- Added alpha support for asynchronous Pod preemption.
  When the `SchedulerAsyncPreemption` feature gate is enabled, the scheduler now runs API calls to trigger preemptions asynchronously for better performance. ([#128170](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/128170), [@sanposhiho](https://github.com/sanposhiho)) [SIG Scheduling and Testing]

- Added the `DetectCacheInconsistency` feature gate, allowing the API server to periodically verify consistency between its `cache` and `etcd`. Detected inconsistencies reported via the `apiserver_storage_consistency_checks_total` metric and trigger purging of affected cache snapshots. ([#132884](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/132884), [@serathius](https://github.com/serathius)) [SIG API Machinery, Instrumentation and Testing]

- Ensure Job status updates are batched by 1s. This fixes an unlikely scenario when a sequence of immediately 
  completing pods could trigger a sequence of non-batched Job status updates. ([#118470](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/118470), [@mimowo](https://github.com/mimowo)) [SIG Apps]

* Fix a bug where soft eviction would not trigger when the threshold was crossed ([#52046](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/52046), [@dashpole](https://github.com/dashpole))

- Revised scheduling behavior to correctly handle nominated node changes. Trigger rescheduling of pods 

- Fixed a bug where a change in the `appProtocol` for a Service did not trigger a load balancer update. ([#113033](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/113033), [@MartinForReal](https://github.com/MartinForReal)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Network]

  The well-known annotation `endpoints.kubernetes.io/last-change-trigger-time` is skipped and not mirrored. ([#98116](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/98116), [@aojea](https://github.com/aojea))

- Fixed a bug where a change in the `appProtocol` for a Service did not trigger a load balancer update. ([#113032](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/113032), [@MartinForReal](https://github.com/MartinForReal)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Network]

* flexvolume: trigger plugin init only for the relevant plugin while probe ([#58519](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/58519), [@linyouchong](https://github.com/linyouchong))

  The well-known annotation endpoints.kubernetes.io/last-change-trigger-time is skipped and not mirrored. ([#100443](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/100443), [@aojea](https://github.com/aojea)) [SIG Apps, Network and Testing]