Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

THE IMAGINARY EAVESDROPPER: ERDOGAN CONGRATS EDITION

THE IMAGINARY EAVESDROPPER: ERDOGAN CONGRATS EDITION
Make us preferred on Google

Three foreign leaders were quick to call Mr. Erdogan to congratulate him on his presidential victory — Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. A brief imagining of what each might have said.


Orban: Recep! Nicely done. Love what you’ve done with the place — controlling media and the courts is pretty real, right? Listen, can’t help but notice that you’re still housing 3.4 million refugees from Syria. If you… eh… have any plans to stick it to the EU by letting them through, let’s talk ahead of time, shall we? Btw, if you need any anti-Soros swag, I’ve got TONS left over.

Putin: Recep Ahmetovich! Only 52% of the vote and a coalition in parliament? Psht! If people really think you’re trying to be me, you’ve got a long way to go, patsan… But anyway, nicely done and of course, next time NATO or the Europeans give you grief, I’ve got that relief.

Rouhani: Hi. Hassan here. Thanks for taking my call. . . Hello? . . Oh good, you’re still there. Listen, nice job with the election — remember, our annual Implacable Opponents of Israel and Saudi and the Kurds BBQ/Bakesale is coming up and you haven’t RSVP’d, but I know you’ve been busy — see you there?

More For You

People vote in the legislative elections in Algiers, Algeria, on July 2, 2026.

People vote in the legislative elections in Algiers, Algeria, on July 2, 2026. The electorate, including the diaspora, consists of 24,727,041 registered voters. These elections will elect the 407 members of the tenth legislature of the People's National Assembly (APN), with a mandate of five years.

Billel Bensalem/APP/NurPhoto
Algerians are headed to the polls today to elect their next members of parliament. Nearly 25 million people are eligible to vote, selecting from over 1,200 candidates for 407 seats in the lower house. It’s the country’s second parliamentary election since the pro-democracy Hirak movement swept the country in 2019 – the peaceful uprising that [...]
​Smoke rises from an oil refinery following a Ukrainian drone attack, in Moscow, Russia, on June 18, 2026.

Smoke rises from an oil refinery following a Ukrainian drone attack in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Moscow, Russia, on June 18, 2026.

SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS
With refiners ablaze, Russia is now importing fuel from IndiaYes, you read that correctly: Russia, one of the world’s largest oil exporters and a huge supplier of crude to India, is now buying fuel from its Soviet-era ally. The reason? Ukraine’s widening barrage of drone and missile strikes on Russian petrochemicals facilities has knocked out [...]
Over a million migrants seek legal status in Spain
Farida Dowidar
Spain has taken a very different tack from other European countries toward migrants, with Sánchez welcoming them into the country and pledging to grant legal status to half a million undocumented migrants under a new program. However, the PM underestimated how many people would apply: his government had expected 750,000 applications. With [...]
Trump’s most disruptive days on the world stage are behind him
I’ve said it before: since Donald Trump took office for the second time a year and a half ago, the United States has been the largest single driver of global political risk. Not Moscow, not Tehran, not Beijing – Washington. When the leader of the most powerful country in the world – the one that built and upheld the global order for eighty years – [...]