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.
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As President Trump's deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., enters its second year, three guard members who served many months on the mission share their thoughts with NPR.
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The National Guard's presence has become routine in D.C., but there's nothing routine about questions over the role the troops could play in the upcoming midterms.
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As the National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C., hits the one year mark, experts worry about the potential for President Trump to deploy the military during the upcoming election.
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The deployment is expected to cost in the billions after it was quietly extended until Inauguration Day of 2029. -
President Trump's deployment of the National Guard will hit the one year mark next week. The presence of armed, uniformed troops on the street has become increasingly normalized in the capital.
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The war with Iran has fueled a shortage of U.S. long-range precision missiles. Stockpiles are expected to take years to replenish.
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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.
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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.
