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Don't bet on the U.S.-Canadian border reopening after the closure agreement expires Oct. 21. In an interview Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country is committed to keeping the border closed until the United States gets control of COVID-19. (Deerwester, 10/15)

The record-setting coronavirus infection numbers in Europe this week may not bode well for U.S. travelers hoping to return to the continent anytime soon. In just the past 10 days, Europe has recorded an exponential increase in infections, with a million new cases, The Washington Post reported. The continent has been nearly free of U.S. tourists since March 17, when the European Union restricted nonessential travel and closed its external borders. (Compton, 10/15)

After four miscarriages and years of heartbreak, Nahid Khan was just weeks from giving birth in April when she received shattering news: She had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Khan and her husband scrambled to find a place for the 29-year-old to deliver. The pandemic was surging through Mumbai in a devastating wave, overwhelming hospitals and closing smaller maternity clinics as their staffs became infected. (Shelar and Slater, 10/15)

Hundreds of New Zealand plane passengers started arriving in Sydney on Friday as part of a new trans-Tasman travel bubble amid a rapidly falling growth rate in cases at the epicentre of Australia’s coronavirus outbreak. In a tentative re-opening to international tourism, travellers on the approved flights won’t be required to quarantine in Sydney, authorities said. (Barrett, 10/15)

New Zealanders are poised to decide on two landmark social issues during an election Saturday: whether to legalize recreational marijuana and whether to legalize euthanasia. A “yes” vote on both referendums would arguably make the nation of 5 million one of the more liberal countries in the world. Polls indicate the euthanasia referendum is likely to pass while the result of the marijuana measure remains uncertain. (Perry, 10/16)