- When scaling down a ReplicaSet, delete doubled up replicas first, where a "doubled up replica" is defined as one that is on the same node as an active replica belonging to a related ReplicaSet.  ReplicaSets are considered "related" if they have a common controller (typically a Deployment). ([#80004](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/80004), [@Miciah](https://github.com/Miciah))...

- 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 

## 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]

### CVE-2025-5187: Nodes can delete themselves by adding an OwnerReference

### Garbage Collector

### CVE-2025-5187: Nodes can delete themselves by adding an OwnerReference

- 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]

* Stop counting soft-deleted pods for scaling purposes in HPA controller to avoid soft-deleted pods incorrectly affecting scale up replica count calculation. ([#67067](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/67067), [@moonek](https://github.com/moonek))

- `kube-proxy` will...

- 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]