Katie Polglase

Investigative Reporter

Katie Polglase is an Emmy Award-winning Investigative Reporter based at CNN's London Bureau.
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1541200 CNNi Expansion 2024- Q3- London - Katie Polglase
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Latest

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Photo Illustration by Alberto Mier/CNN/X
‘My identity is stolen’: Photos of European influencers used to push pro-Trump propaganda on fake X accounts
Aug 28, 2024
A phony campaign on X backing Trump ahead of the US election is using stolen or manipulated photos of real women in Europe to push its agenda.
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• Video 6:11
Palestine TV
This Israeli battalion has a history of abuse. CNN uncovers how their commanders are now operating 6:11
Jul 13, 2024
Former commanders of an Israeli military unit that has been accused by the United States of gross human rights violations against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank prior to October 7, have been promoted to senior positions in the Israel Defense Forces and are now active in training Israeli ground troops as well as running operations in Gaza, a CNN investigation has found. Watch our full report.
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• Video 4:56
IDF
CNN finds new information contradicting IDF’s account of night over 100 died in Gaza 4:56
Apr 10, 2024
CNN’s Katie Polglase pieces together what we know about the early hours of February 29, when over 100 were killed during an aid distribution in Gaza. With newly uncovered video and audio, as well as eyewitness testimony, CNN’s analysis contradicts the Israel Defense Forces’ version of events and raises new questions. The IDF has not yet responded. This video has been updated to replace some supplementary footage.
A bloodied aid box found at the scene with the writing 'Ummah Welfare Trust' provided a clue to the aid organisations behind the delivery on February 29.
Ummah Welfare Trust
Dying for a bag of flour: Videos and eyewitness accounts cast doubt on Israel’s timeline of deadly Gaza aid delivery
Apr 10, 2024
CNN’s analysis sheds new light on what happened in the early hours of February 29, when more than 100 people were killed and 700 injured while trying to get flour.
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• Video 1:57
StreamTimeLive
Video shows what happened right before ship hit bridge 1:57
Mar 26, 2024
Video from StreamTimeLive shows the cargo ship Dali before it crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and caused it to collapse. CNN’s Katie Polglase reports.
On February 5, Thomas White, Director of UNRWA Affairs for Gaza, shared two images on X showing a food convoy truck that was purportedly struck by Israeli naval gunfire, with a caption that read, "#Gaza this morning a food convoy waiting to move into Northern Gaza was hit by Israeli naval gunfire - thankfully no one was injured"
Thomas White/UNRWA via X
Exclusive: Israeli forces fired on food convoy in Gaza, UN documents and satellite analysis reveals
Feb 21, 2024
Israeli forces fired on a United Nations convoy carrying vital food supplies in central Gaza on February 5, before ultimately blocking the trucks from progressing to the northern part of the territory, where Palestinians are on the verge of famine, according to documents shared exclusively by the UN and CNN’s own analysis.
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• Video 3:26
UNRWA
Watch CNN’s investigation into a UN aid truck that was hit by Israeli forces 3:26
Feb 21, 2024
CNN’s Katie Polglase reports on a UN aid convoy that was traveling to northern Gaza on an Israeli agreed route, but came under fire anyway.
VIDEO THUMBNAIL Rafah satellite images
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Maxar
What the south of Gaza looks like now in satellite images 1:02
Feb 9, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says IDF soldiers will soon shift the focus of their offensive to Rafah, a city close to the southern border with Egypt where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million has fled. CNN’s Katie Polglase examines satellite images, which help to show the scale of the situation on the ground – from destroyed refugee camps in Khan Younis to the growing number of people in Rafah.
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• Video 5:39
Google Earth
3D visual shows timeline of Gaza hospital destruction 5:39
Jan 12, 2024
A CNN investigation has found that 20 out of 22 hospitals in northern Gaza were damaged or destroyed between October 7 and December 7. CNN’s Katie Polglase reports.
A view shows the aftermath of a deadly blast that struck Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Wednesday, October 18.
Mohammed Al-Masri/Reuters
CNN Investigates: Forensic analysis of images and videos suggests rocket caused Gaza hospital blast, not Israeli airstrike
Nov 2, 2023
In the days since a blast ripped through the packed Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, killing hundreds of Palestinians, dueling claims between Palestinian militants and the Israeli government over culpability are still raging. But forensic analysis of publicly available imagery and footage has begun to offer some clues as to what caused the explosion.
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• Video 4:24
South First Responders
How Hamas trapped civilians at music festival 4:24
Oct 14, 2023
CNN has verified more than 50 videos and spoken to 12 survivors to reveal how the deadly assault on a music festival in Israel last weekend unfolded. Katie Polglase reports that an analysis of these videos established Hamas militants attacked the festival from three sides, trapping civilians and pursuing those that fled.
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• Video 1:53
X/@bayraktar_1love
Video shows missile attack on Russia’s naval headquarters 1:53
Sep 22, 2023
Ukraine launched a missile attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. CNN’s Katie Polglase discusses the significance of the attack.
A view shows smoke rising above a plane on fire following an alleged air accident at a location given as Tver region, Russia, in this still image from video published August 23, 2023. Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of Russian private mercenary group Wagner, was reportedly listed as a passenger on a private jet which crashed north of Moscow on August 23, 2023. Ostorozhno Novosti/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT. WATERMARK FROM SOURCE.
Ostorozhno Novosti/Reuters
Explosion likely brought down aircraft purportedly carrying Wagner boss, flight data and video analysis suggest
Aug 25, 2023
CNN analysis of flight data and videos, as well as interviews with aviation and explosive experts, indicates that the private aircraft likely experienced at least one “catastrophic inflight incident” before it dropped out of the sky.
In the early hours of December 14, 2022, 39 migrants were saved from a collapsed rubber boat stranded in the middle of the English Channel between the United Kingdom and France. Images from the night of the rescue show people being hauled out of the water using ropes attached to the fishing boat. A British RNLI lifeboat is the first official responder on the scene and drops a string of life rings to assist people.
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Ray Strachan
UK ramping up efforts to deter migrants from crossing channel 4:55
Jul 31, 2023
In the UK, the government is ramping up measures to deter migrants crossing the channel from France and a controversial new law has passed that will include criminalizing anyone who seeks asylum there this way. The country has also invested millions in surveillance to spot small boats, but a CNN investigation found no evidence it was used during the deadliest incident in the channel last year. CNN’s Katie Polglase reports.
A photo provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows migrants onboard the boat, before it capsized in the early hours of June 14.
Hellenic Coast Guard/Reuters
‘If they had left us be, we wouldn’t have drowned:’ CNN investigation raises questions about Greek coast guard’s account of shipwreck tragedy
Jun 23, 2023
The hull of the fishing trawler lifted out of the water as it sank, catapulting people from the top deck into the black sea below. In the darkness, they grabbed onto whatever they could to stay afloat, pushing each other underwater in a frantic fight for survival. Some were screaming, many began to recite their final prayers.
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Leah Abucayan/Matthew Brealey/CNN/Getty
A Black teen’s murder sparked a crisis over racism in British policing. Thirty years on, little has changed
Apr 22, 2023
Neville Lawrence sometimes imagines walking through London and looking at buildings his son Stephen might have worked on, had he lived long enough to fulfill his dream of becoming an architect. The closest he ever got to that was building a miniature.

