* The metrics APIs, `custom-metrics.metrics.k8s.io` and `metrics`, were moved from `v1alpha1` to `v1beta1`, and renamed to `custom.metrics.k8s.io` and `metrics.k8s.io`, respectively. If you have deployed a custom metrics adapter, ensure that it supports the new API version. If you have deployed Heapster in aggregated API server mode, upgrade Heapster to support the latest API version.

* Fix adding disks to more than one scsi adapter. ([#42422](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/42422), [@kerneltime](https://github.com/kerneltime))

- Adopted a new implementation of watch caches for **list** verbs, using a btree data structure. The new implementation is active by default; you can opt out by disabling the `BtreeWatchCache` feature gate. ([#128415](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/128415),...

- Fix a bug that orphan revision cannot be adopted and statefulset cannot be synced ([#86801](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/86801), [@likakuli](https://github.com/likakuli)) [SIG Apps]

  - increases the weight of user specifiable priorities.
  The weights of following priority plugins are increased
    - `TaintTolerations` to 3 - as leveraging node tainting to group nodes in the cluster is becoming a widely-adopted practice
    - `NodeAffinity` to 2
    - `InterPodAffinity` to 2
  

### Instrumentation

In v1.9 we focused on improving stability of the components owned by the SIG, including Heapster, Custom Metrics API adapters for Prometheus, and Stackdriver.

### Network

### Structured Logging in Kubelet

- Enabled ratcheting validation on `status` subresources for CustomResourceDefinitions. ([#129506](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/129506), [@JoelSpeed](https://github.com/JoelSpeed))
- 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]

  
  Users who maintain controllers which relied on the fact that pods with RestartPolicy=Always
  never enter the Succeeded phase may need to adapt their controllers. This is because as a consequence of 
  the change pods which use RestartPolicy=Always may end up in the Succeeded phase in two scenarios: pod