Cosmopolitics by Elise Labott

Hope you will join me and Danielle Pletka lTODAY at 5p for #Hot Take Happy Hour: On the menu: Russia sanctions, Vance and Rubio in Israel and #WTH in Venezuela. Plus whatever happens today - you just know there will be something. See you there! If you missed my conversation with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib , the recording is essential viewing - and I mean that. In wide-ranging discussion that was at time...

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton was indicted yesterday. Unlike the politicized cases against James Comey and others, this one has teeth. The Washington Post notes the indictment was signed by Kelly O. Hayes, a respected veteran prosecutor, and Tom Sullivan, who heads Maryland’s national security division—both career prosecutors, not Trump appointees overruling their staff. The timing...

If you weren’t able to catch my conversation with Elliott Abrams here is the recording. As the former US envoy to Venezuela during President Trump’s first administration, his perspective is essential viewing for anyone trying to understand the administration’s current approach to Venezuela and its president, Nicolás Maduro. Lest you think recent US actions against Venezuela are simply about drug c...

It’s worth repeating that President Trump pulled off a major feat yesterday: securing the release of Israeli hostages and and end to the fighting - at least for now - in Gaza. But as Air Force One lifted off from the Middle East, his “historic dawn of a new Middle East” was already colliding with a far messier reality on the ground—one that suggests the hardest part of ending this war hasn’t even...

If you couldn’t catch Hot Take Happy Hour with me and Danielle Pletka , here is the recording. Dany will have her own piece on the deal and I have some of her previous work in the show notes below. Here is my take: After watching Trump’s first-term Middle East policy veer between genius and chaos, often within the same week, I approached his recent Gaza diplomacy with the skepticism of someone who...

PROGRAMMING NOTE : Hot Takes Happy Hour with myself and Danielle Pletka will take place FRIDAY at 4p in observation of Yom Kippur. May all those who celebrate have an easy and peaceful fast. There was so much news this week - Friday’s discussion should be next level! This week’s meeting at Quantico—and the remarks from both President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the assembled genera...

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Join me TODAY at NOON for a Substack live with Barbara Starr , former CNN Pentagon correspondent and current USC Annenberg fellow. We’ll discuss the unprecedented meeting between President Trump, Pete Hegseth, and American military generals, Hegseth’s proposed “warrior ethos” culture, the president’s suggestion to use American cities as military training grounds, and the latest P...

Thanks for joining Danielle Pletka and I for our special coverage of the UN General Assembly. If you didn’t have a chance to watch us live yesterday, here is the video and here is the video of our UNGA show on Tuesday . We plan to do more special editions of Hot Takes Happy Hour for big and breaking stories. Let us know what you want to hear about. I’m wrapping up a week in New York for the openin...

If you weren’t able to watch Danielle Pletka and me live during our special UNGA Edition of Hot Takes Happy Hour, here is the recording. It was a good discussion about Trump’s speech to the UN General Assembly, the recognition of a Palestinian state by many countries at the French/Saudi summit and the whiplash on Ukraine. Dany and I are back THURSDAY at 5:30 ET with our regular programming. We hop...

If you didn’t get a chance to catch this week’s Hot Takes Happy Hour live show, Danielle Pletka and I hope you will watch the recording. The main takeaway here is simple: if Charlie Kirk's murder has taught us anything, it's that we must stop demonizing one another simply because we disagree. People who hold beliefs different from ours are not bad people. Period. We need to make space for those wi...

For those who missed my conversation with Barbara Starr , I highly recommend giving it a listen. Barbara's Pentagon reporting and deep knowledge of America's armed forces ranks among the finest in journalism, and her incisive analysis of the Trump administration's escalating operations against drug cartels in the Caribbean, the deployment of National Guard forces to American cities, and the recent...

Cosmopolitians! In case you missed it, check out my Substack Live on World Review with Ivo Daalder and Yasmeen Abutaleb on next steps in Ukraine. It was a lively discussion that dissected the week’s frantic diplomacy, but also takes the conversation on Ukraine forward. It was great to be Yasmeen, who has covered the White House for years and has a sharp perspective on how this White House operates...

Thank you Cash Flow Collective , David Galinsky , Amit Sen , The Nymph Channel , Gary Sorensen , and many others for tuning into my live video with Danielle Pletka ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cosmopolitics.news/subscribe

If you missed Thursday’s Hot Takes Happy Hour with Danielle Pletka and me, do yourself a favor and watch the replay here. We had one of those conversations that reminds you why nuanced debate still matters in a world obsessed with picking teams. Dany and I agree on most things, but Gaza? That's where it gets thornier – and where things get interesting. We can have a heated discussion about Israeli...

Cosmopolitans: I’m back after a week of some family commitments. Dany and I had a lot to catch up on - if you didn’t catch our Hot Takes Happy Hour, have a listen. Stay tuned for my next post on developments in Israel and Gaza, and of course - our weekly edit. Substack live interviews will resume next week. Hope to see you there! Let me know what is on your mind in the comments below, or send me a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.cosmopolitics.news I really enjoyed this conversation with Ivo Daalder . There was plenty to say about NATO's "Trump summit," as Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it. Ivo agrees that the alliance bent itself around Trump's ego, preferences and attention span—from Secretary General Rutte's fawning praise (calling Trump "daddy"),...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.cosmopolitics.news I love taking with Steven A. Cook . Steven is the Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a columnist at Foreign Policy. He's also a good friend. His recent book, The End of AmbitionAmerica’s Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East offers a pr...

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cosmopolitics.news/subscribe

Thank you Linda Kemp , Patricia Wren , Mindy Forrest , Deborah Hamberlin , Mary Lynn Culver , and many others for tuning into my live video with Steve Schmidt ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cosmopolitics.news/subscribe

Thank you David Galinsky , Jaime HG 🇺🇸 , Mel , lotta kuylenstjerna , and many others for tuning into my live video with Danielle Pletka ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cosmopolitics.news/subscribe

When President Trump deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, the first person I wanted to speak with for the Cosmopolitics community was Barbara Starr , my friend and former colleague at CNN, where she covered the Pentagon for decades. Understanding the traditional role the military is meant to play in our society is crucial to grasping just how precarious this moment is. As protes...

This episodes cocktail: Spicy Hot Takes Marg Thank you Jaime HG 🇺🇸 , Genia Sklute , Aaron Rubin , Irene , and many others for tuning into my live video with Danielle Pletka ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cosmopolitics.news/subscribe

Drink of the week: Purple Haze Thank you David Galinsky , Wendy Bowis , Paul kirkpatrick , Irene , Robert Wade , and many others for tuning into my live video with Danielle Pletka ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cosmopolitics.news/subscribe

This week’s Hot Takes Happy Hour cocktail: The Mission Impossible Thank you David Galinsky , Liz O’Connor , Jaime HG 🇺🇸 , Wendy Bowis , Robert Wade , and many others for tuning into my live video with Danielle Pletka ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cosmopolitics.ne...

Thank you Earl Brownlee , ArleneMach , and many others for tuning into my live video with Tom LoBianco ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cosmopolitics.news/subscribe