After a month of war, Ukrainian refugee crisis ranks among the worlds worst in recent history

­­­Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times. A month into the war, more than 3.7 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries – the sixth-largest refugee outflow over the past 60-plus years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of United Nations data

The polarization in todays Congress has roots that go back decades

It's become commonplace among observers of U.S. politics to decry partisan polarization in Congress. Indeed, a Pew Research Center analysis finds that, on average, Democrats and Republicans are farther apart ideologically today than at any time in the past 50 years.But the dynamics behind today's congressional polarization have been long in the making. The analysis of members' ideological scores finds that the current standoff between Democrats and Republicans is the result of several overlapping trends that have been playing themselves out – and sometimes reinforcing each other – for decades

How do states fill vacancies in the U.S. Senate? It depends on the state

This year, as in every even-numbered year, about a third of U.S. Senate seats will be up for election. Given the 50-50 split in the Senate between Democrats and Republicans, each of those races has the potential to tip the chamber's balance of power one way or the other. But elections aren't the only way that can happen.In the event that a sitting senator resigns or dies, or the position otherwise becomes vacant, governors in 46 states have the power to appoint a temporary replacement. And in most of those states, governors have free rein to appoint whomever they wish, with the appointee serving until a successor is elected to fill out the rest of the term. The evenly split Senate means that even a single governor could, hypothetically, determine which party controls the chamber