I'm using USA region without actually being there and non-USA store account. Something like a few months ago Apple News didn't load for me neither no matter what country VPN was set to. But now that I tried it again, it actually works just fine on iPadOS 13.4.1 correctly loading the USA stories based solely on the region settings.
I don’t know what’s happening in your case, but changing the region works for me even in locations where the Apple News app isn’t available. Are you also using a non-USA store account when you travel? That can really confuse Apple News.
And to be clear, I’m just talking about free news content, no subscriptions, nothing you couldn’t get easily by going to the actual website, so any paid licensing geo restrictions shouldn’t really be relevant.