- The go version defined in `.go-version` is now fetched when invoking test, build, and code generation targets if the current go version does not match it. Set $FORCE_HOST_GO=y while testing or building to skip this behavior, or set $GO_VERSION to override the selected go version. ([#115377](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115377), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt)) [SIG Testing]...

### Autoscaling

 - Consuming metrics directly from Heapster is deprecated in favor of
   consuming metrics via an aggregated version of the resource metrics API.

   - In version 1.8, enable this behavior by setting the
     `--horizontal-pod-autoscaler-use-rest-clients` flag to `true`.

 
## Changes by Kind

### Deprecation

- Changed `kubectl version` default output to be identical to what `kubectl version --short` printed,
  and removed `--short` flag entirely. ([#116720](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/116720), [@soltysh](https://github.com/soltysh))

- The go version defined in `.go-version` is now fetched when invoking test, build, and code generation targets if the current go version does not match it. Set $FORCE_HOST_GO=y while testing or building to skip this behavior, or set $GO_VERSION to override the selected go version. ([#115498](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115498), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt)) [SIG Release...

- The go version defined in `.go-version` is now fetched when invoking test, build, and code generation targets if the current go version does not match it. Set $FORCE_HOST_GO=y while testing or building to skip this behavior, or set $GO_VERSION to override the selected go version. ([#115497](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115497), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt)) [SIG Release...

`kubeadm`: will now allow deploying a kubelet that is 3 versions older than the version of `kubeadm` (N-3). This aligns with the recent change made by SIG Architecture that extends the support skew between the control plane and kubelets. Tolerate this new kubelet skew for the commands `init`, `join` and `upgrade`. Note that if the `kubeadm` user applies a control plane version that is older than the `kubeadm` version (N-1 maximum) then the skew between the kubelet and control plane would become a...

- The go version defined in `.go-version` is now fetched when invoking test, build, and code generation targets if the current go version does not match it. Set $FORCE_HOST_GO=y while testing or building to skip this behavior, or set $GO_VERSION to override the selected go version. ([#115496](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115496), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt)) [SIG Release...