- Fixed parse devicePath issue on Azure Disk  ([#74499](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74499), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))

### CLI

- Fixed `--help` flag parsing  ([#74682](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74682), [@soltysh](https://github.com/soltysh))

- `kubectl run --env` no longer supports CSV parsing. To provide multiple environment
  variables, use the `--env` flag multiple times instead. Example: `--env ONE=1 --env TWO=2` instead of `--env ONE=1,TWO=2`.

- Removed deprecated command `kubectl stop`.

- Kubectl can now use http caching for the OpenAPI schema. The cache
  directory can be configured by passing the `--cache-dir` command line flag to kubectl.

* Updates Calico version to v2.6.7 (Fixed a bug where Felix would crash when parsing a NetworkPolicy with a named port. See https://github.com/projectcalico/calico/releases/tag/v2.6.7) ([#59130](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/59130), [@caseydavenport](https://github.com/caseydavenport))

- [v1.6.0](#v160)
  - [Downloads for v1.6.0](#downloads-for-v160)
    - [Client Binaries](#client-binaries-13)
    - [Server Binaries](#server-binaries-13)
  - [WARNING: etcd backup strongly recommended](#warning-etcd-backup-strongly-recommended)
  - [Major updates and release themes](#major-updates-and-release-themes)
  - [Action Required](#action-required-1)
    - [Certificates API](#certificates-api)

backend storage, etcd, has a new release 3.5.0 and the community embraced it. The new release comes with improvements to the Security, performance, monitoring and developer experience. There are numerous bug fixes to lease objects causing memory leaks, and compact operation causing deadlocks and more. A couple of new features are also introduced like the migration to structured logging and build in log rotation. The release comes with a detailed future roadmap to implement a solution to traffic overload....

- Improved yaml parsing performance ([#85458](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/85458), [@cjcullen](https://github.com/cjcullen)) [SIG API Machinery, CLI, Cloud Provider, Cluster Lifecycle, Instrumentation and Node]

- Preserved existing namespace information in manifests when running `
set ... --local` commands. ([#77267](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/77267), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))
- Support for parsing more v1.Taint forms has been added. For example, `key:effect`, `key=:effect-` are now accepted. ([#74159](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74159), [@dlipovetsky](https://github.com/dlipovetsky))

### Cloud Provider

  - The `--experimental-encryption-provider-config` flag is deprecated in favor of `--encryption-provider-config`. The old flag is accepted with a warning but will be removed in 1.14. ([#71206](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/71206),...

### Structured logging graduate to Beta

Structured logging reached its Beta milestone. Most log messages from kubelet and kube-scheduler have been converted. Users are encouraged to try out JSON output or parsing of the structured text format and provide feedback on possible solutions for the open issues, such as handling of multi-line strings in log values.

### Simplified Multi-point plugin configuration for scheduler

- Fix: Adopted go1.23 behavior change in mount point parsing on Windows. ([#129368](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/129368), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx)) [SIG Storage and Windows]