Hong Kong residents were promised direct elections by 2017. But Beijing has since ruled that ballot choices will be limited to a pre-approved slate of candidates. That’s the root of the protests in Hong Kong that started out peacefully, were met with police action, and have since attracted the attention of the world. From Vox: Hong Kong’s unprecedented protests and police crackdown, explained.

+ The protests have quickly come to be known as the Umbrella Revolution. Here’s the BBC on how the humble umbrella became a protest symbol.

+ Foreign Policy (No registration required for ND readers): “Future generations may well commemorate Sept. 28, 2014 in the history of Hong Kong as the day when the famously apolitical city turned unmistakably political.”

+ The Verge: What if everyone in Tiananmen Square had been carrying a smartphone. And Buzzfeed: The Hong Kong Occupy Central protest has triggered mainland China’s biggest ever crackdown on Weibo. (The Chinese are censored while we use devices they built to gain unfettered access.)

+ InFocus has an excellent collection of photos from the scene.