The arrest in Vancouver of Huawei’s finance chief Meng Wanzhou (the daughter of the company’s founder), for allegedly breaching US-imposed sanctions on Iran, is roiling diplomatic relations between Washington, Beijing and Ottawa. China’s foreign ministry has warned Canada of “grave consequences” in response to the arrest, while Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau has insisted that there is no political motive in the case. But an unlikely twist has emerged in Ms Meng’s plight – her citizenship. She holds at least four Chinese passports, three Hong Kong passports and is a Canadian citizen too. Dual nationality for Chinese citizens is banned by Beijing so the next move by all three players in the furore brought about by Ms Meng’s incarceration may yet be dictated by the bureaucratic detail of which document she was travelling with at the time of her arrest.

Italy’s national rail service, Ferrovie dello Stato, has launched its first high-speed connection between Venice, Bologna, Florence and Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, the country’s largest air hub. Links to Milan’s Malpensa Airport will follow. Besides boosting both national and international tourism, the project will further integrate rail and air transport ahead of Ferrovie dello Stato’s likely acquisition of debt-burdened flag carrier Alitalia early next year. Unsurprisingly the new airport links will favour connectivity within Italy’s northern and central regions. But the development should take care not to leave southern Italy – where the infrastructure is less robust but which is home to some of the country’s most-visited areas – in the shadows.