NewsTracker Answers for week of Jan. 12, 2026

Q: An economic collapse set off two weeks of violent protests by millions of Iranians in more than 100 cities and towns across the country. Protesters are demanding an end to the theocratic regime that has ruled Iran for nearly 50 years. Where is Iran on the Persian Gulf??

Circle the area on this map

Q: It was estimated on Sunday that 200 to 500 people had been killed during the protests. The leader of which nation threatened to “punish” Iran’s leaders if they killed protesters?

A. Israel

B. Russia

C. Saudi Arabia

D. United States

D. "If Iran violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” President Donald Trump wrote on social media. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go."

Q: Iran’s embattled regime shut down the internet and mobile phone service last week, but protests persisted. Iran’s rulers have been severely weakened by years of economic sanctions and the recent defeat of allies, including the long-time dictator of what other Middle East nation?

A. Afghanistan

B. Pakistan

C. Syria

D. Turkmenistan

C. Defeated dictator Bashar al-Assad fled Syria in 2024 after Iran supported him during more than 20 years of civil war. Last year, Israel decimated Iran-backed paramilitaries Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel and the United States also bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran’s neighbors, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan, are not considered part of the Middle East.

Q: Many protesters chanted “death to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,” the second religious “supreme leader” to rule Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and their chants of “death to America.” In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan’s administration secretly transferred U.S.arms to Iran and spent the profits to support rebels in what Central American nation?

A. Argentina

B. Bolivia

C. Chile

D. Nicaragua

D. The United States arranged the sale of spare weapons parts to Iran as part of an attempt to free seven hostages held by Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. The Reagan administration used money from the sale to illegally fund Contra rebels fighting a leftist government in Nicaragua. Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile are in South America, not Central America.

Q: Iran desperately needed replacement U.S. weapons during the 1980s war with what nation on its western border?

A. Afghanistan

B. Iraq

C. Pakistan

D. Turkmenistan

B. It is estimated that 500,000 people were killed during the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Iran to seize territory and to stop Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s first “supreme leader,” from exporting his Islamic revolution to Iraq. Iran later gained influence in Iraq after Hussein was defeated by the United States and its allies.