- github.com/tidwall/gjson: [v1.18.0](https://github.com/tidwall/gjson/tree/v1.18.0)
- github.com/tidwall/match: [v1.1.1](https://github.com/tidwall/match/tree/v1.1.1)
- github.com/tidwall/pretty: [v1.2.1](https://github.com/tidwall/pretty/tree/v1.2.1)
- github.com/tidwall/sjson: [v1.2.5](https://github.com/tidwall/sjson/tree/v1.2.5)
- go.uber.org/automaxprocs: v1.6.0

- Added ability for kubectl wait to wait on arbitary JSON path (#105776, @lauchokyip) [SIG CLI]
- Added the ability to specify whether to use an RFC7396 JSON Merge Patch, an RFC6902 JSON Patch, or a Strategic Merge Patch to perform an override of the resources created by kubectl run and kubectl expose. (#105140, @brianpursley) [SIG CLI]

    * API fields previously capable of storing and returning either `[]` and `null` via JSON API requests (for example, the Endpoints `subsets` field) can now store only `null` when created using the protobuf content-type or stored in etcd using protobuf serialization (the default in 1.6+). JSON API clients should tolerate `null` values for such fields, and treat `null` and `[]` as equivalent in meaning unless specifically documented otherwise...

*   The Kubelet's feature gates are now specified as a map when provided via a JSON or YAML KubeletConfiguration, rather than as a string of key-value pairs, making them less awkward for users. ([#53025](https://github.com/kub...

- Added support for encoding and decoding types that implement the standard library interfaces `json.Marshaler`, `json.Unmarshaler`, `encoding.TextMarshaler`, or `encoding.TextUnmarshaler` to and from CBOR by transcoding. ([#132935](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/132935), [@benluddy](https://github.com/benluddy))

- kube-controller-manager
  - The deprecated `--insecure-experimental-approve-all-kubelet-csrs-for-group` flag has been removed.
- kubelet
  - The deprecated `--google-json-key` flag has been removed. Remove the `--google-json-key` flag from kubelet invocations before upgrading. ([#69354](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/69354), [@yujuhong](https://github.com/yujuhong))

API fields previously capable of storing and returning either `[]` and `null` via JSON API requests (for example, the Endpoints `subsets` field)
can now store only `null` when created using the protobuf content-type or stored in etcd using protobuf serialization (the default in 1.6).

- Fix how nulls are handled in array and objects in [json patches](https://github.com/evanphx/json-patch). ([#102467](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/102467), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu))

- the ability to rollback to etcd2 can be preserved by setting the storage media type flag on `kube-apiserver`

  ```
  --storage-media-type application/json
  ```

  to continue to use `application/json` as the storage media type which can be changed to
  `application/vnd.kubernetes.protobuf` at a later time.

## Major updates and release themes

- Improved how the API server responds to **list** requests where the response format negotiates to JSON. 
List responses in JSON are marshalled one element at a time, drastically reducing the memory needed to serve