When Grid launched in January, a looming war in Ukraine was only one among many major global stories on the horizon. Since late February, Ukraine and Russia and the global consequences of the war have consumed much of the world’s attention. No doubt they will continue to do so for some time.

But we wanted to take a moment to catch readers up on some critical global issues and hot spots that may have been overlooked in the two months since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion: two other wars, two crises involving nuclear proliferation, a continuing crackdown on minorities in the world’s largest democracy and a look at “Taliban 2.0″ in Afghanistan.

IRANNew deal or no deal?

In March, France’s foreign ministry warned that the “window of opportunity is closing” to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Given that Iran’s own government had warned that the “window is closing” more than a year earlier, this may be one of the world’s slowest-closing windows. It’s still open, but barely.