- Replaced deprecated package `k8s.io/utils/pointer` with `k8s.io/utils/ptr` for the apiextensions-apiserver apiextensions. ([#132723](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/132723), [@PatrickLaabs](https://github.com/PatrickLaabs))

- Added new option to the `InterPodAffinity` scheduler plugin to ignore existing
  pods` preferred inter-pod affinities if the incoming pod has no preferred inter-pod
  affinities. This option can be used as an optimization for higher scheduling throughput
  (at the cost of an occasional pod being scheduled non-optimally/violating existing
  pods preferred inter-pod affinities). To enable this scheduler option, set the

* Added bool type support for jsonpath. ([#39063](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/39063), [@xingzhou](https://github.com/xingzhou))
* Preventing nil pointer reference in client_config ([#40508](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/40508), [@vjsamuel](https://github.com/vjsamuel))

### Cluster Lifecycle

- kubeadm: fixed nil pointer dereference caused by a bug in url parsing ([#74454](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74454), [@bart0sh](https://github.com/bart0sh))

- Fix missing "apiVersion" for "involvedObject" in Events for Nodes. ([#87537](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/87537), [@uthark](https://github.com/uthark)) [SIG Apps and Node]
- Fix nil pointer dereference in azure cloud provider ([#85975](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/85975), [@ldx](https://github.com/ldx)) [SIG Cloud Provider]

* fix parse devicePath issue on Azure Disk ([#74499](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74499), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))
* kubeadm: fixed nil pointer dereference caused by a bug in url parsing ([#74454](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74454), [@bart0sh](https://github.com/bart0sh))

## Changelog since v1.12.5

### Other notable changes

* kubeadm: fixed nil pointer dereference caused by a bug in url parsing ([#74454](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74454), [@bart0sh](https://github.com/bart0sh))

- Implement `post-filter` extension point for scheduling framework ([#78097](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/78097), [@draveness](https://github.com/draveness))
- Add Bind extension point of the scheduling framework ([#78513](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/78513), [@chenchun](https://github.com/chenchun))

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