Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s effort to purge the Pentagon of so-called woke ideologies has earned him plaudits from the White House. But Hegseth’s “highly unusual” decision to strike four officers — two women and two Black men — from a recent promotions list has some asking whether the officers were “being singled out because of their race or gender,” said The New York Times. 

Implying lack of talent
It’s “exceedingly rare” for one-star general promotion lists like the one recently edited by Hegseth to receive “scrutiny from a defense secretary,” said the Times. The secretary’s sentiments dovetail with the “broader Trump administration’s attacks” on federal government programs designed to “support and promote the concerns of minority populations,” said the Military Times. 

Having “honed his communication skills at Fox News,” where talent regularly says “outrageous things as a way of showing their viewers how eager they are to own the libs,” Hegseth has “long stewed” about women in military leadership, said The Atlantic. He has also “hammered on the idea of ‘merit’” to imply that minority officers have been “promoted because of their race rather than their talent.”

Anyone, no matter if they are a “general, admiral or whatever,” who was “involved in any of that DEI woke sh-t” has “got to go,” said Hegseth on The Shawn Ryan Show podcast during his cabinet nomination process in late 2024. He acted on those inclinations “almost immediately upon arriving at the Pentagon,” firing multiple senior officers, all Black or women, who were “then replaced with white men,” said The Atlantic. In Hegseth’s Pentagon, an all-white, all-male Joint Chiefs of Staff is tasked with “overseeing a roughly 1.3 million-strong military that’s about 20% women and 43% people of color,” said historian and journalist Garrett Graff at his Doomsday Scenario newsletter.

Erasing history
Hegseth’s recent promotion interference is “just the latest of numerous attacks on women,” said the Congressional Black Caucus and Democratic Women’s Caucus in a joint statement. Hegseth is “trying to erase Black and women’s leadership and history.” His effort “isn’t an anomaly” but rather part of a “coordinated and sustained strategy.”

Americans may be unwittingly giving hackers an easy path to access their houses. Cybersecurity experts, including cybercrime analysts at the FBI, are warning about residential proxy networks that can be found on many off-brand electronics.

What are residential proxy networks?
These software systems are “designed to route other people’s internet traffic through a user’s device,” said Cyber Magazine. The networks operate like “forged return addresses on envelopes — someone else’s internet traffic is rerouted through your connection,” said officials at Comcast’s Threat Research Lab to Cyber. As the networks engage with users, they “quietly launder illegitimate activity” while making it appear that your device is the “initiator of that traffic.”

Residential proxy networks can make their way onto a variety of home devices, as “TV streaming devices, digital picture frames, smartphones, tablets and routers are used to route traffic,” said the FBI. Many people who own such devices do not “realize their internet connection could be used by someone else without their permission.” The devices can gain internet access when the “owner of the device provides consent” unknowingly. Other times, the owner is “unaware their IP address is being used.”

Some of these devices “ship with residential proxy software preinstalled on them,” which can “happen with certain low-cost video-streaming systems,” said The Wall Street Journal. In other cases, people might “download the code to their smartphones” without realizing it. 

How can people protect themselves?
Avoid “TV streaming devices that claim to provide free sports, TV shows and movies,” said the FBI, as these “may contain malware or backdoors that hijack your internet network and can lead to identity theft.” The agency also recommends that people be wary of downloading free VPNs and clicking on pop-ups, which can “initiate malware installation on your device.”

Ordinary Americans are also fighting back. Rochester Institute of Technology senior Benjamin Brundage began an investigation in 2025 as a “growing network of hacked devices was launching the biggest cyberattacks ever seen” via a Chinese company called Ipidea, said the Journal. Brundage “identified 11 of the largest residential proxy companies that were vulnerable” to hackers, and Google “took legal action,” said the tech company in a press release. 

The president and first lady walk from the Blue Room to the balcony followed by a costumed Easter bunny during the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House. Trump used his Easter speech today to give an update on the Iran war. 
Brendan Smialowski / POOL / AFP / Getty Images

This month’s slate of new and returning TV, befitting an era of increasing economic and existential anxiety, looks at some of the defining issues of our time. Economic inequality and the dominant role of social media in our lives are front and center in these new releases.

‘The Testaments’
Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is now a cinematic universe with Hulu’s spinoff of the hit six-season dystopian thriller. The series follows a new generation of forced surrogates in an American theocracy called Gilead as they are groomed to be shunted off to the autocracy’s all-male “commanders.” The show will “arrive amid a continued assault on the rights of women, with bodily autonomy, in particular, remaining a hot topic of conversation,” said The Hollywood Reporter. (April 8 on Hulu)

‘Beef’ season 2
Showrunner Lee Sung Jin’s “Beef” was an enormous critical and commercial hit when it was released on Netflix in 2023. It was originally conceptualized as a limited series, making this star-studded, anthology-style second entry (pictured above) an unexpected gift. “Through favors and coercion,” two couples this season “vie for the approval of an elitist club’s Korean billionaire owner, Chairwoman Park,” said Glenn Garner at Deadline. (April 16 on Netflix)

‘Euphoria’ season 3
The critically acclaimed and frequently disturbing HBO Max drama returns after more than a four-year hiatus. Based on the trailer, the show “trades in dramatic ambiguity for a sharper, more dangerous vision that leans into old Hollywood grandeur and dusty American Western iconography,” said Alison Foreman at IndieWire. (April 12 on HBO Max)