- Added a `--topology-manager-policy-options` flag to the kubelet to support fine tuning the topology manager policies. The first policy option, `prefer-closest-numa-nodes`, allows these policies to favor sets of NUMA nodes with shorter distance between nodes when making admission decisions. ([#112914](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/112914), [@PiotrProkop](https://github.com/PiotrProkop))

  externalTrafficPolicy: Cluster" is now implemented correctly. ([#106497](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/106497), [@danwinship](https://github.com/danwinship))

### Scheduling

  The scheduling hints allow the scheduler to only retry scheduling a Pod
  that was previously rejected by the NodeSchedulable plugin if a new Node or a Node update sets .spec.unschedulable to false. ([#122334](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122334), [@carlory](https://github.com/carlory)) [SIG Scheduling]
- Kube-scheduler implements scheduling hints for the PodTopologySpread plugin.

  The scheduling hints allow the scheduler to only retry scheduling a `Pod`
  that was previously rejected by the `NodeSchedulable` plugin if a new `Node` or a `Node` update sets `.spec.unschedulable` to false. ([#119396](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/119396), [@wackxu](https://github.com/wackxu))
- `kube-scheduler` implements scheduling hints for the `NodeAffinity` plugin.

- Kubeadm: now sets the host `OS` environment variables when executing `crictl` during image pulls. This fixed a bug where `*PROXY` environment variables did not affect `crictl` internet connectivity. ([#110134](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/110134), ...