of course, cartoons infused with blood don’t have the most altruistic desires.

Inked designer Daniel Miller says the maze took two years to create, largely because Knott’s conceived the animation for the walk-through in-house with a team of four. Most every room in the haunted house is expected to feature original media, as the animated creations will be represented both in their cartoon form and as costumed characters.

And it’ll be gruesome.

“We kind of geared it around the notion that they’re bloodthirsty,” Miller says of the killer ‘toons. “We see all the animators in various stages of disembowelment.”

Sheesh. Animators have it hard enough today already.

Expect the unexpected with ‘Voodoo: Bayou’s Edge’ and Unearthed

Concept art for Unearthed, a new Knott’s Scary Farm maze.

(Knott’s Berry Farm)

Knott’s Scary Farm, unlike its main SoCal competitor, doesn’t rely on known film and television properties. That means the event can generally get a little … weirder. You see that in its mazes, as noted above, as well as in its theatrical productions. Also new this year is a show titled “Voodoo: Bayou’s Edge,” which takes place on an outdoor stage. The production centers on a voodoo queen and the mysterious happenings in a cemetery. Knott’s is pitching it as a music, dance-focused show.

And while voodoo can potentially be a culturally sensitive subject to tackle in a theme park, the show comes from the mind of the respected Rovin Jay, who has long been closely involved in the park’s spectacular “Ghost Town Alive!” Expect “big dance numbers” and something “really sexy,” says Adams.

Another new maze, Unearthed, will be set in the present day but takes its cues from films such as “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The Mummy” as it deals with a supernatural archaeological dig. Maze designer Jon Asperin says it will have numerous interactive elements, such as effects triggered by guests pulling a lever.

“Having the ability to come up with original stories lets us tap into the nerd in all of us,” says Asperin. “We don’t feel restricted by certain IP or things that may not be appropriate. We get a chance to challenge ourselves with trying out new things that some folks won’t take a risk on.”

This week in SoCal theme parks

The Disneyland attraction Mad Tea Party as it was under construction just months before the park opened. The image is from the documentary “Disneyland Handcrafted.”

(Disney+)

• A must–see Disney history event. Nonprofit creative institution Ryman Arts, in partnership with Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum, will host a talk and cocktail reception centered around a screening of Leslie Iwerks’ documentary “Disneyland Handcrafted” on Sept. 27. It’s a charity event, and a good one, as the panel lineup is top notch. Historian and author Tim O’Day will moderate a talk that includes the film’s producer, Mark Catalena, former Imagineer-turned-historian Tom Morris and current Imagineer Emily “Emo” O’Brien, who oversees creative at Disneyland and is leading the team behind the just-announced makeover of Tomorrowland. Don’t expect any insights on the latter, of course, but do anticipate a lively talk on the evolution of Disneyland. Tickets start at $125 and are on sale now.
• Stay seated on Tiana’s — or else. Disneyland has updated signage around Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, warning guests that they will be removed from the park if they stand up while on the log-flume adventure, reported Times writer Hannah Fry. The changes come less than two months after a 13-year-old boy climbed out of a log flume and fell 50 feet.
• Exciting Disneyland construction news. Big changes are coming to Disneyland, and while many are years away, the positive sign is that the park is wasting no time in getting started. There are now indications of construction in Disneyland’s esplanade between its two parks. This will pave the way for a new parking garage, of which groundbreaking has just begun, as well an entrance experience on the eastern side of the resort. This is the first of many steps, but one that must be completed before Disney begins its wider expansion that could bring attractions such as “Avatar” to the resort.

Ride report

A photo of the Haunted Mansion’s new gingerbread house, as snapped from my ride vehicle.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

Merry Christmas! Yes, that’s right, as the Haunted Mansion has been given a Christmas-heavy makeover, as always focused on “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.” (And yes, before the debate begins, it’s clearly a Christmas movie.) While I prefer the original Haunted Mansion, there are plenty of fun and clever details in the seasonal makeover that still make it a must-experience attraction. The attic scene, for instance, is full of clever nods to Disney history, including a Rolly Crump-inspired melting candelabra man. Each year I wonder if what I’m seeing is brand new, or was always there, such as what appeared to be a tiny bride figurine.

But one change is guaranteed: Each season Disneyland’s team concocts a new gingerbread house for the ballroom diorama. This year’s edition is a giant, candy-infused music box-like creation, which gradually opens as guests glide past it and a skeleton pops out. The concoction is designed in the shape of the Haunted Mansion itself, so it’s a little mansion-within-a-mansion. And, bonus, the room smells like gingerbread.

The best thing I ate at the parks this week

The delicious pumpkin cookie from Disneyland’s Harbour Galley.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

I love a cookie, and Disneyland’s Harbour Galley has the best one on the property this Halloween season with its pumpkin creation. They’re small-ish — three or four bites — but come in packs of 6 ($8.49) or 13 ($14.49). They’re soft, slightly chewy and addictive. I love it when I get a little brown sugar crystal in my mouthful. The pumpkin flavor isn’t overpowering. It’s closer to a ginger snap than it is a slice of pumpkin pie, meaning it has just the right balance of sugar and spice. It‘s also, it should be noted, one of the best values at the resort for a dessert item. I get a pack of 13 and have breakfast for a week.

Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.

Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.

Ride on,

Todd Martens

P.S.

The Walt Disney Co. stated that it will soon reimagine Disneyland’s Tomorrowland at its fan convention D23. The move has been one fans have long clamored for.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

The topic consuming most Disneyland fans for the next few years will be the Tomorrowland reimagining. The project is just getting started, and I’ll refrain from offering a wishlist. Let the Imagineers do their work, I say, although I consider all of it, save for the monorail and Space Mountain, on the table. Gut it. Start over. But reader Peter La Barba of Long Beach wrote in with a request that I wouldn’t disapprove of.

“Whatever they do, I hope they restore the two Mary Blair murals that were in Tomorrowland,” La Barba wrote. “I’d like to see optimism restored to Tomorrowland. I was about 3 or 4 when we went to the park in August of 1955 and I wanted to live in that future. Not the incessant war future of ‘Star Wars.’”

Hear, hear. The murals of animator/fine artist Blair were a wonder, full of children of the world in celebration mode. Flying contraptions! Communication devices! Satellites! Planets! I don’t have an image safe to use, so head over to Disney history site Yesterland for a look. The two murals lasted until the ’80s and ’90s, and replacing them was a mistake that’s only looked more shortsighted over time. As Blair’s work continues to grow in stature, who needs another “Star Wars” painting?

The U.S. Navy’s Ford class aircraft carriers have been very much in the news in the past week, with huge changes to the core design now potentially on the horizon. Whether or not radical changes to the catapults, weapons elevators, and island superstructure on future ships in the class actually materialize remains to be seen. However, the design has already been changing in various other ways. This includes adding back in a feature that had been found on all Nimitz class carriers and other Cold War-era flattops before it – dedicated radar illuminators to guide surface-to-air missiles.

The illuminators are used to guide the RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSMs). The need to add this feature is intertwined with a decision to integrate a replacement for the complex and troublesome Dual Band Radar (DBR) on all forthcoming carriers in the class after the USS Gerald R. Ford. The future USS John F. Kennedy is the first of those ships.

The Mk 95 radar illuminators on John F. Kennedy were particularly visible in pictures released last week of the ship leaving port in Newport News, Virginia, to begin acceptance sea trials. The carrier, also known by its hull number CVN 79, made its maiden voyage in January, and the Navy hopes to take formal delivery of the ship before the end of the year.

The Mk 95 traces back to the 1970s and was originally designed to support the employment of surface-launched RIM-7 variants of the Sparrow missile. All versions of the RIM-7 use semi-active radar guidance, which requires the launch platform to ‘illuminate’ the target.

As an example of the mode of operation for the RIM-7, if a ship were to detect an incoming cruise missile or some other kind of aerial threat, it would cue the missile in the right direction, fire it, and then use illuminators like the Mk 95 to ‘paint’ the target in radar energy. The missile’s seeker would then passively home in on the reflected radar energy through the terminal phase of flight.

When it was first introduced, the Mk 95 was part of a larger fire control suite that also brought an important new level of automation compared to previously available capabilities. Some earlier illuminators on Navy ships even had to be manually operated by sailors on deck.

Today, Mk 95s are found on a variety of U.S. and foreign naval vessels, including the Navy’s Nimitz class carriers. Some versions of the illuminators have camera systems to further help spot and track incoming threats, which have also been upgraded over the years. Improvements in associated combat systems also mean they have become better able to manage available illuminators to allow for as many engagements simultaneously as possible.

The RIM-7 family has since been supplanted in U.S. Navy service with the improved RIM-162 ESSM. Block 1 variants of the ESSM also use semi-active radar guidance and have the same general mode of operation as their predecessors. New Block 2 versions, which began entering service in the early 2020s, have semi-active and active modes, the latter of which does not require any illumination in the terminal phase. In addition, the new missiles feature a data link, allowing them to receive targeting updates after launch, helping cue them to the target area, which further reduces the need for an illuminator in the initial phases of flight. It is also very valuable for longer-range engagements beyond the horizon, especially against low-flying cruise missiles.

At present, the defensive armament suite on Ford class aircraft carriers includes two 21-round launchers for RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM), three Mk 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) armed with 20mm Vulcan cannons, four 25mm cannons on Mk 38 mounts, and various small arms. There are also two eight-cell Mk 29 launchers, a design that also dates back to the 1970s and was originally designed to fire RIM-7 Sparrows. The Mk 29 has since been adapted to fire Block 1 ESSMs, but there were issues in integrating Block 2 versions owing to the increased weight of those missiles, at least in the past.

“CVN 79 and follow-on Ford class ships will be upgraded to a mix of new RAM variants Block 2A and 2B, plus a mix of ESSM Block 1 and Block 2,” according to an annual report from the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) covering work on the program during the 2025 Fiscal Year.

The Navy’s most recent annual budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026 does note work to modify the Mk 29 launchers to support Block 2 ESSM capability, but the current state of those efforts is unclear. The service is also pursuing an entirely new launcher to replace the aging and increasingly unsupportable Mk 29, as well as a follow-on to the Block 2 ESSM.

Mk-29 Sea Sparrow Missile Launcher – RIM-162 ESSM & RIM-7P During Sea Trials

Even with integration of the Block 2 ESSM, Ford class carriers will still have to provide ‘illumination’ in order to employ Block 1 versions of the missile, which remain in active Navy inventory. As noted, Block 2 variants can be employed in a semi-active radar homing mode, as well.

This all brings us to the matter of the DBR, which was intended to be the main radar on all members of the Ford class. The DBR consists of two distinct radar systems, the AN/SPY-3, an X-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) type, and the AN/SPY-4, an S-band phased array. On paper, this was set to be a powerful combination. In a defensive scenario, the SPY-3 would be used for horizon search, generating high-fidelity target tracks, and otherwise helping direct interceptors like the ESSM to their targets. The volume search SPY-4 would provide additional long-range search and tracking functionality. Being able to fuse all that data for the dual arrays together, while also leveraging the specific capabilities of the quick-scanning AESA SPY-3, would only offer even greater benefits.

As part of the original Ford design, DBR also serves as host of other functions, including helping to provide air traffic control in support of flight operations. This also allowed the Navy to pare down the total number of distinct radars on the ship compared to the Nimitz class. This, in turn, directly factored into the design of a smaller and more angular flight deck island on the Ford class. Just this week, TWZ published a separate detailed piece on the island, and the reasons for its location so far back on the flight deck. This followed reports this past weekend that President Donald Trump is pushing the Navy to reposition the structure on future ships in this class on aesthetic grounds.

Despite the promised benefits, and its deep integration into the Ford class design, the DBR has proved to be extremely complicated and unreliable.

“Here’s the one thing that I think I screwed up. I think I’m responsible for at least a billion-dollar cost of overrun because I wanted to reduce the number of radars,” retired Navy Capt. Tal Manvel, who served for a time as Program Manager for Future Carriers, said during a presentation at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in 2015. “I did not appreciate that the complexity of that is not just increasing scale like with a mechanical system, like in the propulsion plant, but the complexity of the software-hardware interface.

“That’s my fault. I screwed up on that because I thought that this would be significant,” Manvel continued. “It turns out to be a big cost driver up front, and that’s one of the reasons why the Ford has this challenge of cost.”

You can watch Tal Manvel’s full 2015 presentation below.

Shifley Lecture: USS Ford-class carrier design

The Navy has since made the decision to replace the DBR on Ford class carriers primarily with the AN/SPY-6(V)3, also known as the fixed-face version of Raytheon’s Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR). The AN/SPY-6(V)3 has three antenna arrays compared to the DBR’s six. John F. Kennedy and future ships in the class will also feature an AN/SPQ-9B horizon search radar and the Mk 9 Tracker Illuminator System – which includes the Mk 95 illuminators – to provide additional functionality that was originally supposed to come from the DBR.

As an aside, the DBR was originally a core component of the Zumwalt class stealthy destroyer design, and was to be deeply integrated with the ship’s unique combat system, but suffered from similar technical and reliability issues in that setting, as well. The Navy subsequently decided to eliminate the S-band arrays on those ships as a cost-cutting measure. As it stands now, the USS Gerald R. Ford is the only ship the service expects to operate with the full DBR. The Navy has plans to eventually replace the DBR on that carrier with the EASR and other radars, too. Several variants of the AN/SPY-6 are also increasingly being integrated onto a host of different Navy ships, as seen in the graphic below.

The need for the Mk 95 illuminators on the Ford class could evolve further over time, including as the Block 2 ESSM enters more widespread service and with the development of the planned follow-on missile. TWZ has previously noted that the total number of Mk 95s has been reduced on at least some Nimitz class carriers for reasons that are still not entirely clear.

John F. Kennedy is also expected to bring along other important, but less visible improvements, which are set to be carried over to future ships in the class. This includes upgrades to the ship’s combat management system and a Block II version of the Navy’s Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) networked sensor architecture.

The Ford class program, overall, continues to face major delays and cost growth due to a host of technical issues and other factors that go well beyond problems with the DBR. The Navy had originally hoped to receive John F. Kennedy in 2022. Work on the next two ships in the class, the future USS Enterprise and USS Doris Miller, is also running behind schedule.

The Navy has said it is working to mitigate these ongoing issues and incorporate lessons learned in the construction of future ships in the class. The USS Gerald R. Ford has also now supported real combat operations, mostly recently as part of the conflict with Iran.

As highlighted in John F. Kennedy‘s recent sea trials, the Ford class design is already evolving in notable ways, particularly when it comes to the radar suite.

Special thanks to user @lfx160219 on X for bringing the Mk 95 radar illuminators on the future John F. Kennedy to our attention.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com