Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's Senate hearing Today was the first of four days of confirmation hearings for President Biden's Supreme Court pick. It was mostly senators talking to her — the sparring, in which she gets to respond to questions, will get started tomorrow. But here are two takeaways from the first day.  Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at her confirmation hearing Monday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | 1. This is a big deal, but also in some ways, it's not Democrats are thrilled to be on the way to confirming the first Black woman on the Supreme Court — and one of eight non-White men to be on the court, ever. "The court's members … have never really reflected the nation they served," said Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is reviewing her nomination. It's a big political win for them, a fulfillment of a Biden campaign promise to Black voters in particular. But it's also likely to get less attention than other recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings, for two reasons: — The war in Ukraine is still the biggest news event happening right now. — If she gets on the court, Jackson won't change its ideological makeup. It will still tilt heavily conservative, with six conservative-leaning justices and three liberal-leaning justices. This summer, the court — without Jackson on it — will decide whether to knock down abortion protections set in Roe v. Wade. 2. Republicans are going to attack her no matter what They know her confirmation is probably a foregone conclusion. The Senate (not the House of Representatives) votes on whether to confirm a president's nominee to the court, and Senate Democrats have enough votes to confirm her. She might even get a few Republican votes. On Monday, Republicans laid out their plan of attack. It's multi-pronged: Jackson, as a public defender who represented people accused of a crime who can't afford a lawyer, may be soft on crime. (She is expected to aggressively rebut that.) And they will try to paint a picture of a judge with an activist agenda, primarily because liberal activist groups support her. "It appears that sometimes, this zealous advocacy has gone beyond the pale," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) told Jackson of her record, "and it appears that sometimes your advocacy has bled over into your decision-making process as a judge." (As for accusations by Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, that she is soft on child-porn offenders, there is no there there. Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler explains how these attacks are misleading.) How Jackson defends herself will be a big theme the next three days. The Post's Aaron Blake has many more takeaways from Day 1 here. What is a humanitarian corridor? After a particularly violent weekend in which the severely besieged city Mariupol refused to surrender, Ukraine says there are now eight humanitarian corridors open for civilians to flee. But what does that mean — and do they work? What are they?: Humanitarian corridors are pathways that civilians can use to leave dangerous areas. They have set start and end times so people can decide whether and how to leave. Aid workers also use the corridors to deliver food and other necessities to those who choose to stay, my colleague Marisa Iati explains. The Geneva Conventions says citizens have to be able to get supplies such as food and medicine during a war, and humanitarian corridors are one way to satisfy that requirement, explains the national security blog Just Security. How do they get created?: The two states at war with each other have to agree to create them, but that means supposedly protected places in war can turn into a deadly trap if one side violates the agreement. "Time and again, civilians have been hit while trying to escape along a route that was supposed to be safe," Marisa writes. Ukraine says that's been happening: Ukraine has said tens of thousands of people have used the routes, but it has also accused Russians of killing civilians trying to flee through these corridors — and blocking badly needed aid convoys from traveling through them to get to cities that Russia is trying to take over. | 
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