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The week of auditions and meetings for the financial maneuver begins with sensitive topics such as coverage from banks and insurance companies and the cut to pension indexing, culminating on Thursday with the closing of the meetings at Palazzo Chigi. #Bilancio2027 #Pensioni #ImpreseItalia (translated)

THE COMMUNITY LIBRARY AND DICTIONARY "NICOLA ZINGARELLI" ON THE PRESTIGIOUS "GLOBAL CAMPUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS" And if the health of a community began not in a clinic, but among the shelves of a library? Cerignola, March 13, 2026. A chain of hands crosses the city. From the old municipal library to the new home, built in the renovated schools, books pass from hand to hand. A man hands a volume, a little girl receives it, an elderly person passes it on. It’s not a move but a declaration. The new Community Library, in a city of 57,700 inhabitants in the heart of Puglia, bears the name of Nicola Zingarelli, the founder of one of Italy's most beloved dictionaries. And to every user, it offers the use of that very dictionary. As the “Community Dictionary”. Here lies the point that questions us, as jurists and as citizens. In Italy, many elderly people in the South and many migrants live daily in another language: dialect, mother tongue, Romance varieties. Law 482/1999 protects historical linguistic minorities, not these varieties. When a leaflet, an informed consent, a prescription remains only partially understood, the quality and safety of care are compromised. Not due to negligence. Due to linguistic distance. The dictionary of the great philologist and purist Nicola Zingarelli does not translate dialects and does not replace interpreters and cultural mediators. Let it be clear: it is a monolingual dictionary of standard Italian. Its strength, in terms of human rights, lies elsewhere. It removes economic and symbolic barriers to access to standard language and creates what we have called a “linguistic common resource”: a common space where anyone, regardless of income and education, can check the meaning of a diagnosis, a prescription, an administrative form. This is what we mean by “public bibliotherapy”. The right to health, as interpreted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in General Comment No. 14, includes the right to health information. General Comment No. 21 recalls that libraries are cultural institutions whose accessibility is a priority. Article 32 of the Constitution protects health as a fundamental right and collective interest. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights obliges states to ensure services that are available, accessible, acceptable, and of good quality, with accessibility expressly including information. Yet almost half of Europeans, according to a 2024 Council of Europe report, have limited health literacy. In Chisinau, on March 26, 2026, it was reiterated that this is a major obstacle to the implementation of Article 11 of the European Social Charter. Reading, understanding, choosing: without these abilities, the right to health remains an abstract promise. Cerignola responds concretely. And the first three months tell this story with numbers, not slogans: more than 7,500 new visitors, 526 new members, 1,293 participants in workshops. A study from Yale University in 2016, on 3,635 participants over 50 followed for 12 years, observed that those who read books died on average 20 percent less frequently than those who did not read. It is not proof that reading extends life but a strong hint that reading contributes to health. Not every library is a clinic, nor do we want it to become one. But a boxed collection, in transit, cannot be borrowed, consulted, shared. And an inaccessible collection does not benefit anyone's health. The human chain in Cerignola has restored availability and accessibility, transforming a stored inventory into a vibrant public service. England has integrated social prescribing into its National Health Service since 2019. The UNESCO Manifesto for Public Libraries promotes them as social and health hubs. When a library is forced to close, the issue is not just the cost. It is the legitimacy of a regressive measure, for which the state must bear the burden of proof. From here, four steps to ensure Cerignola is not an exception. First: integrate health literacy into national planning, with information in clear language and, where appropriate, in dialects and migrant languages, disseminated through libraries. Second: recognize public libraries as relevant infrastructure for the right to health, with stable funding and a human rights impact assessment before any closure. Third: support the Coalition for Health Literacy and Human Rights and the Rome Declaration, which the Council of Europe will discuss in Rome on December 4, 2026, and measure health literacy with ISTAT data disaggregated by language and age. Fourth: rigorously assess community libraries, not for attendance but for health literacy and access to services. Rights, like the books of Cerignola, if left boxed do not heal anyone. They must come out of boxes, pass from hand to hand, become comprehensible words. If you believe that a library can also be a health hub, spread this story. Cerignola has shown the way. Now it is up to the institutions to follow it. (translated)

The midterm elections of 2026 will take place on November 3, with television coverage in Italy starting before the polls close, and the results will be available starting at midnight Italian time, while full awareness of the results may take days. #Midterm2026 #ElezioniUSA #MaratonaElettorale (translated)

Donald Trump announced that military aid to Israel will be halted at the end of the year, emphasizing that the country does not need the annual 4 billion dollars, while Ursula von der Leyen highlighted the costs to Europe arising from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and reiterated commitment to the climate transition. #Israele #CambiamentiClimatici #EnergiaSostenibile (translated)

The midterm elections in the United States will take place today, with polling stations closing starting at midnight Italian time, and the results could determine control of Congress, which will be announced in the following hours, while Democrats hope for a significant gain against a Donald Trump with historically low support. #ElezioniMidterm #DonaldTrump #ElezioniUSA (translated)

Ursula von der Leyen stated that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz cost Europe an additional 127 billion euros for fossil fuel imports, highlighting the need for a transition to clean energy to ensure competitiveness and independence. #TransizioneEnergetica #Sostenibilità #CambiamentiClimatici (translated)

Ursula von der Leyen stated that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has resulted in additional costs of 127 billion euros for Europe in fossil fuel imports, without providing extra energy, highlighting the need for a clean energy transition to ensure competitiveness and independence. #TransizioneEnergetica #Sostenibilità #IndipendenzaEnergetica (translated)

The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta has announced its definitive closure for November 9 due to the increasing repression of Vladimir Putin's regime, marking the end of the last independent newspaper active in Russia. #NovayaGazeta #LibertàDiStampa #RepressionePolitica (translated)