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Pascale Harter introduces dispatches from Japan, Ukraine, the United States and Mauritius.

The earthquake which shook Japan on New Year's Day brought considerable damage to the mostly-rural Noto peninsula. One noticeable pattern amid the destruction was how much more robust modern buildings had proved to be over older, wooden homes. Jean Mackenzie reflects on Japan's evolving ability to cope with earthquakes.

In Dnipro, away from the frontline in central-eastern Ukraine, Tim Whewell encounters a group of men who have not yet been called up to fight. He hears about everyday life in the country's economic hub and how young men are making a living by any means as they live under the looming threat of conscription.

Every four years, the citizens of Iowa welcome a political circus to town - as national and international media, political grandees and pollsters flood in to cover the Iowa caucuses. Justin Webb explains how and why Iowa has such a special role in the electoral process.

The island of Mauritius has become a hub for the international drugs trade - a stop-off point for cartels trafficking narcotics from east to west. But as Lorraine Mallinder discovered, this is having a corrosive effect on the country鈥檚 poorest children too.

Producer: Sally Abrahams
Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

(Image: A crack in the road in Monzen in the city of Wajima, Japan, 05 January 2024. Credit: Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP)