- Corrected the documentation for escaping dollar signs in a container's env, command and args property. ([#101916](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/101916), [@MartinKanters](https://github.com/MartinKanters)) [SIG Apps]

- Added support for CEL expressions with escaped names in the structured authentication config. Using `[...]` to access claims or user data was recommended when names contained characters that would otherwise need escaping. CEL optionals with `?` could be used where has was not applicable — for example, `claims[?"kubernetes.io"]` or `user.extra[?"domain.io/foo"]`. ([#131574](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/131574), [@enj](https://github.com/enj)) [SIG...

* StatefulSets now include an alpha scaling feature accessible by setting the `spec.podManagementPolicy` field to `Parallel`.  The controller will not wait for pods to be ready before adding the other pods, and will replace deleted pods as needed.  Since parallel scaling creates pods out of order, you cannot depend on predictable membership changes within your set. ([#44899](https://github.com/kuberne...

* StatefulSets now include an alpha scaling feature accessible by setting the `spec.podManagementPolicy` field to `Parallel`.  The controller will not wait for pods to be ready before adding the other pods, and will replace deleted pods as needed.  Since parallel scaling creates pods out of order, you cannot depend on predictable membership changes within your set. ([#44899](https://github.com/kuberne...

### Bug or Regression

- Fixes CSI volume attachment scaling issue by using informers. ([#91307](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/91307), [@yuga711](https://github.com/yuga711)) [SIG API Machinery, Apps, Node, Storage and Testing]

- Azure virtual machine scale sets (VMSS) allow you to create and manage identical load balanced VMs that automatically increase or decrease based on demand or a set schedule.
- With this new stable feature, Kubernetes supports the scaling of containerized applications with Azure VMSS, including the ability to integrate it with cluster-autoscaler to automatically adjust the size of the Kubernetes clusters based on the same conditions.

### SIG-cli

- Added support for in-place vertical scaling of Pods with sidecars (containers defined within `initContainers` where the `restartPolicy` is set to `Always`). ([#128367](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/128367), [@vivzbansal](https://github.com/vivzbansal)) [SIG API Machinery, Apps,...

* Fixed error where config map for Metadata Agent was not created by addon manager. ([#62909](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/62909), [@kawych](https://github.com/kawych))
* Fixed permissions to allow statefulset scaling for admins, editors, and viewers ([#62336](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/62336), [@deads2k](https://github.com/deads2k))

### Bug or Regression

- Fixes CSI volume attachment scaling issue by using informers. ([#91307](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/91307), [@yuga711](https://github.com/yuga711)) [SIG API Machinery, Apps, Node, Storage and Testing]

* CRI: respect container's stopping timeout. ([#44998](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/44998), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))
* Fix problems with scaling up the cluster when unschedulable pods have some persistent volume claims. ([#44860](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/44860), [@mwielgus](https://github.com/mwielgus))