- Improved performance of kube-proxy with EndpointSlice enabled with more efficient sorting. ([#83035](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/83035), [@robscott](https://github.com/robscott))

- `scheduler`: handling of unschedulable pods because a `ResourceClass` is missing
  is a bit more efficient and no longer relies on periodic retries. ([#120213](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/120213), [@pohly](https://github.com/pohly))

## Dependencies

### Added
- cloud.google.com/go/dataproc/v2: v2.0.1

### SIG Multi-cluster (formerly known as SIG Federation)

[SIG Multi-cluster][] is responsible for infrastructure that supports
the efficient and reliable management of multiple Kubernetes clusters,
and applications that run in and across multiple clusters.

For the 1.8 release, SIG Multicluster focussed on expanding the set of

* A new client `k8s.io/client-go/metadata.Client` has been added for accessing objects generically. This client makes it easier to retrieve only the metadata (the `metadata` sub-section) from resources on the cluster in an efficient manner for use cases that deal with objects generically, like the garbage collector, quota, or the namespace controller. The client asks the server to return a `meta.k8s.io/v1 PartialObjectMetadata` object for list, get, delete, watch, and patch...

* kubeadm: explicitly wait for `etcd` to have grown when joining a new control plane ([#72984](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/72984), [@ereslibre](https://github.com/ereslibre))
* Improve efficiency of preemption logic in clusters with many pending pods. ([#72895](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/72895), [@bsalamat](https://github.com/bsalamat))

- Improved the efficiency of NodeAdded QueueingHint by registering UpdateNodeTaint event for plugins that have NodeAdded event but don't have UpdateNodeTaint event. This ensures better requeuing efficiency and prevents Pods from being stuck in the unschedulable pod pool.

- Alowed useful inclusion of `-args $prog_args` in KUBE_TEST_ARGS, when doing `make test-integration`. ([#107516](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/107516), [@MikeSpreitzer](https://github.com/MikeSpreitzer))

- Added new config option `delayCacheUntilActive` to `KubeSchedulerConfiguration` that can provide a tradeoff between memory efficiency and scheduling speed when their leadership is updated in `kube-scheduler` ([#115754](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115754), [@linxiulei](https://github.com/linxiulei)) [SIG API Machinery and Scheduling]

   ([#113629](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/113629), [@andrewsykim](https://github.com/andrewsykim))
- 'The iptables kube-proxy backend now process service/endpoint changes
  more efficiently in very large clusters.' ([#110268](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/110268), [@danwinship](https://github.com/danwinship))
- '`CSIMigrationvSphere` was upgraded to GA and locked to true. Do not upgrade to K8s

callers to pass a `context.Context` as an argument. The context is used for timeout and cancellation signaling and to pass supplementary information to round trippers in the wrapped transport chain. If you don't need any of this functionality, it is sufficient to pass a context created with `context.Background()` to these functions. The `(*"k8s.io/client-go/rest".Request).Context` method is removed now that all methods that execute a request accept a context directly. ([#87597](https://github.com/kub...