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Good afternoon from the KUOW Newsroom. This is Seattle now. I'm Paige Browning with a roundup of today's top stories. It's Wednesday, August 20th. Starting with our big story today, protesters took over

a plaza at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters twice this week to demand the company end its

contract with the Israeli military.

Monica Nicholsberg takes us there.

Microsoft employees were milling about a lunchtime farmer's market the company holds

when masked protesters rode in on bicycles.

About 30 current and former Microsoft employees barricaded themselves with tents and tables they took from the farmer's market.

Julius Sean was one of them.

I think as like both a Microsoft employee and an American citizen, I have a duty to use my voice to speak up when others cannot.

The protesters called on Microsoft to cut ties with the Israeli military following reports

that its Azure cloud services are being used to surveil Palestinians.

In a statement, Microsoft said it's committed to human rights and is launching an investigation

into how Israel is using Azure.

Several employees watching the protest said they were supportive of it, but afraid they'd lose their jobs if they spoke out. People like A.N., who asked to only be identified by her initials because... I just had a baby. That's who I can go, and I need my job, you know? But she said she's heartbroken by what she's seen of the war in Gaza. You know, you see some of the stories that are coming out with, you know, as people like me,

who might have lost their kid or lost their family members.

And, you know, knowing that we're connected to something like that is really sucky.

...