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Only 23% of American voters can identify Iran on world map

Photo: Planet Observer/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Only 23% of registered American voters were able to correctly identify Iran on an unlabeled world map, according to a poll from Morning Consult and Politico.

Why it matters: Voters' inability to pick out Iran on the map highlights their relative unfamiliarity with foreign countries — even after decades of conflicts and tensions with the U.S. in the region.

  • Things didn't get much better on a smaller scale as just 28% of voters were able to place Iran on an unlabeled map of the Middle East.
  • 8% of voters thought Iraq was Iran on the regional map.

The state of play: On Morning Consult's global map, voters' responses were spread across the globe. While the Middle East saw definite clustering, some respondents believed — among dozens of wild responses — that Iran was located in:

  • The U.S.
  • Canada
  • Spain
  • Russia
  • Brazil
  • Australia
  • The middle of the Atlantic Ocean

The big picture: The death of Iran's top general Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. airstrike has refreshed focus and attention on the region as tensions between the two countries remain high.

  • 47% of voters surveyed supported Trump's decision to strike Soleimani, compared to 40% who did not — a result that broke largely along party lines.
  • Morning Consult noted that there were no statistical differences in support for the strike among those who could or could not identify Iran on a map.

Go deeper: Signs of respite with Iran despite Trump's red line

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Tech scrambles to derail inauguration threats

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Tech companies are sharing more information with law enforcement in a frantic effort to prevent violence around the inauguration, after the government was caught flat-footed by the Capitol siege.

Between the lines: Tech knows it will be held accountable for any further violence that turns out to have been planned online if it doesn't act to stop it.

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Dave Lawler, author of World
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Uganda's election: Museveni declared winner, Wine claims fraud

Wine rejected the official results of the election. Photo: Sumy Sadruni/AFP via Getty

Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of a sixth presidential term on Saturday, with official results giving him 59% to 35% for Bobi Wine, the singer-turned-opposition leader.

Why it matters: This announcement was predictable, as the election was neither free nor fair and Museveni had no intention of surrendering power after 35 years. But Wine — who posed a strong challenged to Museveni, particularly in urban areas, and was beaten and arrested during the campaign — has said he will present evidence of fraud. The big question is whether he will mobilize mass resistance in the streets.

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Episode 1: A premeditated lie lit the fire

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Beginning on election night 2020 and continuing through his final days in office, Donald Trump unraveled and dragged America with him, to the point that his followers sacked the U.S. Capitol with two weeks left in his term. Axios takes you inside the collapse of a president with a special series.

Episode 1: Trump’s refusal to believe the election results was premeditated. He had heard about the “red mirage” — the likelihood that early vote counts would tip more Republican than the final tallies — and he decided to exploit it.

"Jared, you call the Murdochs! Jason, you call Sammon and Hemmer!”

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