Rescue teams in Indonesia have struggled to reach communities devastated by a major earthquake and tsunami on Sulawesi island, with a toll of more than 400 killed expected to rise sharply as contact is restored with remote areas.

Amid the levelled trees, overturned cars, concertinaed homes and flotsam tossed up to 50 metres inland, survivors and rescuers struggled to come to grips with the scale of the disaster.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived on the island of Sulawesi on Sunday to take stock of the situation.

Dozens of people were reported to be trapped in the rubble of a hotel and a mall in the city of Palu, which was hit by waves as high as six metres (20 feet) following the magnitude 7.5 earthquake on Friday.

A young woman was pulled alive from the rubble of the Roa Roa Hotel, the news website Detik.com reported. The owner of the hotel said that up to 60 people were believed trapped in the rubble.

“We managed to pull out a woman alive from the Hotel Roa-Roa last night,” Muhammad Syaugi, head of the national search and rescue agency, told AFP news agency. “We even heard people calling for help there yesterday.”

“What we now desperately need is heavy machinery to clear the rubble. I have my staff on the ground, but it’s impossible just to rely on their strength alone to clear this.”

With confirmed deaths only from Palu, authorities are bracing for much worse as reports filter in from outlying areas, in particular, Donggala, a region of 300,000 people north of Palu and closer to the epicentre of the quake.

The Ministry of Information reported the official death toll from the earthquake and tsunami at 405, with all the fatalities coming in Palu.

Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the number was expected to rise once rescuers reached surrounding coastal areas.

The nearby city of Mamuju was also ravaged, but little information was available due to damaged roads and disrupted telecommunications.

More than half of the 560 inmates in Palu’s prison escaped after its walls collapsed during the quake, according to state news agency Antara, while more than 100 inmates escaped from a prison in Donggala.

The military has started sending in aircraft with aid from Jakarta and other cities, authorities said.

C-130 military transport aircraft with relief supplies managed to land at the main airport in Palu, which re-opened to humanitarian flights and limited commercial flights, but only to pilots able to land by sight alone.

Satellite imagery provided by regional relief teams showed the severe damage at some of the area’s major sea ports, with large ships tossed on land, quays and bridges trashed and shipping containers thrown around.

Hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of those injured, with many people being treated in the open air. There were widespread power blackouts.

“We all panicked and ran out of the house” when the quake hit, said Anser Bachmid, a 39-year-old Palu resident. “People here need aid – food, drink, clean water.”

It’s the latest natural disaster to hit Indonesia, which is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Last month, a powerful quake on the island of Lombok killed 505 people.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

USA Today Network
USA TODAY

Published 3:26 p.m. ET Sept. 29, 2018

The organization that helped unite millions of women around the globe in 2017 protest marches said Saturday that it will attempt to do so again in January 2019.

The group had previously announced a Women’s March in Washington D.C. and has now invited chapters around the world to join.

“We have witnessed this week that those in power have forgotten that 2 years ago 6 million women — in every continent — lit the world on fire. We spoke out for the rights, freedom, and justice for women and allies everywhere … On the 19th — 20th of January 2019, we will unite once again,” the announcement says.

The Women’s March organization has been a vocal critic of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. After Kavanaugh’s nomination proceeded to the Senate floor despite allegations of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford, the group announced the 2019 effort, Women’s March Co-Chair Linda Sarsour told CNN.

“Women are outraged. We are enraged at the vote yesterday that came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee,” she said. 

She told the network that critics say the 2017 march was a “one-hit-wonder.” That’s not the case, she says.

“Our email inboxes were full: ‘Women’s March, where are you? When are we marching? Tell us when? Tell us where?’” Sarsour told the New York Times.

The 2017 march protested the first full day of President Donald Trump’s term in Washington D.C. and at hundreds of other events in all 50 states. Marches also were held across every continent, organizers say.

In 2018, a Power to the Polls rally was held in Las Vegas to commemorate the first anniversary of the international march. That event, and others around the country, focused on the importance of voting.

Women’s March Global told USA TODAY that most 2019 marches are currently in the planning stages and will be announced on the organization’s website as the events are confirmed. The newly-launched organization serves as a “platform” for organizing international grassroots campaigns, according to its website.

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The nation is embroiled in its greatest political drama in decades — and Arizona is playing a starring role.

It’s not as if the nation wasn’t divided before President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the hearings, particularly Thursday’s before the Senate Judiciary Committee, have been explosive — must-watch television, though what’s being decided is a lot more important than that.

Yet if it is a drama — and let’s face it, it is; TV is how we see and relate to most of our elected representatives — Arizona’s U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake on Friday emerged as the undisputed leading actor.

But let’s not forget Rachel Mitchell, the Maricopa County prosecutor Republicans hired to question Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. The prosecutor played an important supporting role — not just for what she did during the hearings, but what she didn’t.

A dramatic confrontation in the elevator

How has Arizona, of all places, landed so squarely in the spotlight?

Because as with any good drama, people are drawn to the unexpected.

That was certainly the case with Flake on Friday. In the morning Flake, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh.

The social-media reaction was immediate and explosive, and it was everywhere. Flake flaked out again, talking a good game but caving in the clutch, liberals and supporters of Ford said. Conservatives breathed a sigh of relief.

Then: Two women confronted Flake as he got on an elevator, and told him he was betraying their own experiences of sexual assault. A CNN camera happened to be there. Flake stood silent for the most part, saying, quietly, that he needed to get to the hearing.

The big surprise from Flake

Once he got there, in a huge surprise, Flake, after voting to send Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate, asked for a delay of up to a week before the full Senate votes on Kavanaugh, to allow time for an FBI investigation.

In movies, this kind of twist would require a spoiler alert. In breaking news, it was just a stunning development in a story that’s beginning to strain our capacity for stunning developments. “Shocking” was a word networks threw around a lot.

It wasn’t “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” exactly — a lot of social-media wags said Flake just wants it both ways — but it was gripping, nonetheless.

Flake wasn’t around immediately afterward to explain, so it fell to other senators. And Flake was the only subject reporters were asking about.

“Jeff’s a really good guy,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said. “I wouldn’t have done it.”

To be fair, Graham laughed, and so did the reporters around him.

Flake is retiring from the Senate, but no one realistically supposes his political career is over. And right now, there is no other word for what he is in politics and in popular culture: a star. Meaning, he’s admired and disparaged, often by the same people.

What about Rachel Mitchell’s role?

As for Mitchell, the Arizona prosecutor, she, too, had been a key player in the hearings before Flake’s bombshell. Pundits and some politicians critiqued her take-your-time approach on Thursday, guessing at who came up the strategy. Then, when it was her turn to question Kavanaugh, after a couple of rounds, the Republican senators yanked her, taking over questioning themselves.

Again, it played out like drama. Where did she go? (Mitchell was, in fact, still sitting there in the hearing room.) And why did they stop letting her question Kavanaugh?

There hasn’t been a great explanation yet, although Mitchell reportedly did tell senators she wouldn’t prosecute Kavanaugh based on the evidence. Again, in dramatic terms, this is a supporting role — she isn’t in the spotlight, but she is crucial to the story.

Now, what’s going on with Kavanaugh and the country is far more important than a fictional movie or TV show. Yet it’s playing out just as dramatically. And Arizona is central to that drama.

And with Flake at the center of the latest development, that’s not changing anytime soon.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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President Donald Trump said during a rally in Wheeling, West Virginia, on Saturday that he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “fell in love” in recent months, paving the way toward what Trump called a “great relationship.”

At a rally meant to shore up support for GOP candidates in the midterm elections, Trump touted the de-escalation in tensions between the US in North Korea and noted that only recently were Trump and Kim trading insults and threatening one another.

“I was really being tough and so was he. And we were going back and forth, and then we fell in love. Okay? No really. He wrote me beautiful letters,” Trump said. “They’re great letters. We fell in love.”

Trump was likely referring to the symbolic letters sent personally to Trump from Kim over the summer that were heavy on flattery. Trump added that the media was likely to criticize his glowing praise for Kim.

“Now they’ll say, ‘Donald Trump said they fell in love. How horrible is that? So unpresidential.’ And I always tell you, it’s so easy to be presidential,” Trump said. “But instead of having 10,000 people outside trying to get into this packed arena, we’d have about 200 people standing there. It’s so easy to be presidential.”

In contrast to Trump’s remarks, North Korea’s foreign minister spoke at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Saturday, expressing some frustration with the lack of progress in negotiations with the US.

According to the Associated Press, Ri Yong Ho criticized the Trump administration for ramping up pressure and sanctions on North Korea to dismantle its main nuclear arsenal, noting that the US hasn’t given “any corresponding response.”

“The perception that sanctions can bring us on our knees is a pipe dream of the people who are ignorant of us,” Ri said. “Without any trust in the US, there will be no confidence in our national security … and under such circumstances there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first.”

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Tens of thousands people marched in cities across Brazil on Saturday as part of a women-led protest against far-right, frontrunner presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro.

The demonstrations, a manifestation of the #EleNao (#NotHim) movement that gathered steam on social media in recent weeks, began early in afternoon in at least 62 cities including metropolis Sao Paulo and the capital, Brasilia.

In Rio de Janeiro, Bolsonaro’s political base, people gathered in the city’s Centro neighbourhood to object the former army captain’s controversial campaign.

Chanting “not him”, protesters of all ages marched, holding anti-Bolsonaro signs. 

“I’m here to fight against homophobia, in favour of black people, for democracy and against the oppressor,” Priscila Almeida, told Al Jazeera.

“Not him [Bolsonaro], never him … anyone but Bolsonaro,” Almeida, 25, added.

Bolsonaro, a Rio de Janeiro congressman since 1991, has made several overtly misogynistic comments in the past, as well as controversial statements on issues relating to race, sexuality and Brazil’s military government, which was in power between 1964 and 1985.

In 2014, the 63-year-old told fellow congresswomen Maria do Rosario: “I would never rape you because you do not deserve it”. He was repeating a claim he made in 2003.

In December 2015,  Bolsonaro was convicted by a lower court of committing moral damage and fined about $2,500. A higher court upheld the conviction in August 2017 after he appealed the ruling. He has since appealed again and the case is now with Supreme Court. 

Last year, he said having a daughter was a “weakness”.

“Bolsonaro is worrying because he is not alone … many people think like him and are influenced by his speeches,” Luzia Costa, 68, told Al Jazeera.

“[And] He is a man who hates everything, men, women, gay and black people,” Costa added.

‘A shadow period’

Despite making up 52 percent of Brazil’s electorate, women hold just 13 of 81 seats in the country’s upper house senate.  Fewer than 11 percent of 513 seats in the lower house Chamber of Deputies are women. 

Brazil ranks 156th in the world for female representation in parliament, placing it in the lowest 20 percent globally, according to the latest data compiled by global organisation for national legislatures the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Clarisse Gurgel, a professor of human sciences at the Federal University of the State of Rio, said the #NotHim movement marked an important moment of resistance by Brazilian women, but that it would not alone “be enough for a qualitative upgrade to politics”.

“Bolsonaro is the expression of masculinity, and cannot handle the feminine, which is the most beautiful aspect of women,” Gurgel told Al Jazeera.

“Women, in contrast to men, aren’t born with the illusion that we have a gun between our legs … we now walk into a shadow period, [but] what we can’t do is let the fear take us,” she added.

Bolsonaro’s rejection rate among women is 50 percent, according to the latest polling by the Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics (IBOPE), and 33 percent among men.

‘I’m a patriot’

Hours before the demonstration in Centro got under way, hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters gathered along Rio’s Copacabana beachfront in support of his candidacy.

Bolsonaro was severely stabbed earlier this month, leaving him hospitalised and unable to campaign. 

Occupying a small section of the palm-tree lined sidewalk, supporters clad in the classic green and yellow of the Brazilian flag chanted “Him Yes” and decried the political left, in particular the Workers’ Party (PT), as thieves and liars.

Thais Pena, 30, said she would back Bolsonaro in the election because she was “a patriot” and it would be a “way of demonstrating dissatisfaction with the current state of government”.

“I believe we are in a stage of crisis, the economy is broken, education is abandoned, we don’t have security and we don’t have the basic services that should come as a return from taxes,” Pena said.

“I wholly respect them [the women at the #EleNao march], every woman has the right of expressing what they think is better [for them] and I believe the majority of them are feeling threatened or afraid of what is to come if Bolsonaro wins, but I don’t think they need to be …  the media distorts what he says,” she added.

Several other supporters cited security as their key concern, saying they would vote for Bolsonaro because he pledged to crack down on crime and ramp up public security.

“The lack of security is the main problem [in Brazil] … some things have to change, badly,” Daniel Campos, 40, said.

Violence in Brazil, home to seven of the world’s 20 most violent cities, is one of voters top concerns this election, alongside the country’s stuttering economy.

Last year, homicides rose to a record high figure of 63,880, up 2.9 percent from 2016, according to the Brazilian Forum of Public Security.

Beyond his proposals for security issues, a number of other Bolsonaro supporters said he presented an alternative to the country’s embattled political class, whose reputation has been ravaged by a string of high-level corruption scandals in recent years.

“A Bolsonaro presidency would change Brazil for the better,” Elias Figueira, 57, said.

“I’ve had enough … I’m tired of 25 years of lies from the left, they are all two sides of the same coin,” Figueira added, referring to the PT and the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), which was in power between 1994 and 2002 before the PT won the presidency under Lula.

Bolsonaro leads the polls

Saturday’s rallies took place fewer than two weeks Brazilians are scheduled to vote on the country’s next president, on October 7, as part of national and state-level elections.

More than 1,600 positions are up for grabs, including the presidency and the majority of seats in Brazil’s bicameral congress, with about 147 million voters expected to participate.

Bolsonaro has consistently topped opinion polls in the run-up to the vote, ahead of the PT’s candidate Fernando Haddad.

According the latest figures, released by polling institute DataFolha on Friday, 28 percent of voters intend to support Bolsonaro.

Some 22 percent, meanwhile, intend to vote for Haddad, the PT’s replacement candidate for former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva.

Lula, the country’s most popular politician, was barred from running because of a corruption conviction and is currently serving a 12-year term in jail.

Penn State junior wide receiver Juwan Johnson made a jaw-dropping one-handed catch early in the first half of Saturday’s game against No. 4 Ohio State, a play that might qualify as the top highlight of the college football season here in Week 5. 

Johnson leaped in the air and extended his right arm to snag a Trace McSorley pass with perfecting timing, all while shielding his defender with his left arm.

The 31-yard play came on the No. 9 Nittany Lions’ second drive and helped them score a field goal to build an early edge in the first half vs. the Buckeyes. 

Penn State took a 13-7 lead into halftime. 

 

One hundred years ago, death came with astonishing speed and horrifying agony.

Some influenza patients admitted to a Boston hospital in the morning of October 1918 would be dead by the evening, their bodies turning blue from lack of oxygen. Hospitals reported an average 100 deaths a day, overwhelming morgues. 

Up to 500 million people – about one-third of the world’s population – became infected with the influenza virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. As many as 50 million died, or one out of every 30 human beings on the planet, killing more American troops than those that died on World War I battlefields.

The intensity and speed with which it struck were almost unimaginable, the worst global pandemic in modern history. 

Most chilling is that such a calamity could again occur today. 

“A global influenza pandemic is No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 on our list of the most-feared public health crises,” according to Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

Another expert, Vanderbilt University infectious disease specialist William Schaffner, said “we fear flu. We know how serious it is.” 

It could happen again

Top health and science groups, such as the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, predict influenza pandemics are nearly certain to recur.  

“Influenza viruses, with the vast silent reservoir in aquatic birds, are impossible to eradicate,” the World Health Organization warned.  “With the growth of global travel, a pandemic can spread rapidly globally with little time to prepare a public health response.”

A pandemic could also arise if a strain mutates with or develops directly from animal flu viruses, the CDC said. The main contributors to a potential pandemic are the lack of a universal vaccine and humans’ lack of immunity to those potential unborn strains.

“The threat of a future flu pandemic remains,” the CDC said. “A pandemic flu virus could emerge anywhere and spread globally.” 

If an equal ratio of Americans died in a pandemic today, that would be an unimaginable 2 million Americans. That’s the current population of the entire Las Vegas metropolitan area. 

In a near worst-case scenario, a new, lethal and highly infectious flu virus would break out in a crowded, unprepared megacity that lacks public health infrastructure, according to Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Heath. 

Such a fast-moving virus could burst from a city and catch a ride with international travelers before public health officials realize what is happening.

Specifically, avian influenza viruses such as H7N9 top pandemic threat lists, according to Johns Hopkins. While these strains are mostly harmless in chickens, they could potentially evolve into much deadlier strains for humans.

“In terms of pandemic potential, an avian influenza virus is thought to be a likely candidate, based on prior pandemics,” says Amesh Adalja of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

However, there are safeguards to detect and counteract influenza outbreaks that did not exist 100 years ago.

These include systems to detect signs of potential outbreaks around the world, Schaffner said. In addition, he said scientists have the capacity to make vaccines more rapidly and also have better antiviral drugs that could be used to treat those who contract the disease.

Still, influenza and the potential for a pandemic are concerns that are always at the top of the list for experts who work with infectious diseases and public health, he said.

Pandemics ignore national borders, social class, economic status, and even age.

1918 pandemic

Spreading from birds to humans, the 1918 pandemic might have started in Kansas. Or France, or maybe Asia, according to Olsterholm.

What is known is that it was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of bird origin.The First World War, about to come to its horrific end in Europe in November 1918, may have played some role in moving the virus around the world. “But we can’t say that the war was the cause,” he said.

It was “a widespread, worldwide pandemic. It was a virus no one had ever seen before,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the vaccine education center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

More: After deadly 2017-18 flu season, surgeon general urges Americans to get shots

The pandemic killed more people in 24 months than AIDS killed in 24 years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century, according to the book “The Great Influenza.”

The dead included about 675,000 people in the United States. In just October alone, the worst single month in the U.S., an unthinkable 100,000 Americans died. Many were young adults in the prime of their life.

“The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20- to 40-year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic,” the Centers for Disease Control said.

The World Health Organization said the 1918 influenza pandemic was known colloquially as “Spanish flu,” although there was nothing “Spanish” about the epidemic.

Flu today and how to protect against it

Although every flu season is different, and influenza infection can affect people differently, millions of people get the flu every year, according to the CDC. Hundreds of thousands of people are hospitalized and thousands or tens of thousands of people die from flu-related causes every year.

An annual seasonal flu vaccine is the best way to help protect against flu, the CDC said. Everyone 6 months of age and older should get a flu vaccine every season.

Even if it’s only 40 percent effective, that’s still better odds than doing nothing at all, Offit said. “Influenza knocks you out.”

Vaccination has been shown to have many benefits, including reducing the risk of flu illnesses, hospitalizations and even the risk of flu-related death in children. Osterholm recommends getting the shot as close to the heart of flu season as possible, since the duration of protection is limited. 

As what a citizen can do to prevent a future pandemic, though a seasonal vaccine would be ineffective, he said the best action is to reach out to the government and tell them to start working on new vaccines for influenza. 

“There are potentially new pandemic strains out there,” he said. “But we’ve invested very little in influenza vaccines.”

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WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee asked the FBI on Saturday to investigate a person who gave apparent “false statements” during its vetting of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 

Kavanaugh was questioned about the claim, which accused him of sexually assaulting a woman in Rhode Island. After the claim was made public, the man who made it recanted his story, the committee says. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the committee, said the reporting of the false statement slowed Kavanaugh’s hearings and diverted resources. 

“The Committee is grateful to citizens who come forward with relevant information in good faith, even if they are not one hundred percent sure about what they know,” he said in a statement. “But when individuals provide fabricated allegations to the Committee, diverting Committee resources during time-sensitive investigations, it materially impedes our work. Such acts are not only unfair; they are potentially illegal”

Grassley said the man could be potentially charged.

“It is illegal to make materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements to Congressional investigators,” he said. “It is illegal to obstruct Committee investigations.”

While it’s unclear whether the man had malicious intent to “obstruct” the investigation, the recanting of an allegation could allow Republicans to cast doubt on other allegations lodged against Kavanaugh. 

“It seems like an effort to emphasize that not all reports were accurate,” said Renato Mariotti, a defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor. “This is a way to suggest you can’t trust all the allegations made to the committee and could cause some people to draw conclusions that more are false.”

Mariotti said the effort could also prevent others from providing false accusations during this weeklong delay before the Senate takes up a full vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the high court. 

The allegation was reported by a Rhode Island man to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI. The man alleged a close “acquaintance” of his had been raped by two “heavily inebriated men she referred to at the time as Brett and Mark,” a transcript of Kavanaugh’s interview shows. 

The man said the incident happened in August 1985 on a 36-foot maroon and white boat in Newport, Rhode Island, after the woman and the two men met at a local bar. The man said when he’d learned about the incident the following morning, he went down to the harbor with another person and got into a physical fight with the pair. He said he realized it was Kavanaugh after seeing his yearbook photo on the news. 

Kavanaugh denied the claims and said the story was “just completely made up.”

The man’s Twitter account was released in Senate documents. After he was identified, the man posted on Twitter that “made a mistake and apologize for such mistake.”

Grassley sent a letter to the Justice Department and FBI, referring them to investigate the man for any potential crimes. 

“In light of the seriousness of these facts, and the threat these types of actions pose to the Committee’s ability to perform its constitutional duties, I hope you will give this referral the utmost consideration,” Grassley wrote. 

When asked by USA TODAY whether the FBI would investigate this person, the bureau declined to comment. 

More: Looking ahead to what’s next for the Supreme Court nominee 

More: FBI has contacted Deborah Ramirez about sexual assault allegations

The man’s claims are just one of a handful that has been lodged against Kavanaugh over the last few weeks. Grassley notes many of those who came forward did so “in good faith.” 

Christine Blasey Ford was the first to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual assault, providing statements even before he was selected as Trump’s choice for the Supreme Court. 

She testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that Kavanaugh held her down and groped her at a party when they were teenagers in high school. 

Two other women came forward with claims. Several anonymous allegations were also reported to members of Congress. 

Amid the allegations, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to move forward with Kavanaugh’s nomination on Friday but asked the president to reopen Kavanaugh’s FBI background check. 

That investigation was reopened and agents have a week to complete their examination of the batch of allegations. 

 

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What is Minecraft: Dungeons?

That’s the question Minecraft fans are asking in the wake of the upcoming game’s surprise reveal at MineCon 2018. We know it’s an action adventure game “inspired by classic dungeon crawlers.” And it looks about as adorable as you’d expect.

For anyone out there who might be unfamiliar with the “dungeon crawler” genre, think Diablo. Or Gauntlet. One or more players set out to explore an enclosed, monster-infested environment in search of adventure and sweet, sweet loot.

The trailer above suggests Dungeons may skip Minecraft‘s traditionally first-person perspective gameplay in favor of an isometric view looking down on the action (Diablo and Gauntlet are both good examples of this). Of course, that could also just be the way the trailer was cut.

Minecraft developer Mojang hasn’t provided any details yet on what will set Dungeons apart from other genre favorites. Obviously, the look of the world will maintain that familiar Minecraft feel, but you have to wonder how user creativity and an ability to re-shape the world — both core elements in the main game — will play a role.

You can read a little bit more in the official announcement, found here.

Minecraft: Dungeons is set to release on PC sometime in 2019, so you can probably expect to hear more on this in the coming months.