*   DaemonSet status includes a new field named `conditions`, making it consistent with other workloads controllers. ([#55272](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/55272),[ @janetkuo](https://github.com/janetkuo))

- Improved performance of `Endpoint` and `EndpointSlice` controllers when there are a large number of services in a single namespace by making pod-to-service lookup asynchronous. ([#134739](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/134739), [@shyamjvs](https://github.com/shyamjvs)) [SIG Apps and Network]

[Prevents deletion of Persistent Volume Claims that are used by a pod](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/498) and [Persistent Volumes that are bound to a Persistent Volume Claim](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/499), making it impossible to delete storage that is in use by a pod.

This release also includes [Topology Aware Volume Scheduling](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/490) for local persistent volumes, the stable release of [Detailed...

- PodTopologySpread plugin now excludes terminatingPods when making scheduling decisions. ([#87845](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/87845), [@Huang-Wei](https://github.com/Huang-Wei)) [SIG Scheduling]

### SIG OpenStack

- Openstack now supports the node shutdown taint. The taint is added when an instance is shutdown in openstack. ([#67982](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/67982), [@zetaab](https://github.com/zetaab))

### SIG Scheduling

- Fixed an issue where `insufficientResources` was logged as a pointer during pod preemption, making logs more readable. ([#132183](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/132183), [@chrisy-x](https://github.com/chrisy-x)) [SIG Node]

* fix: azure disk could not mounted on Standard_DC4s/DC2s instances ([#86612](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/86612), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))
* Filter published OpenAPI schema by making nullable, required fields non-required in order to avoid kubectl to wrongly reject null values. ([#85722](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/85722), [@sttts](https://github.com/sttts))

- Fixed a race condition in kube-controller-manager and the scheduler, caused by
  a bug in the transforming informer during the Resync operation, 
  by making the transforming function idempotent. ([#124352](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/124352), [@wojtek-t](https://github.com/wojtek-t)) [SIG API Machinery and Scheduling]

- github.com/alecthomas/template: [fb15b89](https://github.com/alecthomas/template/tree/fb15b89)
- github.com/andreyvit/diff: [c7f18ee](https://github.com/andreyvit/diff/tree/c7f18ee)
- github.com/bifurcation/mint: [93c51c6](https://github.com/bifurcation/mint/tree/93c51c6)
- github.com/caddyserver/caddy: [v1.0.3](https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/tree/v1.0.3)
- github.com/cenkalti/backoff: [v2.1.1+incompatible](https://github.com/cenkalti/backoff/tree/v2.1.1)

In addition, the NodeRestriction admission plugin now prevents kubelets from modifying taints on their Node API objects, making it easier to keep track of which nodes should be in use.

### SIG CLI