* Pod spec is mutable when the pod is uninitialized. The API server requires the pod spec to be valid even if it's uninitialized. Updating the status field of uninitialized pods is invalid.([#51733](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/51733))

- Fixed incorrect watch events when a watch is initialized simultanously with a reinitializing watchcache. ([#116436](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/116436), [@wojtek-t](https://github.com/wojtek-t))

- Updated google.golang.org/protobuf to `v1.33.0` to resolve `CVE-2024-24786`. ([#123758](https://gi...

- E2e: tests can now register callbacks with `ginkgo.BeforeEach`, `ginkgo.AfterEach` or `ginkgo.DeferCleanup` directly after creating a framework instance and are guaranteed that their code is called after the framework is initialized and before it gets cleaned up. `ginkgo.DeferCleanup` replaces `f.AddAfterEach` and `AddCleanupAction` which got removed to simplify the framework. ([#111998](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/111998), [@pohly](https://github.com/pohly))...

- Kubelet, when using cloud provider external, initializes temporary the node addresses using the --node-ip flag values if set, until the cloud provider overrides it. ([#121028](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/121028), [@aojea](https://github.com/aojea)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Node]