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What's good, y'all? You are listening to Code Twitch from NPR. I'm Gene Demby.

War with Iran. Probably not on any of our bingo cars for 2026. And yet, on the morning of February

28th, many of us woke up to that news. Sina Tusi was on a cruise with his fiance and her father

when he found out what was going on.

We left on Thursday. You know, things weren't looking good with Iran, but there were these negotiations last week.

I was kind of like hoping against hope that there would be some breakthrough, at least things will kind of not explode.

And then lo and behold, you know, and I had poor internet access there, but I did have internet access on, like,

Saturday morning, and I wake up to like, you know, U.S. strikes on Iran, you know, reports on

U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. And it was just, you know, my heart sank. And it's devastating.

And it's been a really devastating war so far. And it will be.

You know, initially, you know, the internet was on, and so, you know, just hearing back from

people that they're okay, trying to get a report on everybody.

Again, like the thing that's really difficult now, and this was difficult in January as well,

when there was an internet shutdown during these protests where thousands of people were killed.

You know, just not having communication with people you regularly have communication with and not even

having the option of that is like a really scary feeling.

Sina, who is Iranian-American, has been studying U.S.-Iran relations for years.

I am Iranian-American. I was born in Iran, but I grew up here in the U.S.

And again, I've been living in D.C. for about 10, over 10 years now, working on this issue.

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