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		<title>Aid cuts did not cause ebola</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:49:30 +0000</pubDate>
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					<description><![CDATA[Published by The Spectator (3rd June, 2025)]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Filthy lucre</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:04:37 +0000</pubDate>
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					<description><![CDATA[Published by The Spectator (7th February, 2026)]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>The nerdy obsessive who became the world&#8217;s richest man</title>
		<link>https://ianbirrell.com/the-nerdy-obsessive-who-became-the-worlds-richest-man/</link>
		
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		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2025 20:28:35 +0000</pubDate>
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					<description><![CDATA[Published by The Spectator (8th February, 2025) Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates (Allen Lane) Shortly before Bill Gates’s seventh birthday in 1962, his parents stuffed their [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>What do we mean when we talk about freedom?</title>
		<link>https://ianbirrell.com/what-do-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-freedom/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:44:06 +0000</pubDate>
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					<description><![CDATA[Published by The Spectator (12th October, 2024) On Freedom by Timothy Snyder (Bodley Head) When the Yale historian and bestselling author Timothy Snyder was 14, his parents took [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Conspiracy of thieves</title>
		<link>https://ianbirrell.com/conspiracy-of-thieves/</link>
		
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		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:20:18 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category><![CDATA[Venezuela]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Chavez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Machado]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Putin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spectator]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xi Jinping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zimbabwe]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Published by The Spectator (27th July, 2024) Autocracy, Inc &#8211; The Dictators Who Want To Run The World (Allen Lane) After staging a failed coup and going to [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>The unbelievable truth</title>
		<link>https://ianbirrell.com/the-unbelievable-truth/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jul 2024 10:46:35 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Arts]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Merkel]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Published by The Spectator (18th May, 2024) White Terror: A True Story of Murder, Bombings and Germany&#8217;s Far Right by Jacob Kushner Enver Simsek’s life story was one [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>The freedom fighters who dared to take on a communist superpower</title>
		<link>https://ianbirrell.com/the-freedom-fighters-who-dared-to-take-on-a-communist-superpower/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Feb 2024 13:26:49 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Arts]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Finn Lau]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gwyneth Ho]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Lam]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Published by The Spectator (6th January, 2024) Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy by Shibani [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>A glorious tale of greed</title>
		<link>https://ianbirrell.com/a-glorious-tale-of-greed/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Oct 2023 16:05:16 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Ghana]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Spectator]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Published by The Spectator (26th August, 2023) Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Swindled the World by Yepoka Yeebo In the early months of 1981, investors in a Swiss [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>A long, dark shadow</title>
		<link>https://ianbirrell.com/a-long-dark-shadow/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Sep 2022 10:30:43 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Arts]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Haiti]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[slavery]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Published by The Spectator (18th June, 2022) Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation by Kris Manjapra (Allen Lane) When the [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Seeing red</title>
		<link>https://ianbirrell.com/seeing-red/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:58:04 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Arts]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://ianbirrell.com/?p=5506</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Published by The Spectator (11th December, 2021) Wildland: the Making of America&#8217;s Fury by Evan Osnos (Bloomsbury) After leaving college more than two decades ago, Evan Osnos landed [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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