Humanities of the week: Haji "war ticket" scheme to WFH for lecturers

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Several interesting humanities news items occurred this week, which can be revisited today as a summary of events. The news begins with options for war tickets to policies on work from home for lecturers and education staff. 1. Deputy Minister of Hajj and Umrah explains the “war ticket” hajj scheme mechanism. Deputy Minister of Hajj and Umrah (Wamenhaj) Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak explained the mechanism of the war ticket scheme in organising hajj worship, although it is currently still in the study stage or merely a concept. “In the future, if Saudi opens a large quota, we will open two schemes. The first is the existing queue scheme. The second scheme is the one termed by the Minister (Irfan Yusuf) as war ticket,” said Wamenhaj Dahnil. 2. Prabowo: 2026 hajj costs drop Rp2 million despite rising avtur prices. President Prabowo Subianto announced that the cost per Indonesian hajj pilgrim for 2026 will still drop by Rp2 million, even though avtur prices have risen. “We ensure that the 2026 hajj costs will be reduced by around Rp2 million, although avtur prices have risen,” said President Prabowo at the Government Working Meeting at the Palace, Jakarta. 3. Semeru erupts, launching hot ash clouds 2.5 km. Lumajang, East Java (ANTARA) - Mount Semeru, on the border of Lumajang and Malang Regencies, East Java, erupted accompanied by hot ash clouds reaching 2.5 kilometres (km) towards the southeast on Saturday (12/4) night. “An eruption of Mount Semeru occurred at 20.47 WIB with the height of the eruption column observed at around 1,500 metres above the summit or 5,176 metres above sea level (mdpl),” said the Mount Semeru Observation Post Officer, Sigit Rian Alfian, in a written report received in Lumajang. 4. BRIN identifies mysterious sky object in Lampung as space debris. Professor of Astronomy at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Thomas Djamaluddin, stated that the mysterious sky object crossing the airspace over Lampung, as seen in a viral video on social media on Saturday (4/4), is space debris. “Residents around Lampung and Banten were abuzz with a bright object streaking across the sky that appeared to break into several parts. That was fragments of space debris,” he said when confirmed in Jakarta. 5. Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology urges campuses to provide lecturers with one day of WFH per week. Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Mendiktisaintek) Brian Yuliarto called on all higher education institutions in Indonesia to provide a work-from-home (WFH) quota for lecturers and education staff (tendik) of one day per week. “We encourage campuses to request that campuses conduct selection and evaluation for tendik, which can be done for one day of WFH in one week,” he said to reporters in Jakarta.