* Fixed potential deadlock when deleting CustomResourceDefinition for custom resources with finalizers. ([#60542](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/60542), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))

* A buffered audit backend can be used with other audit backends. ([#60076](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/60076), [@crassirostris](https://github.com/crassirostris))

- JSON log output is configurable and now supports writing info messages to stdout and error messages to stderr. Info messages can be buffered in memory. The default is to write both to stdout without buffering, as before. ([#104873](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/104873), [@pohly](https://github.com/pohly))

- Fix creation of custom resources when the CRD contains non-conventional pluralization and subresources ([#66249](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/66249), [@deads2k](https://github.com/deads2k))
- Aadjusted http/2 buffer sizes for apiservers to prevent starvation issues between concurrent streams ([#67902](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/67902), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))

- Kubectl: Add `--use-protocol-buffers` flag to kubectl top pods and nodes. ([#96655](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/96655), [@serathius](https://github.com/serathius))

- `Scheduler` now registers event handlers dynamically. ([#101394](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/101394), [@Huang-Wei](https://github.com/Huang-Wei))
- `kubectl`: Enable using protocol buffers to request Metrics API. ([#102039](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/102039), [@serathius](https://github.com/serathius))

### Documentation

* Return apiserver panics as 500 errors instead terminating the apiserver process. ([#68001](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/68001), [@sttts](https://github.com/sttts))
* adjusted http/2 buffer sizes for apiservers to prevent starvation issues between concurrent streams ([#67902](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/67902), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))

* fix UnmountDevice failure on Windows ([#68608](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/68608), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))
* adjusted http/2 buffer sizes for apiservers to prevent starvation issues between concurrent streams ([#67902](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/67902), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))

- Support for out of tree networking with Azure-CNI, OVN-Kubernetes and Flannel
- Improved support for pods, service types, workload controllers and metrics/quotas to closely match the capabilities offered for Linux containers
kubernetes/enhancements: [#116](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/116) [[kep](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/blob/master/keps/sig-windows/116-windows-node-support/README.md)]

- Kube-scheduler: Fine-grained tracking of events (introduced in 1.28) suffered from a data race when binding fails. ([#119729](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/119729), [@pohly](https://github.com/pohly)) [SIG Scheduling]