* Fix a race condition in the scheduler preemption logic that could cause nominatedNodeName of a pod not to be considered in one or more scheduling cycles. ([#72259](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/72259), [@bsalamat](https://github.com/bsalamat))

* Fix a race condition in the scheduler preemption logic that could cause nominatedNodeName of a pod not to be considered in one or more scheduling cycles. ([#72504](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/72504), [@bsalamat](https://github.com/bsalamat))

* Fix a race condition in the scheduler preemption logic that could cause nominatedNodeName of a pod not to be considered in one or more scheduling cycles. ([#72504](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/72504), [@bsalamat](https://github.com/bsalamat))

- Scheduler now waits for handlers to finish syncing before the scheduling cycles start. ([#116729](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/116729), [@AxeZhan](https://github.com/AxeZhan))

  rule sets. This means that we cannot use `kubectl apply` to update RBAC roles
  without risking breaking old clients, such as controllers.

- `kubectl delete` no longer scales down workload API objects before deletion.
  Users who depend on ordered termination for the Pods of their StatefulSets
  must use `kubectl scale` to scale down the StatefulSet before deletion.

- Reduce the number of calls to docker for stats via dockershim. For Windows this reduces the latency when calling docker, for Linux this saves cpu cycles. ([#104287](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/104287), [@jsturtevant](https://github.com/jsturtevant)) [SIG Node and Windows]

- Remove support for the Service `topologyKeys` field (alpha) and the `kube-proxy` implementation of it. This field was deprecated several cycles ago. This functionality is replaced by the combination of automatic topology hints per-endpoint (alpha) and the Service `internalTrafficPolicy` field (alpha). ([#102412](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/102412), [@andrewsykim](https:...

A yearly support period provides the cushion end-users appear to desire, and is more in harmony with familiar annual planning cycles.

## Known Issues

The new storage capacity tracking alpha feature is known to be affected by a limitation of the WaitForFirstConsumer volume binding mode: [#94217](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/94217)

- Added new Golang runtime-related metrics to Kubernetes components:
  - go_gc_cycles_automatic_gc_cycles_total
  - go_gc_cycles_forced_gc_cycles_total
  - go_gc_cycles_total_gc_cycles_total
  - go_gc_heap_allocs_by_size_bytes
  - go_gc_heap_allocs_bytes_total
  - go_gc_heap_allocs_objects_total
  - go_gc_heap_frees_by_size_bytes

Jobs (instead of Pods) by default.
  * Pods can now consume Secret data in environment variables and inject those
environment variables into a container’s command-line args.
  * Stable version of Heapster which scales up to 1000 nodes: more metrics, reduced
latency, reduced cpu/memory consumption (~4mb per monitored node).
  * Pods now have a security context which allows users to specify:
     * attributes which apply to the whole pod: