Kat Lonsdorf
Kat Lonsdorf is reporter for NPR, often covering national security and international stories. She is based in Washington, D.C.
Originally from Wisconsin, Lonsdorf attended Occidental College in Los Angeles where she majored in Diplomacy and World Affairs. She joined NPR in 2016 after earning her Masters in Journalism from Medill at Northwestern University.
Lonsdorf has produced and reported for NPR around the world, including in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Japan, Kenya, Ukraine, Georgia, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. In 2020, she was NPR's Above the Fray Fellow, reporting out a series of stories looking at clean up and recovery efforts in Fukushima, Japan after the nuclear disaster in 2011. That series made her a finalist for the Livingston Award for international reporting. She's won a Gracie, an Edward R Murrow award and a duPont-Columbia award for her work.
Before she came to NPR, she was a full-time bartender in downtown Los Angeles, and also hosted and produced an education travel video series for kids called Project Explorer, filming in 14 countries across five continents. Lonsdorf has lived in both Japan and Jordan, and speaks Japanese and conversational Arabic.
-
Military veteran and D.C. resident Anna King has filed a $3 million lawsuit against the Idaho National Guard, saying three guard members assaulted her while detaining her in front of her home. -
The influx of federal agents into the city last fall led to widespread immigration arrests – a majority without criminal convictions. President Trump has said he wants to replicate it elsewhere. -
People held in the immigration detention camp at the Fort Bliss military base in Texas have experienced beatings and life-threatening medical neglect, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
-
President Trump's deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., has been extended several times. Now it's set to last until Inauguration Day 2029. -
Jonah Neal, 25, was struck by a Homeland Security Investigations agent in May. There have been at least four deadly shootings related to the task force. -
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is pulling his National Guard early from Washington, D.C. as the chorus against Democratic governors sending troops to the city amid President Trump's ongoing deployment grows louder. -
Several Democratic governors sent National Guard members to D.C. ahead of America 250 celebrations. But residents have noticed them patrolling the city with Trump's anti-crime task force instead.
-
Michigan Gov. Whitmer is one of four Democrats who sent their states' National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. ahead of America 250 celebrations in recent weeks, amid President Trump's ongoing — and controversial — deployment in the city. -
Several Democratic governors have sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., ahead of America 250, amid President Trump's highly visible — and controversial — ongoing deployment to the city. -
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked or delayed the promotions of several officers across the military branches, and a disproportionate number of those officers are women and people of color. Why? And how is Congress responding?
