### SIG Azure

* The Azure cloud provider now supports standard SKU load balancer and public IP.
`excludeMasterFromStandardLB` defaults to true, which means master nodes are excluded from the standard load balancer. Also note that because all nodes (except master) are added as loadbalancer backends, the standard load balancer doesn't work with the `service.beta.kubernetes.io/azure-load-balancer-mode` annotation.

- Ensured that the `node-role.kubernetes.io/master` taint is applied to the master with NoSchedule on GCE. ([#78183](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/78183), [@cheftako](https://github.com/cheftako))

### Testing

- e2e storage tests now run faster and are easier to read ([#72434](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/72434), [@pohly](https://github.com/pohly))

- [v1.8.0-rc.1](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v180-rc1)
- [v1.8.0-beta.1](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v180-beta1)
- [v1.8.0-alpha.3](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v180-alpha3)
- [v1.8.0-alpha.2](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v180-alpha2)

- Previously, the pod name and namespace were eliminated in the event log message. This PR attempts to add the preemptor pod UID in the preemption event message logs for easier debugging and safer transparency. ([#119971](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/119971), [@kwakubiney](https://github.com/kwakubiney)) [SIG Scheduling]

- The `kubelet` now reports distinguishes log messages about certificate rotation for its client cert and server cert separately to make debugging problems with one or the other easier. ([#101252](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/101252), [@smarterclayton](https://github.com/smarterclayton))

- Component-base/logs: when compiled with Go >= 1.21, component-base will automatically configure the slog default...

### kubeadm
* A new label and taint is used for marking the master. The label is `node-role.kubernetes.io/master=""` and the taint has the effect `NoSchedule`. Tolerate the `node-role.kubernetes.io/master="":NoSchedule` taint to schedule a workload on the master (a networking DaemonSet for example).
* The kubelet API is now secured, only cluster admins are allowed to access it.

- [CHANGELOG-1.2.md](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/CHANGELOG/CHANGELOG-1.2.md)
- [CHANGELOG-1.3.md](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/CHANGELOG/CHANGELOG-1.3.md)
- [CHANGELOG-1.4.md](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/CHANGELOG/CHANGELOG-1.4.md)
- [CHANGELOG-1.5.md](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/CHANGELOG/CHANGELOG-1.5.md)

forwarded to kubelet static pods to control pull policy for etcd and control plane images. This option allows for precise image pull policy specification for master nodes and thus for more tight control over images. It is useful in CI environments and in environments, where the user has total control over master VM templates (thus, the master VM templates can be preloaded with the required Docker images for the control plane services). ([#58960](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/58960),...