* Fixes an issue where Azure VMSS instances not existing in Azure were not being deleted by the Cloud Controller Manager.  ([#71597](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/71597), [@marc-sensenich](https://github.com/marc-sensenich))
* Include CRD for BGPConfigurations, needed for calico 2.x to 3.x upgrade. ([#71868](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/71868), [@satyasm](https://github.com/satyasm))

- Give terminal phase correctly to all pods that will not be restarted. 

  In particular, assign Failed phase to pods which are deleted while pending. Also, assign a terminal 
  phase (Succeeded or Failed, depending on the exit statuses of the pod containers) to pods which
  are deleted while running.
  
  This fixes the issue for jobs using pod failure policy (with JobPodFailurePolicy and PodDisruptionConditions 

### Garbage Collector

* fixes a memory leak in the kube-controller-manager observed when large numbers of pods with tolerations are created/deleted ([#65339](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/65339), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))

- For vSphere Cloud Provider, If VM of worker node is deleted, the node will also be deleted by node controller ([#92608](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/92608), [@lubronzhan](https://github.com/lubronzhan)) [SIG Cloud Provider]

* Scheduler skips pods that use a PVC that either does not exist or is being deleted. ([#55957](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/55957), [@jsafrane](https://github.com/jsafrane))
* Fixed a garbage collection race condition where objects with ownerRefs pointing to cluster-scoped objects could be deleted incorrectly. ([#57211](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/57211), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))

- Finalizer Protection for Service LoadBalancers (ServiceLoadBalancerFinalizer) has been added as an Alpha feature, which is disabled by default. This feature ensures the Service resource is not fully deleted until the correlating load balancer resources are deleted. ([#78262](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/78262), [@MrHohn](https://github.com/MrHohn))

- Fixes an issue that can result in namespaced custom resources being orphaned when their namespace is deleted, if the CRD defining the custom resource is removed concurrently with namespaces being deleted, then recreated. ([#93790](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/93790), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt)) [SIG API Machinery and Apps]

- Fix panic if there are more terminating pods than active pods ([#122267](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122267), [@kannon92](https://github.com/kannon92)) [SIG Apps]
- Fix: statle smb mount issue when smb file share is deleted and then unmount ([#121851](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/121851), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx)) [SIG Storage]
- Fixed a regression since 1.27.0 in scheduler framework when running score plugins. 

## Changelog since v1.18.14

## Changes by Kind

### Bug or Regression

- Fix Azure file share not deleted issue when the namespace is deleted ([#97417](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/97417), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Storage]