About

Katie Polglase is an Emmy award-winning Investigative Reporter, based at CNN’s London bureau.

With a specialism in open-source intelligence (OSINT), Polglase has led multiple investigations for CNN with a focus on uncovering human rights abuses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Conducting in-depth research as well as presenting on air, her work has been instrumental in driving change on a global level. It has been cited by politicians, government bodies, and intelligence agencies, and has won multiple prestigious awards, including a Murrow Award in 2023 for Investigative Reporting and an Emmy Award in 2022 and 2023.

Most recently, Polglase has been a key part of CNN’s most extensive OSINT-led investigations into the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and the dire consequences this has had on civilians in Gaza.

Two of these were cited in the UN’s first in-depth investigation into the events in Gaza and Israel since October 7, 2023. Published in June, the report explicitly uses Polglase’s investigation into a strike on a UN aid convoy as well as her piece on a separate incident which left scores of Gazans dead as they gathered for an aid delivery as key examples of evidence for the continuing attacks on humanitarian personnel in Gaza.

Polglase also presented CNN’s investigation into the Nova music festival massacre in Israel on October 7.

She was the on-air reporter for CNN’s investigation into the death of Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank, the investigation into the disappearance of Iranian teenager Nika Shahkarami, as well as multiple investigations on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Polglase previously worked with CNN Chief International Investigative Correspondent Nima Elbagir’s team covering the conflict in Ethiopia. Together they published Peabody Award nominated exclusive investigations that used on-the-ground and open-source techniques to expose massacres committed by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers.

Polglase also led the research for a 14-month investigation into child abuse in the Catholic Church. The piece won the Association for International Broadcasting’s (AIB) Impact Award and the AIB’s Award for Investigative Documentary TV and Video. It was also shortlisted for the Foreign Press Association’s Print & Web Story of the Year.

Her work on the investigation into Russian troll farms in Ghana was a finalist for the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the investigation into the Lekki toll gate shooting in Nigeria won the award for Best Use of Crowd Sourcing or Citizen Journalism at The Drum Online Media Awards 2021.

Polglase holds a Bachelor’s degree in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Cambridge. She is fluent in English, Arabic and Spanish, and studied overseas in Jordan.