You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query-continue>
    <logevents lestart="2019-08-14T23:26:10Z" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <logevents>
      <item logid="170" pageid="116" ns="6" title="File:LOCKSSOrgChart.png" type="upload" action="overwrite" user="Ntay" timestamp="2019-08-15T00:52:39Z" comment="LOCKSS organizational chart, as of October 2017" />
      <item logid="169" pageid="139" ns="0" title="CLOCKSS: Extracting Triggered Content" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Ntay" timestamp="2019-08-15T00:47:27Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="339" prev="304" auto="1" />
      </item>
      <item logid="168" pageid="1" ns="0" title="Main Page" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Ntay" timestamp="2019-08-15T00:39:14Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="338" prev="311" auto="1" />
      </item>
      <item logid="167" pageid="147" ns="0" title="LOCKSS: Software Development Process" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Ntay" timestamp="2019-08-15T00:22:09Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="337" prev="289" auto="1" />
      </item>
      <item logid="166" pageid="130" ns="0" title="LOCKSS: Property Server Operations" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Ntay" timestamp="2019-08-14T23:44:25Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="336" prev="277" auto="1" />
      </item>
      <item logid="165" pageid="124" ns="0" title="LOCKSS: Polling and Repair Protocol" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Ntay" timestamp="2019-08-14T23:42:53Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="335" prev="315" auto="1" />
      </item>
      <item logid="164" pageid="128" ns="0" title="LOCKSS: Metadata Database" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Ntay" timestamp="2019-08-14T23:41:26Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="334" prev="287" auto="1" />
      </item>
      <item logid="163" pageid="127" ns="0" title="LOCKSS: Format Migration" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Ntay" timestamp="2019-08-14T23:40:05Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="333" prev="276" auto="1" />
      </item>
      <item logid="162" pageid="135" ns="0" title="Definition of SIP" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Ntay" timestamp="2019-08-14T23:34:56Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="332" prev="270" auto="1" />
      </item>
      <item logid="161" pageid="134" ns="0" title="Definition of DIP" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Ntay" timestamp="2019-08-14T23:30:24Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="331" prev="174" auto="1" />
      </item>
    </logevents>
  </query>
</api>